(Evelyn's POV)
Cold.
That was the first sensation Evelyn felt when consciousness crawled back into her bones.
A deep, marrow-chilling cold that didn't belong to nature but to the emptiness inside her — the hollow cavity where something sacred had been ripped out.
She lay still for a long moment, barely breathing, waiting for her heart to remember how to move. Wet leaves clung to her cheek. Her fingers tingled. Her ribs ached with every shallow inhale.
She tried to swallow, but her throat burned.
The world around her looked wrong.
Dark.Too dark.The clearing where everything had shattered minutes ago — empty, silent, abandoned by the monstrous ceremony she'd stumbled into.
The pyre was gone.The wolves were gone.Ronan was gone.
Only the moon remained, a pale bruise in the sky, looking down at her like it mourned what she had become.
Evelyn pushed herself upright, her arms trembling under her weight. She'd expected the pain of the rejection to fade, but it lingered, throbbing like a bruise that would never heal.
It should have stopped, she thought desperately.Why hasn't it stopped?
Her chest still felt tethered to something — or someone — far away.
Her breaths came out in soft, broken gasps. She wiped her mouth, surprised to see blood smear across her palm.
"What did he do to me…?" she whispered.
Her voice cracked in the silence.
She pressed a palm flat against her sternum. Her heartbeat stuttered, uneven, as though a second rhythm had once been there and had been violently ripped out.
And yet—something still pulsed faintly beneath her skin.
She blinked hard, struggling to steady herself. She needed to move. To get out of these woods. To find help. To pretend this nightmare belonged to someone else.
Evelyn staggered forward—
—and froze.
A twig snapped behind her.
Her spine went rigid, fear crawling up her throat. She turned slowly, heart pounding, expecting to see a stray wolf from the ceremony.
But what stepped out was worse.
Not one wolf.
Not even two.
Five figures emerged from the shadows, spaced like predators in a hunting arc. Their bodies shifted unnaturally, caught somewhere between human and beast.
Shoulders too broad. Legs elongated. Eyes glowing with cruel amber light.
Their grins were thin, hungry.
Ronan's wolves had been terrifying, yes — but controlled.
These ones felt feral.
Wrong.
Evelyn stumbled backward. "Please— I don't want trouble. I'll just leave— I didn't mean to be here—"
The largest one tilted his head, sniffing the air with a slow, predatory drag of breath.
"She smells of him."
Another growled softly. "Blackthorn."
A third clicked his tongue. "Interesting. Very interesting."
Evelyn's heart stuttered. "I don't even know who—"
The leader snarled, cutting her off. "Lying little human."
He stepped forward, and instinct forced Evelyn back until her spine hit a tree. His shadow swallowed her whole.
"Do you know what happens," he murmured, "when a human witnesses a sacred ceremony?"
"I—I didn't see anything—!"
Another wolf laughed darkly. "She saw everything. Hell, the Alpha saw her."
Something flickered in the leader's expression—recognition. Triumph.
"He rejected you."
Evelyn flinched so hard her teeth clacked.
He leaned down, eyes narrowing with interest. "Did you feel it? His rejection? Did it tear you apart?"
Her throat closed. Tears threatened to spill. She hated them for knowing. Hated herself for feeling it.
But the wolf only smiled wider.
"That means the bond was real."
Evelyn's mouth fell open. "Bond? What bond? I'm human, I don't— I don't have any bond—"
"You smell like him," someone hissed. "Like the moon burned his mark into your skin."
"And yet he rejected you…" the leader murmured, almost fascinated. "Foolish Alpha."
Before she could respond, his hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist.
Evelyn cried out, clawing at his grip. "Let go—!"
He yanked her forward brutally, dragging her off the tree and against his chest. Another wolf grabbed her other arm. A third hooked claws into her jacket.
Panic exploded in her lungs.
"Stop! Please—Please, I'll leave! I won't tell anyone—"
"No," the leader growled. "You're coming with us."
"Why? I didn't do anything!"
He leaned down, breath hot against her ear.
"You exist."
Her blood turned to ice.
In a single motion he pulled a black cloth sack from his belt and forced it over her head. Darkness swallowed her. Her breath came fast now, panicked and thin. She kicked wildly, but her movements were sluggish, her muscles still aching from the rejection.
Hands grabbed her legs. Arms. Waist.
She was lifted off the ground like she weighed nothing.
She screamed—but the forest swallowed the sound.
"Hold her tight," a wolf hissed. "Our Alpha will want to see her unbroken."
Evelyn thrashed, or tried to, but her body refused to obey. The pain in her chest surged again, sharp and impossible, as if the bond—broken or not—was trying to anchor her to something she no longer understood.
A voice low and cruel whispered beside her ear:
"Blackthorn will come for her."
A rough laugh answered. "Let him try. He's already losing control. The prophecy is coming true."
Evelyn froze.
Prophecy?
Before she could ask, claws dug into her side.
The pain was too much.
Her lungs seized. Her heart spasmed. Her senses dimmed.
The last thing she felt was her body being carried deeper into the forest.
The last thing she heard was the leader's voice, soft and certain:
"Tonight, the moon chose a new monster."
And then darkness pulled her under.