Chapter 8 – Forever Refusing Kiran As Mate

• Sienna’s POV
• “Bang!”
• A gunshot.
• A searing pain exploded in my chest, tearing through my heart.
• I lay dazed in the mud, my mind slipping back to the night before. I vividly remembered packing my things in the cabin, preparing to leave. I had been eagerly waiting for the person who would come to take me back to the Silvermane Pack tomorrow. Back to my true home.
• I had lain awake in bed, imagining what it would be like to see my eldest brother, my second brother, and my third brother again. Though there was still a faint ache in my chest from rejecting Kiran, it didn’t dampen my mood.
• After five long years of torment, there was finally an end in sight.
• The sound of rain outside had lulled me into dreams.
• But then—hurried footsteps.
• I opened my eyes abruptly. Something was wrong. No one should have been here at that time of night.
• “Bang!”
• The door burst open violently.
• Several figures rushed in. I shot upright, but before I could react, a damp cloth was pressed against my mouth and nose.
• I struggled desperately, trying to scream for help, but my voice was smothered. My vision blurred, and my limbs weakened.
• “Hurry up, don’t let anyone find out.”
• “Don’t worry. No one will come here now.”
• “Luna said to make it clean.”
• Luna? Was it Lilith or Isabella?
• “Lift her up. Take her to the Black Forest.”
• Rough hands seized my arms and legs. I tried to resist, but my body refused to obey me. Half-conscious, I felt myself being lifted and thrown heavily onto damp soil.
• The Black Forest. Rogue territory. Also known as the Land of Death.
• “Don’t leave any survivors. We don’t want this coming back to us.”
• “Bang!”
• Another shot. Agonizing pain burst through my heart again. Blood poured freely, soaking the ground beneath me.
• I collapsed, my vision spinning, the world whirling violently out of focus. Through the rain and mist, the figures of my attackers disappeared into the darkness.
• Rain began to fall harder, cold droplets pelting my face, mingling with the smell of rotting leaves and damp moss. The chill seeped into my bones.
• In the distance, I heard the hungry howls of beasts—the Rogues. They would smell my blood soon.
• My heart had stopped bleeding. The pain in my chest numbed. My vision blurred again, spinning into a dark whirlpool.
• I lay limp in the mud. I tried to lift a hand to shield my face from the rain, but my arm was impossibly heavy.
• Darkness pressed down on me. My thoughts wavered.
• Am I going to die?
• A wave of unwillingness surged through me, clawing up from the depths of my soul.
• Kiran Blackwood. Lilith Eldritch.
• Kiran’s cold, disgusted face. Lilith’s mocking smile.
• They flashed through my mind, alternating until I thought I would break.
• Just as I was about to sink completely into the dark, a strange heat stirred inside me.
• At first, it was a small trickle, like a stream flowing through my veins. Then it surged like a raging river, racing toward the fatal wound in my chest.
• The pain intensified—sharper, rawer. My chest tingled and burned, as though ants gnawed at my flesh.
• I saw the bullet slowly pushed out of my heart, expelled by sheer force. New flesh and blood grew wildly, knitting over the gaping wound.
• It was agonizing—every second dragged on endlessly.
• But this ancient, dominant power refused to let me die. It dragged me, screaming, back from death’s edge.
• I had survived.
• Exhaustion swept over me, pulling me under.
• Just before I lost consciousness, a soft, gentle voice whispered in my mind:
• “Stupid girl. Rest well.”
• A powerful force wrapped around my thoughts, drowning out the rain, the wind, and the howls of beasts.
• Then there was nothing.
• ***
• My mind was dragged slowly out of darkness.
• Cold. My body was cold. The rain was cold. The very air I breathed was cold.
• Rotting leaves and damp earth filled my nostrils.
• I opened my eyes.
• Twisted tree roots. Dark moss. Endless night. Endless rain.
• I was still alive.
• With trembling hands, I touched my chest. My arm moved as I willed it to.
• There was no bleeding wound, only smooth skin.
• The fatal gunshot had healed.
• I tore open the tattered fabric of my shirt. Where my heart had been torn open, there was now only a new, ugly pink scar.
• That power had been real.
• It had saved me.
• I was alive.
• “Hiss…”
• A low growl rippled from the bushes nearby.
• My blood ran cold.
• Dozens of glowing green eyes gleamed in the darkness. Rogues.
• They reeked of blood and rot. They were the most merciless creatures in the wild—without loyalty, without limits, driven only by hunger and slaughter.
• They bared their fangs, saliva dripping onto the muddy ground as they stared at me with greedy eyes.
• The fragile spark of hope I had clung to was doused in ice.
• I was too weak. The power that had saved me had gone silent.
• The largest Rogue lost patience. With a snarl, it launched itself at me, jaws wide.
• The stench of rot from its throat nearly made me retch.
• It’s over.
• I closed my eyes, lifted my arm to shield my head, and twisted aside.
• “Boom!”
• A blinding blue lightning bolt tore through the sky, striking the ground in front of me.
• The shockwave flung the Rogue backward. It crashed into a mud pit with a scream.
• The forest lit up under the blaze of electric light.
• Through the smoke and mist, a massive black wolf emerged.