Chapter 5:Blood and Memory

Aria’s POV

The dream came without warning.

At first, it was only a sound. A soft, distant voice calling my name. Familiar, but strange. I stirred in my bed, eyes fluttering open, but the voice continued.

“Aria…”

It was my mother.

I couldn’t see her, couldn’t feel her arms. Just her voice. It was gentle, full of warmth, like sunlight spilling through cold windows. It carried a sadness I didn’t understand.

I tried to sit up, but the blankets tangled around me. My body ached in places I didn’t remember hurting. The warmth under my skin flared again, sharper this time, and the mark pulsed beneath my shoulder, glowing faintly in the dim morning light.

I pressed my hand over it, breathing fast. The lines seemed to move beneath my fingers, curling like smoke. I shivered, and suddenly the sound of wolves filled my ears.

Not ordinary wolves. Large, wild, their howls echoing through a forest I didn’t recognize. They called my name over and over, deep and mournful.

“Aria…”

It wasn’t frightening. Not exactly. But it stirred something inside me, a memory that didn’t belong to my conscious mind.

I closed my eyes. I could see flashes, just fragments, broken like shards of glass.

A full moon hung above a dark forest. Its light cut through the trees in silver beams, illuminating the shadows. My mother stood beneath it, holding me close, whispering in a language I didn’t understand. Her hands were gentle, her face calm but full of worry.

The wolves circled us, their eyes glinting gold in the moonlight. I reached for them, but they didn’t come closer.

Then a hand, large, strong, not my mother’s, pressed against my shoulder.

A voice, low and commanding, said, “You belong to me.”

I jolted awake, gasping, my palms pressed against the mattress. My heart raced, and my shoulder burned with the mark’s heat.

It wasn’t just a dream. I could feel it, like an echo in my veins. My pulse raced as I realized I could remember… something. Not everything, but pieces.

I stumbled out of bed, wrapping my scarf tightly around my shoulder, as if the fabric could hold the memory inside.

“Who… who am I?” I whispered.

The city outside my window went on as if nothing had happened. Cars honked, people shouted, the smell of food drifted up from the street. Yet inside me, everything had changed.

The memory didn’t fade. It lingered, pressing against my mind like a storm waiting to break. I could hear the wolves again, faint but persistent, calling my name.

Aria…

I sank to the floor, pressing my forehead to my knees. My body shook. The mark throbbed as if it were alive, and I realized I could feel more than just heat now. Emotions, faint but clear, fear, longing, and something else.

Something powerful.

And then, faintly, almost impossibly, I sensed him.

Kael.

His presence wasn’t near, not physically, but the bond hummed like a string stretched taut. My chest tightened. My breath caught. He was alive, aware of me, and somehow, connected through something I couldn’t name.

I had to see him.

No. Not him. Not yet.

I had to understand myself first.

I pressed my hands to the floor, willing the memories to come, focusing on the images I had glimpsed: the moon, my mother, the forest, the wolves. They flickered in and out, teasing me, guiding me somewhere I couldn’t yet reach.

And then the voice again, soft but insistent:

Find your way back. You are not lost.

I closed my eyes, breathing slowly, trying to calm my racing pulse. The warmth under my skin settled slightly, but the mark remained, glowing faintly, almost like it was alive and aware of my every thought.

Fragments of the past were surfacing, pieces of a puzzle I didn’t know I had.

A memory of my mother’s hands brushing my hair.

A glimpse of silver fur passing through the shadows.

The sound of wolves calling through the night.

I didn’t understand it, but the pull inside me grew stronger. The pull that had started the moment Kael saved me now resonated with something ancient, something buried deep in my blood.

I pressed my hand to my chest. “What… what are you trying to show me?”

The whispers faded, but the heartbeat remained. Not mine, but something else. Something old. Something wild.

And beneath it all, the mark glowed. A reminder. A warning. A connection I couldn’t deny.

~~~~~~

I stayed on the floor for what felt like hours, my body trembling as I tried to make sense of the fragments that kept coming. Every time I closed my eyes, more memories rose like mist from a river.

I saw a younger version of myself, small and frightened, running through trees under a full moon. Shadows followed, twisting and moving with intent. And yet, there were also wolves, large, golden-eyed, protective. They called my name softly, patiently, but their voices carried an edge of warning.

Aria…

I could hear it clearly now, a sound I couldn’t explain. Not the human voice of a person I knew, but something deeper. Something older.

I touched the mark on my shoulder instinctively. Heat surged through my fingers, and the glow grew brighter. I gasped and pressed my palms against the floor, trying to ground myself. It was like the mark had a heartbeat, in sync with the fragments of memory that my mind couldn’t fully place.

A whisper echoed in my mind, soft and commanding.

You are ours. You belong.

My breath caught. I didn’t recognize the voice, yet it felt familiar. Ancient. And beneath the fear, there was something else, a strange comfort that made my pulse slow.

Images shifted. My mother’s voice calling my name, the full moon high in the sky, silver light spilling through the branches. The wolves, no, not just wolves, something bigger, stronger, watching over me, waiting. Protecting.

And then, him.

Kael.

The memory was sudden, sharp. Gold eyes glowing in the night, commanding, fierce, and yet… sorrowful. Even though I barely knew him, I felt something pull toward him, a thread tugging at the core of my being. The mark pulsed again, hotter, stronger. I sank to the floor, hands clenching my knees.

He is near. You will know him.

The voice faded, leaving only the thrum of heat in my shoulder. My heart raced, but not from fear. From recognition.

Recognition of something I didn’t fully understand, something buried in blood and memory.

I pressed my palms to the floor, willing my body to stay grounded. My mind raced with questions. Who was I? Why did the wolves call me? Why did the mark burn, and why did it respond to him even though he wasn’t here?

A sudden flash made me lift my head. The room shifted briefly. I was no longer in my apartment but in the forest again, under the silver glow of a full moon. The smell of wet earth and pine surrounded me. Wolves circled nearby, eyes shining gold. They were familiar, yet alien. Protective, yet distant.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

The alpha of the pack appeared then, stepping through the shadows. His golden eyes locked on mine, and I felt a jolt so strong it made my knees buckle.

Kael.

I didn’t know him, not fully, but the bond hummed through me. It was soft but undeniable, filling the empty spaces inside. Every instinct I had screamed both fear and longing.

“You are mine,” the memory, or was it a vision?, whispered through me, not in words spoken aloud but in a sensation deep within. A connection forged before I even understood what it meant.

I stumbled backward, gripping the edge of a chair in my apartment to ground myself. My breathing was rapid, shallow. The heat from the mark spread further down my shoulder, wrapping around my chest, making it impossible to ignore.

I could feel him.

Not his body, not his voice, but the presence of him. The pull of his soul, distant yet close, stirring something inside me that demanded recognition, obedience, and fear all at once.

Tears blurred my vision. “What… who am I?”

The answer came not in words, but in feeling.

I was marked. Chosen. Bound.

The wolves howled again, distant but urgent. Their sound cut through the city hum, carried by the thread of the bond. I pressed my hands over my ears, but the sound was inside me, in my blood, in my bones.

Somewhere in the night, Kael’s emotions reached me. Pain, confusion, longing. It was faint, like a shadow of a thought, but enough to make my heart ache in sync with his.

I sank to the floor, trembling. The city outside continued unaware. Cars, streetlights, voices. But inside me, everything had changed.

My past and present collided. The fragments of memory, the full moon, the wolves, my mother’s voice, wove together with the pull of Kael. And I understood, deep down, that nothing would ever be the same.

I didn’t know him, but I already knew I couldn’t escape him.

Not from the mark. Not from the bond. Not from the blood and memory that screamed my name.

I closed my eyes, letting the warmth spread through my veins. For the first time, I didn’t fight it.

I was tied to him.

And somehow, that terrified me as much as it comforted me.