"She's shifted?"
The words hit me like a stone in the chest.
Veran's eyes didn't leave mine."I followed her scent and It stopped near the river, just gone."
"That's not possible," I whispered. "She was human and weak, she didn't know this world."
"She knows enough now."
I turned in a full circle scanning the trees. The wind was cold, but it carried no familiar smell.
"She couldn't have shifted on her own It takes time, pain and blood." My voice shook. "You said I was rare that I came back changed because of the Moon Pact. So how did she …?"
Veran stepped closer, his face unreadable. "There's only one way a human can shift this quickly."
I swallowed hard. "Say it."
"She was marked."
My heart stopped. "By who?"
Veran looked away. "Someone more stronger than me."
I couldn't sleep that night, I sat by the fire with my knife in hand sharpening the blade even though it didn't need it.
Marked, turned into a wolfblood against her will or maybe not.
Was she here only to find Veran? Or she came here for something bigger?
Memories came back like poison, I remember
Amalric sitting on her mother's lap while I knelt in the rain outside shivering, she would
smile sweetly as she told Father I had stole her necklace.
Amalric laughing while I bled on the stone floor blamed for a crime I didn't commit.
And now she was one of us but something told me she didn't want to just live, she wanted to rule.
By morning Veran had already packed.
"We're going to the Shadow Valtara border," he said without looking at me. "If she's shifted, she'll be drawn to power and that's where she'll go."
"Alone?"
He glanced at me. "No. With you."
I nodded once. "Then let's hunt."
The Shadow Valtara territory was nothing like our side of the forest.
Here the trees grew too close together, the light never touched the ground and the cold was thicker.
I kept my senses sharp,smelling, listening, feeling but everything was too quiet.
"Are you sure she came here?" I asked.
Veran nodded sharply, "Someone hid her trail but a broken pine by the eastern ridge had fresh claw marks,the kind only made during a first shift."
"So she really did it."
He didn't answer, he didn't have to anyway.
We moved quietly for hours then I heard a snap, a soft rustle then Veran quickly held up a hand.
We hid behind a rock just in time to see two figures moving through the trees ahead.
Wolves, not wild and not rogues.
They wore silver cuffs on their forearms.
"Shadow sentries," Veran whispered.
The bigger wolf sniffed the air, My body tensed.
Veran's hand brushed my arm. "Don't move and don't breathe."
I closed my eyes trying to steady my heartbeat.
After a moment the wolves moved on. When they were gone i exhaled.
"She's inside their territory now," I said. "What if they took her?"
Veran shook his head. "No she went there willingly."
"How do you know?"
He turned to me slowly.
"Because I saw her."
I froze. "What?"
Veran's jaw clenched."Last night when I left the cabin before you woke up I followed her trail but she was already halfway across the river and she wasn't running."
"You didn't stop her?"
"She looked back right at me," His voice was low. "then she smiled."
That smile, I could see it soo perfect, sweet and poisonous.
"She's playing a game," I muttered .
Veran nodded. "And she knows how to win."
We reached the Shadow Valtara stronghold's by sundown.
A big stone wall stood in the trees half-covered in moss and symbols painted in blood.
Veran stopped. "We go on foot from here."
He led me through a crack in the wall moving quietly between guard posts and broken tree roots.
The smell of wolfblood was strong in the air very old. Then we had the voices and I heard hers.
"Oh, it's true i was just a human once weak, fragile and forgotten." Amalric's voice hissed like a snake."But I came here and the moon chose me."
Veran pulled me into the shadows,we hid behind a low stone arch looking at a ruined temple courtyard.
Amalric stood at the center, she wore black now tight, elegant, embroidered with silver moons. Her long hair flowed behind her like a river of ink and her eyes glowed faintly red.
Something was wrong, a tall man stood beside her hand resting on her shoulder.
He wore armor carved from bone and his eyes were hollow like smoke. Power radiated from him in waves.
Veran's face went pale. "That's impossible."
"Who is he?"
Kael's voice dropped to a whisper. "Deucalion Alpha of the Crimson Maw, he was banished everyone thought he died."
"Clearly not."
Amalric was smiling at him.
"They cast me out," she said loudly. "They left me to rot but now I am chosen, i have the Moon's blessing and the Crimson Alpha at my side."
The wolves around her bowed their heads then she turned slowly and looked directly at me. "No! Not possible " I thought to myself,
"She couldn't have seen me."
But she smiled anyway.
"I was only a shadow to her," she said, raising her voice, "but now the roles are reversed."
I stood quickly but Veran grabbed my arm. "No…not yet."
"I won't hide from her."
"You're not ready."
I turned to him my voice shaking with rage. "I was ready the moment they left me to die."
That night we camped far from the temple ruins.
I stared into the fire unable to stop shaking.
"She's with the Crimson Maw," I said. "How? Why?"
Veran tossed more wood into the flames. "She's a weapon now a beautiful, dangerous lie."
"I thought I was the threat they feared," I muttered. "But it was her all along."
"No," he said. "It's both of you."
I looked at him. "What do you mean?"
He stared into the fire his voice low. "There's a prophecy from before the Moon Pact, two daughters born of the same blood, one brings ruin while the other brings the rise of a new Alpha."
I blinked. "Which one am I?"
He didn't answer. A branch snapped in the woods nearby.
We both stood instantly, Veran drew his blade and I reached for mine.
The wind shifted and then out of the shadows something moved.
It was not a wolf and not a man either.
A creature tall, hunched, skin like bark and eyes glowing blue. It stopped at the edge of the firelight and spoke.
"Daughter of the moon, your time begins."
Then it lunged.