CHAPTER 0 - FIVE YEARS AGO

The moon had always been her destiny.

For as long as Saphira could remember, she had dreamed of this night, her eighteenth birthday, the full moon rising just for her, and the moment her wolf would finally awaken. Every story she’d ever heard, every whispered promise from elders, every dream she’d clung to told her the same thing... When the moon calls, your wolf answers.

And tonight, the moon was calling.

Pack members gathered around her in a loose circle. Some watched with envy, others with awe, but all of them waited for the same moment. Her first shift.

She had waited her whole life for this.

When the moon rose above the treeline, huge and bright, she stepped into its glow. The light poured over her like molten silver, warm and cold all at once. She closed her eyes, bracing for the snap of bones, the rush of power, the wild, beautiful surge of her wolf rising to meet her.

She waited...and waited. But nothing happened. The hum beneath her skin flickered… then died.

A faint murmur rippled through the pack. Saphira swallowed hard and tried again…willing the shift, begging for it, pleading silently with the moon goddess. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, drowning out the whispers behind her.

But there was still nothing.

Minutes dragged into an eteternity. As the moon climbed higher, her breath grew shallower. She tried to force the shift, tried to summon something, anything, but her body remained stubbornly, painfully human.

By the time the moon reached, and passed, its peak, the truth hit her in full force.

Her wolf wasn’t coming.

A cold, hollow ache opened in her chest. The whispers from the pack around her sharpened, slicing through the night.

"Wolf-less."

"Broken."

"Useless."

Someone snickered. Someone else muttered a prayer. A few stepped back, as if her failure was contagious.

Saphira’s vision blurred; she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t stay with them any longer, so she ran.

Branches clawed at her arms as she fled into the forest, her vision blurring with every step. She didn’t stop until she reached the cliff’s edge, the world dropping away beneath her. The river roared far below, a dark, hungry current that swallowed everything in its path.

She stared into the night, tears streaking down her cheeks, her voice cracking as she begged the moon goddess for an answer. "Why me? Why take the one thing I had lived my entire life waiting for away from me? What did I do wrong?"

But the wind carried no reply. Only silence.

Footsteps approached behind her. For a second, she hoped that maybe someone had come to comfort her, to tell her it was a mistake, that her wolf was simply late.

But instead it was Ruby.

Her half-sister’s voice was like venom. “You’re a disgrace to this family. You should have never been born.”

Saphira flinched, but the look on Ruby face told her she wasn’t finished. “You embarrassed us in front of the entire pack. Father will never forgive you. And neither will I.”

Saphira opened her mouth to speak, but Ruby turned away, only to whirl back with a snarl, charging straight at her. The intent was unmistakable, with Saphira standing so close to the edge, it was clear that Ruby wanted to send her over.

Panic seized her and she stumbled backwards, bracing for the impact. Then Connor burst from the trees. He didn’t hesitate. He threw himself between them, shoving Saphira out of Ruby’s path with all the strength he had.

The world spun around her as she hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs. Pain shot up her spine. She gasped, scrambling to her elbows just in time to hear Ruby scream.

“CONNOR!”

Saphira’s blood turned to ice. Ruby was leaning over the cliff, her voice echoing through the mountains, shrill and panicked.

Connor was no where to be seen.

Saphira’s heart slammed against her ribs and her stomach churned as she stumbled to the edge. The river below churned violently, swallowing everything in its path. She screamed his name until her voice broke, but there was no answer.

Only the sounds of the river, and the silence around her.

Her knees buckled. She clutched the earth, shaking, sobbing, praying for a miracle. She hadn't even realised Ruby had left until she came marching back with the pack behind her.

“She pushed him!” Ruby cried out. “She killed him! Connor and I came to comfort her, but she snapped because she didn’t shift abd attacked us!"

"No, she is lying!" Saphira tried to plead, but no one was listsning.

"Connor saved me and she pushed him over!" Ruby sobbed.

Saphira tried to speak, tried to explain, but no one was listening. They had believed Ruby without hesitation, and Saphira had no proof. The pack closed in around her, their eyes cold, their judgment absolute.

They couldn’t kill her for the crime she was being accused of, not because they believed her, but because Connor’s body wasn't here. And without proof, they couldn’t execute her.

Instead, they served a different punishment. They dragged her to the dungeons and ordered eighteen silver lashes. Representing one slash for every year of Connor's lige he would never reach.

The silver-laced whip tore into her back again and again. She screamed out with every one. Unlike the rest of the pack, she didn’t have a wolf to dull the pain or heal the wounds. At one point she wasn’t sure she would survive, and there was a part of her didn’t want to. But she did... Barely.

The scars remained and changed over the years. They were raised, jagged reminders carved into her skin. She carried them like a second spine, each mark a memory of betrayal, loss, and the night her world shattered.

For years, the pack’s stares followed her like shadows. Whispering 'murderer, monster, or mistake', everytime she walked by.

She learned to keep her head down and to swallow her grief. On top of that, she learned to live with the weight of a crime she didn’t commit.

But Saphira refused to break. She refused to believe Connor died for nothing, and she would never accept Ruby’s victory.

That night, something fierce had awakened inside her. It may not have been her wolf like she wished, but it was a will, a promise.

A promise that one day she would uncover the truth and avenge her brother, and she would prove them all wrong.

And one day, she would make them all regret underestimating the girl who never shifted.