Chapter Four – The Howl Beneath the Stone

Elara’s POV

The cell was colder tonight. I curled tighter on the damp floor, my bones aching from days without proper rest. My hands still trembled. Not from fear but from the memory of his eyes. Kade’s eyes.

He looked at me like I was nothing. And still, some pathetic part of me wanted to see them again. He knows that I am innocent but I just wanted to see it in his eyes.

Stupid, Elara.

He’ll never see you. He only sees what they tell him you are. He doesn't really care about you.

The door clanked. Boots echoed against stone. Heavy, commanding. My heart flipped. The scent hit me before I saw him—pine, power. The cell door creaked open.

And his voice croaked. “Get up.”

Alpha Kade.

I forced myself not to move. Not to show how my soul jolted. Not to let him see how much his presence has an impact on me. How much he twisted something inside me.

My wolf was almost going crazy but I didn’t move.

He took another step and the tension between us thickened. He crouched before me, and I could feel the heat of his body, the storm of dominance radiating from him.

“I said, get up.”

I lifted my head slowly. Met his eyes. “Why?” I whispered. “So you can throw another accusation in my face?”

His jaw flexed. His expression didn’t shift. “It is time.”

A bitter laugh slipped past my lips. “Finally.”

He stood, and for a moment, he hesitated. “You should watch that tongue of yours, Elara. It won’t save you when I'm hovering over you, swords in my hands.”

I pushed myself to my feet with as much grace as I could manage. “Neither will your pride.”

His hand flashed out, grabbing my chin roughly. I gasped, but didn’t flinch.

“You think you know me?” he growled, voice low. “You think your little forest girl act is going to sway me?”

For a moment I saw the man beneath his act. I could see the young man who feared weakness. Who was being manipulated by his mother. The boy who missed his father and didn't want to end like him. “I don’t want to sway you, Alpha,” I said, voice quivering but eyes firm. “I just want to live. I am innocent and you know it. But you won't admit it.”

For a second, his gaze faltered. Something flickered there—conflict? No. Regret? That couldn’t be right. He dropped his hand.

“It’s time.”

The chains around my wrists bit into my skin as I stumbled through the dense underbrush, my bare feet raw from the journey. The Silvermoon warriors didn’t bother hiding their disdain. They yanked me forward, laughing when I tripped, spitting when I tried to stand tall. Behind them, Alpha Kade walked in silence, his presence colder than the night air.

The forest was unnaturally quiet, as if the trees themselves held their breath. Even the birds refused to sing.

I couldn't cry anymore. My tears had dried with the blood crusted on my lip. I mean, what else was left to feel when your own mate condemned you, when your life became a spectacle for a crime you didn’t commit?

Witchcraft.

Treason.

Even the death of a boy. Something I'd never do.

I had cried and begged until my voice gave out but no one listened. Not even him.

Not even Kade.

The cold iron bit deeper into my wrists as they yanked me through the forest. I stumbled again as a warrior behind me kicked the back of my knee, sending me crashing into the underbrush. My mouth tasted like copper. Blood came pouring out of my mouth.

“Get up, witch,” he growled.

The others chuckled. I heard one whisper, “She won’t walk out of this forest. So she wouldn't need her legs.”

They laughed and they were right. Everyone knew what happened in the Forest of Judgment.

No bodies returned. No burials. No prayers were made. Just rot and ravens. I turned back to look at Kade. His cloak barely brushed the forest floor. His shoulders were stiff with resolve, his hands clenching the sword by his side. His face, a stone mask. I searched it for humanity, for guilt, for anything that tells how he was feeling. But there was nothing. No recognition. Not for the girl he rejected. Not for the one he was about to kill.

I hated him and I loved him. Gods, that was the cruelest part.

The trees parted, revealing a clearing bathed in the cold blue light of the moon. My breath hitched. This was the spot. The Forest of Judgment. The place where traitors were executed away from the pack’s sacred ground.

They forced me to my knees and a hush settled over the clearing as the guards stepped back, giving space for the one who would deliver the final blow.

Kade stepped forward.

His armor glinted under the moonlight, and the silver crest of the Silvermoon Pack gleamed against his chest. He looked every inch the part. An Alpha, the warrior, the judge, the executioner.

And yet, somewhere hidden in all that was the man who had once been chosen for me by the moon goddess.

My mate. And I was about to die by his hand.

“You stand accused of dark magic,” he said, voice flat, emotionless. “You endangered the life of a child. You betrayed this pack.”

“I saved your people. I healed them when no one else would. I walked through snow to collect herbs for their fevers. I slept beside dying warriors to comfort them when their own families left them. And now you do this?” I shot back.

“I am the Alpha. I serve the law.”

“No, Kade,” I said. “You serve your mother.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then, he drew his sword.

I stared at it—silver, cruel, clean. It looked almost holy. Like a symbol. A perfect instrument of betrayal. My bones shook with fear.

“I was framed,” I said, voice hoarse. “You know I was framed. You saw it in my eyes, please don't turn away.”

“I am innocent.”

His jaw clenched. “You played the bond like a card. You were nothing before the Moon Festival. Just a ghost on the edge of the pack.”

“ So all this is because I was chosen as your mate,” I whispered defeatedly.

“No,” he growled. “The Moon Goddess made a mistake.”

A sharp intake of breath escaped me.

“Any last words?” he asked.

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t beg.

I looked him dead in the eyes, heart pounding with something I hadn’t felt before—clarity. I finally believed the words I heard in my dreams. The one in the dungeon.

“The Moon shall judge you,” I said quietly. “And I will be her hand.”

For the first time, he hesitated.

A flicker of something passed through his expression—doubt, maybe regret—but it was gone as quickly as it came.

He raised the blade.

I didn’t scream when it came down. I didn’t cry. I welcomed the darkness.

It was swift. No pain.

But before it took me, something shifted.

The wind howled and the moon above flared brighter. Blinding everyone around us. Unnatural. The light fell like a pillar upon my body, seeping into my skin.

Gasps rang out from the guards but the light intensified.

And then… silence.

The warriors took a step back.

Kade staggered, dropping his sword as if burned.

My body lay still on the forest floor, blood soaking the grass beneath me. But above me, suspended in silver light, my spirit rose.

That was when I knew it… my time is not over yet.

I will surely return and when I return, there will be vengeance.