Chapter 3: They Called Me Survivor

SERYN POV

I stared back at him, my heart racing fast as the weight of his accusation pressed against my chest. 

“I don’t even know what your registry is about!” My brow furrowed. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep my family alive. So why are you asking me such a question?”  

“Leave her out of this, Kael!” 

Oh, Kael, that was this monster's name. 

Caius suddenly shouted, his hand still placed in the cuff. He looked straight at the Alpha, looking visibly angry. “She’s blind to all of this. She doesn't know a damn thing about the underground!”

I turned to my brother, my voice cracking slightly. “Caius, what is he even talking about?” Why was my name in a wolf book first of all?”

Caius looked up at me, his eyes bright with a heavy guilt. “Seryn… I… I found out our name was written in a file that was marked "Eradicated.”

The word sounded like a blow. 

The two guards standing by the door; stiffened as if a ghost had just walked inside. 

I didn’t even know if I was supposed to react or not because the word sounded off. 

“Eradicated?” I repeated. “Caius, I still don’t get it. We are humans. How does a human family get to be in a wolf record?” I moved closer to Caius. 

Kael didn’t give him time to continue. “Take him away. Put him in the Severance hold.” 

“No… Wait, please!” I moved without thinking, stepping between Caius and the guard as they pulled Caius to his feet. “He hasn’t finished.”

I waited for him to continue talking. 

Kael’s gaze slid to me, annoyed and unimpressed. “Can’t you see he isn’t ready to speak?” 

I turned towards him immediately, my hands curled into fist. “You dragged us out of our home. You separated me from my siblings. So you do not get to decide when I am allowed to get an answer too.” The words came out before my instinct could recall. 

Caius’s voice came low and steady behind me. “Seryn. Stop that.”

I turned to face him too. The anger finally boiled out. “Oh shut it! You won’t tell me anything and now you are still trying to control me?” I turned to one of the guards. “You know what? Just take him away!” My voice broke at the end.

Something flickered across Caius’s face. He opened his mouth then closed it again. 

“I’ll explain what I can later,” he said quietly as they led him towards the door.  

The door shut with a soft click.

Now, it was just Kael and I in the center of the office; alone.

A knock broke the quiet.

One of the remaining guards entered, posture careful. “Alpha. Sorry to interrupt.”

Kael didn’t look away from me. “Speak.”

“One of the guard from her apartment is conscious. Though he’s still weak.”

Alive.Thank goodness I hadn’t killed them. I exhaled slowly and forced my shoulders to stay straight again. 

Kael attention sharpened. “Good. Is there any damage?”

“Yes sir, but the healers believe it can be treated. His rank suppression also appears to be temporary.” 

Kael gave a single nod. “Leave us.” 

The guard nodded and left at once. 

I felt Kael’s eyes return to me. He studied my face like he was trying to understand what I was. “You didn’t know you could do that, right?” he asked. 

“No.”

“Hmmm…” he walked towards me, his eyes fixed on mine. 

I almost laughed. 

It wasn’t like anything was funny at that moment, but when someone stared at me for too long, I always find it’s a little strange. 

Then, he reached out and grabbed my wrist. 

I immediately pushed back against his chest. 

That same strange hot sensation moved under my skin, spreading towards his. For a second, I felt that strange pull between us again, like something inside me had recognized him.

Then it stopped. 

Kael went still for a long moment. 

His fingers loosened around my wrist. I watched him carefully. The only movement was the slow rise and fall of his chest.

He looked down at where he was holding me, then slowly lifted his eyes back to mine.

“You felt it too,” I whispered.

His expression hardened. “When you touched me?” His voice was quieter this time. 

I cut in sharply. “You already know the answer to that. Something happened to you. So why don’t you tell me what it’s you felt?” 

His mouth tightened into a thin line. Then, he gave a small cough, and I straightened up, suddenly convinced he was finally going to give me an answer. 

He looked almost as confused as I felt. “I don’t have an answer to your question.”

I hissed, my shoulders dropping. “Then why did you act like you were about to give me one.”

He didn’t answer. Instead, we stared at each other for so long, neither of us willing to break contact.

I won. 

Kael finally turned away. He crossed to a reinforced table against the far wall, entered a code, and withdrew a dark metal case. When he place it on the table, the sound it made was heavier than its size. 

“This was what your brother stole.” 

I moved closer to the table, my eyes glued to the object. It was old, a thin, seamless line running around the body with two words engraved boldly across the dark lid: RANKS REGISTRY.

“The registry?” I said, my brow furrowing. “I thought my brother still had it?”

“He did, but my guards already took it from his possession,” his voice flat. He paused, tracking the movement of my hands. “My people have tried every conventional method of access. Yet nothing worked.”

I reached my hand toward the surface without thinking, driven by a desperate need to find something solid in the middle of a nightmare.

His hand came down sharply on the edge of the case, his fingers not quite touching mine. “Don’t.”

“You said you couldn’t open it?” I challenged, lifting my chin. “So how did my brother open it and see our name written inside?”

“I don’t know,” Kael stared at me, his amber eyes completely steady. “That’s one reason I brought both of you to this tower.”

My eyes dropped back down to the bold engravings on the box ignoring his warning as my fingers kept drifting toward the metal seam.

“I said don't!" He slapped my hand away.

The order landed entirely wrong in my ears. After everything that had happened - being told not to touch a box felt like an insult. 

I met his eyes, my heart racing fast. “Or what?”

Something unreadable moved behind his expression, a dark look. “You would find out when you don’t follow my instructions.”

The threat alone scared the hell out of me, but I wasn’t going to let him see how it affected my posture. I tightened my jaw, ready to push back, when the glass doors of the office suddenly slid open without a single knock.

“Kael…”

The stranger paused in the doorway, staring between Kael and I. He wore a charcoal henley shirt with the sleeves pushed to his forearms, paired with dark trousers. He moved further into the room, his eyes widening as he looked at my hands, scanning me from head to toe with absolute disgust.

“Who the fuck is this?” His face twisted with irritation, as if I were something unpleasant he had just found on the floor.

Heat rushed straight to my face, my brows pulling together in a sharp frown. I looked at Kael, then back to the intruder, my voice dripping with cold disbelief. “Excuse me?”

The guy’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits, taking another aggressive step into the space.

Kael’s voice cut through the air, cold and sharp. “Watch your mouth, Verek.”

The stranger’s posture shifted in an instant like he recalled where he was. He lowered his head an inch, his shoulders squaring. “My apologies, Alpha.”

I folded my arms tight across my chest, mimicking his military posture like I was the one he had just bowed to. At least someone in this building remembered that basic manners existed.

Verek’s eyes slid right back to me, entirely unbothered by my glare. “So who is she?”

I frowned again, taking a half-step forward. “Don’t you have any respect? You can’t keep asking questions like that about a person.”

Kael shot him a silent, deadly warning with his eyes, but Verek completely ignored it this time, his attention remaining glued to my face. “I believe you know where you are, girl. So stop acting stubborn, or else…”

“Else what?”

His brown eyes settled on me before they sharply moved down to the dark case resting on the table. 

He took one step closer, his jaw dropping slightly. “Hold up! Kael, you opened it?”

“No. I didn’t.”

Verek looked at him, then back at the case.

Just then, a faint click sound echoed from deep inside the box. My eyes dropped back to the metal casing in shock. A faint, violet light flickered along the bold, seamless line of the case, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.

Verek looked back and forth between the glowing case and my face. “Then why is it reacting?”

“Why are you asking me?” my hands shaking at my side. “And what is it exactly reacting to?” The last question sounded so low. .

Kael’s voice came out deep, heavy with a threat as he let out a sharp, ragged breath. “Verek, leave.”

Verek hesitated, his boots practically glued to the floor. “Kael…”

“I said leave!”

Verek held Kael’s stare for a long second before slowly taking a step backward toward the exit. His eyes lingered on the metal case, then flicked to me one last time. 

“You shouldn’t let her touch it,” he muttered.

That word did it. The final piece of my composure snapped into pieces.

“Everyone keeps telling me different things!” I raised my voice, stepping around the table. 

“First, I heard about clan? Then I find out my name is in some registry nobody can open. And now, Mr. whoever-you-are.”  I stepped closer to him. “Is telling me not to touch it?” Yet nobody seems interested in telling me why!”

Verek’s mouth twitched. The corner of his lip pulled up like he found my anger funny. “She is going to be a problem.” He said lastly before turning on his heel and vanishing into the hallway. 

Driven by pure frustration, I lunged forward before kael could stop me and slammed my palm flat against the metal lid.

The box shuddered violently beneath my fingers.

Then another sharp, blinding pulse of violet light exploded straight from the seams, illuminating the veins in my hand in a bright, glowing purple. 

I gasped, trying to pull back, but the ancient steel seemed to pull me closer, drawing a drop of bright red blood from the cut on my palm.

A heavy, mechanical sound ground loudly inside the casing, and with a loud snap, the dead locks threw themselves open.

Right across the dark glass page of the box,  a line of glowing script wrote itself into existence.

I froze, the air completely leaving my lungs as I stared down at the text.

BLOODLINE STATUS: ERADICATED.

SURVIVOR IDENTIFIED: SERYN VERYA.

I stared at the words, the air gone from my lungs. 

What the hell was I?

Author Note: Besties, I need your opinions! If you were Seryn, would you have touched that mysterious registry, or would you have listened to Kael? Tell me below!