Chapter 6: It Never Ended With Exile.

AUREN'S POV

The silence around me made my hands tremble.

One moment the forest was alive with the sounds of night—insects buzzing, leaves rustling, branches creaking in the wind. The next moment, nothing.

I stopped walking, my hands grew cold.

My bag slipped from my shoulder and landed at my feet. The weight I had been carrying suddenly felt heavier now that I wasn't moving.

The silence pressed against my ears. Thick and wrong.

My wolf stirred inside me.

She had never stirred before. Not once. I had spent twenty-two years believing she didn't exist, that the Moon Goddess had cursed me with an empty soul. But she was there. Restless and alert in a way I had never felt.

I pressed my hand against my chest. My heart pounded beneath my palm.

"You're imagining things," I whispered. "You're exhausted, you.. haven't slept, you also haven't eaten."

The trees fell silent, only the echoes of my voice came back to me.

I bent down to pick up my bag and a twig snapped behind me.

I spun around. "Hello?"

No answer.

The shadows between the trees shifted. I blinked and they were still. I blinked again and they were closer.

"Who's there?" My voice came out thin and weak.

Another snap, to my left this time.I turned.

Eyes reflected the moonlight.

Dozens of them. Yellow, red and hungry. Glowing in the darkness like embers waiting to catch fire.

My heartbeat stumbled.

"Please," I said, backing away. "I don't have anything, I was banished. I'm not anyone important, I am nothing. Just let me go."

Shapes began to form behind the eyes, bodies, tall and thin. Hunched shoulders. Scarred skin barely covered by scraps of clothing, wild hair matted with dirt.

They were Rogues. I gasped and I felt warm urine run down my legs before I could stop it.

They circled slowly, deliberately. Like they had all the time in the world.

One stepped forward. Tall and gaunt, with a scar that cut through his left eye and dragged his mouth into a permanent sneer. His teeth had been filed to points.

"Thornridge," he said. "Alpha Melvin's pack."

I froze. "How do you know that?"

He smiled, the moonlight caught in his dark eyes. "Enough to know what you're worth."

Before I could respond, he lunged.

His fist connected with my jaw and white light exploded behind my eyes. I hit the ground hard, my bag flying from my hands, my vision swimming.

I scrambled backward, clawing at the dirt, trying to put distance between us.

"Please—"

Another blow. This time to my ribs. Something cracked and I couldn't breathe.

"Don't kill her yet," someone said. "She needs to feel it first."

They laughed.

Then they came at me together.

I rolled to my side and tried to get up. A foot connected with my back and I slammed face-first into the ground. Dirt filled my mouth. Blood dripped from my nose.

I pushed myself up again.

They knocked me down again.

"You're not giving up?" The scarred rogue laughed. "That's cute."

I crawled forward on my hands and knees, reaching for my bag, reaching for anything. A hand grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. Another hand tore at my dress.

I screamed.

My wolf screamed with me, raw, desperate pain that I felt in my bones.

"Get off me!" I swung my elbow backward and connected with something solid. The hand in my hair released. I scrambled forward, gasping, bleeding, desperate.

Two more rogues blocked my path.

I stopped. Looked around. They had surrounded me completely, there was nowhere to run.

One of them grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. Another kicked my legs out from under me. I hit the ground and they were on me again, kicking and punching from every direction.

I curled into a ball. Covered my head with my arms. Tried to protect something, anything.

A kick to my ribs. A punch to my face. Another kick, a hand gripping my jaw.

Through the chaos, someone grabbed my bag and tore it open. Dresses scattered across the dirt. My mother's necklace. Melvin's locket.

"Is this all she has?" Laughter. "Pathetic, what a waste of energy."

I tried to reach for the necklace. A boot came down on my hand.

I screamed.

"You're not going anywhere," the scarred rogue said. "We will make sure of that."

I looked up at him through swollen eyes. Blood dripped into my vision. My lip was split, my nose was broken, every inch of my body screamed in agony.

"W..Why?" I forced the word out through cracked lips. "Why are you doing this?, What do you..want from me?"

He crouched down beside me. His smile stretched wide, revealing those pointed teeth.

"Because someone paid us to make sure you don't leave this forest."

The words hit me harder than any blow.

Someone wanted me dead?

My exile wasn't enough punishment? Now a death sentence?

I tried to crawl away. Scraped my hands against the forest floor, left trails of blood behind me.

The blows followed, I kept crawling. They kept hitting.

I grabbed a branch and swung it blindly. It connected with something and someone cried out. For one brief second, I saw an opening. I scrambled through it, dragging myself forward, coughing up blood, refusing to stop.

But there were too many of them.

They caught me, dragged me back. Pulled me apart like I was nothing.

My wolf howled inside me. It wasn't a sound, but a desperate urge to survive, it pulsed through my veins like fire.

I couldn't shift. I had never been able to shift. But I could fight.

I bit the hand that grabbed my hair. Tasted blood, I heard someone curse. I clawed at the face in front of me and felt skin tear beneath my nails.

They hit me harder.

"We are wasting much time with her," one of them growled. "We were paid to make sure she never breathes again."

The words cut through the chaos like a blade.

The rogues pulled back. The scarred one stepped forward, a blade in his hand. It caught the moonlight and gleamed like silver.

I closed my eyes.

Thought of Melvin's smile, thought of the way he had promised me forever.

Then I opened my eyes and glared at the man standing over me.

"If you are here to kill me" I said, my voice barely a whisper, "Do it already, what's the wait for anyway? No home..no family…Maybe this is what I need after all."

He raised the blade. I shut my eyes and laid down flat.

Something changed. No one moved or said anything, I snapped my eyes open.

The rogues froze. Their heads snapped toward the trees behind them, their eyes widened.

Heavy footsteps approached through the forest.

One of the rogues dropped his blade. His face was drained of color.

"...Run!" he whispered.

They scattered.

All of them. Pushing past each other, disappearing into the darkness like they had never been there. The scarred one was the last to go. He looked back at me once, hatred burning in his one good eye, then he vanished into the trees.

The forest went silent again.

I lay on the ground, bleeding and broken, unable to move, unable to speak. Darkness crept at the edges of my vision, pulling me down.

The footsteps approached.

I tried to lift my head to see who was coming.

A silhouette moved through the trees. Tall, broad-shouldered, moving towards me.