A bone-chilling wind swept through the cursed trees, twisting their ancient limbs like tortured souls writhing in a dance of mourning, their groans echoing like forgotten cries from an old, haunted war.
Seraphina's eyes flew open, and her lungs screamed for air as though she had just risen from a river of nightmares, gasping against the suffocating weight of the silence surrounding her.
The moon hung like a bleeding eye in the sky, half-hidden by clouds, casting a pale and ghostly light over the shattered forest that now felt unfamiliar, wounded, and wrong.
She was lying on her side, her cheek pressed into cold, damp earth that clung to her skin like the fingers of the dead, as if the ground itself didn't want to let her go.
Her entire body trembled — not from pain, not from exhaustion, but from something deeper, something far colder, a fear that had slithered into her bones and rooted itself in her chest.
Kael's body was beside hers, eerily still, his face turned upward, his skin unnaturally pale beneath the silver light, and the slow, shallow rise of his chest was the only sign he was still alive.
Blood soaked the front of his shirt, dark and slick, seeping between the open claw marks on his chest like ink from a broken curse, too much blood, too quickly lost.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice cracking as she pushed herself onto trembling hands, dragging herself toward him with frantic desperation, her eyes locked on his face like it was the last star in the sky.
His eyes didn't open.
His lips didn't move.
But his fingers twitched against the dirt, barely noticeable, yet enough to make her heart lurch like it had been shocked back to life.
A ragged sob escaped her throat as she leaned over him, cradling his head gently, her bloodied hands brushing his hair back with a tenderness that didn't match the chaos still humming in the air around them.
"You're not allowed to die," she whispered, choking on each word like they were thorns ripping through her throat, "You hear me, Kael? You're not—allowed—to die."
The forest was too quiet.
It wasn't the stillness of peace — it was the quiet that came when something dangerous was near, something ancient, watching, breathing beneath the silence like a predator waiting to pounce.
Then she felt it.
The shift.
The sudden drop in temperature.
The invisible pressure tightening the air around her, as if unseen hands were squeezing the night itself into a blade meant to pierce her heart.
A soft sound followed — a laugh, low and laced with venom, a sound that slithered down her spine and made her blood run cold.
"You're even weaker than I thought."
Seraphina froze.
That voice.
She knew that voice.
It wasn't just cruel — it was familiar, laced with amusement and contempt, every syllable coated in shadow and danger.
She turned slowly, her gaze locking onto a figure stepping from between two trees — Lilith.
Cloaked in flowing black, her silver hair cascading like water down her shoulders, her eyes glinting like jagged obsidian beneath the moonlight, Lilith looked like a goddess sculpted from night and malice.
Seraphina rose shakily, planting herself between Kael and Lilith, her heart hammering wildly, her fists clenched tight enough to draw blood from her palms.
"I'm not afraid of you," she lied, forcing the words past trembling lips, though her legs felt like they would collapse under the weight of her fear at any moment.
Lilith tilted her head, her smile widening with cruel amusement as she stepped forward, each footstep silent but heavy with power.
"You should be," she said, her voice soft and deadly, like silk soaked in poison, "because you don't even know what you are yet."
Seraphina's breath hitched.
"What are you talking about?"
Lilith circled her slowly, fingers brushing the bark of a nearby tree, and where she touched, the wood blackened and withered as if her very presence leeched life from the world.
"You think this is just a story of a girl and her mate," she murmured, pausing to meet Seraphina's eyes with chilling stillness, "but it's so much more than that, little wolf."
"What am I then?" Seraphina asked, her voice laced with both defiance and dread, the question dragging itself from her chest like a prophecy waiting to be confirmed.
Lilith leaned in, her face mere inches from Seraphina's now, her words a whisper twisted with triumph.
"You're not just his mate, Seraphina."
"You're his curse."
Seraphina recoiled as if Lilith's words had slapped her across the face, their weight cutting deeper than any blade could ever hope to.
A curse.
Not a mate.
Not a miracle.
But a curse.
Her heart stuttered, the sound of it crashing inside her chest louder than the trees creaking in the wind.
"No," she breathed, shaking her head slowly, denial curling around her like fog, thick and choking.
Lilith's smile stretched wider, as though she were savoring the unraveling of Seraphina's reality.
"You always thought your bond was fate's gift," she whispered, walking around her with predator-like ease, "but it was never meant to be love."
Her eyes glinted.
"It was meant to be a warning."
Seraphina felt her knees wobble, but she forced herself to stand tall, even as her world tilted and cracked beneath her feet.
"You're lying."
Lilith laughed again — low, cruel, and sharp enough to slice through hope.
"Your presence weakens him," she said, voice dripping with truth Seraphina didn't want to hear, "Every time he draws near, his power fractures."
Seraphina glanced back at Kael.
Still unconscious.
Still bleeding.
Still dying.
"No—he risked everything for me," she rasped, her voice now raw with desperation, "He—he saved me."
Lilith's eyes burned like frozen fire.
"And look what it's cost him."
Her words struck with venomous precision, digging beneath Seraphina's skin like barbed hooks pulling at every ounce of guilt and confusion buried in her soul.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
She wouldn't give Lilith that satisfaction.
Lilith leaned closer again, her whisper a breath across Seraphina's cheek.
"He'll die, Seraphina," she said gently, almost lovingly, "And when he does, it will be your fault."
With that, she vanished — no sound, no flash, just a blink of darkness swallowed by the night.
Gone.
The forest returned to its dead hush, and the only thing Seraphina could hear was the thunder of her own breath.
She dropped to her knees beside Kael once more, her fingers trembling as she pressed them against the wound, as if her hands alone could hold his life inside him.
"I won't let you die," she whispered again, firmer this time, as though saying it louder would make it more true.
His skin was cold.
Too cold.
She looked around desperately, her eyes darting through the thick trees, searching for anything — anyone.
Help wasn't coming.
And time was slipping through her fingers like sand soaked in blood.
Then, she heard it.
A growl.
Low.
Deep.
Not human.
Her breath caught as she looked up — and saw them.
Eyes.
Glowing red, just beyond the trees.
Five pairs.
Ten.
Too many.
Shadows moved between the trees, silent and swift, bodies covered in fur, claws glinting beneath the moon.
Rogues.
Drawn by blood.
Kael's blood.
And hers.
Seraphina's entire body stiffened, her instincts screaming at her to run, to hide, to survive — but Kael was still unconscious.
If she left him now, they'd tear him apart.
She stood, pulling his body closer to her, shielding him with everything she had, even though she knew it wouldn't be enough.
The first wolf stepped into the clearing.
Twice her size.
Fur black as midnight.
Teeth bared.
A snarl curled from its throat like the sound of bones breaking.
Seraphina didn't back down.
She couldn't.
Not anymore.
"Come on then," she muttered, her voice shaking but defiant, "You want him? You'll have to go through me."
The rogue lunged.
And just before it reached her —
Everything exploded in light.