Chapter Three

I wake to find my wounds healing so fast, it was visible to the eyes. My torn flesh came together without a single scar and just like that, it was gone.

The pain is gone. Not just diminished, completely gone. I sit up, expecting the familiar agony of torn flesh and broken bones, but there's nothing. My body feels so light, as if I've never been injured at all.

I look down at my arms, my legs, searching for the cuts and bruises I know should be there. Instead, I find smooth, unmarked skin that seems like I had been doing skincare for years. My skin seemed to have a silvery glow to it.

What is this? What's happening to me?

My senses explode with newfound clarity and it scared me a bit. I can hear every rustle of leaves in the canopy above, every footstep of forest creatures miles away. The scent of pine and earth fills my nostrils with overwhelming intensity. It feels bizarre, but surprisingly comfortable, like this is how I should have been a long time ago. I feel a rush over me.

Power. Raw, untamed power flowing through my veins like electricity.

I push myself to my feet, marveling at the strength in my limbs. Yesterday I could barely lift a pot of water. Now I feel like I could uproot trees with my bare hands. My vision doesn’t miss out too. I am able to see ants crawl up a tree from distance of a street away. Every shadow, every movement, every detail stands out in perfect clarity.

The blood moon shines bright above me and everything under the earth. As I stare up at it, something deep in my chest begins to stir. A presence I've never felt before, awakening after eighteen years of silence.

My wolf.

 After all these years of being broken, of being nothing, she's finally here. I can feel her stretching inside me, powerful and ancient and absolutely magnificent.

Then the pain begins.

It starts as a tingling in my fingers and toes, then spreads inward like fire burning through my blood. My bones begin to crack and shift, the sound echoing through the forest. It is terrifying but for some reason, beyond that pain, I feel intense excitement.  I fall to my knees, gasping, as my body begins its first transformation.

This is different from the gentle shifting I’ve heard about from other wolfs. This is agony and ecstasy combined, every nerve ending reacting as my human form dissolves and something far greater takes its place.

My hands stretch and elongate, claws sprouting from my fingertips. My spine arches and extends, joints popping as new muscles surge beneath my skin. My jaw elongates, teeth sharpening to deadly points. The transformation feels like being torn apart and rebuilt from the inside out.

But through the pain, there's something else. Joy. Pure, overwhelming joy as I finally become what I was always meant to be.

When the shift completes, I'm no longer human.

I pad to a nearby stream on four powerful legs, and what I see in the water shocks me to my core. My wolf is unlike anything the world has ever seen. I'm taller than any normal wolf, with a lean but muscular build that radiates sacred grace. But it's my fur that stops my heart.

Silver. Not the brown or black of common wolves, but silverlike the moonlight itself.

I lift my muzzle to the blood moon and howl. The sound that emerges is different as well, resonant, primal and ancient.

Shadows begin to move at the edge of my vision. I reach out with my mind, and to my amazement, they respond. The darkness curl around my legs like loyal pets. I can feel their eagerness to serve, their recognition of what I am.

My senses sharpen beyond anything I thought possible.I could feel strength that could crush stone flowing through my limbs.

The rogues who attacked me are still out there. I can smell them, maybe five miles north.

I trode through the forest with deadly purpose. When I reach their clearing, I can smell the same musk and sweat and violence that terrified me before.

I step into their firelight, brimming with a confidence that stemmed with absolute power.

"Impossible," the scarred leader breathes. "You were human. I smelled it. You had no wolf."

I shift back to human form. When I speak, my voice carries otherworldlyl authority.

"You were wrong."

The fight that follows isn't really a fight. My wolf tears through them with ferocity they could never match. I felt my anger, frustration and pain leave me with every swing of my claws. My claws slice through flesh like paper. My fangs find throats with hunter-like precision.

It was over in an instant. Bodies of wolves littered the forest ground. But as the last one falls beneath my silver claws,the survivors, instead of fleeing, bow.

I stare at my bloodied claws, and for the first time since the rejection, I smile. Not the broken, desperate smile of someone hoping for acceptance, but the cold, satisfied smile of someone who has finally found their place in the world.

The hunt has become the hunter.

 As I stood before the rogues, memories attack my brain, not mine but someone else’s . I see flashes of a great silver wolf standing beneath a full moon, her howl shaking the very foundations of the earth. I see a goddess with silver eyes and flowing hair,her voice was divine as she spoke of prophecies and bloodlines.

You are the last, the voice whispers in my mind. The last of the Lunahale line. Your parents died to keep you safe, to hide you from those who would use your power for darkness. But you cannot hide forever, daughter. Your time has come.

Lunahale. The name resonates through my soul. I've heard it whispered in the oldest pack stories, the bloodline descended from the Moon Goddess's first children. They were said to possess abilities beyond normal wolves. They coud command over shadows, communion with spirits,with strength that could move mountains.

They were also said to be extinct.

Your parents sealed your powers to protect you, the goddess continues. Only great trauma could break those seals. The rejection, the pain shattered the barriers they built. You are awakening to your true nature, child. Embrace it.