CHAPTER3- Marked by Fire

I didn’t recognize myself in the stillness that followed. My breath came in ragged, trembling bursts, but I no longer felt like prey. Something ancient stirred beneath my skin, coiled and burning, whispering in a voice that didn’t belong to this world. The pain in my chest had vanished, replaced by a hum of power that made the very ground seem to pulse beneath my feet.

Elias hadn’t moved from in front of me, his shoulders squared, his eyes locked on Damian like a wolf protecting its own. “You pushed too far,” he said, voice low and thick with warning. “Whatever you unlocked in her—you don’t understand it.” Damian’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t speak, and that silence told me he finally feared something more than his pride.

Angela stepped forward cautiously, her eyes darting between me and the others. “Selena,” she said gently, “do you feel that heat? That pull inside you?” Her hand hovered inches from mine but didn’t touch me. “It’s not just magic—it’s legacy. Your legacy.”

My lips parted to answer, but the air around us cracked. A rush of hot wind swept through the clearing, knocking loose leaves into a whirling storm. Sparks flickered in the air like fireflies, glowing and rising from my skin as though I were the source. Damian stumbled back, eyes wide, as if truly seeing me for the first time. “It can’t be,” he muttered, his voice almost drowned out by the rising wind. “Not her. Not her blood.”

Elias looked over his shoulder at me. “You need to breathe through it. Don’t fight it. Let it take shape.” My fingers curled, and the fire responded, lacing over my arms in golden threads. I didn’t scream. I didn’t run. I let it consume me.

Memories I had never lived flashed across my vision. A battlefield under twin moons. A wolf cloaked in flame, roaring with the voice of a woman. Hands bound in silver chains, blood soaked into sacred earth. I staggered, gasping, as if the visions had been ripped from the bones of someone I used to be. Were they my ancestors—or was this me?

Angela caught me before I collapsed, her arms strong despite her slight frame. “Your bloodline is older than the packs. You’re not just an omega, Selena. You’re part of the line the Elders tried to erase.” She looked toward the trees as if expecting someone—or something—to arrive. “They didn’t succeed.”

The ground calmed beneath me, but the power did not. It coiled inside my ribs like molten light, waiting for permission to rise again. Damian stood frozen, his once-commanding presence diminished by the fear in his eyes. “She was never supposed to survive the rejection,” he said, voice brittle. “It was supposed to break her, not awaken… this.”

“What did you do to me?” I asked him, voice low and cold. “What did you know?”

His gaze flickered to Angela, then Elias, then back to me. “You were a risk. Your mother was warned. If you reached maturity—if the bond wasn’t severed before the Awakening—it could trigger what the Council buried.” The wind picked up again, as if my anger stirred it. “You don’t know what you’re carrying, Selena. It’s not a gift. It’s a curse.”

Elias moved beside me, his voice like stone. “You don’t get to decide what she is anymore.” He stepped closer to Damian, his tone calm but laced with power. “You rejected her. You gave up your claim. That means the bond is broken—and she’s free.”

“But not safe,” Angela whispered, still holding me upright. “If the Council finds out she survived the rejection and awakened the bloodline, they’ll come for her.” She met my gaze. “And they won’t make the same mistake twice.”

The words felt like ice down my spine. I thought rejection had been the end of my story—but it was only the beginning. What lay ahead now wasn’t heartbreak, but war. A war I hadn’t chosen, born in shadows and sealed in secrets I was never meant to survive.

“I want answers,” I said, voice shaking but sure. “Everything. No more lies.” I turned to Damian, fury surging through the glow in my veins. “You tried to break me. Now you’ll watch me rise.”

Damian didn’t answer. He turned and walked away, shoulders stiff, as though retreat were the only shield he had left. But I knew it wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. Whatever I had become—it terrified him. And that meant I had something powerful enough to fight back.

Angela and Elias led me into the trees, away from the clearing and the wreckage of the truth I’d uncovered. The forest pulsed with a rhythm I hadn’t noticed before, as if it, too, had awakened to my presence. The flames beneath my skin dimmed, but the power remained, dormant but watchful.

As we moved deeper into the woods, Elias spoke quietly. “The Council isn’t just afraid of your bloodline. They’re afraid of the prophecy tied to it.” I stopped walking. My breath caught in my throat. “Prophecy?”

Angela glanced at Elias, hesitation clouding her expression. “It says the one born of fire and betrayal will either end the old blood... or burn the world to begin anew.” She looked at me with something between awe and fear. “And we think it’s you.”

What choice will I be forced to make—destroy the world that cursed me, or become the weapon that saves it?

Damian's eyes flashed as he stepped forward, but Elias raised a hand, stopping him cold. “Touch her again, and I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you do as Alpha,” Elias said, his voice like ice cracking beneath pressure. The ground trembled beneath us, and the moonlight pulsed like it recognized something in me—something ancient, something dangerous. I stared at Elias, stunned, as the air between us thickened with power I couldn’t name.

“You’re not safe here anymore, Selena,” he said, never breaking eye contact with Damian. “They’ll come for you now that your power has awakened.” I didn’t know who they were, but from the way Damian clenched his jaw, he did—and he feared them. My hands curled into fists, my breath coming in shallow bursts as heat surged beneath my skin again.

“I’m not running,” I said, surprising even myself. My voice no longer trembled. Whatever they had done to me—whatever I had become—I wasn’t the same helpless girl who had been thrown at Damian’s feet. And yet, in the depths of Elias’s gaze, something shifted—he looked at me not with pity, but with recognition.

What secret did he know about me that even I didn’t?