I was the useless Omega of the pack, the ultimate disgrace of our family. My mother, the pack's Chief Healer, treated my sister Ivy like a precious jewel, but threw me into the Sunless Forest to rot. I died in that freezing mud, but during a continent-wide Tribunal, a captured Rogue revealed the horrific truth of my death. Ivy didn't just want me exiled; she wanted me to suffer. She paid the Rogue to watch as she beat me with a silver whip, then she drugged our mother with a heavy dose of Dreamweed. Under the drug's mind-control, Ivy pointed at my bleeding body and told our mother I was an infected beast. My own mother, a master of anatomy, used her silver surgical knife to chop me into pieces while I was still breathing. As a spirit, I watched my mother angrily dig up my grave, desperate to prove I was faking my death to ruin them. But when they pulled my skull from the dirt, a blinding magic revealed the ultimate irony. I was never a useless Omega. I was a legendary White Wolf, the most sacred bloodline in existence. My mother had personally butchered the very miracle she obsessed over. Watching her go completely insane from the horrific guilt, and seeing my sister dragged to the agonizing Silver Abyss, I felt absolutely nothing. "I reject you as my mother, and I reject this bloodline." I turned my back on their screams, stepped into the Moon Goddess's light, and opened my eyes as a newborn in a family that actually loved me. Chapter 1 Wynter POV: *A chill not born of winter clung to the Great Hall of the Tribunal.* *It was a place carved from the mountain's black heart, a Gothic immensity where, high in the vaulted darkness, candles guttered in their iron chandeliers.* I stood in the center of the room. No one looked at me. No one could see me. *I was but a soul, a drift of cold air, a weightless and invisible thing among the living wolves.* In front of me was the Moon Goddess's Mirror. It was a giant, glowing crystal surface that floated in the air, *casting a restless, milky light upon the damp flagstones.* *Through this artifact, the whispers and judgments of the assembly would be etched into the memory of the ages, a record for all to see.* An old Alpha sat on the highest stone chair. He was the Chief Judge of the Tribunal, the highest council of Alphas that ruled our world. *His voice, when it came, was not merely sound but a physical pressure that settled in the lungs of all lesser wolves, a power that compelled obedience.* "Kael, leader of the Rogues," the old Alpha spoke, his voice echoing against the stone walls. "You are charged with the brutal murder of one hundred and nineteen werewolves." A Rogue was a wolf without a pack. They were wild, dangerous, and lived outside our sacred laws. Kael stood in the center of the hall, wrapped in heavy iron chains. His clothes were torn, and he smelled like dried blood and wet dirt. *Instead of showing fear, a low rumble rolled in his throat. The vibration in his chest made the raw iron chains at his collarbone clatter, sending flakes of rust pattering onto the flagstones.* *The sound, less a laugh than a growl, disturbed the hall's oppressive stillness.* "Your guards are useless," Kael mocked, his eyes flashing with a dangerous yellow light. "And your math is wrong, old man. I did not kill one hundred and nineteen." The old Alpha frowned. "Are you confessing to more?" "I have one hundred and twenty victims," Kael smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "And the last one was a very famous female wolf. A complete disgrace to your kind." My soul shivered. I knew exactly who he was talking about. "She did not even Shift into her wolf form," Kael continued, his voice dropping to a dark whisper. "She was chopped into pieces, alive, with *a surgical silver knife, wielded by a steady hand.*" Silver was the only thing that could truly hurt us. It burned our skin and stopped our fast healing. When Kael said those words, a terrible memory flashed in my mind. I remembered the cold silver cutting into my flesh. I remembered the blinding pain. *A silent scream tore through the fabric of my spirit, but there was no sound, only the phantom sensation of a red-hot silver needle being driven down my spine, vertebra by vertebra, the edges of my soul curling and blackening from the heat.* "Lies!" the Chief Judge shouted, hitting his wooden hammer on the table. "A Rogue does not use a silver knife. You animals bite throats. You do not have the patience to cut someone apart." Kael shrugged his heavy shoulders. The chains rattled. "You are right," Kael said lazily. "I am too lazy for that kind of work. I did not hold the knife." He turned his body slowly. His yellow eyes scanned the jury seats. He lifted his chained hands and pointed a dirty finger at a woman sitting in the front row. "She did it," Kael announced. "She cut the victim apart, piece by piece." *The shuffling of feet ceased; the rustle of robes went still. Every small sound in the great hall was abruptly extinguished.* *My incorporeal form drifted closer* to the woman Kael was pointing at. It was Elara. The Chief Healer of our pack. She was a master of herbs and anatomy. She was highly respected. And she was my mother. Elara stood up quickly. Her elegant silk dress rustled. Her face was pale with anger, but she kept her chin high. "How dare you?" Elara sneered, her voice full of disgust. "I am a Chief Healer. I save lives. I do not take them." "You took this one," Kael laughed. "You are a dirty liar," Elara said coldly. "If you are trying to say I killed my own daughter, you are a fool. My daughter, Ivy, is the pride of our pack. She is alive and perfect." The noble wolves sitting around Elara nodded in agreement. "Ivy is a perfect female wolf," a Beta from a neighboring pack said loudly. "She is kind and beautiful." "This Rogue is just trying to delay his death," another Alpha added. "Throw him into the Silver Abyss!" I floated right next to Elara. I reached out to touch her cheek, but my hand went right through her. *A cold moisture I could not truly feel gathered at the edges of my sight.* She only mentioned Ivy. She only had one daughter in her mind. I had been missing for three years, and my own mother had completely erased me from our family tree. Kael looked at the glowing crystal mirror. He could hear the voices of the packs praising Ivy. He spat on the stone floor. "Perfect Ivy?" Kael mocked. "Your perfect Ivy paid me ten chests of rare magic crystals to make sure her sister never came back." Elara froze. The nobles stopped talking. "The one hundred and twentieth victim," Kael said slowly, *making sure his words struck the stone arches and returned to every ear in that hall.* "Was Wynter."

Wynter POV: *My name fell into the chamber not like a stone, but like a single flake of ash presaging a firestorm.* *The ambient noise in the tribunal was instantly vacuumed away, leaving only the crackle of burning candles in the high iron chandeliers and the sound of someone's sharp, indrawn breath.* *The silence was a palpable thing, a heavy cloak smothering the assembly.* Wynter. That was me. The useless Omega. The disgrace of the pack. The sister who was exiled and thrown out into the cold. An Omega was the lowest rank in our society. We were meant to serve, to clean, to be the bottom of the food chain. But I was worse than a normal Omega, because I was hated. I saw Elara's hands start to shake. She gripped the wooden edge of the jury table. For a tiny second, a crack appeared in her cold mask. She closed her eyes. I felt a sudden, familiar pull in the air. She was opening the Mind-Link. The Mind-Link was our telepathic bond. It was a sacred bridge that connected the minds of pack members. A mother could always reach her child through it, as long as they were alive. I felt her mental energy reaching out, searching for me in the dark. I let my soul touch the edge of her Mind-Link. *The moment I did, the connection flooded not with warmth, but with the cold, stagnant memories she had left in the link over the past three years.* *You are a curse, Wynter.* *I wish you died at birth.* *Do not ever come back to shame your sister.* *Her thoughts were not words but barbs of ice, piercing my spirit.* *In return, I let the memory of my last moments-the suffocating despair, the bite of the cold-bleed through the bond. I wanted her to feel it. But Elara's face only twisted in disgust. She did not feel my death; she felt only what she perceived as my own deep, venomous resentment toward our family.* I pulled away from the Mind-Link, shivering violently. *The smooth surface of the Moon Goddess's Mirror first rippled as if touched by water. Then, a noise like a swarm of bees erupted from it, and hundreds of furious messages instantly crowded the crystal screen.* "Wynter is faking it!" a voice roared through the crystal. "She is just trying to get attention again!" "Remember when she pushed Ivy off the Cliff of Sighs? That evil Omega is full of tricks!" I looked at the glowing mirror, feeling a heavy weight crush my chest. They still believed that lie. I remembered standing on the cliff with Ivy. She smiled sweetly at me, told me she wanted to make peace. Then, she grabbed my arm and threw herself backward off the edge, pulling me with her. High-ranking Warriors saved us. But Ivy pretended to be dying, coughing up blood, and pointed her trembling finger at me. Hearing the angry voices from the mirror, Elara's face hardened. The tiny bit of doubt in her eyes vanished. She violently snapped the Mind-Link shut. *The severance was so abrupt it felt like a physical door slamming against my soul.* "You foolish girl," Elara muttered under her breath, completely ignoring my soul crying right in front of her. "Still using dirty tricks to ruin your sister." Elara looked up at Kael. Her eyes were full of absolute confidence. "Wynter stole our pack's treasure before she ran away," Elara said loudly. "She is greedy and selfish. A Rogue could never kill her easily. She is probably hiding and spending our gold." *Kael offered no rebuttal, merely parting his chapped lips to reveal canine teeth flecked with blood. The laugh that followed echoed under the vacant dome, a coarse sound, like sandpaper scraping against the stone walls of the court.* "Gold?" Kael wiped a tear from his eye. "You stupid woman. When I found her in the exile lands, she was starving." Elara frowned. "She was living in the Sunless Forest," Kael continued. "She had nothing. I watched her drop to her knees in the mud, begging a merchant for a single piece of dried meat to feed a sick wolf pup. She acted like a true, pathetic Omega." The hall was quiet again. "She had no treasure," Kael said softly. "She only had this." *Kael gestured with his chin towards a guard. "In the evidence pouch you took from me. Find the small silver chain." The guard hesitated, his gaze flicking to the Chief Judge, then reluctantly rummaged through a leather bag on the evidence table before pulling out a thin, tarnished chain.* Hanging from it was a cheap, cracked moonstone. Elara's breath stopped. Her eyes widened as she stared at the bracelet dangling from *the guard's gloved fingers.* I looked at it too. It was my only possession. It was a coming-of-age gift Elara had bought for Ivy. But Ivy hated the cheap stone and threw it on the floor. Elara had picked it up and tossed it to me like garbage. I had worn it every day since. Elara's chest heaved. Her perfect posture broke for a second. "Send a messenger to Ivy!" Elara ordered a Warrior standing nearby. "Right now!" A few minutes later, the crystal mirror buzzed. An image of Ivy appeared. She looked beautiful, wearing a soft velvet gown. "Mother," Ivy's sweet voice came from the crystal. "Do not listen to the Rogue. Look at this." Ivy held up a piece of paper. It was a supply list. "Wynter took these supplies," Ivy lied smoothly. Then, a magical illusion played in the mirror. It showed a girl who looked like me, drinking expensive wine in a sunny southern pack. Elara breathed a huge sigh of relief. The tension left her shoulders. "See?" Elara sneered at Kael. "A cheap trick." Kael's eyes turned completely black. His wolf was coming to the surface. "You want to believe that fake magic?" Kael growled, his voice vibrating through the stone floor. "Fine. But I am telling the truth to the entire continent right now." He leaned forward, his chains pulling tight. "Wynter spent her last days protecting orphans in the dark. And your sweet Ivy came to the forest, and peeled *the hide from her spine* while she was still breathing."

Wynter POV: Elara slowly leaned back into her carved wooden chair. She crossed her arms over her silk dress. A cold, mocking smile appeared on her face. "How much did Wynter pay you?" Elara asked, her voice full of poison. "Did she give you the magic crystals she stole from us to make up this disgusting story?" Kael stopped fighting his chains. He stood perfectly still. "You really do not know, do you?" Kael said softly. The amusement was gone from his voice. Now, he just looked at Elara with pure pity. *"She didn't pay me a single coin. I took your perfect daughter's gold, yes. And do you know why? Because I hid in the trees and watched the whole bloody show. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching you so-called 'noble' wolves tear your own flesh and blood apart for power. It was the best entertainment I've had in years."* *He leaned forward, the yellow of his eyes burning like embers.* "You chopped your own daughter into pieces, and you do not even know it." Elara's face turned red with anger. "Silence, you filthy animal!" Kael turned to face the Chief Judge. "Send your high-ranking Warriors to the Sunless Forest," Kael challenged, his voice ringing loud and clear. "Go to the exile lands. See if the wild beasts have finished eating her bones." I floated in the air, feeling a cold wind blow through my spirit. The Sunless Forest. It was a place where the sun never fully reached the ground. It was damp, dark, and filled with the smell of rotting leaves. It was where the pack sent the broken ones. The exiled. The unwanted. I remembered waking up there after being thrown out. I was bleeding and starving. I had fainted in the mud. When I opened my eyes, a group of dirty, skinny orphan pups were sharing their only muddy puddle of water with me. I found my reason to live in those pups. I taught them how to hunt small mice. I taught them how to hide from the cold wind. And that was where I died. The Chief Judge nodded slowly. "We will find the truth. The Tribunal will travel to the Sunless Forest." *The Chief Judge ordered Kael thrown into a heavily guarded iron cage-cart. "He will point out the exact location," the Judge declared.* *The journey was a long affair of bone-rattling travel through treacherous mountain passes.* I floated above a large Thestral carriage, *watching Elara through the thick glass of the cabin window. She did not sit, but paced the narrow confines, her irritation growing with every lurch and sway of the coach.* Thestrals were giant, dark horses that pulled the heavy wooden carriages of the Alphas. *When the procession finally halted*, the carriage stopped at the edge of the Sunless Forest. The ground was thick with black mud. Elara stepped out of the carriage. She wore heavy leather boots, but the mud still stained the edge of her expensive dress. She looked around with extreme disgust. A few small, dirty faces peeked out from behind the dead trees. They were the orphan pups. Elara marched forward. She reached out and grabbed a tiny boy by the ear. "You," Elara demanded roughly. "Where is Wynter hiding? Tell her to come out and stop this stupid game." The little boy looked up at her. His eyes were wide with terror. Then, he opened his mouth and let out a long, heartbreaking sound. *Awoooooo.* It was a howl. In our world, a howl was our most sacred expression. It was a song to the Moon Goddess. We only howled like that to mourn the dead. "Sister Wynter is gone!" the pup cried, heavy tears washing the dirt off his cheeks. "She is dead! Please, Alpha lords, please get revenge for our protector!" My soul drifted down and wrapped my arms around the little boy. I wanted to hold him, to tell him I was okay, but I was just empty air. More tears fell from my spirit eyes. Elara let go of the boy's ear. She took a step back, her face unreadable. She wiped her hand on her dress, as if the boy's tears were dirty. Behind them, the Warriors held up small, portable Moon Goddess's Mirrors. The whole continent was still watching. The crystal network was divided. "That pup is really crying," a voice from a distant pack said through the crystal. "I was a Rogue once. You cannot fake that kind of pain." "Nonsense," another voice argued. "Wynter probably bought them toys to put on a show." *A sharp crack of a breaking twig sounded from behind the withered trees. From the shadows emerged dozens of wolves.* They were missing legs, missing eyes. They were old Omegas whose fur had turned gray and fallen out. They were the absolute bottom of our world. They all dropped to their knees in the cold mud in front of the Tribunal Warriors. "Wynter saved us," an old, blind Omega croaked, pressing his forehead to the dirt. "Winter was coming. We had no blankets. She walked to the black market in the human towns." The old man choked on a sob. "She sold her own blood to the dark witches, just to buy us animal furs so we would not freeze to death." *The light from the Moon Goddess's Mirror seemed to dim, and the chattering voices from the network fell away into an unnerved hush.* Not a single message came through. I looked at the kneeling wolves. A warm feeling spread through my cold soul. I had no regrets. I did not shame my bloodline. I lived with honor, even in the mud. Elara stared at the kneeling crowd. Her jaw was tight. She let out a harsh, cold laugh. "She paid you all well, didn't she?" Elara sneered, her voice cutting through the damp air. "She sold her blood? What a dramatic lie." Elara turned to the Warriors. "Bring your shovels," Elara ordered, pointing deep into the forest. "Show me this fake grave. I will dig it up myself and prove she is alive."