Chapter Text
The forest burned before the moon reached its peak.
Silverpine Valley, once filled with songs of wolves and the scent of wildflowers, had turned into a graveyard of flame. The wind carried ashes and screams through the trees.
Thomas ran barefoot through the smoke. His small hand was clenched tightly in his mother’s, the claws of her other hand already half-shifted and glinting red in the firelight. Behind them, his father’s roars echoed like thunder.
“Don’t look back,” his mother said. Her voice was hoarse and trembling, but her grip was iron.
He looked back anyway.
Everything was gone. Where houses once stood, there were only collapsing beams and burning flesh. His father fought alone against shadows that moved too quickly to see. The mark of the Silverpine was still on his chest, glowing faintly, before another shadow swallowed him whole.
“Mother!”
She stopped for a heartbeat, pain flashing across her face. “He’s fighting to give us time. Keep running.”
The trees thinned ahead, revealing a river that shimmered silver under the moonlight. She knelt in front of him, her breath ragged.
“Thomas, listen carefully. You are the child of two alphas. Remember that. You carry our strength.”
Tears blurred his sight. “I don’t want to be strong. I want to go home.”
“There is no home tonight.” Her voice broke, just once. She unclasped the pendant from her neck, a chain holding two intertwined moons, and fastened it around his nek. “This will remind you who you are when no one else does.”
The howls grew closer. She turned, eyes glowing silver. “Follow the river north. Do not stop.”
He wanted to argue, to hold onto her. But her hand pushed him away, gentle yet firm, and then she was gone—her figure melting into the fire, a flash of silver fur and fury.
Thomas stumbled down the hill, the heat biting his skin. When he reached the river, the reflection of the flames danced across its surface like a hundred dying stars. He jumped in. The cold took his breath away, the current dragging him through smoke and darkness until the screams faded behind him.
He woke when dawn touched the horizon. The riverbank was quiet. His body ached, and his heart felt hollow. All that remained was the scent of ash and the pendant against his chest.
When he heard footsteps nearby, he froze, unsure if he should run again.