Chapter 2 Two
Mira
I moved through the trees with speed only shadows could grant, my breath tight, my pulse strangled in my throat. My mask scraped against my cheekbone where his gauntlet had grazed me. It still burned.
I hated that.
I hated more that my hands were shaking.
Not from fear. I did not fear Jason anymore. That version of me died in the Council chamber, screaming for a boy who chose his crown over me. I feared nothing now. Not death. Not pain. Not the kingdom that cast me out.
No, the shaking came from something worse.
The moment his eyes met mine, something old inside me flinched. Something buried. Something I thought I had killed three years ago.
My wolf.
She had stirred. Just slightly. Just enough for me to feel her claws against my ribs and hear her whisper traitorous things like you should not have left him alive.
Pathetic.
I shoved the thought down and focused on the path ahead. The Shadow Wolf rebels waited for me in the clearing, silhouettes lit by the faint blue glow of mage lamps. My second-in-command, Riven, stepped forward the moment he spotted me.
“You were followed?” he asked.
“No.”
He studied me, eyes sharp. Riven could see cracks no one else noticed. I hated that too.
“You are bleeding,” he said quietly.
“A scratch.”
“By who?”
I removed my mask. The cold air bit at my face. I pushed loose strands of hair behind my ear and walked past him, ignoring the question.
“Mira.”
I stopped.
“It was him,” Riven said softly. “Wasn’t it?”
My silence was answer enough.
Riven exhaled. “You knew this would happen eventually.”
“No,” I said. “I planned around it. I avoided the capital. I chose targets far from his reach. Tonight was supposed to be simple.”
“And yet the king himself arrived.”
Something in his tone made my jaw clench.
“Do not call him that,” I said.
“He is the king.”
“He is nothing to me.”
A lie. A thin one. Riven knew it. I knew it. The trees knew it.
Riven’s voice softened. “You do not have to face him yet.”
“I already did.”
“And he recognized you.”
“Not completely.”
“But enough.”
The truth lodged like a blade under my ribs. Jason had looked at me with suspicion, confusion, longing, pain. Too many things. He had almost said my name. If the mask had cracked further, if I had spoken, if my scent had slipped deeper past the shadows I wrapped around myself, he would have known.
He would have known Mira lived.
And that knowledge could ruin everything.
Because if Jason learned I was alive, the Council would find out within days. They would hunt me again. They would finish what they failed to do three years ago. And this time, I would not survive.
Riven stepped closer. “Do you want to pull back the Shadow Wolf operation for a few days? Let the heat die down?”
“No,” I said. “We strike the Council tower next.”
Riven blinked slowly. “You want to escalate?”
“I want to end this. And now that I know Jason is patrolling the borders himself, it means the Council has him restless. They are hiding something.”
“And you think the tower will reveal it.”
“I know it will.”
Riven hesitated. “And what if he comes again?”
My answer came cold and effortless.
“I will be ready.”
I said nothing about the part of me that had not been ready tonight. The part that still remembered Jason’s arms around me. His voice promising safety. His breath brushing my neck as he whispered that nothing would ever hurt me.
I smothered that memory before it grew roots.
Jason’s betrayal built the Shadow Wolf.
And the Shadow Wolf did not break.
Not even for him.
Jason
The dead were gathered before sunrise.
Twelve of my men. Some torn apart. Some suffocated by shadows. Some killed instantly, their hearts stopped mid-beat by magic we outlawed for a reason. I stood in silence as the healers wrapped their bodies, the torchlight flickering over pale faces that trusted me to keep this kingdom safe.
The Shadow Wolf murdered them.
Yet all I could think about was Mira.
I hated myself for it.
Commander Rowan approached from behind, his voice clipped with exhaustion. “Your Majesty. The scouts have confirmed the attacker escaped into the northern forest. Patterns match the last six rebel strikes.”
I stayed silent.
Rowan cleared his throat. “She grows bolder.”
She.
They all spoke of the Shadow Wolf as a woman now. Some believed she was a spirit, others a cursed mage, others a rogue born of war and darkness. No one suspected the truth. Not yet.
Rowan adjusted his cloak. “Several soldiers reported that you fought her directly.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“She is skilled. Fast. Dangerous.” I paused. “And she is not working alone. There were signs of retreating footsteps. Others were waiting for her.”
“Rebels,” Rowan spat. “They are multiplying like rats.”
I turned to him slowly. “Her scent.”
Rowan stiffened. “Your Majesty.”
“It was familiar.”
“Grief plays tricks on the mind.”
I hated that response. I hated him for saying it. But he was right. I had gone years without sleep. Years with guilt clawing at my throat every night. Years with Mira’s last memory playing behind my eyes.
Her screaming my name.
Her reaching for me.
Her being dragged away.
Her blood on the Council floor.
Rowan sighed. “Your Majesty, Mira is gone. The Shadow Wolf cannot be her. The girl you lost was gentle. The creature we fought is a killer.”
I turned my eyes back to the wrapped bodies of my dead soldiers.
“People change,” I said quietly.
Rowan hesitated. “You truly believe she could be Mira?”
“I do not know what I believe,” I whispered. “But I cannot ignore what I felt.”
Rowan frowned. “The Council will panic if you suggest this. Her bloodline is forbidden. If she lives, they will demand action.”
“They already demand too much.”
Rowan stepped closer. “Your Majesty, you need rest.”
“I need answers.”
“And where do you think you will find them?”
I looked toward the darkness where she had disappeared.
“In the Shadow Wolf.”
Rowan exhaled. “Then what is your plan?”
The answer formed slowly, painfully, dangerously.
“I will hunt her,” I said.
“And if she truly is Mira?”
My throat tightened.
“Then I will save her,” I said. “Or she will destroy me.”
Rowan paled. “That is not a strategy. That is obsession.”
I knew he was right.
But I could not stop.
Not now.
Not after smelling her again.
Not after seeing the way she moved.
Not after feeling the wolf inside me break open at her presence.
If Mira lived, then everything I believed, everything I built, everything I sacrificed was shattered.
And she hated me.
I saw it in her eyes.
Three years ago, I sent Mira into the hands of monsters. I thought I was saving her. I thought I had time to fix it. I thought I had choices.
I was wrong.
And if she had truly come back, then the consequences of my betrayal were finally here to collect their due.