The Lost Beta 14 - The Echo of Shadows

The moonlight lowered and shadows, long shadows stretched over the clearing where Emily had stood just hours before, her blood shining on the stone runes. Torn between wonder and fear, Alexander couldn't control how he felt. He paced uneasily at the edge of the old ruins countlessly. Half of the pack had been thrown back by the magical surge, but the voice that whispered his name as though from another realm unnerved him more than the force itself. It had not occurred to him. Something ancient had spoken through Emily.

With fevered nightmares, Emily, who was now sleeping in the infirmary while being closely monitored by the pack's medics, woke up. Her skin glistened slightly, the magic's residual afterglow responding to her ancestry. She whispered names none of them recognized, names lost to time, to the old ways. The runes hadn’t just awakened. They had chosen her.

At dusk, Selene, the Moon Priestess, showed up without warning, her white cloak following her like a cloud. After glancing at Emily, her silver eyes narrowed. “She has bridged realms,” she murmured, voice laced with reverence and fear. “And once that veil is pierced, something always follows.”

The pack was divided. Some revered Emily now, believing her the prophesied queen reborn.

What she had become was dreaded by others. Even Alexander, who attempted to serve as her compass, found it difficult to comprehend what they had let loose. Or was she more than just his mate?

Selene demanded the Council be convened. Emily’s powers had to be evaluated, controlled. But Alexander was torn. If they forced Emily to suppress this gift, would they be destroying the very thing that could save them? Or worse, provoking the force that now watched them from the shadows?

A low, guttural growl that was unlike any wolf they knew resounded from the woods as twilight became deeper. Something else that was moving in the dark was drawn by Emily's blood.

She woke up breathing heavily with sweat all over. How vivid the visions had been. A woman with her face, dressed in crimson robes, led wolves to war. A man with Alexander’s eyes stood beside her, bleeding and smiling. “You are the key,” the woman had said. “But keys open doors both ways.”

When Emily told Alexander, his expression turned to stone. “It’s the prophecy,” he said, retrieving an old scroll Selene had once left in his possession. “The blood of the first queen shall rise to unbind the curse, but in the unbinding, she must choose.”

Emily’s hands trembled. “Choose what?” she asked.

Selene arrived again, answering for him. “Between the past and the future. Between vengeance and peace. Between power... and love.”

Emily’s heart fractured at the words. Everything was spiraling. She had just begun to find herself again to love, to feel whole. Now, fate demanded she tear it apart. But it was more than that. Something was rising within her, not malevolent, but... watchful.

In secret, Emily began writing her dreams, sketching faces she saw in her visions. One of them matched a portrait buried deep in the pack’s history archives of a queen lost to time, one whose name had been erased.

But Emily’s sketches also revealed someone else. A boy. A child with her eyes. And she remembered him calling her sister.

Driven by the dream of the boy, Emily insisted on returning to the old ruins. Against Alexander’s protests, she walked the blood path again, this time alone. The runes glowed softly beneath her feet, but the power didn’t rise, it waited.

“I remember,” she whispered. “His name was Caelen.”

The ground shook as soon as she said the name. With a loud crack, a tree close to the ruins' edge split open, exposing a hollow room. A scroll wrapped in red silk lay inside, perfectly preserved. Emily retrieved it with shaking hands.

Selene examined the scroll and paled. “This... this is the Seal of Succession. Only a rightful heir could have summoned it.”

Emily read the parchment aloud. It spoke of the last royal siblings, twins who vanished the night of the Great Betrayal. The queen had died, yes. But the king had hidden the children to preserve the line. One had been taken. The other... remained.

Alexander could barely breathe. “You’re not just the last of her blood. You’re her daughter.”

Emily’s vision blurred. And Caelen? Was he still alive? Or had her awakening stirred more than just old ghosts?

News came swiftly: a rogue encampment in the northern woods had been attacked. No signs of life, save for one survivor, badly wounded, repeating Emily’s name.

Alexander, Emily, and a small group set out immediately. When they arrived, the survivor was unconscious, but branded with a symbol none recognized until Emily touched it and recoiled. “That’s the Hunter’s mark,” she said.

The Hunter. The name had become a ghost story told to pups, but Selene confirmed he was real, an ancient enforcer cursed to remain in shadow, awakened only when the balance of power tipped too far. Emily’s awakening had done just that.

They returned the man to their infirmary, only for him to awaken screaming. “He’s coming for her! The blood! The blood calls him!”

Emily’s powers flared, nearly burning through the walls of the room. It took Alexander’s voice, his scent, to calm her. But even he saw the fear in her eyes.

That night, she dreamed again not of war, but of chains. Silver chains bound to her wrists. And a voice, soft and cruel, whispered, “You are mine.”

The prophecy had once united the pack. Now, it splintered them. Some believed Emily was destined to save them. Others feared she would bring ruin. Her power, while breathtaking, was unpredictable.

Beta Alric led a quiet opposition. “She brings the Hunter. She brings war,” he told a growing number of supporters. “And what of the brother she remembers? Another force we can’t control?”

Alexander confronted Alric, warning him to stand down. But the lines were drawn. As Emily watched from the shadows her chest tightened. She wasn’t just in distress, she was causing a rift in the pack.

In private, she told Alexander she feared her presence was more danger than hope. “Maybe I shouldn’t stay,” she whispered.

But Alexander shook his head, pulling her close. “You don’t run from destiny. You face it. Together.”

However, a messenger reached the gate while they were still holding on to one another. In his shaking palms was a single scroll, sealed with a red wax seal.

The scroll was a warning. “Return the daughter of the moon, or the blood of your people will soak the earth.” No name. Just the Hunter’s sigil burned into the parchment.

Selene deciphered the hidden code beneath the seal. “It’s a binding threat,” she said. “The Hunter’s challenge. He intends to claim her.”

Emily’s resolve hardened. “Let him try.”

But Selene cautioned her. “You cannot fight him yet. Your power is raw. He will twist it against you.”

Still, Emily trained harder, pushed herself further. Every rune, every whisper of her ancestors, she studied and endured. She would not be a pawn.

Meanwhile, Alexander reached out to the remaining loyal packs. Allies trickled in, old friends, former enemies, all drawn by the rising legend of the lost queen reborn.

But not all allies came in peace. One, cloaked in shadow, stood before Emily one night, bowing low. “I served your mother once. I was there the night she died. And I know who betrayed her.”

The stranger’s name was Gavric, a former advisor to the old queen. His tale chilled them to silence. “It was not the rogues who killed her,” he said. “It was one of your own.”

He spoke of an alliance brokered in secret, a deal to end the royal bloodline to prevent a prophecy. And the name he gave... was one Emily knew.

Selene.

Alexander roared in fury, refusing to believe it. But Gavric presented proof, an old pendant marked with Selene’s crest, found in the ruins the night of the betrayal.

Emily felt her heart break anew. The woman who guided her, who claimed to protect her, had once raised the blade against her mother?

Selene didn’t deny it. “I did what I had to,” she said. “Your mother’s power would have destroyed us all. She refused to listen.”

Emily stepped back, her eyes blazing. “Then maybe I am my mother’s daughter after all.”

With Selene imprisoned and Gavric rising in influence, a new tension spread through the pack. Unity was fragile, and whispers of war echoed louder each day.

Emily began having waking visions, moments where the world blurred, and another version of reality bled through. One where the forests burned, and the moon wept blood.

Alexander stayed close, fearing the visions were signs of unraveling magic. But Emily insisted they were warnings. "The future is already being altered by someone," she stated.

They made a final trip to the ruins together in search of answers under the surface. They discovered an old mirror there that displayed one's fate rather than reflections.

Emily saw herself in chains, kneeling before the Hunter. But beside her stood Caelen, older, powerful, his eyes hollow. “He lives,” she whispered.

But as the image faded, the Hunter’s voice echoed through the cave: “The blood has awakened the blade. Let the war begin.”

The First Strike Before they could leave the ruins, a tremor rocked the ground. The silence was broken by a long, deep, and unusual wail. A glowing red eye came into view from the edge of the trees. One by one. Dozens. Hundreds.

Rogues. Twisted. Controlled.

And at their head, cloaked in shadow and bone, stood the Hunter.

“Emily,” Alexander said, shielding her behind him.

But Emily stepped forward, her power rising. “No,” she said, her voice steady.

“This time... I fight.”