Too cold.
Like thin needles in my veins instead of blood. They stabbed beneath my skin, streamed through my veins, and coiled around my heart.
Each breath scraped my throat like cracked glass. But I ran.
Not because I was strong. Not because I believed in hope. But because the only other choice was to die where I stood.
And I fucking refused to die today. Not by their hands. Not under their scowls.
'Destroy them… you know, you can do that, right?' Kira—my wolf, or as they called her, a mutated cursed void—muttered from deep within.
I ignored her as I ran. Off course I knew I could. It's just I couldn't do that. Not since the Moon Goddess already labeled me cursed. A void.
Funny, ha. What the fuck does she think she is? A disgusting, scheming bitch who plays with the lives of countless women like it's one of her twisted kinks?
'That's why I'm saying: destroy them all. Kill that goddess.'
Shut up. How could I even meet her? Lest to kill her. Kira, you weren't just a cursed void. You were an annoying cursed void.
I wanted to destroy them. Burn all of them.Then ea— No.
Better.
Turn their ashes into a toilet bowl and leave that bowl in a public toilet. In a public railway station. Uncleaned.
But I don't.
'Why? Just why?' Kira sounded excited. Ugh…crazy wolf.
Because that would make me exactly what she branded me as, dummy.
My legs slipped slightly. My body lurched forward, uncontrollably, before slamming head-on into a thick, moss-covered tree root.
"Ouch…"
Tears sprang up instantly. I was sure there were a few drops of blood with them.
"Awooo."
The haunting howls of wolves echoed through the trees, cutting through the ringing in my ears. The Alphas were already in the hunt.
I cursed silently and turned to run.
But something—
Something in that turn made my mind go blank. I paused.
"Did you feel that?" I whispered to Kira.
Was it my imagination… or did I really see the fluttering edge of a robe?
I stretched my perception outward. But all I saw were broken trunks, fallen leaves, and shadows. No insects. No birds. Nothing.
I should've been creeped out by that. But no. I fucking hated insects anyway. Kira said nothing. Which… was weird.
She's usually loud. Snarky. Nagging. But now? She was still. Too still which made me creepy.
Yet I could feel her restlessness like static through the bond.
'Lyra, run… don't look back. Don't try to fight. Just run.' Her voice didn't sound annoyed or arrogant. It sounded terrified. And her feeling flowed into me and I became terrified too.
Instinct took over. My legs moved before my brain caught up.
This was the first time in my eighteen years of life—well, not technically eighteen. Still had an hour or so left of seventeen. Close enough—that Kira had sounded this anxious.
Not even when my parents tried to throw me off a cliff. Not even when my beloved cousins boiled me alive in a bathtub.Not even when that shameful excuse of a man tried to—
No. Never like this. Not anxious like this.
Kira had always told me to fight. To destroy. To burn it all down. But not now. Now she was telling me to run.
That realisation cracked something inside me. Because if a cursed void like her was panicking—
Then I was truly in trouble.
'I sense one… two… three presences. I can't help, but… but…'
Oh my dark void, Kira, just finish what you're saying! Don't sound like some shy little girl who just caught a whiff of her mate bond.
'Shut up, Lyra. It's not the time for joking.'
I know, Kira. I was just… trying to choke down my own anxiety. But I didn't need her warning anymore.
I felt it too. The shift in the air. The unnatural silence. The weight pressing down on my shoulders like invisible chains. Something ancient had its eyes on me.
Not just one.
Suddenly…I found myself wishing that whatever was out there was from my pack.
Even Adrian—my beloved, goddess bitch-blessed bastard—would've been better than the thing I now felt crawling toward me.
Because whatever had come calling now… Was worse than anything I had ever run from. And the most terrifying fact was, I couldn't outrun it.
[POV change]
First squad from Whitehowl Pack, led by Beta Alaris Whitehowl.
A growl escaped my lips, which turned into a howl at the sight of the useless pieces of trash before me. Thirteen Omegas, led by a Delta, failed to capture a wolf less girl.
If that girl were someone else, I wouldn't be worried like this.
But she happened to be Lyra Whitehowl—my Alpha's sister, and the daughter of the Supreme Alpha of our pack.
Damn it. Even with such status, I might have considered not to panic. But she wasn't any normal, golden-spooned child of the pack.
She was a curse. A walking disaster. Someone who should not be left to live. Someone who should have burned to death.
Oh, my Moon Goddess, I am begging, Please let me find that curse. If you help me in that, I will consider killing her with my own hands.
"Beta…" The Delta dropped his head under my glare.
I wanted to punish them thoroughly and clearly, but I held back my anger. Not now. Not until that monster was no longer roaming somewhere out in the woods.
"What are y'a waiting for? Wanna die?"
I shifted into my wolf form, rushing in the direction her scent had disappeared a few moments ago. My wolf stirred inside me, clearly in panic.
I had no idea why. If he feared something, why wasn't he saying anything? Almost like he was blocked by something.
And in the name of the Moon Goddess, who in the void could do that?
I ran together with my squad, following the footsteps left behind by her. When we reached near a fallen tree, we saw a bloodstain on its trunk. I spat there in disgust, trying my best to avoid it.
Even the smell of her blood was disgusting.
The ground it touched now smeared like something had burned there. Still, I had to smell it. Because I wanted to know where that curse had run off to.
I shape shifted, then bent toward her bloodstain to examine it. If it were the blood of other wolves, I wouldn't have to physically touch it. Just the scent would be enough.
But for some goddess damn—sorry—damned reason, her blood had to be smelled unless we put it directly into our nose.
Disgusting.
My fingers moved into her bloodstain—
But they didn't land on it. I blinked once. Then twice. Then thrice…to see my three fingers laying a foot away from my hand.
The pain took a few moments to reach my brain, but when it did an uncontrolled wail escaped my throat.
I turned around to see the heads of my squad hovering in the air, frozen with the expressions they'd had the moment they stopped.
And then I saw the fluttering of a golden robe.
A bloodstain sliced through my eyes, coming out with my brain matter.
Before losing consciousness, I saw that man. Blonde hair. Eyes that shone like molten gold. And a bloodthirsty grin etched on that sharp jaw—
Sharp enough it looked like it could slice moonlight itself.
Like could slice the moon.
"No one… not even the breeze in the air… is qualified to smell her. If anyone dares…"
There was no one left to hear his cold voice. But after he spoke, the trees within a hundred meters around him fell evenly cut—
And the air itself burned into a vacuum.