The Wolf Beneath My Skin

FINN

I walked toward the hospital with my hands deep in my pockets and my head down. My father-in-law was waiting in that white room with the beeping machines and the soft blankets, and I still did not have the medicine that could save him. After everything that happened with Magnus in the hotel, I did not know if I would ever get it.

Something felt wrong with my body.

At first it was small things. The streetlights looked brighter than usual, almost sharp. I could hear a dog barking three blocks away like it was right beside my ear. Then the smells started. Rain that had fallen hours ago still sat on the pavement. Old food in a trash can two streets over. The sharp scent of a man smoking across the road. Even the soap someone had used in a nearby building. My nose kept twitching. I rubbed it hard with the back of my hand.

“What is wrong with me?” I whispered to myself.

A new voice answered inside my head. Soft. Warm. A little sad, like it had been waiting a long time.

Finally, he said. “You can hear me.”

I stopped walking so fast I almost tripped over my own feet. My heart jumped hard into my throat. I looked around the empty street. No one was there.

“Who… who said that?” My voice came out shaky.

“Me,” The voice replied. “I am Lunar. I am your wolf.”

I shook my head hard and took a step back. “No. That can’t be. I don’t have a wolf. Everyone always told me I was too weak. I never shifted. I never even felt one inside me. Not once.”

“You were never weak,” Lunar said, and his voice was gentle but firm. “They locked me away a long time ago. They put something in your blood so I could not wake up. But tonight the lock is breaking. I can finally talk to you.”

I pressed both hands over my ears even though I knew the voice was coming from inside. “This is stress. This is just stress. I saw Magnus again and now my mind is playing tricks on me. You’re not real. You’re not real.”

“I am real, Finn. And I know him. I know Magnus. His wolf is called Regulus. I have been calling for him for years while I slept in the dark. I never stopped.”

My stomach twisted so hard I felt sick. “Stop talking. Please just stop.”

I started walking again, faster this time. My shoes hit the sidewalk with quick, nervous steps. I told myself over and over that I was imagining everything. The sharper hearing. The new smells. The voice that knew Magnus’s wolf name. It was all because I was tired and scared and still tasting that angry kiss on my lips. That was all it was. Stress. Nothing more.

My hand brushed against my chest by accident as I walked. My fingers touched an old scar just above my heart, the one I had carried for years without knowing how I got it. The second my skin met the raised mark, the world around me disappeared.

I was back on that night.

I was walking toward the big meeting hall. I was wearing the soft shirt Magnus always said looked nice on me. My heart was full of hope and nerves at the same time. I was going to meet him so we could stand together and tell both our families that we were mates. I could already picture his smile.

Then a hand grabbed me hard from behind. Something sharp pressed against the side of my neck. A sweet-smelling cloth covered my mouth and nose. I tried to scream Magnus’s name but no sound came out. My legs went weak.

Someone stood right behind me in the shadows. I could not see the face. The person stayed carefully out of the light. But the voice… I knew that voice. It belonged to someone I had trusted for years. Someone who used to smile at me across the dinner table. Someone who used to call me family.

“I’m sorry, Finn,” the voice said. Soft. Almost kind. Almost sad. “But you cannot be with him. Your blood is too dangerous. We cannot let the two of you finish the bond.”

I tried to turn my head. I tried so hard to see who it was. The world went black before I could.

The memory broke like glass shattering around me.

I was back on the dark street, gasping for air like I had been running for miles. My hand still pressed against the old scar. Tears ran down my face and dripped off my chin. My whole body shook.

“Who was it?” I choked out. “Lunar, who was that voice? Please tell me.”

“I do not know the name yet,” Lunar answered, and he sounded angry now. “But I remember the feeling. Betrayal. Deep, deep betrayal. Someone we trusted did this to us.”

Before I could ask anything else, heavy footsteps moved fast behind me.

I turned around.

A man in a long dark coat rushed at me. His eyes glowed a faint yellow in the dark. He was a wolf. A strong one. He reached for my throat with one big hand.

“You should have stayed away from him,” he growled. “You were warned.”

I stumbled backward. Fear shot through me so hard my knees almost gave out. I had never fought anyone in my life. I had never shifted. I was supposed to be the weak one who needed protecting.

Lunar’s voice rose inside me, stronger and clearer than before. “Let me out, Finn. Please. They are trying to hurt you again the same way they did before. Let me protect us. Trust me.”

“I don’t know how!” I cried out loud. My back hit a brick wall. “I’ve never done this!”

“Just stop fighting me,” Lunar said. “Stop pushing me down. Let go.”

The man grabbed my arm and yanked me forward hard. Pain shot up my shoulder and into my neck. Something inside my chest cracked open like a door that had been locked and chained for years.

Heat exploded through every part of my body. My bones felt like they were breaking and then putting themselves back together in a new shape. I fell to my knees on the rough sidewalk and screamed. The sound did not even sound human. My vision went white. My skin burned like fire. Soft fur pushed through where skin used to be. My hands curled and turned into paws. My face changed shape. My teeth grew long.

It hurt more than anything I had ever felt in my whole life. I thought I was dying.

When the pain finally stopped, I was standing on four legs. My body felt bigger. Heavier. Stronger. Silver light glowed from my eyes and lit up the dark street around us like soft moonlight.

The attacker stopped moving completely.

He stared at me. His mouth fell open. The yellow glow in his eyes flickered. Then, slowly, he dropped to his knees on the hard ground. His head bowed low. His hands pressed flat against the pavement like he was praying or begging.

I stood there in my new wolf form, breathing hard through a new nose. Silver light still shone from my eyes. Lunar’s presence filled every part of me, warm and proud and fierce and protective.

“He is not afraid of us,” Lunar told me quietly. “Listen carefully to his heartbeat. Feel what is in the air.”

I listened with my new ears.

The man’s heart was racing fast, but it was not only from fear. There was something else mixed in. Something heavy and old and powerful. Something that kept him on his knees even though he was bigger and stronger than most wolves I had ever seen.

“He is submitting,” Lunar said, and there was wonder in his voice. “Your blood is Moonblood. Your eyes are silver. He can feel the old command in you. His wolf cannot stand against it. He has no choice.”

I stared at the man on the ground. My silver eyes reflected in a small puddle of water near his hands. For the first time in my life I was not the weak one. For the first time I had a wolf of my own, and his name was Lunar, and together we were something the world had tried to bury and forget.

The man kept his head down. He did not try to run. He did not try to fight. He did not even lift his eyes.

He just stayed there on his knees in the middle of the dark street, waiting for whatever the silver-eyed wolf in front of him would decide to do next.