POV: Jake
I woke up gasping, like someone had pulled me out of deep water.
But I wasn't drowning. I was lying on cold stone in a place I didn't recognize. My chest hurt where the knife had stabbed me, but when I looked down, there was no wound.
"Where am I?" I whispered to the darkness.
"Somewhere between life and death," a voice answered.
A woman stepped out of the shadows. She looked exactly like Elder Matthews, but her eyes were pure black instead of normal brown.
"Who are you?" I asked, scrambling backward.
"I'm what Elder Matthews used to be. Before she got weak and started caring about werewolf politics." The woman smiled coldly. "You can call me Shadow."
"That doesn't make sense."
"When Matthews became a council elder, she split her dark magic away to seem more trustworthy. I'm that dark magic, given form."
My head was spinning. "Why am I here?"
"Because you died protecting people you care about. That kind of sacrifice creates... opportunities."
