CHAPTER TWO- CAST AWAY.

The prison wall was cold.

As I shifted on the hard paving stone the only thing between me and the moist ground, the chains sounded softly. The fire across the hall was barely visible, low, giving off a faint, warped shadow through the iron bars. They danced across the walls like ghosts, stretching long fingers toward me.

I turned in my sleep, restless. My wrists ached. My breath came shallow.

Then, “Ava…”

A whisper, soft as a kiss to the temple.

I stilled. My body, though half-asleep, knew that voice. Not just my ears, my bones remembered. My soul stirred.

The prison walls faded.

Ash blanketed the world. The field was silent, lifeless. The sky overhead was a dome of grey despair. I stood barefoot, the air thick and still. No bars. No chains.

She stood a few feet ahead, tall, her gaze remaining in mind, not easily forgotten, real. Wind held her long black hair, but her gaze was steady. Her eyes, how could I forget? Molten gold, full of knowing. Of pain. Of love.

“Mother…” My voice trembled.

She opened her arms, her smile a moment of warmth in the cold void. “Come, my little moon.”

I ran. My feet pounded the ash. “Please don’t go. Please!”

The wind howled suddenly, wild, furious. The sky split, fire tearing across it like a wound.

She began to fade.

“No!” I screamed, lunging forward. My fingers reached, desperate but caught only smoke. Flame swallowed her.

I was alone again.

Her name escaped from my throat. “MOTHER!”

“It was just a dream,” I murmured, the words filled with emptiness in my mouth.

But something inside me refused to believe it.

It wasn’t just a dream.

It was her.

A memory.

A warning.

SPLASH!!!

I jolted awake, nearly falling off the paving stone.

Clenching my trembling hands, the chains on my wrists closed tighter, my breaths were uneven, loud in the stillness of the prison. Sweat soaked through my shirt, though the prison walls were cold..

The shock of cold water slapped my skin, tearing me from the haze of my dream. I gasped, stumbling back, breath catching in my throat. Before me stood a tall figure wrapped in darkness, the air around her filled with threat and danger. Her presence, frozen like water, silent, still, and sharp.

Those eyes, cold, without mercy, pinned me in place, like daggers and death waiting to strike.

The skeletal muscles in my hands contracted at my sides, trembling despite how tightly I tried to clench them. I swallowed the knot of panic rising in my throat.

“W-Who are you?” The words scraped out, barely above a whisper. My voice betrayed me even though I wanted it to sound strong.

She didn’t answer. She stepped closer, silver flashing in her hand, gleaming, hungry. The knife caught the faintest light and I saw the intent in her eyes.

Her eyes glinted with an unnatural light, and the room seemed to drop ten degrees. The hairs on the back of my neck stood, my chest tightening as if some unseen predator had its claws wrapped around my throat. Rage pulsed from her like heat from a furnace, raw, venomous, deadly.

And then, she raised it.

My heart stopped.

Then shouts. Footsteps. The guards.

Without blinking, she disappeared into the shadows as if she had never been there.

I collapsed to my knees, chest heaving, the taste of bitterness in my mouth.

Relief rushed into me, fierce and sudden, but it shook too, weak like my hands.

“Get up. You’re being called,” the guard shouted, his voice held and filled with contempt.

I blinked up at him from the cold floor, the chains around my wrists hitting with the movement. His glare never softened. Not even a moment of sympathy. Only disgust, like I was filth beneath his boot.

When I didn’t move fast enough, his hands pressed deeply around my arm, yanking me to my feet.

“Move,” he hissed.

I stumbled as he dragged me down the corridor. My feet scratched the wall, numb, barely lifting. I was a body being hauled, not a person. The walls blurred, torches going off and on like dying stars, mocking the heat I no longer felt.

The heavy doors groaned open.

Inside, the council chamber brimmed with faces I once called my own.

“She must be cast out of the pack!” an elder thundered from the high table. His knotty hand struck the oak, making it shudder. “This abomination defies the code!”

Murmurs swept the room just like wind through dead leaves.

“Yes, Alpha Kieran,” another voice chimed in, younger, venomous, and sharp. “She’s a danger to all of us. To our children.”

Looking up to see the man seated at the center.

Kieran.

He once looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered to him in this world. The one who silently made promises against my skin, only months ago.

He didn’t meet my eyes.

“She’s half human, half werewolf,” another elder sneered. “She shouldn’t even exist!”

A ripple of agreement passed through the council.

“Alpha Kieran,” a cold voice rose, deliberate. “If you cast her out, she may return. I advise you to end this now. Kill her before she brings ruin.”

My breath caught.

Kill.

The word wrapped around my chest entrapped. I turned toward Kieran, a silent plea rising in my eyes. He had to say something. Had to remember the way his hand used to tremble when it touched mine.

He stood slowly. The chamber hushed.

“She…” his voice was steady. Too steady. “She is to be cast out.”

No tremor. No hesitation.

“From this day forward, she is no longer of this pack.”

He didn’t look at me.

My mouth parted. Nothing came. Not a word. Not a sound.

My heart, though, screamed. A hollow, fractured scream only I could hear.

The guards stepped forward. Their grip tightened on my arms.

And still, he didn’t look at me.

I didn’t struggle. I didn’t speak. There was no use.

The one person who could have stood for me… didn’t.

As they pulled me fro

m the chamber, I let my head fall forward, hair veiling my face. Not to hide the tears.

But to bury the last piece of me that believed I had a place in his heart.