CHAPTER 81: THE ALPHA’S WRATH

Silence held the clearing for one dangerous second after Damian spoke.Not natural silence.The kind that came before violence.The rogues felt it too.But neither stepped back.One of them laughed softly instead, glancing toward Selene where she still lay partially hidden beneath the roots and leaves.“Relax, Alpha,” he said casually. “We only found her here.”The second smirked faintly.“We were trying to help.”Damian did not answer.He stood completely still beneath the moonlight, gaze fixed on them with a calmness that felt worse than anger.The forest itself seemed to tighten around him.The rogues exchanged another look.One of them tilted his head slightly.“She fought harder than expected though,” he admitted. “That was entertaining.”Still no response.Damian’s silence deepened instead.The second rogue crouched slightly near Selene again.Too close.“She’d make a perfect bride,” he said with faint amusement. “Strong bloodline too.”That was the mistake.The moment his hand

CHAPTER 82: WHERE INSTINCT RESTED

The forest had gone quiet again.Not naturally.Carefully.As if even the trees understood something important had just happened beneath the full moon.Damian remained kneeling beside Selene without moving.The violence from moments earlier still lingered faintly in the air, but none of it existed inside him anymore.Not now.Now there was only her.Selene’s breathing remained uneven beneath his jacket, soft tremors still moving through her body from the instability of the broken shift.Damian could feel every single one of them.And the realization settled harder with each passing second.She could have died out here.Alone.Unprotected.The thought hit something sharp inside him immediately.Not guilt alone.Something worse.Because suddenly every moment from the dungeon returned differently now.The trembling.The sensory reactions.The instability.The aggression against confinement.None of it had been rebellion.She had been shifting.And no one noticed.Not even him.Damian’s j

CHAPTER 83: THE RETURN TO SILVERMOON

Dawn had not fully arrived when Silvermoon’s gates opened again.The castle stood quiet beneath the fading moonlight, its stone walls still holding the tension of the night that had passed.But the silence did not remain for long.Because the moment Alpha Damian crossed the gates carrying Selene in his arms.Everything shifted.The guards nearest the entrance straightened instantly.Not from command.From shock.No one spoke.No one dared to.Selene remained unconscious against Damian’s chest, wrapped securely in his dark jacket, strands of hair falling loosely across her face as the remnants of instability still moved faintly beneath her breathing.Damian did not slow his pace.Did not explain.He moved through the castle with controlled purpose, Liam following only a short distance behind alongside the tracking wolves.The atmosphere changed corridor by corridor as they passed.Servants stopped moving.Conversations died immediately.Eyes followed them in stunned silence.Because ev

CHAPTER 84: WHAT THE MOON CHOSE

The door closed softly behind Liam.Silence settled over the healing chamber immediately afterward.Not empty silence.Contained.The kind that only existed after chaos had finally exhausted itself.Damian remained standing beside the bed for several seconds without moving.The warmth of Selene’s fingers had already loosened from around his wrist after Liam dismissed everyone from the room, but the feeling of it still lingered against his skin.His wolf noticed.It noticed everything.The chamber itself was quiet, lit only by low candlelight and the pale moonlight spilling through the tall western windows. The scent of herbs lingered faintly in the air beneath the sharper traces of blood, forest earth, and broken instinct still clinging to the night.Selene lay motionless against the bed.Exhaustion had finally overtaken whatever remained of her unstable first shift.But even now, her body still reacted faintly.Small tremors beneath the blankets.Uneven breathing.Instability that ha

CHAPTER: 85: WHAT INSTINCT KNOWS

The healing chamber remained silent long after the moonlight faded from the windows.Selene still slept.Or at least, her body did.Because somewhere beneath exhaustion and instability, something inside her remained awake.Watching.Listening.The dream did not begin clearly.It came in fragments.Silver light through trees.Cold air against fur.The sound of her own heartbeat echoing too loudly beneath the full moon.Theneyes.Crimson red.Watching her through darkness.Not threatening.Not hunting.Recognizing.The feeling hit before understanding did.Warmth.Safety.Claim.The forest around her shifted strangely afterward, the dream changing without warning.The trees stretched taller.The shadows, deeper.Selene stopped moving immediately.Not because she was afraid.Because something inside her already knew the wolf.The creature stepped closer slowly.Calm.Certain.Its gaze never left hers.Then, one word settled into the dream like instinct itself whispering directly into he

CHAPTER 86: THE MIRROR DOES NOT LIE

The first thing Selene noticed was the ache.It lingered everywhere.In her arm.Her leg.Even her chest felt strangely heavy.For several moments she remained still beneath the blankets, eyes barely open, trying to separate memory from reality.The dungeon.The shift.The forest.The rogues.Darkness.Then silence.A voice interrupted her thoughts."You're finally awake."Selene blinked slowly.Her vision cleared little by little until a figure sitting beside the chamber window came into focus.A man.Older.Dressed in healer's robes.But not one she recognized.Confusion immediately crossed her face."...who are you?"Relief visibly settled across the man's expression."Easy now."He rose from his chair."You've been unconscious for days."Selene frowned.Days?Instinctively she tried sitting upright.Pain shot sharply through her arm.A gasp escaped her lips.The healer immediately stepped forward."Don't."His tone carried gentle authority."You should not be moving yet."Selene l