Whispers In The Dark

Chapter Seven

Whispers in the Dark

Selene's POV

The evening was still. Too still.

After I swore at Father's grave, Ronan and I returned to the cabin. The forest was darker now, heavy with silence, as if they had listened in as well. I couldn't help but recite the words over and over in my head — the vow, the fervor in my tone, the kiss after. My lips still tingled from the feel of his.

But peace doesn't last. Not in my world.

I huddled close to the fire, my knees drawn up into my body. The fire crackled, black shadows on the wooden walls. Ronan sharpened his blade across from me. The scratch of metal against stone was incessant, rhythmic, almost soothing.

Almost.

For under it, I heard something else.

A whisper. A rustle of leaves. A step outside.

My heart froze.

I looked over at Ronan, but he did not move. His hand still stroked the blade, though his eyes had gone sharp — silver and killing, burning faintly in the firelight. He'd also heard it.

"Wait," he mouthed.

But I couldn't.

I was already upright before I realized it, my feet carrying me towards the door.

The cold struck me the moment I stepped outside. The moonlight streamed over the snow, white and endless, but the trees in the distance were a gray wall of shadow. I squinted, my breath fogging in small clouds.

"Who is there?" I breathed.

No answer.

The silence moved in closer.

Then, movement.

A flash of silver eyes in the trees.

Wolf eyes.

I flinched, my heart pounding in my throat. Ronan was at my side, his arm brushing against mine, his sword reflecting the moonlight.

The form came into view. A man. No — a wolf in the guise of man. Low, stalking gait, his lips curled back in a sneer of contempt.

"Well, well," he snarled. "The ghost lives."

Ronan appeared before me so swiftly, I barely saw it. "How long have you been spying?" He spoke in his deep, soothing voice, but I could sense the tension there.

The man laughed. It was a terrible laugh. "Long enough to know the Alpha will pay well for this information." His gaze swept past Ronan — and settled right on me. "Long enough to see that the exiled pup still whines in the dark."

My fists clenched. He was talking about me.

"I am not a pup," I whispered, but my voice shook.

He sneered. "Kael will enjoy tearing the words from your lips, little girl."

Ronan struck before the insult had time to hang in the air. His sword sliced through the shadows, silver against black. The spy deflected it with his arm, his claws ripping out. The clink of steel on bone made me flinch.

They clashed in a whirling blur of motion, grunts and growls breaking the silence. Ronan was fast, precise — every strike deadly. But the spy was slippery, dodging, laughing, taunting.

And I — I just stood there. Frozen.

I wanted to help. I wanted to fight. But my body wouldn't move. My father's face flashed before me, then Kael's punch slamming into me, Mira's sadistic smile — and I froze.

"Selene!" Ronan's voice cut through my fear. "Go!"

The spy was pulled away, freed, and fled into the trees.

Ronan threw his sword, but it was wide by an inch, slashing into bark instead of skin. The man's laughter returned to mock him as he disappeared into the shadows.

"The Alpha will know!" he roared into the night. "He'll know you live!"

There was silence again. Thudding. Crushing.

I fell to the snow-covered ground, my breathing spasmed.

Ronan cursed under his breath, retrieving his blade. His chest rose and fell sharply, his jaw clenched.

“He saw too much,” he muttered. “He’ll tell Kael. By dawn, they’ll know you’re alive.”

The words cut through me like knives.

Alive.

Kael thought I was dead. He thought he had killed me. That was the only thing he had ever been brave enough to be so cocky, to plan his so-called "New Dawn Ceremony." But now… now he would discover that.

And discover me.

I was trembling in my body. I wrapped my arms around my chest, but the chill was no longer from the snow. It was from inside of me.

"He'll kill me," I panted.

Ronan spun around. His eyes flamed, furious. "No. He won't."

"You don't understand—"

"I do." His tone was firm, crisp as steel. "I know Kael far better than you do. And I assure you, Selene, I will not allow him to lay hands on you. Not as long as I live."

Something within me cracked at the pain in his voice.

Tears ran down my face, hot against the cold of the night. "But I'm not ready. I won't be able to confront him yet. I can scarcely keep a spy at bay, and Kael—he has the whole pack. He has Mira. He has—" My voice broke. "He has the child."

Ronan's face hardened. "That child is no Alpha."

I shook my head. "But the pack will stand with him. They'll follow the baby. Behind her."

"They won't if you get up first," Ronan told me.

I gazed at him, my tears blurring his face. "How? How am I going to get up if I don't even get up when there's danger?"

He knelt down beside me, holding my shoulders. His grip was strong, grounding me. His eyes burned into mine.

"You move by remembering why you have to," he said forcefully. "Not for revenge. Not even for your daddy. But for you. For the truth. For the pack that is superior to Kael's lies."

My ribcage went up and down with broken sobs. "I'm not sure if I'm strong enough."

He edged closer, his forehead against mine. "Then I'll carry you until you are."

The fire in his voice wounded my heart. Something inside of me — something that had been buried beneath sadness and betrayal — awakened.

Maybe… maybe I could fight.

Maybe I wasn't broken.

But before I could speak, before I could even draw a breath, the night shifted once again.

A howl ripped through the forest.

Low. Long. Resonant.

Ronan stilled. His hand dropped to his sword.

"That's no rogue," he whispered, his voice a hush of fear.

Another howl. Then another. And another.

The woods echoed with them in a space of moments. Dozens of voices, all crying out into the black.

Closing in upon us.

I slowly stood, my legs shaking. My wolf churned inside me, agitated, afraid.

Ronan's eyes scanned the trees. His knife glittered in the moonlight.

"They know," he said. His jaw was clenched. "Kael knows."

Shadows moved. Figures emerged from the trees. Wolves. Men. Pack soldiers. Eyes glowed gold in the dark.

And leading them, a voice I recognized all too well.

"Selene."

My heart stopped.

Kael stepped into the clearing, his gaze locked on mine. Mira stood beside him, her hand resting on her round belly, a contented smile on her lips.

Ronan moved in front of me, his feet wide, ready to kill.

But Kael just smiled.

"As I live and breathe," he breathed. "The little ghost is back."

My breath caught. My knees felt as though they would buckle.

The woods confining, the soldiers closing in around us in a semicircle.

No way out.

Ronan clinched his grip on his sword, the muscles in his back taut. "Stay behind me," he breathed.

But my eyes were glued on Kael.

On the man who had been my partner.

On the man who had betrayed me.

And I grieved, but for the first time, I did not merely mourn.

I seethed.

Blinding, burning fury.

The night's silence was lost.

The war had begun.