UNBOUND WOLF

AURELIA

“Mate…”

I woke up with that word still pressed on my lips like a prayer.

The first thing that reached me was the sterile smell of antiseptic and the soft beeping of medical equipment.

The lights above were too harsh and white, making me squint as I tried to blink the room into focus.

I lifted a hand to rub my eyes and froze.

Something was wrong.

I… couldn’t see clearly.

Normally I could manage without my glasses for a little while, my wolf vision compensated even when my actual eyesight didn’t. But now all I could see was blurry lines and floating shadows.

My fingers trembled as I patted weakly around the sheets, searching for my glasses, panic setting in.

Despite being a wolf, I'd had issues with my visions, most times I doubted if I was truly a wolf, Xena's presence was the only reassurance I had.

Xena…

I tried reaching for her, but I couldn't feel her presence.

Fear set in. I knew something was wrong as I sat up, trying to get used to the strange room. This wasn't the pack clinic, it didn't scent like it, this is different.

I ripped the cannula out of my hand, hissing at the sting and tried to stand, but my legs buckled. I hit the floor hard, breath rushing from my lungs

“Hey, careful.” A gentle but firm voice sounded behind me.

I froze.

Someone was in here.

I whipped around, my heart beating as I tried to make out the features of the blurred shape leaning against the wall, but my vision failed me completely.

“I won't hurt you,” the voice said again, this time with a soft laugh in his words.

“If I wanted to, I'd have done that long before you woke up.”

I knew he wasn't mocking me, just amused, like he found my stubbornness… endearing.

But my fear outweighed everything. The absence of Xena was strange.

I grew up with her, while others had their wolves at 18, I was born with her. She was my best friend and guardian.

I was in thoughts and felt the presence get closer.

My voice trembled even though I tried to sound brave.

“Stay back.”

“I’m already back,” he said gently. “You’re the one on the floor.”

I swallowed. I hated how vulnerable I felt.

I hated that I couldn’t see him.

I hated that Xena wasn’t present.”

“Let me help you,” he said. There was something about his voice, something I could trust.

His footsteps were slow, giving me time to push away if I wanted. He knelt beside me and then there was a soft click.

And suddenly the lights dimmed from harsh white to a cool golden.

My eyes adjusted enough for me to see his outline.

He was the doctor from earlier. The one who had taken me last night.

“There,” he said softly. “Better?”

I didn’t answer. My throat was too tight, and my mind was still calling for Xena.

He reached beside the bed and held out my glasses.

“You dropped these.”

His voice dipped, gentling even further.

“I thought you might want them back.”

My heart leaped with relief. And I acted like a child getting reunited with her favourite toy.

I snatched them quickly…too quickly,making him chuckle under his breath.

I pushed them on, blinking as the room became clear and his face too.

His warm brown eyes and clean, calm features.

He looked… human. Very human. Too human to feel as familiar as he somehow did. But he called me mate.

“How,” he asked lightly, “were you planning to fight me without being able to see?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks.

“I have my ways,” I muttered.

His laugh was soft.

“If you say so, Miss Aurelia.”

He stood and offered a hand, not forcing, just offering. Something I haven't experienced in forever.

“Come sit. You took quite a fall.”

And for reasons I couldn’t explain, I let him guide me back onto the bed. His touch was gentle, like he’d practiced handling fragile things.

‘Like he’d practiced handling me.’

I gently settled my back against the pillows, my breath hard, but he gave me the most reassuring smile that made something in my chest loosen just a little.

“I’m here to check your vitals, your neurological assessment,” he said.

“But first… how do you feel?”

He wasn't asking from a doctor's perspective but from genuine care.

And for the first time since I woke up, I felt a small thread of safety.

I shifted slightly in the bed, my eyes getting locked in his, I had questions for him.

I felt empty. Was my child okay? And my wolf Xena, why can't I feel her? And why had he called me mate, there is no doubt Alpha Aiden was my mate.

And why is he really familiar yet strange.

But he didn’t flinch. He just smiled, like he had been waiting for me to ask.

“You want to know who I really am?”

I nodded, though my throat felt thick and unready to form the words. I braced myself, thinking he would repeat what he had said the night before.

“Mate.”

But he didn’t.

“I am Doctor Ariston,” he said gently, “specialized in Lycan Transmutation.”

I didn't understand what he meant, and my eyes urged him to go on.

He pulled the chair closer to my bedside and exhaled.

“Listen carefully,” he said, his voice low, almost afraid that the walls would hear.

“What I’m about to tell you hasn’t been recorded in any medical journal. Not officially.”

My throat tightened.

“Is something wrong with me or my child?”

“Child? I believe you meant wolf.”

He shook his head slowly.

“Not wrong… just impossibly rare.”

He tapped the tablet beside him and a rotating hologram of a wolf came to life, her eyes burnt with a wild, electric intensity and something felt familiar about her.

“This,” he said, “is the being living inside you.”

I stared. Was he talking about Xena? I haven't wolfed out before, I don't know what she looks like, so how does he know this was her?

But she snarled like she recognised me.

Ariston continued,

“All werewolves carry wolves that merge with their consciousness. They share instincts, emotions, and strength. But yours…” He swallowed hard. “Yours has a mind of its own.”

I froze. “Meaning?”

“Meaning it doesn’t obey you,” he said, as I felt cold immediately. Xena was my best friend, yes she was different but my grandparents didn't say this.

“It doesn’t answer your emotions or your will. It thinks separately. Plans separately. Wants separately.” As soon as he said this, the hologram wolf of xena slammed against the digital barrier, and the lights in the room flickered.

I jerked back.

“That reaction,” he said, “is why you’re here.”

He leaned forward, lowering his voice.

“Your system went off last night. Every sensor in this facility lit up red. I’ve been monitoring the population for anomalies, and you… your wolf, triggered the alert.”

“Why? What’s happening? This has never happened.”

“It’s reaching its breaking point,” Ariston said carefully.

“A wolf like yours… once it fully awakens, it tries to take over. And if it can’t take control of your body, it inhabits…” He paused, as the silence thickened, it destroys your body.”

“That’s why I brought you in before it collapsed your nervous system,” he said, his tone softer.

“This type of wolf… we call it an Unbound Wolf. The rarest form. Only recorded twice in history.”

“And what happened to the others?” I whispered.

Dr. Ariston’s eyes dropped to the floor.

“They didn’t survive the transition.” He admitted quietly.

I shivered, the room felt colder. I looked at my best friend, my only companion in the hologram, lifting her head as if listening, as if pleased.

“Why can't I feel her? Why can't I hear her voice?” I stuttered, I didn't want to believe this.

“That's because I tightened the invisible bond between you, but I'm not sure how long that would last.”

“But,” he continued.

“Yours is different. She's stronger. Smarter. More aware. If I can separate it before it snaps your mind completely… you might live.”

“Might?”

He gave a small, sad smile. “I don’t lie, not with cases like yours.”

And suddenly, I felt Xena stir, pushing against my ribs and I struggled to breathe.

“What happens if you extract it?” I asked and Ariston tilted his head.

“Then we’ll have the first fully-formed, independent wolf in decades. A wolf that was never meant to be human… but learned you. Grew with you. Loved or hated because of you.” A second you, but more powerful.

My heartbeat pounded. “Will it be dangerous?”

“It already is.”

I shivered, was this what my grandparents meant? I needed to find them immediately.

“And… how do I protect my child from her?” I whispered, panic rising again. I didn't want to believe I was referring to Xena as an enemy.

“You don’t have a child, Aurelia,” he said gently. “Tests were run. You aren’t… neither were you pregnant.”

A sharp, banging echo filled my head. I shook it, struggling to comprehend.

“I… the pack doctor… he assured me… I felt a life inside me.” Tears pooled in my eyes.

Ariston hesitated before giving me a response.

“I’m sorry, but there is something else you need to know.”

I could feel dread climbing my spine. “What is it?”

He looked at me,

“Once, in every millennium,” he began slowly, “two children are born, one male, one female, each carrying a wolf unlike anything the rest of us possess. We call them the "Millennials Wolves.”

I blinked.

“Two?”

And he nodded.

“Always a pair. A balance of power. A male… and a female… each born with an Unbound Wolf.”

“These wolves aren’t ordinary spirits tied to the soul. They’re old… older than our blood. They have their own minds, their own desires, their own destinies. They determine if the world continues or ends. They're the descendants of the moon goddess.”

My voice cracked

“So I’m… one of them?”

“Yes,” Dr. Ariston replied. “You are the female of this Millennials pair.”

I was trying to process everything. “And the male?”

His expression darkened.

“He already awakened years ago.”

“Awakened? Meaning his wolf…”

“Morphed with him,” the doctor said.

“Fully. Completely. His wolf didn’t fight him the way yours is. Instead… they merged. Man and wolf, working together as if they share one heartbeat.”

“How is that possible?”

“He’s the first in recorded history,” Ariston said quietly, “to achieve perfect duality.”

He leaned forward.

“In his body, they take turns at set intervals. Sometimes the man leads, other times the wolf does. There’s no struggle. No breaking point. No destruction. Only… cooperation.”

My mouth felt dry. “So he’s stable?”

“Stable,” Ariston agreed, “but incredibly dangerous. Because he has control over power no one should be able to wield freely.”

I let out a shaky breath. “And me? My wolf doesn’t want to merge?”

“She doesn’t want to share,” he corrected. “It wants to dominate. To rule your body alone. That’s why it’s fighting you.

“But Xena never fought me before all this.” I defended.

“Something must have gone wrong.” He said and then whispered.

“You and that man… are connected, but your paths aren't supposed to cross else, there'd be chaos.” He looked away with a sad sigh.

“Have our paths already crossed?” I asked as politely as I could ever be.

“Yes, and Xena is carrying his child. The life you've always felt isn't yours but Xena’s. You mated with him on the night his wolf took control and that must have triggered your wolf.”

“Now, you must either match with him… or be consumed by yours.”