Chapter three

Chapter Three

AINA.

(Human Realm)

(Present Day) April 28th 2026.

My head felt like it had been used as a punching bag by a heavyweight champion. A rhythmic dull throb threatened to split my skull in two, and when I tried to raise a hand to nurse the pain, I realized I couldn't move.

My heart did a panicked somersault. I was flat on my back, my wrists and ankles held down by heavy metallic restraints.

"What the actual-"

"Don't move," a voice rasped from the shadows. It was deep, eerie, and carried a weight that made the air in the room feel fifty pounds heavier. 

A figure stepped into the silver of light filtering through a high window. I inched back as far as the mattress would allow. The man was tall- fucking massive, actually with long white hair that sharply with eyes as black as spilled ink. Ancient swirling tattoos crawled up his neck and disappeared under his jaw, and a jagged scar ran vertically down one eye, marking him like a predator that had survived a landslide.

"You'll only hurt yourself if you struggle further," he said calmly, taking a step closer.

"What the fuck are you? Where am I?" I barked, my police training kicking in even as my survival instinct screamed.

"Ha! She's a feisty one!" He let out a dark, melodic laugh and pulled a heavy wooden chair towards the bed. He sat, crossing one long leg over the other with the grace of a king. "Forgive me for the dramatic kidnapping, Aina, and pardon my assistant, Karl. But it was necessary."

"Where am I?" I repeated, my voice dropping into a low growl. "What have you done to me? Why can't I remember anything that happened that led me here?"

"Still in the human realm. For now. And you'd remember everything shortly. Your brain is just foggy. Disclaimer, it might be uncomfortable, I apologise for whatever pain you might experience."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"I've studied you for years in secret," he said, leaning forward, ignoring my question. He dropped his leg and stared directly into my soul with those terrifying eerie black pits. "And finally, I was able to get a hold of you once again."

"What kind of sick twisted prank is this?" I screamed, bucking against the restraints. The metal suddenly bit into my skin, a searing white hot heat that made me hiss through my teeth. It felt like I was being branded, I turned to see a tiny liquid dropping from the iron onto my skin. I tried to pull, the liquid poured even more. "What's this?!"

"Silver. Works like a charm for werewolves," he noted, watching my struggle with clinical interest.

"Make it stop!" I cried as the pain continued.

"Then stop pulling, the more you pull, the more the liquid pours. It's a sick punishment method I created, the irons are normal metal, but the liquid filled in them are made of silver," he then tilted his head. "But considering you're a hybrid. It makes sense why the pain isn't instantly incapacitating. You've got that stubborn witch streak in your DNA."

He stood up and began to pace. "My name is Zephyr. I'm a Lycan and also a werewolf, a hybrid just like you, but I'm different in a way. I'm a prince, and unfortunately for you, your half brother. Our elder brother, Bane, is currently the King of a dying throne and he's sent out his hounds to find me. But they won't. Not while I have you. Finally, we are reunited as one again sister."

I stared at him in dead silence. Then, a bubble of hysterical laughter rose in my throat and popped.

"Okay, okay I get it," I said, shaking my head as the laughter took over. "I've been reading way too many of those shitty werewolf romance books at the station and it's finally happened. My brain has turned to mush. Leo was right. I'm going crazy, and now I'm dreaming about some foreign tattooed freak in a room. Or maybe this is a prank? Did Leo hire you? This is exactly the kind of stupid childish shit he'd do to prove a point about my overthinking concerning the incidents."

Zephyr or whatever he called himself stopped pacing. He turned, looking at me with genuine disbelief. "Did you just....mock me?"

"Look, kid," I snapped, the humor vanishing. "I'm a cop. The moment I get out of these holds and whatever chemicals in it, you're going to regret every life choice that led you to this room. This isn't the time for LARPING! I have duties to attend to and there's no way that-"

"Then explain the clinic, Aina."

"What clinic?" I retorted. "I don't remember any-" My breath hitched as the memory slammed back in.

My eyes widened in fear as the terror flashed before my eyes again. My vision is clearer now. The memory of the blood splattered walls, the snarling in the dark, the man in hit that- I looked over at my hand...my palm, it was perfectly fine. I could have sworn he broke it or worse...he literally bent my gun in my palm. How is the same palm healed and untouched?! I turned back to Zephyr with a new profound terror in my chest.

"That- that's impossible," I whispered in disbelief. "I was stressed, I was hallucinating from lack of sleep and-"

"Lies, Aina, Lies!" He lunged forward, his warm hands framing my face, forcing me to look at him. "Look at me. Look into my eyes and tell me you don't feel the pull. Deep down, you've always known the truth. You never fitted in. You never belonged to that pathetic little policeman! You loved the fantasy and now I'm here to tell you that, that fantasy is real and you're a part of it."

"I-"

"Remember, Aina! Remember the past! Remember me...... remember us!"

"Us?" I blinked in confusion, making the unshed tears I hadn't realized I was holding back in fall.

He let go of my face and let out a weary sigh, walking toward the window. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, silhouetted against the moonlight.

"It's time I tell you a story," he said quietly. "A story of the beginning. Long ago, we were more than just step siblings- we were lovers, bound by a connection that terrified the heavens. But the laws of our kind are cruel, alongside our creator. When our father saw the way we looked at each other, he intervened. He forced you to marry Harrow, a tyrant. The ruler of the Lycans and a sorcerer so powerful he could bend the stars."

Despite how bizarre and surreal his words sounded. A cold shiver ran down my spine at the name. Harrow.

"With you being a half-wolf, half witch hybrid, the marriage was a political masterpiece," Zephyr continued. "But Harrow became greedy. He wanted your power, your soul and the throne. He murdered your mother and our father. He even killed you, or so we thought. He was eventually caught and thrown into the Abyss- a prison with no end. But I received a prophecy, Aina. Two years ago, a vision that you were alive, hidden in this mundane, boring human world. I came for you. And now, my plan is succeeding."

He turned back to me, his dark eyes glowing with an unstable light. "My spices tell me Bane has released Harrow to hunt us down. He's coming. But with you by my side, I'm unstoppable. I only need one thing from you now, sister." 

He stepped closer, a dark, possessive smirk playing on his lips. I stared at him, my mind reeling, the world tilting on its axis. My memories felt like a shattered mirror, sharp and disjointed. Before I could scream, before I could tell him he was insane. He reached out, his thumb pressing firmly against the center of my forehead.

The fire in my brain suddenly turned into a mumbling, suffocating fog. I tried to pull away, to scream that he was a liar, but my limbs felt like lead and my eyelids were losing the battle against gravity.

"Harrow will find you," Zephyr whispered, his voice vibrating through my skull like a funeral bell. "And when he does, you will have forgotten all of this..but you'll remember one truth: he's the one who killed you. He took everything from you. He's the enemy, Aina. And when the time is right, you'll kill him. Then, you will finally be mine again. We will rule the realms together and bring back peace, just as we always planned."

I wanted to fight, to tell him to go to hell, but the world was dissolving into static. He leaned down, pressing a cold lingering kiss to my forehead that felt like a brand. As I drifted into a forced, hollow sleep, his final command echoed in my head.

"When you wake you, you'll forget who you were and everyone you knew. You'll forget the police, the clinic incident, and your pathetic human life. But you'll always hear my words. Find him. Trust no one. And when the time is right. Kill Harrow.....just as you had planned to kill him centuries ago."