CHAPTER4- Secrets in the Blood

The air inside the healer’s den was thick with burning herbs and silence. Elias hadn’t spoken a word since we returned, only watching me with that same unnerving calm. I sat on the edge of a cot, arms wrapped around myself as if I could hold the pieces of my unraveling world together. My fingers still tingled from whatever force had erupted from me in the forest.

“I need answers,” I said, finally breaking the silence. My voice echoed strangely in the stone room, like even the walls were holding their breath. “You knew something back there—about me, about what I am.” He didn’t deny it, and that scared me more than any lie could have.

Elias crossed the room slowly, stopping beside a table covered in ancient scrolls and dusty tomes. “I suspected,” he said, brushing his fingers across a worn leather-bound book. “But after what I just witnessed, there’s no doubt anymore.” He turned to face me fully, and the weight of his gaze nearly knocked the breath from my chest.

“What am I?” I whispered. The question tasted bitter on my tongue. My whole life, I thought I was just a low-ranking omega, someone meant to be invisible. But now I’d stood against an Alpha—and survived.

“You’re not just wolf,” he said quietly. “You carry celestial blood.” My stomach twisted at his words, the weight of them sinking into my bones like ice. “You come from a line that predates the packs—something most thought extinct.” Elias’s voice was low, reverent, like he was speaking of gods.

I laughed, but it cracked in the middle. “That’s not possible. I’m nobody.” My words sounded foolish, even to me. But I clung to them, desperate for some kind of normal.

“Selena,” he said, stepping closer. “The night Damian rejected you… something awakened in your blood. That bond you were denied—it didn’t break. It burned. And in the ashes, your true nature rose.”

I shook my head, heart pounding. “Then why did it take this long? Why now?”

Elias paused, his jaw tightening. “Because your eighteenth birthday marked the lunar convergence. It only happens once every century—and it amplifies ancestral magic. The rejection triggered your awakening at the exact moment your bloodline came into alignment.”

My throat went dry. “So I was always meant to… become this?”

“In a way,” Elias said, sitting across from me. “But it wasn’t supposed to happen here, not like this. You were supposed to be protected, trained.” His eyes darkened. “But someone hid the truth.”

I stood suddenly, heat flaring in my palms. “Damian,” I said, the name falling like a curse. “He knew. That’s why he looked at me like I was dangerous. Like he wanted me gone before anyone else found out.” My vision blurred, rage and betrayal twisting together inside me.

“Yes,” Elias said simply. “And if the Council finds out, they’ll come for you too.” He leaned forward, voice low. “You need to leave before they sense the shift.”

“Leave?” I whispered. “Where would I even go?” Every part of me was tangled in this territory—my past, my pain, and now… this power. I wasn’t ready to run again.

“There’s a safe haven in the Hollow Mountains,” Elias said. “A pack loyal to the old bloodlines. They’ll help you learn control before this power consumes you—or gets you killed.”

I took a shaky breath. “And you? Why are you helping me?”

For the first time, Elias looked uncertain. “Because your mother once saved my life.” The words hit like a thunderclap, shaking something loose inside me. “And because I failed her.”

“My mother?” I echoed, numb. “She died giving birth to me.” He nodded. “But not before entrusting me with your safety. I swore I’d protect you if the time ever came.”

A part of me wanted to scream—wanted to rip apart the lies that had held me in ignorance all my life. Another part, quieter but stronger, finally began to understand. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t cursed. I was something else entirely.

“I’ll go,” I said, voice hoarse. “But I’m not hiding. I’m going to learn everything they kept from me.” My fists clenched. “And then I’m coming back.”

Elias gave a single nod. “Then we leave at dawn.”

I spent the night in restless silence, staring at the moon through the narrow window above my cot. It looked different now—closer, heavier, as if it was watching me in return. My dreams were wild and fragmented, filled with flashes of silver wolves and burning skies. And always, Damian’s eyes watching me from the shadows.

When the first light crept into the sky, I was already dressed. Elias waited by the door with two cloaks and a sealed scroll. “For the Elders of Hollow Moon,” he said. “It will grant you passage.”

We stepped into the chilled morning air, the pack grounds still and quiet. I didn’t look back.

But I felt him before I saw him.

Damian stood at the gate, arms crossed, flanked by two guards. His eyes met mine, and for a second, something raw flickered there—regret or warning, I couldn’t tell.

“You’re making a mistake,” he said, his voice low.

“No,” I replied, stepping forward. “I made a mistake believing you ever saw me at all.”

He moved to block my path. “There are forces at work you don’t understand.”

“And there’s power inside me you’ll never control,” I snapped, my voice rippling with something wild and untamed.

Lightning cracked in the distance—without clouds. The guards stepped back, unsure. Elias moved beside me, tense.

Then Damian said something that made my blood run cold. “They’re already coming, Selena. And they won’t ask who you are before they kill you.”

Who was coming—and why did they fear me enough to kill on sight?

I stepped away from Damian’s heated gaze, but the space between us felt like it pulsed with an invisible thread—pulling, stretching, aching. His expression was unreadable, but there was a storm in his eyes, something that made my breath catch in my throat. The other wolves kept their distance now, their whispers sharpening like blades as I passed. My veins still thrummed with that strange energy, the echo of whatever power had erupted from me lingering just beneath my skin.

Damian moved beside me, walking as if he didn’t trust anyone else near. “You need answers,” he muttered, just low enough for only me to hear. “And you’ll get them—just not here.” I wanted to snap at him, to demand the truth, but something in his voice made me pause. Regret? Guilt?

He led me through the pack house's dark hallway, past familiar walls now humming with secrets. My mother’s pendant burned against my chest, warmer now than ever before. It was reacting—guiding me?

We stopped at an old wooden door I’d never noticed. Damian pressed his hand to the worn surface, and it creaked open slowly, revealing a chamber filled with forgotten scrolls, symbols etched into stone walls.

“What is this place?” I whispered. And he said, “Your beginning.”