Chapter 2: The Thing in My Skin

My blood froze. That voice didn't belong in the world of humans. And neither did the creature in front of us.

The tall figure with silver eyes just stood there, watching. This was like a play on stage and I was the main actor. Behind me, I could feel Kieran's presence, tense, protective, still.

"Please," I murmured to the stranger. I wasn't sure if I was begging him to help or to go away. "Help me stop this."

He tilted his head. Those eyes glinted like twin mirrors to some other world. "When something has begun," he said calmly, "you cannot stop it."

And then the pain hit.

Hot and wild burning sensation, tearing through my backbone like a thunderbolt. My muscles twisted. Bones cracked. My garments ripped at the seams. I screamed, not from fear, but from the sheer impossibility of what my body was doing.

I was changing.

Shifting.

It wasn't supposed to be possible. The moon was gone. I had never shifted before. Not even get anywhere near.

But now, here I am.

My hands were gone. Instead of them, they have paws. Silver-gray. Pointed, with long black claws which sank in the wet ground under me. I could smell everything. The soil, my own blood. And there is another thing, a metallic cold, sterile and cold. Such as the odor of a hospital, in steel.

I turned my head toward Kieran.

He wasn't running. He wasn't afraid. He was just... watching.

And in the back of my mind, I felt it. Not him. Her.

An ancient voice, warm and sharp, slid into my thoughts like silk sliding over steel. "You gave me time to pass. You fought so long, but I'm here now."

My new wolf body went rigid. Who are you? I asked, in my thoughts, or maybe just in my bones.

"I've always been here, little one. Waiting. Watching. Listening."

You're... my wolf? Laughter danced through my mind.

"Not exactly. I'm older than that."

I should've been terrified. But instead, there was this... strange calmness. As though being under the bottom of the sea and then getting a chance to breathe.

Kieran took a step forward. His eyes glowed faintly. I could smell him now; pine, smoke, rain. Something deep and unspoken that made the wolf in me stir.

"You did it," he whispered. More to himself than to me. "They said you wouldn't. They thought you were defective."

In a low, warning snarl I snarled. My instincts weren't sure if he was a threat. But beneath the sharp scent of dirt and blood, I could smell no fear in him. Only awe.

"You're magnificent," he said softly.

Something in me responded to that. Not the wolf. The real me.

But I couldn't speak. I didn't even know how to hold my new form. My paws felt too big. My ears twitched at every sound. The sounds, the odors, the beat was too alive.

And then, the man with the silver eyes stepped forward.

I could kill him now. Tear his throat out.

But I didn't.

And worse, I didn't want to. Not yet.

He crouched, studying me like a rare artifact in a museum. "No wolf has shifted since the moon disappeared," he murmured. "The bond was broken. But you..." He leaned in. "You broke the rule."

I growled low in my throat. What do you mean?

"You changed without permission. Not having the signal. You shifted because your blood remembered. Because the code inside you woke up." He tilted his head. "You were never just a girl. You were built."

Built?

The words rattled in my skull like loose bones. Built? Designed?

"You're not alone," he said. "There are others. Bred in the laboratories. Forged in fire. You are the seventh. Maybe the last."

I moved fast. My instincts kicked in. I launched toward him with teeth bared, rage surging from a place I didn't understand.

But he vanished. Not with a flash, nor with a bang, but gone. As though in his life he never had.

I landed hard on the forest floor, dirt spraying around me. He was gone.

I turned. The trees were still. The stars above were silent. And behind me... was only Kieran.

And his eyes.

He didn't move closer. He just stood there, like he knew I needed space.

In the silence, the voice again sounded in my head.

"He speaks the truth."

"No," I snarled. It was echoing broken and confused in my head. "That can't be true. I have parents. I was adopted. I didn't come from nothing"

"Are you sure? Or is that what they told you?"

My stomach twisted. The question stayed there like a hook lodged in my gut.

Then I heard it. Liam's voice, frantic, crashing through the woods, calling my name again and again.

I turned toward the sound, my ears pricking, heart pounding. But I didn't run to him. I couldn't.

Something inside me, this thing I'd become wouldn't let me.

From the trees, I saw Liam's flashlight cut through the darkness.

"Kaia!" he shouted. "Please, answer me!"

The wolf in me ached. But the voice inside gave no room for conflict.

"Run."

"I have to go back!" I whispered. "I have to tell him something. I have to explain!"

"You can't. You don't know how to be human anymore."

And that hit me like a blow.

I looked down at my paws.

This body wasn't mine.

Or maybe it was all along.

Liam's flashlight swept closer. In just a few seconds, he'd find me…naked, bloody, and fanged. Not his sister. Not Kaia.

The voice in my head gave the final order.

"Run."

And this time, I obeyed.

My muscles flexed, and I bolted. More swiftly than ever I had moved. No sound. No warning. I was gone into the dark .

Behind me, Liam's voice broke. "Kaia! Don't do this! Please!"

But it was too late.

The part of me that could answer him was already gone.

Far away, miles underground, in a room lit by monitors and white lights, a red warning blinked on the screen:

SUBJECT 07: OPERATIVE.

PHASE ONE BREACH CONFIRMED.

CONTAINMENT FAILED. RECOVERY PROTOCOL CONNECTED.

Dr. Elena Voss put down her cold coffee and stared at the flashing alert.

She didn't move. Didn't blink.

She just whispered, "She's awake."