Snow had fallen overnight.
Not enough to blanket the forest, but just enough to make the trees glisten and the ground crunch underfoot. Selene always hated snow; how it showed every footprint, every trail, every drop of blood.
She woke to a knock at her door.
When she opened it, Kael stood there, cloak damp with frost, eyes unreadable.
"Come with me," he said.
No explanation.
No warning.
Selene followed.
They walked in silence through the woods behind the pack houses, deeper into the forest, past the training pits and beyond the northern patrol line. Two warriors flanked them, grim-faced and quiet.
Selene didn't ask questions, but her wolf stirred uneasily. When they reached the clearing, she stopped breathing.
A single body lay in the snow.
Not a BloodMoon wolf.
Not one of Kael's.
Her past was staring back at her.
She dropped to her knees. Her breath came in shallow bursts.
A girl, maybe nineteen. Reddish-brown hair matted with blood, eyes wide open in terror. Her coat bore the mark of Selene's old pack; barely visible, but unmistakable. Slashed across the shoulder.
Kael crouched beside her. "Recognize her?"
Selene nodded, throat tight. "Her name was Talia. She was one of the younger trainees. She… looked up to me."
Kael didn't speak.
Selene touched the girl's frozen fingers. "She shouldn't have been out here alone."
"She wasn't," Kael said.
Selene looked up.
He tossed something into the snow.
A tiny pendant. A wolf's fang painted red.
Selene flinched. "Recon unit."
"Exactly," Kael confirmed. "This wasn't a lost girl. This was a scout team. We found their scent trails. Four others. Two turned back. One circled east. The other… we think she was the one who tried to cross into our outer perimeter."
Selene stared down at Talia's corpse, voice barely above a whisper. "She didn't deserve this."
"No," Kael agreed. "But your old Alpha sent her knowing exactly what would happen."
Selene clenched her fists. "He's testing me. He knows I'll feel this."
Kael studied her. "And do you?"
She didn't answer.
Did she?Yes. No. Too much. Too little.
"I trained her," Selene said finally. "I showed her how to fight. How to track. How to stay alive."
"She failed at all three," Kael replied.
Selene winced.
He sighed. "That wasn't meant to be cruel. Just the truth. You trained her to survive Cassian. Not me."
"Isn't that the same thing?" Selene muttered bitterly.
Kael stood and looked out into the trees. "You're not who you were, Selene. You're becoming something else. He sees it. That's why he's doing this."
"To remind me who I belong to," she whispered.
Kael turned sharply. "You don't belong to him. You never did."
Selene wanted to believe that.
But ghosts didn't vanish just because you shut the door. They lingered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that day, Selene sat alone by the edge of the river. She held Talia's pendant in her hand, the metal cold as guilt.
She remembered a younger Talia tripping over her own claws during training and looking up at Selene like she hung the moon. "One day, I'll be just like you," she'd said.
Selene had smiled.
"You don't want that."
But the girl had insisted, and now she was dead.
Because of Selene.
Because of choices she couldn't undo.
Footsteps approached. Rael again.
He didn't speak for a long time.
Then: "Kael's too soft on you."
Selene kept her gaze on the river. "You're not wrong."
"You're dangerous."
She nodded.
"I don't like you."
She nodded again.
Rael hesitated. "But… you didn't run."
Selene looked up slowly.
Rael dropped something next to her. A folded cloak. The BloodMoon crest embroidered in silver.
"You'll need this tonight. Patrol's doubling shifts. You're with me."
She blinked. "You want me on your team?"
"No," he said flatly. "Kael does. I'm just following orders."
Selene smirked faintly. "Lucky me."
"Don't push it."
But he didn't take the cloak back.
And Selene didn't refuse it.