CHAPTER 4

Elara's POV

The feral wolf lunged at me with its jaws wide open.

I screamed and stumbled backward, my knife raised uselessly. The creature was too fast. Too big. I was going to die.

But Kael moved faster.

He shifted so quickly. One second he was human, the next he was a massive black wolf standing between me and the feral. His silver eyes blazed with fury.

The feral slammed into him instead of me. They crashed together in a tangle of teeth and claws. The sound was terrible. Growling. The wet sound of teeth tearing into flesh.

I pressed my back against a tree, frozen with terror. I couldn't move. Couldn't think. Could only watch as Kael fought the monster trying to kill me.

More ferals emerged from the darkness. Five. Six. Seven. All with those horrible red eyes and foam dripping from their mouths.

They circled us slowly. Waiting. Watching.

Kael managed to throw the first feral off. It hit a tree and fell to the ground, whimpering. But it got back up immediately, ready to attack again.

Kael's wolf was bleeding. I could see dark patches on his black fur. But he didn't back down. He stood in front of me, ready to fight them all.

A feral on my left suddenly charged.

"Kael!" I screamed.

He spun and caught it by the throat mid-jump. They went down fighting. Rolling across the forest floor in a blur of violence.

Two more ferals saw their opening and rushed at me.

Pure instinct took over. I threw my silver knife at the closest one. It hit the feral in the shoulder and the creature yelped, stumbling. But it didn't stop. Just kept coming.

I had nothing left to defend myself with. No weapon. No way to fight.

I was going to die.

The feral's claws reached for me. I could smell its rotten breath. See its yellow teeth ready to rip out my throat.

Then something inside me exploded.

Heat flooded through my body. Like fire racing through my veins. My vision went red. Pain shot through every bone as they started to crack and reform.

No. Not now. I couldn't shift now. I didn't know how. I'd never done it before.

But my body didn't care what I wanted. It was changing whether I was ready or not.

I screamed as fur burst through my skin. My hands twisted into paws. My face changed, my spine curved and reshaped itself.

The pain was unbearable. Like being torn apart from the inside.

But when it was over, I stood on four legs. Everything looked different. Clearer. I could smell everything. The blood. The fear. The forest.

The feral that had been about to kill me backed away slowly. Its red eyes were wide with confusion.

I looked down at my paws. They were red. Bright red fur covered my legs.

I'd shifted. I was a wolf.

But I didn't feel like myself anymore. Something else was awake inside me. Something dark and hungry that wanted blood.

The feral charged again.

This time I was ready. My jaws closed around its throat and I bit down hard. The taste of blood filled my mouth.

The feral tried to fight back but I was stronger. So much stronger than I should be.

I threw it aside and it didn't get back up.

The other ferals started backing away. Their red eyes flickered between me and Kael. They were scared now. Scared of what they saw.

One of them turned and ran. The others followed. Within seconds, they'd vanished back into the darkness.

Silence fell over the forest.

I stood there panting, my red fur stained with blood. Some of it was mine. Most of it wasn't.

Kael shifted back to his human form. He was bleeding from multiple wounds.

He stared at me with wide eyes.

"Elara?"

I tried to answer but only a growl came out. I couldn't speak. Couldn't shift back. I didn't know how.

Panic flooded through me. I was trapped like this. Trapped in this wolf body that didn't feel like mine.

"It's okay," Kael said softly, moving slowly toward me.

"You just need to calm down. Take deep breaths. Think about your human form."

I tried. I focused on being human. On having hands instead of paws. On standing upright.

Nothing happened.

The panic got worse. I could feel myself losing control. The dark thing inside me was getting stronger. It wanted to hunt. Wanted to kill. Wanted to run through the forest and tear apart anything that moved.

"Elara, look at me," Kael commanded.

I forced myself to meet his silver eyes.

"You can control this. I know it's your first shift. I know it's terrifying. But you're stronger than your wolf. You just have to believe it."

His voice was calm. Steady.

I closed my eyes and tried again. I pictured my human body. My hands. My face. My hair.

Pain shot through me as my bones began to crack again. The shift back was just as agonizing as the first one. Maybe worse.

But finally, I was human again. Naked and shivering on the forest floor. My whole body ached. Blood covered my skin.

Kael immediately pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around me.

"You did it," he said quietly.

"You shifted and you shifted back. Do you know how incredible that is?"

I couldn't answer. I was shaking too hard. Tears streamed down my face.

"That shouldn't be possible," Kael continued, his voice filled with wonder. "First shifts take hours. Most new wolves can't control it at all. But you just..." He shook his head.

"What are you, Elara?"

"I don't know," I whispered. My voice was hoarse.

"I don't know what's happening to me."

"That wolf inside you. It's not normal. It's ancient. Powerful." He studied my face. "Have you always had it?"

"No. I never felt anything before. Not until you came to town." I looked up at him. "This is your fault. Something changed when I met you."

"The mate bond," Kael said quietly.

I stared at him.

"What?"

"You're my fated mate, Elara. I knew it the moment I saw you. The bond triggered your wolf to wake up."

"No." I shook my head.

"That's not possible. I'm human. I'm not—"

"You're not human," Kael interrupted.

"You never were. Your mother was one of the ancient wolves. The first bloodline. And she passed that power to you."

The world spun around me. My mother. I barely remembered her. She'd disappeared when I was five.

"My grandmother said she left," I whispered.

"Said she went away and never came back."

"She ran," Kael said.

"She was being hunted. Just like you're being hunted now."

"Why? What did we do?"

Before Kael could answer, I heard something. A voice carried on the wind. Whispering my name.

"Elara..."

I turned toward the sound. Deep in the forest, something moved. A figure standing between the trees.

It looked like a woman. Tall and thin. Her hair was long and red like mine. She wore a white dress that seemed to glow in the darkness.

"Elara..." she called again. Her voice was sad and lonely.

I stood up slowly, Kael's jacket wrapped

around me.

"Who is that?"

Kael looked where I was pointing. His entire body went tense.

"You can see her?"

"Yes. Can't you?"

"No." His voice was grim.

"Which means she's not really there. It's a spirit. A ghost."

The woman raised her hand and beckoned to me. Calling me forward.

I took a step toward her without meaning to. My feet moved on their own.

"Elara, don't," Kael warned, grabbing my arm.

"Don't go near it."

But I couldn't stop. Something pulled me forward. Some connection I didn't understand.

As I got closer, the woman's face became clearer. I gasped.

She looked exactly like me. Same red hair. Same green eyes. Same face.

"Mom?" The word came out as barely a whisper.

The woman smiled. Sad and loving. She opened her mouth to speak.

But the voice that came out wasn't hers. It was deep and hollow and wrong. Just like the voice from the corpse at the morgue.

"Three nights. Three deaths. Then her."

The woman's face twisted into something horrible. Her smile became too wide. Her eyes turned black.

"Your mother is waiting for you, Elara. In the darkness. In death. Soon you'll join her. Soon you'll both be mine."

Then she vanished. Just disappeared like she'd never been there.

I stood frozen, my heart pounding. Tears streamed down my face.

"That wasn't your mother," Kael said gently.

"That was something else. Something using her image to scare you."

"It worked," I whispered.

Kael pulled me close. For a moment, I let myself lean into him. Let myself take comfort from his warmth and strength.

Then I pulled away.

"Take me home. Please. I need my grandmother."

"Elara, you can't go back there. It's not safe. Whatever's hunting you knows where you live."

"I don't care. I need to talk to her. She's been lying to me my whole life. About my mother. About what I am." My voice hardened.

"And she's going to tell me the truth. Tonight. All of it."

Kael studied my face. Then nodded slowly.

"I'll take you. But I'm staying close. To protect you."

"Fine."

We walked back through the forest in silence. My mind raced with questions. About my mother. About the ancient wolf inside me. About why someone wanted me dead.

But the biggest question of all was one I was afraid to ask.

If my mother ran and they still caught her, what chance did I have?