Chapter 3: Take Me Home

"We're here to take you home."

Home. I almost laughed at that word. An hour ago home meant a palace with Damian's name on the gates. Now some stranger with glowing eyes was standing in front of me like home was something he could just hand me back.

"I don't even know you," I said, pulling my knees tighter against my chest.

The man in black straightened up and looked back at the others standing behind him. There were five of them. Maybe six. All watching me with the same gold eyes like they were waiting to see what I would do next.

"My name is Kael," he said. "And you have every right not to trust me. But you're weak right now and it's cold and you can barely stand. So either you come with us or you sit here until Damian's guards find you first."

That got me moving.

I forced myself up on shaky legs. My whole body still felt raw from the shift, like every muscle had been stretched too far and snapped back too fast. My skin was still cold from the night air and my hair was tangled with leaves and dirt, but none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was staying alive long enough to understand what was happening to me.

"Why should I trust a stranger over the guards I grew up around," I said.

Kael tilted his head. "Because those guards watched their king reject you and did nothing. We came looking for you the second we felt your shift. That should tell you something."

I didn't have an answer for that.

One of the women behind him stepped forward and held out a cloak. I hesitated, then took it, wrapping it around myself with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. She was younger than I expected, with the same faint gold ring around her irises that all of them seemed to share.

"I'm Marisol," she said quietly, like she wanted to give me something familiar to hold onto in the middle of all this. "You're safe with us. I know that's hard to believe right now."

"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me what's happening," I said, looking back at Kael. "What am I. What was that thing I turned into."

Kael's face changed for a second, something almost gentle passing through it before it disappeared again.

"You're Aurelian," he said. "Same as us. We come from a bloodline the old kingdoms tried to wipe out three hundred years ago. They almost succeeded. A few of us hid. Your grandmother was one of them."

"She never told me any of this."

"She was protecting you. The moment an Aurelian shows their true form, every kingdom on this continent feels it. That's not a small thing, Elena. Kings have started wars over less."

"So my whole life, everyone thought I was weak," I said, my voice cracking a little despite myself. "The elders looked down on my pack for years. And this whole time it was because we were hiding something they would have killed us for."

Something hot rose in my throat, not quite anger, not quite grief.

"Yes," Kael said simply. There was no comfort in the way he said it, just fact, like he'd said the same thing a hundred times before to a hundred different people.

I wrapped the cloak tighter around myself. "So what happens now."

"Now you come with us before Damian's men catch up," Kael said. "We can explain everything once you're safe."

I looked past him into the dark trees, then back toward the direction of the palace, where torchlight was already flickering through the distance. They were looking for me. I could hear faint shouting carried on the wind.

I made my choice.

"Fine," I said. "But if you're lying to me, I'll run again. And this time you won't catch me."

Something almost like a smile crossed Kael's face. "Fair enough."

We moved fast through the forest, faster than I thought my exhausted body could handle, my legs pushed by something instinctive under my skin. Nobody spoke much. Every few minutes Kael would glance back like he was counting us, making sure nobody had fallen behind or been followed.

Marisol kept close to me the whole way, occasionally reaching out to steady me when I stumbled over roots or rocks hidden in the dark. I didn't ask her any questions. I wasn't sure I had the strength to hear more answers yet.

We reached a clearing an hour later, hidden behind rocks and thick trees that made it impossible to see unless you already knew it was there. Small fires. Tents scattered in a loose circle, smoke curling up into the night sky. Maybe thirty people total, all with the same faint gold in their eyes when the firelight hit them right.

Every single one of them stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

"That's her," someone whispered. "That's really her."

The whispers spread through the camp faster than I could process, wolves stepping out of tents, all of them looking at me like I was something out of a story they'd only ever been told and never actually believed.

An older woman stepped out from one of the tents, walking slow, studying me the way you'd study something you weren't sure was real. Her eyes were the same gold, but tired, like she'd carried something heavy for a very long time.

"I never thought I'd live to see another one of us shift," she said quietly. "Especially not her."

"You know who I am," I said.

The woman's expression didn't change. "I know exactly who you are, child. I knew your grandmother. And I knew your mother before her."

My chest tightened. "My mother died when I was a baby. Nobody ever told me anything about her."

"That's because she didn't die the way you were told," the woman said. "She was killed. Hunted down the same way we were all hunted, and the people who did it are the same people your king has been protecting."

The clearing went completely silent. Even the fire seemed to crackle quieter, like the whole camp was holding its breath waiting to see how I would react.

I felt my legs go weak again, but this time it wasn't from exhaustion.

"What people," I whispered.

Kael stepped closer, his voice low. "There's more to tell you than we can explain tonight. You need rest first. Your body just went through something most of us don't survive on our first shift."

"I don't want rest," I said, even though my body was screaming otherwise. "I lost my mate tonight. I lost my pack. I turned into something I don't even understand, and now you're telling me my mother was murdered. I think I've earned some answers."

The old woman studied me for a long moment, like she was deciding something.

"Her fire is exactly like her mother's," she murmured to Kael, almost to herself.

Then she turned back to me, her gold eyes steady and sure.

"Get some rest tonight, Elena. Tomorrow I will tell you everything. About your mother. About what really happened three hundred years ago. And about the ones who are going to come for you next."

I opened my mouth to argue, but something in her tone told me this wasn't a conversation I was going to win tonight.

I let Marisol lead me toward one of the tents, my legs finally giving out the moment I sat down on the thin blanket inside. Through the fabric walls I could still hear the low murmur of the camp settling, voices whispering my name, words I didn't understand yet.

I closed my eyes and told myself I would just rest for a few minutes.

But sleep didn't come easy, not with the old woman's last words circling in my head over and over, a promise and a warning wrapped into one.

Someone was coming.

And I had no idea if I was ready.