Chapter: 004

ELARA’S POV

The next morning, I walked toward the clan academy with Ash limping beside me. His patchy grey fur drew snickers from passing disciples, but I ignored them. Everything around me was familiar, yet I was no longer the same person.

My best friend, Mira, spotted me the moment I stepped through the academy gates. She hurried across the open yard, dark braid swinging, and grabbed my wrist hard enough to stop me in place.

Her voice dropped to an anxious whisper. “Are you crazy, Elara? That wolf is impossible to heal. You’re wasting every precious resource the kitchens will give you on it. Everyone in the clan is laughing at you behind your back. They’re calling you stupid.”

In my previous life, Mira had remained loyal to me even when everything around me began to fall apart. But her loyalty had eventually led her into Selene’s trap. She had been trying to protect me when everything went wrong, and it had cost her life. I had never learned the full truth about what happened to her. Even now, the memory of losing her without understanding how Selene had managed to destroy someone so dear to me left a familiar ache in my chest.

I turned my hand inside hers and held on.

“Don’t worry,” I said quietly, my voice soft and steady. “This time I won’t let her succeed.”

Mira studied my face, her brows drawing together. She knew me too well not to notice the difference. I was still the same Elara she had grown up with, the friend whose habits, expressions, and silences she could read without much effort. Yet something about me had changed.

The girl who once desperately sought her family’s approval had become quieter, more guarded. There was a firmness in my eyes that hadn’t been there before, as though I had finally stopped waiting for other people to decide whether I deserved to be loved.

“Elara,” she said slowly. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

I nodded and squeezed her hand. “I’m fine.”

She didn’t look entirely convinced, but she didn’t press me. Instead, she kept watching me with the worried familiarity of someone who knew me well enough to recognize when I wasn’t telling her everything.

My gaze dropped to the slight bulge under her left sleeve. I reached out and poked it with one finger.

“You’re hiding dried meat again?”

Mira’s face flushed scarlet. She yanked her sleeve against her chest and lifted her chin.

“Who’s hiding anything? I brought it for you because I was worried you’d go hungry after staying up all night with that wolf.”

“Really?” I raised one eyebrow. “Then I should thank you.”

She huffed, defeated, and pulled a small packet wrapped in oil paper from inside her sleeve. She shoved it into my hand with more force than necessary.

“Here. And don’t expect me to keep doing this every day.”

I opened the paper and bit into a strip of the dried meat. The familiar smoky-sweet taste spread across my tongue.

“Hmm. Still the same old recipe.”

Mira stared at me. The words “same old recipe” seemed to catch her off guard. She turned her head away quickly, but the tips of her ears glowed red. She tried to look fierce and failed. It had been a long time since I had teased her like this. After Selene returned I had spent every free moment trying to please Adrian, Marcus, and Liam. The easy banter between Mira and me had withered. Now it felt as if a small piece of the girl I used to be had stepped forward again.

We walked side by side along the stone path that led toward the lecture halls. Ash padded between us, silent except for the soft click of his claws. Mira kept glancing down at him, still frowning, but she no longer pulled me away.

After a while she could not hold the question in any longer. Her voice dropped once more. “By the way, did Selene try to do anything to you again? I heard she blocked you at the entrance yesterday.”

I chewed another piece of meat and answered without looking at her.

“Nothing special,” I replied. “She cried and asked whether I was angry with her. She wanted to know if I still considered her my sister.”

Mira’s lip curled. “Disgusting. She always uses that exact trick. You need to stay away from her, Elara. Promise me.”

I smiled but gave no promise. We passed under the shade of the old pine trees that lined the academy path. The air smelled of resin and distant cooking fires from the dining hall. A few younger disciples bowed hastily when they saw me and then whispered the moment they thought I was out of earshot. I let the words roll off.

After another stretch of quiet I spoke again, my voice low. “In a few days the clan will begin the first training session. Every younger generation member who has formed a contract must participate. You need to prepare well.”

Mira nodded, her braid bouncing. “I heard the rules changed this year. They’re going to test the bond between each person and their wolf. They’re especially going to test the strangely raised ones as a trial. Whoever’s wolf performs stronger will climb higher in clan status. You’re not seriously planning to bring that useless grey thing, are you?”

An eagle swept low over the treetops just as the last word left her mouth. Its shadow flickered across the path.

Ash reacted in the same instant. His back arched, his pupils locked onto the flying shape with pure predatory focus. Every muscle in his thin body pulled tight like a bowstring ready to release. For a fraction of a second the weak, dying wolf was gone and something far older and far more dangerous stood in its place.

Then the tension vanished. Ash relaxed as if nothing had happened and continued walking at my heel, head low, limping slightly again.

The change was so fast it could have been imagination.

Mira had seen it clearly. A visible chill ran down her spine. She stared at Ash with wide eyes, the dried-meat packet forgotten in her hand.

That posture—the coiled readiness of a hunter about to tear its prey from the sky—did not belong to any sickly, useless wolf.

I only gave a quiet “Hmm” and kept walking.

The stricter the new rules became, the harder it would be for anyone to twist the results from the shadows. That knowledge settled in my chest like a cold, welcome stone.

Mira looked at me sideways. Suspicion and worry mixed on her face. She clearly felt I was hiding something important, yet she could not find the right question to ask. She simply moved a little closer until her shoulder brushed mine, as if proximity alone could keep whatever secret I carried from growing too large.

Ash glanced up at both of us once, his pale gold eyes unreadable, then fixed his gaze on the path ahead.