Chapter 2 The Pack of Shadows

When I woke up, the first thing I felt was pain. It was as though a weight was pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe. My body was full of bruises, my limbs were stiff, and my head ached like I'd been caught between a dream and a nightmare.

I tried to blink and open my eyes slowly. Above me was a rough stone ceiling, glowing faintly from the warm light of stones embedded in the cracks. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew it wasn't Moonshade's Territory.

The air was thicker here and also warmer. It smelled of smoke, pine, and something of old as though dust and history were mixed together. A fire crackled nearby, and voices drifted in from somewhere I couldn’t see.

“She’s awake,” someone said.

As I turned her head and blinked my eyes, everything hurt.

A tall man stepped into the room. He looked like someone who didn’t speak much unless he had to. His dark eyes held the kind of calm that came from surviving too much. A long scar ran through his collarbone, barely hidden by the leather strap of his gear.

“You’re in Crescent territory,” he said simply.

I could only swallow my saliva because my throat felt dry.  “Why?” I asked.

He didn’t blink. “Because our guards found you half-dead near the northern border. We don’t usually rescue just anyhow persons, but Alpha Theron said to bring you in.”

At that moment, I tried to sit up, but the pain was too much for me to move my body. I hissed through my teeth.

“Easy.” The man passed her a wooden cup. “Drink this. It’ll help.”

Although it smelled like boiled roots and wet leaves, I took it. ‘This tastes so bad’ I thought to myself. But it worked. Immediately I drank the liquid, warmth spread through my belly, and the ache behind my eyes began to fade away.

“I’m Rae,” he added. “Second-in-command here.”

But I looked at him as someone that is curious.  “And what’s your job? To keep an eye on me?”

“Something like that,” he said. “You’re not a prisoner, but you’re not our guest either. You’re in between. We don’t do blind trust here because we don't trust anyone who isn't from crescent.”

I almost smiled. “Great then. I’m done being trusted by the wrong people.

The next few days passed in silence and recovery for me.

The room they put me in was carved into the mountain, far away from the main passageways. It was quiet but cold, and built like a place that wasn’t meant to be comfortable. Surprisingly, crescent didn’t come for me. They didn’t ask questions either.

I only saw two people often. Rae, who came in at random with little patience and less talk and Mira, a healer with kind eyes and soft hands who always brought bland meals and changed the bandages on my shoulder.

The Crescent wolves moved like ghosts in the halls. They were quick, quiet and careful. Their eyes followed me wherever I passed, like they could sense harm sleeping under my skin.

By the third morning, Rae returned but this time he tossed a bundle of clothes at my bed.

“You have fully recovered. Training starts today, so get dressed.”

Although I wanted to laugh, I just blinked. “You want me to start training? I’ve barely recovered, if you ask me.”

“Exactly. We need to know if you still remember how to survive.”

“What if I say no?” I glanced at him.

“Then be ready to walk out of Crescent and out of this mountain, alone.”

Hearing this, I stood up immediately and got dressed.

The training ground was a massive cable hollowed out beneath the mountain. The ground was filled with dirt and smells of sweat from years of wars. Dozens of wolves stood around the edges, arms crossed, watching to see what I was made of.

Rae wasn't ready to go easy on me. He came at me so fast with blows that were meant to bruise and not just test me. But I blocked the first, missed the second, and landed flat on my back before the third.

“Again,” he said.

I growled and ate dirt again.

“Again.”

Trust me, I wasn’t weak but tired, angry, and still healing. This didn’t matter to Rae. He was one that didn’t care about excuses.

I bled a little yet he didn't blink.

As I limped, he said, “Keep going.” Not until I collapsed, then he turned and walked away.

Crescent wolves didn’t fight for honor or tradition. They fought like survival was the only thing that mattered. And by the end of that first day, I understood that where I was,  power wasn’t something one is born into. It was something that was fought to be kept.

That night, I dreamed of fire. It wasn’t the usual nightmares. Moonshade, Kade, my father's corpse was all I saw. It was different from usual.

I saw forests burning in silence and a crown glowing like molten gold. Then I saw a pendant hanging in the air, pulsing like a heartbeat. And behind it all, I heard a voice; not human, not wolf but sounded like something ancient, whispering my name like a promise and a warning.

When I woke up, I was already soaked in sweat. My hands were glowing faintly gold like embers but It soon faded away after a few seconds, but the fear was instilled in me.

A few days later, I found an Archive while walking around. It was there behind a stone hallway, hidden by old carvings that only reacted when my fingers brushed the wall. Something clicked like an invisible door and opened to reveal a sealed chamber.

Inside this chamber were books, scrolls, weapons, and relics coated in dust. And at the far end I saw a glass case.

I didn’t know why I walked to it. But the moment I saw the pendant inside, a ruby stone shaped like a flame, set in blackened silver, my heart stuttered. It was as if this stone was calling my name.

Still in fear, I opened the case and as my hands touched the ruby stone, it glowed faintly as if it recognized me. I picked it up and everything changed in a flash.

Something raced through my veins, clawed into my ribs, and stole my breath. As I screamed, it wasn’t my voice.

My body began to lose consciousness, fire exploded from my skin. The pendant melted into my chest, vanishing beneath flesh and bone like it had always belonged there.

As I hit the ground, I couldn’t move. By the time I woke, Mira was kneeling beside me.

“You bear the mark,” Mira whispered, eyes wide. “The crest… of the Ember Queen.”

I sat up slowly as my heart began to beat faster like someone who just saw a beast.

“What do you mean?” I asked. But before I could land my question, Mira had already gone to call the Council.

That night, the leaders of Crescent Pack gathered in the mountain’s central chamber. A place carved with runes older than most of the pack’s bloodlines.

Theron, the Alpha, stood at the center. Tall, broad shoulders, and quiet like thunder before a storm. Rae stood beside him, arms crossed, and a sharp gaze.

“You found the pendant,” Theron said.

“It found me,” I whispered.

He stepped closer. “The Ember Queen was the last fire-wielding seer. A wolf born of prophecy. She ruled before the packs were broken apart. When she died, her line was wiped out. Or so we believed.”

“I’m not a queen,” I blurted out.

“No,” Rae answered. “But your blood says otherwise.”

Elders murmured. Some looked afraid. Others became curious.

“The mark is burned into her skin,” Mira said. “And her magic, she didn’t summon it. It summoned her.”

Silence fell in the atmosphere.

Theron finally nodded looking at me. “Then we have to train you. Not as a warrior, but as a weapon. Because what’s coming… will need one.”

From that night on, things changed.

My training with Rae became brutal. Not just physical but it became magical.

I learned how to summon fire without burning myself, how to control it and how to bend it to my will. I meditated in boiling caves and faced illusions pulled from my worst fears.

And every time I fell, I only got stronger. The fire in me had a voice now. It was neither a scream nor whisper but something in between.

Sometimes it guides me and sometimes it warns me.

But it was always there. Still the dreams kept coming. I kept seeing “forests burning, a crown falling and a voice saying: “I will rise. But not without ruin.” I didn’t know what this meant. But something inside me had told me that I was running out of time.

One morning, some guards returned from the northern ridge wounded, panting, eyes wide with panic.

“Moonshade knows she’s alive,” one said, blood dripping from his jaw. “They’re afraid.”

I stood in the doorway, with fire burning under my skin, I thought to myself.

Good. Let them be.