Chapter 2 Into the Wild

The forest was alive with sound-branches cracking underfoot, night creatures stirring, distant wolves howling.

Raya ran.

Her feet were bare, torn open by roots and stones, but she didn't stop. She couldn't. Not with the images still burning behind her eyes-blood, bodies, the ruined ceremonial ring, Khan's cold voice ringing in her ears.

"You are no longer one of us."

Banished. Rejected. Marked by death.

She crashed through the underbrush, dress snagging on thorns, her breath ragged and raw. The pain in her lungs was nothing compared to the void inside her chest. She had no wolf, no parents, no home.

And she was afraid, not of the loneliness, but of herself.

Of what she had become.

"I didn't mean to," she whispered, stumbling against a tree trunk. "I didn't know. I didn't-"

*"Lies."*

The voice came from within. A low, smoky snarl. She knew it wasn't a wolf. It couldn't be her wolf, it was something else. The thing that had taken over. The Beast she has become.

*"You wanted to be seen. You wanted power. I gave it to you."*

"No," she sobbed. "I wanted to belong."

*"And now you belong to me."*

She dropped to her knees in the dirt. Her fingers curled into the soil, and she screamed, not in pain, but in fury and anguish. The sound echoed off the trees, it sounded inhumane.

A shadow passed over the moon.

Suddenly the air thickened. The forest went still again.

A low growl rose behind her.

She turned slowly.

Four wolves emerged from the trees. Not pack wolves. She could smell it-no scent of unity, no bond of blood or law. They were rogues who were scarred, starved, and snarling.

Raya staggered to her feet. "I don't want trouble."

The largest rogue, a gray brute with one torn ear, bared his teeth. "But we do."

She backed up, heart pounding. She still wasn't able to shift. Her body was still wrecked from whatever had happened and from running through the forest. So she couldn't put up a fight and even if she did, she didn't stand a chance against four wolves.

The wolves spread out in a semicircle.

"You smell like power," one of them growled. "Like death."

Another licked his lips. "Like prey."

Her hands shook. She raised them, trembling. "Please. Don't do this."

The gray rogue wolf lunged.

Her mind screamed-run, shift, fight-but her limbs were frozen. All she could think of was the blood on her hands, the broken bodies. If it happened again...

No.

Not again.

Not here.

Not now.

The rogue's teeth were inches from her throat, when something inside her snapped.

She didn't feel her body move. Didn't command it. One heartbeat she was prey, the next she was predator.

Her eyes went black. Her spine arched back. The wind howled as if it recognized the awakening.

The Beast came out.

They didn't stand a chance.

She didn't even shift into a full wolf. Her body twisted into something in-between-taller, monstrous, shadows writhing along her limbs. Her voice was two-toned, echoing as she screamed. The first rogue's head hit the ground before the others could turn.

She tore through them.

Claws ripping through fur. Bones cracking. Blood spraying across the leaves. Their howls were short-lived-cut off by teeth and shadow and unholy rage.

And then silence.

Raya collapsed and blacked out.

After hours she woke up and saw herself covered in blood.

Alone, the bodies of the four rogues scattered around her.

She looked down at her hands-soaked in red. One of the wolves had a pup's collar around its wrist. He couldn't have been older than fifteen.

She screamed again, this time in horror.

What type of monster had she become.

.....

Raya lay there, she didn't have strength to move.

Hours passed. Or maybe minutes.

She finally staggered away, dragging herself into the trees. Her legs refused to carry her much farther. The forest blurred. The cold pressed against her skin like punishment.

"I didn't want this," she whispered again. "Moon Goddess, please. Make it stop."

She didn't hear the voice this time. All was quiet.

When she finally collapsed, it was near a stream. She crawled to the water's edge and saw herself in the moonlight.

Blood-caked skin. Wild eyes, hair in disarray, clothes torn.

As she stared at her reflection, she couldn't recognize the face looking back at her. All she saw was the monster within who tore through those wolves like nothing .

Tears blurred her vision. "Who am I?"

And the silence answered.

She heard footsteps. She wasn't alone.

She tried to rise, but her body refused. Her limbs were lead. Her mind was unraveling. She couldn't do this again, whatever it was.

Figures stepped into the moonlight. Not wolves, humans, no they were shifters. But not from Bloodfang. Their eyes glowed with feral hunger. Scarred faces. Strange symbols inked into their skin.

Rogues again. Real rogues. Packless. Ruthless. Untamed. They looked more dangerous than the ones she had fought.

The leader stepped forward-a tall man with coal-dark hair tied at his neck, arms corded with muscle, a scar over his left brow. His aura was cold and commanding.

He crouched beside her.

"Well," he said, voice smooth and dangerous, "what have we here?"

Raya tried to speak, but only blood bubbled from her lips.

"She's not ordinary," another rogue said behind him. "She smells... wrong."

The leader brushed her blood-matted hair from her face. His expression shifted.

"Look at her back."

They flipped her over roughly.

There, between her shoulder blades, glowed a strange mark-a crescent moon entwined with jagged black flames. It pulsed faintly, reacting to the moonlight.

The rogues muttered in awe.

"She bears the mark, Thorne." one whispered. "The Red Moon's curse."

"No," the leader corrected, his eyes narrowing. "The Red Moon's 'heir'."

He looked down at Raya again. Smiled.

"She's the one from the prophecy."

She couldn't move. Couldn't think. Darkness dragged her under.

Just before unconsciousness took her, she heard the leader say:

"Chain her. If the legends are true, we've just found the Beast Queen."