CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 49: I DIDN’T SHIFT..

Selene’s POV~~

The howl cut through the forest like a blade. It was deep, fierce, and laced with something that made the hairs rise along my arms. It was filled with rage and madness. And something colder... something that sank beneath my skin like ice water.

I knew that howl.

I didn’t know how...didn’t know how my body seemed to react, how my pulse jumped at the sound, or how my lungs forgot to breathe, but I knew.

It was him, Aeron.

I could feel it in the marrow of my bones. That sound came from his throat. I staggered back a step, my legs trembling beneath me. Why was he so angry when he could not bear to look at me for even a second?

Then came the second howl. It was even sharper and wounded with fury, Luca.

A moment later, a third one rang out, like something uncoiling in the dark. That was Kael. I remembered that sound from the times I’d been locked in the moving wagon and heard it drifting in on cold air.

Then came the last.

The one that made my skin crawl and my stomach twist. Lucian.

His was the cruelest, playful, almost. Like he was enjoying this. The hunt—I could already imagine his hunting smile.

My breath came fast. With each howl my chest heaved, but I couldn’t get air. I knew these howls were not normal; they were warning me. The trees around me seemed to grow taller and darker, their shadows reaching for me like claws. I turned to run—

But my legs wouldn’t move.

They refused.

They shook beneath me, boneless and hollow. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground, scraping my side against the bark of a fallen branch. My hands scrambled in the dirt, searching blindly for the dagger again. I found it and clutched it to my chest like a child might a blanket.

No, I thought. No, no, no—

I couldn’t run anymore.

Not like this. Soon they will find me. And they were coming. They were close.

Their howls hadn’t just been warning calls. They were tracking me and, with each passing second, closing in.

I forced myself to crawl forward, dragging my body across the underbrush, every root and stone a new punishment. I could taste blood in my mouth from how hard I bit down on my lip to stay quiet.

Please... Please, not yet...

I tilted my head toward the sky.

The moon was almost full—round and high above the trees. The stars glittered faintly around it, uncaring, distant.

I stared at it like a prayer.

Tonight.

Tonight was the last night I would be seventeen. Just a few minutes. Maybe less. Then I would shift. Then I could finally run away from here.

If I shifted... If the wolf inside me finally woke, I’d be fast. I’d be strong. I wouldn’t have to fear the snapping of twigs or the shaking of my legs. I wouldn’t have to crawl like prey.

"Please," I whispered to the sky, to the Moon Goddess who had abandoned me, to whatever force might still listen. "Let me make it. Just let me hold out long enough to shift."

Because once I did, they wouldn’t catch me. They would never chain me again. But right now, I was still weak, a human whose feet refused to obey, even when my will remained alive. And the monsters who made me this way... were closing in.

Just a little longer, I told myself. A little more time.

I’d been counting down to this night for days. Eighteen. The day every werewolf came into their own. The day their wolf rose, stretching from its slumber, wrapping power around brittle bones like armor.

It is my only hope... My wolf. The one I’d waited for, begged for, and bled for.

But the moon rose higher, inch by inch, silver light bathing the forest in a ghostly glow...

And nothing happened.

No heat rippled through my skin. No pressure built behind my eyes. There was no voice whispering in my head. My bones remained still—silent, unchanging. The shift didn’t come.

I waited for it, willed it, begged for the fire to catch, for the storm to rise beneath my skin... but nothing happened. It was just me. Weak, powerless humans in the worst moment to be so.

My breath caught in my throat. "No," I whispered. My hands began to shake. "No, not now..."

I sat up—half delirious—clutching my ribs as if that might wake something buried inside me.

"Come on," I rasped. "Please—please..."

I closed my eyes, teeth clenched, willing it. Screaming for it in my mind.

But there was only the forest.

Only the cold. Only me.

The truth sank in slowly, like a knife pushed inch by inch into my gut. I wasn’t going to shift. I was never going to shift.

The one thing I’d held onto all this time—this fantasy of escape, of rising from the ashes—was a lie.

And suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.

But I could hear them in the distance, their paws slamming into the earth, breath like thunder. Getting closer to me.

The shift hadn’t come. The Moon Goddess had turned her face from me. And if she had abandoned me, then I would carve my path through this world myself.

Even if it meant running on torn feet and shattered bones.

So I crawled from the roots like something half-dead, clutching the dagger tight, and stumbled forward. The cold bit into my skin. My legs screamed in protest. Blood slid down my thighs, warm and sticky, mixing with the filth coating my skin.

But I didn’t stop. I forced one foot forward. Then the next. A desperate, stumbling run that could barely be called such. My breath tore through my lungs. My vision blurred. My heart thundered with a rhythm that didn’t feel like it belonged to me anymore.

Still—it wasn’t enough.

I would never outrun a wolf on foot.

And I felt it, the way the wind suddenly died and the way the world around me fell into an eerie, unnatural silence.

And the feeling of being watched.

I whipped around.

No one.

Nothing but trees. Shadows and Stillness.

But it was there. Behind me. Around me. I could feel it.

A feeling like cold fire blooming in my chest. A weight pressing against the back of my neck like unseen jaws.

"Who’s there?" I whispered.

No answer.

Only silence.

But then I did what any sane person would do—I ran, even as my legs threatened to buckle and collapse beneath me. But it seemed my desire to escape was nothing more than wishful thinking.

The force of the tackle knocked the scream from my lungs. My body hit the ground hard. I rolled over sharp rocks and tangled roots, pain flashing in my spine. The dagger nearly slipped from my hand, but I held on.

And then it was on me.

A massive wolf, black as shadow and twice the size of any normal creature, loomed over me, snarling. Grey eyes locked on mine, and for a moment, I couldn’t even scream.

I gripped the dagger, my knuckles white. If I had to die, fine. But I’d die on my own terms.

I’d drive the blade into my heart before I let them drag me back to that prison.

My hand trembled.

I raised the dagger...breath caught somewhere between defiance and despair. And then—a growl shattered the silence, low and primal, tearing through the air and straight into my bones.

"Mine."

"Mate..."