(The Rogue's Challenge)
The growl came low and vicious from the shadows.
Selene's heart thudded, but she didn't back down.
Kael stepped in front of her. "It's a rogue. Fast. Hungry. Unstable."
She moved beside him. "I can take it."
His eyes flicked to her, surprised. "You sure?"
Selene nodded. "You said I need to wake up the wolf. I think… she already heard you."
Kael hesitated, then stepped aside.
"Don't die," he said softly.
"I'm not planning on it."
---
The trees shifted. Twigs snapped.
Then it lunged.
A massive, half-shifted rogue with matted fur and foam at the mouth—wild, diseased, smelling of blood and decay.
Selene didn't run.
She charged.
Their bodies collided with a crash, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe. The rogue was heavier, faster, experienced in chaos.
But she was calm.
The rogue slashed her arm. Pain flared—but Selene twisted, using his momentum against him, and kicked him hard in the ribs.
He yelped, stunned.
Her eyes flashed silver.
The wolf inside her howled, wanting more.
---
Kael watched from the shadows, tense. He could step in. He should.
But she needed this.
Selene circled the rogue, focused. She remembered Kael's voice: "Don't think. Feel."
She did.
When the rogue lunged again, she ducked low, rolled, and raked her claws up its flank.
Blood sprayed. The scent hit her like lightning.
Her teeth bared. Her body trembled with rising energy.
The rogue turned—and this time, fear flickered in its eyes.
Selene grinned.
"You're not the only monster in these woods."
She launched herself at it, sinking her claws deep into its chest and knocking it backward into a tree.
But the rogue wasn't done.
It lashed out, clawing her shoulder, and pinned her to the ground.
She gasped, choking.
Too strong. Too fast—
No.
She reached for the wolf inside her.
And shifted.
Not completely, not the full transformation—but just enough. Her limbs thickened, fur sprouted along her arms, her teeth sharpened.
Her growl was no longer human.
With a scream layered in wolf's roar, she flipped the rogue over and plunged her claws into its heart.
Silence.
The rogue twitched once… then stilled.
---
Kael ran to her side.
She was covered in blood—hers and the rogue's—kneeling in the dirt, chest heaving.
Her eyes met his.
"I did it," she whispered.
Kael crouched beside her, voice low. "You didn't just survive. You owned it."
Selene looked down at her shaking hands.
"I could've killed it sooner," she said. "But I wanted it to suffer."
Kael didn't speak.
Because he understood.
That wasn't just the wolf.
That was the curse.
---
They burned the rogue's body in silence.
As the fire crackled, Selene watched the flames with unreadable eyes.
"What now?" she asked.
Kael turned to her. "Now? We train harder."
"And after that?"
Kael hesitated. "You fight the twin. The real enemy. And the war she's planning to start."
Selene's gaze hardened. "Then let her come."
But deep down, something whispered:
She's already here.
---
Meanwhile…
In a ruined temple far beyond the forest, the twin stood before a stone altar.
The rogue's death rippled through the bloodline bond.
"She's stronger than I thought," the twin muttered.
"She's awakening," said the Marked Wolf at her side.
"Good," she smiled darkly. "Let her get stronger."
She stepped forward and placed a bone dagger on the altar.
"She'll need all her strength when I take it from her."
Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled.
And the curse pulsed between them—still alive.