THE ROGUE QUEEN

Present Day – Bloodfang Pack Territory

They were celebrating.

The sound of drums, laughter, and cheers filled the air, seeping through the cracks of my small basement room. It was the night of the Moonrise Ceremony, the night when every eighteen-year-old got to shift for the first time, showing their strength and earning their place in the pack.

I sat quietly on the edge of my old mattress, staring down at my hands.

Ten years ago, my mother had told me something I never forgot. She said I wasn’t wolfless like everyone believed—that there was power inside me, waiting for the right moment to wake up.

Ten years ago, I buried that truth and the pendant my mother gave me, because I was too scared to face what it meant.

For all those years, I kept believing the same lie everyone else believed: that I was nothing.

But tonight, on my eighteenth birthday, a small part of me still hoped she’d been right. That maybe my wolf would finally wake up and prove everyone wrong.

Instead, there was nothing. No spark, no pull, no sign of life from the creature that was supposed to be inside me.

Only silence.

“Selene!” Marcus’s voice thundered from upstairs. “Get up here! Now!”

My stomach twisted.

They never called me during pack ceremonies. I was always left alone in the basement, forgotten, while everyone else celebrated their power.

I climbed the stairs slowly, my heart racing faster with every step.

When I reached the main hall, I stopped.

Everyone was there.

The whole pack, almost two hundred wolves stood in a wide circle around the center of the room. The ranked members were seated above the rest: Beta Kane and his family, the Gamma, the enforcers.

And at the front, sitting on a throne-like chair, was Alpha Victor.

He looked like a king, strong, proud, and full of authority.

And his golden eyes were fixed on me.

“Come here, Selene,” Alpha Victor said, his deep voice echoing through the quiet hall.

I stepped forward on shaky legs, feeling every single stare burn into me.

Whispers broke out around the room.

“The wolfless girl…”

“Why is she even here?”

“This is embarrassing…”

I stopped a few feet from Victor’s chair, keeping my head down and my hands tight together.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

I lifted my eyes to his—

And everything changed.

It hit me like lightning, a sudden force slamming into my chest. My heart jumped, my body burning as something deep inside me stirred awake. My wolf, silent all these years let out a faint, desperate howl.

Mate.

Victor froze. His whole body went stiff, his jaw tight, his hands gripping the chair until the wood split.

He felt it too.

For one breathtaking moment, hope burst inside me. This had to be it—the reason I had suffered for so long. The Moon Goddess had chosen him for me. Not just anyone, but the Alpha himself. Maybe I wasn’t useless after all.