The morning after their kiss, the forest changed.
It was subtle at first. The wind no longer moved freely through the trees. The birds did not sing. The fog, ever present in Crooked Ash, hung heavier—like it had weight, like it was listening. Even the animals moved differently. They watched from the shadows with cautious eyes, ears pinned flat, sensing something unnatural crackling in the silence.
Cassia awoke in her bed with the taste of Elias still on her lips and the weight of a thousand questions pressing on her chest.
She hadn't dreamt that kiss.
She hadn't imagined the way his breath caught or how his body trembled when she whispered his name. Something passed between them, something that burned and settled deep in her bones.
She felt it even now.
It wasn't love. Not yet.
It was deeper.
Recognition.
Like they'd once known each other in a life neither of them could recall—and last night had reopened that door.
⸻
Elias did not sleep.
He ran.
For hours. Through the trees, across the river, over the ridges where the stars kissed the earth. His wolf form bled into muscle and bone again and again, shifting with rage, with fear, with desire. Every time he returned to flesh, her name was on his tongue.
Cassia.
The girl with quiet blood.
The girl who had made him remember his name.
And now the Pack would remember hers.
⸻
By midday, they had called a Blood Circle. Only summoned in times of betrayal.
Elias arrived last, bare-chested and covered in dirt and sweat. The clearing was already full. Every member of the Silver Pack stood in a ring, arms folded, eyes cold. Even the elders had come down from their mountain watch. Faces carved from stone. Unsmiling. Unforgiving.
In the center stood Fen.
He held up the ancient blade—the Veritas Fang, forged from the rib of the first wolf, the one who swore the Laws would never be broken.
"Elias Thorn," Fen said, voice like thunder through the trees. "Alpha of the Silver Pack. You stand accused."
"I know," Elias said.
"You admit it?" a voice barked from the circle—old Alric, with scars down his neck from the last Moon War.
"I kissed her," Elias said plainly. "She kissed me back."
The murmurs rippled like waves. Gasps. Growls. Snarls.
"She is not wolf-kind," Fen snapped. "She is moonless. A mortal. Possibly worse. You have broken the first law. The law that holds this Pack together!"
"I remember my duty," Elias said. "I remember all of it now. And I would break it again."
A stunned silence. Then:
"You would throw away your birthright—for a girl with no name? No bloodline? No scent?"
"She has no scent because the moon hides her," Elias said slowly. "Because the moon fears what she is becoming."
The Pack stilled.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying," Elias said, stepping forward, eyes glowing bright gold, "that she is not a threat to us. She's a mirror. And if the moon hides her… It's because she comes from before the moon."
Gasps. Someone spat on the ground. The trees trembled.
"That is heresy," Fen whispered.
"No," Elias growled. "It's prophecy."
⸻
That night, the pack sent scouts to watch Cassia's home.
They weren't ordered to attack.
Not yet.
Just to observe. To report. To verify if Elias had truly lost himself—or if something worse had awakened.
They never came back.
Three wolves entered the woods near Black Hollow.
Only one returned.
His eyes were wild. His mind is broken.
He whispered two words before collapsing:
"She sang."
⸻
Cassia was boiling tea when the knock came.
Not a soft one.
A sharp, deliberate bang-bang-bang that rattled the hinges.
She opened the door slowly.
It wasn't Elias.
It was Serah, the Pack's Seer.
A woman with white eyes, blind since birth, and a scent of burnt feathers and smoke. She was feared, even among wolves. It was said she spoke to the Moon directly, in a voice no one else could hear.
Cassia stared. "You shouldn't be here."
"Nor should you," the Seer said.
Cassia moved aside.
She didn't know why. Just that she couldn't say no.
Serah entered slowly, running her fingers along the walls as if she were mapping the truth beneath the paint.
"You kissed him," she said flatly.
Cassia said nothing.
"You didn't just break a law," Serah continued. "You broke the seal."
Cassia's brow furrowed. "What seal?"
Serah tilted her head, lips curling into something between a frown and a prophecy.
"You don't know, do you? You've always thought you were strange. Not quite alive. Not quite human. Dreams you can't explain. A pull to the forest. A fear of mirrors."
Cassia took a step back. "How do you know that?"
"Because I've seen you before. In fire. In smoke. In the blood on my hands after every full moon."
Serah turned, her white eyes locking on Cassia's heart.
"You are not cursed, child. You are chosen. The moon tried to bury you. The wolves tried to forget you. But now… now you are waking. And when you fully awaken, not even Elias will be able to stop what comes next."
⸻
Outside, the wind howled.
Cassia turned toward the window.
In the distance, she saw him.
Elias.
Half-man. Half-wolf. Standing in the clearing behind her house. His eyes were glowing gold. His mouth opened in a silent plea.
She ran to him.
She didn't care if the whole forest was watching.
She didn't care if the Pack was coming.
She needed to touch him. To remember.
But when she reached him, he stepped back.
"What's wrong?" she asked, breathless.
"They know," he said. "All of them."
Cassia nodded. "Let them come."
"No," he whispered. "You don't understand. I remember what you are now."
She swallowed.
"Tell me."
He leaned in close. His hand found hers.
"You were the one the moon couldn't bind."
A pause.
"Because you were born when there was no moon."