Chapter 5- Aurelia's POV

I had been stumbling through the thick trees for hours, but it felt like days.

My boots were soaked through from the mud, my limbs shook with exhaustion, and a sharp pain throbbed in my left ankle where I had tripped over an exposed root an hour ago.

The deeper I went into the neutral territory, the worse the cold became, biting straight through my thin shirt.

My knees finally gave out, and I collapsed onto the wet moss beside a shallow, rushing stream.

I curled into a ball against the trunk of a fallen tree, trying to convince myself that I could build a fire and survive the night.

Deep down, I knew I was lying to myself. I was probably going to freeze or get ripped apart by rogues before the sun came up.

I had spent my entire life being told I was weak and useless.

I had spent years believing the strange jagged mark on my collarbone was a dark curse that ruined everything I touched. Something like badluck, more or less. The reason nothing went right for me.

I had let the elders and Kael convince me that my inability to give him an heir was undeniable proof that my body was broken.

Now, after three years of trying so hard to be worthy of a pack that hated me, I had been rejected, stripped of my dignity, and thrown out like garbage.

The weight of it all crushed down on my chest, and I finally buried my face in my arms, letting out sobs into the empty woods.

I know I was stupid to have let certain things happen, but God did I feel like a failure. I should've left the first year when things started getting bad. Kael didn't deserve the love I showed. None of them deserved the love I showed.

I was a fool, and it pained me that I didn't realize that sooner. Not until they yanked me by the throat and stabbed my heart, that is.

I was still going through my depressed episode when I heard something.

A voice.

It didn't come from the dark forest around me. It echoed straight from the center of my own mind.

At first, I thought it was just my regular wolf trying to comfort me through the pain of the broken bond.

The voice was different from my inner beast.

It was ancient, deep, and carried a weight so that the vibrations shook the marrow of my bones.

"You have suffered enough,"the voice said.

I froze, pulling my head up from my knees as my breath caught in my throat.

"Who are you?"I whispered out loud into the dark. "Who is that?"

There was no answer.

Instead, a sudden, blinding heat erupted across my left collarbone, so intense that I cried out and tore open the top buttons of my tunic.

The jagged dark shape I had hidden beneath high collars for my entire life was moving.

Lines of liquid silver light were bleeding through the black pigment, burning away the old skin like fire.

The glowing six-pointed star appeared again over the mark, blazing fiercely, but this time it didn't fade away.

It burned brighter and brighter, casting sharp silver rays across the forest floor.

All at once, the entire wilderness went dead silent.

The crickets stopped. The wind died down to nothing. Even the rushing water of the stream seemed to slow to a faint murmur.

A sudden surge of foreign power ripped through my veins, and my body began to change.

My vision shifted, turning the dark forest into a field of sharp, clear silver light.

My heart slammed against my ribs with a force that felt unnaturally strong, pulsing like a war drum in my chest.

My senses exploded outward in every direction.

I could hear the footsteps of a deer miles away across the valley. I could smell the distinct scent of Blackthorne patrol wolves lingering far behind on the distant border markers.

I looked down at the dark pool of water by my knees, catching my reflection beneath the moonlight.

Staring back at me was not the small, plain brown wolf I had known since my first shift.

The beast in the water was massive, its thick coat shimmering like spun silver under the trees.

Its eyes were pure, glowing pools of moonlight, and burned directly into the center of its wide forehead was a radiant six-pointed star.

A wave of realization washed over me, knocking the breath from my lungs.

I had never actually seen my real wolf before tonight.

The true creature tied to my bloodline had been asleep inside me this whole time, buried beneath layers of suppression, waiting for the false mate bond to break.

The ancient voice echoed through my skull once more, commanding and final.

"Awaken."

A shockwave of pure silver energy erupted from my chest, tearing through the trees and ripping into the night sky like a pillar of light.

Hundreds of leagues to the north, beyond the frozen mountains, the ancient magical wards guarding the Northern Kingdom suddenly flared with brilliant light.

I had no idea what was happening to me. But hell, I had a feeling I'd love this new era.

I could feel my vision and hearing senses blur altogether, zooming towards one particular direction. The palace I'd just walked out from.

★

(HER VISION IN DETAIL)

Deep beneath the royal palace, an enormous iron bell that had remained still for four hundred years began to toll with a deafening ring.

Guards shouted in the corridors, drawing their weapons in panic as the foundations of the castle shook.

An elderly adviser tore through the doors of the throne room, his face pale and his hands shaking violently.

The Northern King rose from his throne, his voice booming across the grand hall. "What is the meaning of this? Why has the ancestral bell rung?"

The adviser stepped toward the high balcony, pointing a trembling finger toward the southern horizon where a silver six-pointed star burned in the distant clouds.

His eyes were wide with terror and reverence.

"The Star has awakened,"the old man whispered, his voice cracking.

★

Back in the dark southern forest, I lifted my head and opened my glowing silver eyes.

The weakness was gone, the pain was gone, and something ancient inside me finally smiled.

It's time to make them pay.