Chapter 4

Seleste's Pov.

A soldier walked past me and paused.

“You,” he said, grabbing my jaw roughly and tilting my face toward the rising sun. “Let’s see if the prince likes wild ones.” He shoved me harder than necessary and laughed when I stumbled.

I didn’t rise to the bait. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Instead, I looked up and saw them.

The royal princes stood on a raised platform, dressed in black and crimson hunting leathers. One, tall and sharp as a blade. Another, all grin and madness. And between them…

My stomach dropped.

Him.

The one from the tower.

The one whose eyes had caught mine like a snare.

Even now, I could feel his gaze lock onto me again. My skin prickled, my heart pounding without reason. My wolf stirred faintly, the first flicker since the curse.

No. No, no, no.

It couldn’t be.

Fate wouldn’t be that cruel. I tore my eyes away just as the horn blew.

“Run,” someone hissed behind me. “They said when the horn sounds, you run.”

But I didn’t move.

Not right away.

Then I heard it, the unmistakable twang of a bowstring.

Then a scream.

The girl beside an arrow struck her back, warm blood splattered on my face as I watched her eyes widened in shock before she crumpled to the ground.

I screamed in shock as I realized what was going on.

“They’re going to hunt us!”

And that was all it took. I ran.

Behind us, a horn blew.

The Hunt had begun.

We scattered into the trees like frightened birds, dress hems catching on roots, breath hitching with every step.

The forest swallowed us whole, branches slicing at my skin as I dodged roots and ducked beneath low limbs. I heard more screams, more arrows, some thudding into trees, others into flesh.

I didn’t look back. I couldn’t.

All that mattered was forward. Forward meant distance. Forward meant buying more time. Forward meant maybe survival.

Somewhere behind me, I could hear a hunter crashing through the underbrush. Closer.

I took a sharp turn, veering off the main path. My lungs burned, my ribs ached, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

Then silence.

Nothing but the rustle of wind in the trees and the distant call of a raven overhead. I crouched behind a moss-covered boulder, forcing myself to breathe slowly.

And then… a twig snapped.

I froze.

A shadow moved ahead. Not clumsy. Not loud.

Calculated.

I rose quietly, ready to bolt

But when I turned, he was already there.

I could tell him apart from his brothers. I don't know why;

His expression wasn’t cruel like the others. It was… confusing. Awestruck. He stepped forward. Slowly. Like I was a flame he didn’t want to scare off.

“Don’t,” I hissed, backing away. “Stay the hell away from me.”

He didn’t move closer, but he didn’t retreat either. “You’re” His voice faltered. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

I laughed bitterly. “Tell that to your guards.”

He stared at me like he knew me. Like he’d dreamed of me. And something in my chest ached.

Mate.

The word slammed into me like a lightning strike.

No. Not him. Not this. Not now.

My body screamed to run, but my legs wouldn’t obey. Not until his hand lifted slightly not to grab, not to threaten, just to reach.

“Don’t touch me,” I whispered.

And then I ran.

Not because I feared him.

But because I feared what he meant.

Because if he truly was my mate…

Then I was more cursed than I’d ever imagined.

I ran until the forest blurred around me, until my lungs ached and my feet went numb. Until the prince’s scent was gone and the only thing left was the scream of my past clawing back into my bones.

I collapsed near the edge of a stream, my hands trembling as I splashed cold water on my face.

But the shaking didn’t stop.

Because I could feel it again, the moment everything had broken.

Two weeks ago,

The moon was full, and the fire danced in the hearth, casting long shadows across our cabin. My father was pacing, he always did that when he was nervous and my mother sat at the table, her face pale but determined.

I was supposed to be asleep.

I wasn’t.

Hidden in the hallway, I watched through a sliver in the wooden wall, my breath held.

“They know,” my father said. “The council suspects. One of the elders saw the book.”

“We shouldn’t have kept it,” my mother whispered. “We should have burned it the moment we found it.”

“No,” he said firmly. “That prophecy, what it says about the Moon Bloods line, Seleste deserves to know.”

I frowned.

Moon Bloods?

“Then we were fools to speak it aloud,” my mother murmured, voice trembling. “Fools to trust anyone. Do you think they’ll spare her, if they know the truth?”

My name.

My blood turned to ice.

My father knelt beside my mother, his hand on hers. “If it comes to that, I’ll take the fall. Let them believe it was only me.”

She shook her head. “They won’t stop with you.”

A knock at the door shattered the silence.

Three hard, deliberate raps.

The signal of the pack enforcers.