Chapter 4: The Shadow Visitor

I could not move. Could not scream. Could not do anything but stare at the figure in the corner of my room.

The silver eyes blinked slowly, like a cat watching prey.

“Do not be afraid, child,” a voice said. It was neither male nor female, old nor young. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“What are you?” I whispered, my voice shaking.

The figure stepped forward, and the moonlight revealed more. It was tall and wrapped in dark robes that seemed to shift and move like living shadows. The face was hidden beneath a deep hood, but those eyes. Those impossible silver eyes that glowed with their own light.

“I am what you have forgotten,” the figure said. “What they made you forget.”

“I do not understand.”

“No. You would not. They have poisoned you for so long, you do not even remember who you were meant to be.”

Poisoned. The word echoed in my mind.

“Who poisoned me?” I asked, though part of me already knew.

The figure moved closer, gliding across the floor without seeming to walk. It stopped at the foot of my bed.

“Your sister. Your mother before she died. They have been putting wolfsbane in your food since you were a child. Just enough to suppress your true nature. To make you weak. To make you forget what you are.”

The room spun. Had Elena been poisoning me? For years?

“Why?” The word came out as a sob.

“Because you are not what they told you. You are not a weak omega, Aria Moonstone. You are a Lunar Wolf. The last of an ancient bloodline that was supposed to be extinct.”

Lunar Wolf. I had heard the term in old stories, legends told to pups. Wolves blessed by the Moon Goddess herself, with power beyond any Alpha.

“That is impossible,” I said. “Those are just myths.”

“Are they?” The figure tilted its hooded head. “Tell me, child. Have you never wondered why your sister looks so much like you, yet is so different? Why does she have power and you do not?”

“We are twins,” I said. “But she is stronger. She always has been.”

“You are twins,” the figure agreed. “But she is not stronger. She simply was not poisoned. Your mother recognised what you were the moment you were born. Your silver eyes gave you away. So she made a choice. She would suppress your power and give your sister the life that should have been yours.”

I thought of my mother, dead five years now. She had never shown me love, always favouring Elena. I had thought it was because I was weak.

“You are lying,” I said, but my voice held no conviction.

“Am I? Think, Aria. When did you start becoming weak? When did your wolf start failing you?”

I searched my memories. As a small child, I had been healthy. Normal. It was around age seven when things changed. When I started getting sick. When my wolf started retreating.

The same year my mother started making my meals separately from Elena’s.

“No,” I whispered. “She would not. She was my mother.”

“She was a woman who wanted power,” the figure said coldly. “Elena was easier to control. You, with your true nature, would have been too strong. Too independent. So she broke you.”

Tears streamed down my face. Every memory was rewriting itself in my mind. Every moment of weakness, every failure, every humiliation. All because I had been poisoned my entire life.

“Why are you telling me this now?” I asked. “Why not years ago?”

“Because you were not ready. You were still clinging to hope. To the belief that your mate would save you. That your sister loved you. That you belonged here.” The figure leaned closer. “But now you have seen the truth. Now you are ready to let go of the lies and embrace what you really are.”

“And what am I?”

“Power,” the figure said simply. “Rage. Vengeance. Everything they tried to kill but could not quite destroy.”

The words resonated deep in my chest. My wolf stirred again, stronger this time.

“The wolfsbane is still in your system,” the figure continued. “Years of poison do not leave quickly. But it is fading. In three days, when your mate rejects you, the mate bond will break. And when it does, the last chain holding back your true nature will shatter.”

Three days. The full moon gathering.

“What happens then?” I asked.

“That depends on you. You can let them destroy you completely. Or you can rise from the ashes and show them what they created.”

“I am locked in this room,” I said bitterly. “Starving. Weak. How am I supposed to rise from anything?”

The figure reached into its robes and pulled out a small vial filled with silver liquid that seemed to glow in the darkness.

“Drink this. It will purge the wolfsbane from your body and awaken what has been sleeping. But I warn you, child. The awakening will be painful. Your body has adapted to weakness. Reclaiming your strength will feel like dying.”

I stared at the vial. This could be a trick. A hallucination brought on by hunger and despair. This figure could be nothing more than my broken mind trying to give me hope.

But what did I have to lose?

I reached for the vial with a shaking hand.

“If I drink this, will I be strong enough to fight them? To make them pay for what they did?”

“You will be strong enough to destroy them all,” the figure said. “But strength is not enough. You will need cunning. Patience. The will to become something they will fear.”

“I want them to fear me,” I said, and meant it with every fibre of my being. “I want them to suffer the way I have suffered.”

“Then drink, Aria Moonstone. Drink and be reborn.”

I uncorked the vial. The silver liquid smelled like moonlight and winter storms. I brought it to my lips and paused.

“Who are you?” I asked one more time. “Really?”

The figure was silent for a long moment. Then it reached up and pushed back its hood.

I gasped.

The face beneath was beautiful and terrible. Ageless. Neither human nor wolf, but something ancient and powerful. Silver hair flowed like liquid moonlight. The eyes that had glowed in the darkness were now blinding.

“I am the Moon Goddess’s shadow,” the figure said. “The part of her that remembers vengeance and justice. I am what comes for those who abuse her gifts. And I have been watching you, Aria Moonstone, since the day you were born.”

“Why me?” I whispered.

“Because you are mine. You were always meant to be mine. Your mother tried to steal you from your destiny, but destiny cannot be denied forever.” The figure smiled, and it was not a kind expression. “Now drink. Embrace your pain. Let it forge you into something new. Something deadly.”

I lifted the vial to my lips and drank.

The liquid burned like ice and fire combined. It slid down my throat and into my stomach, spreading through my body like wildfire. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the pain hit.

I screamed. I could not help it. It felt like every bone in my body was breaking and reforming. My wolf, dormant for so long, roared to life with a fury that terrified me. My skin felt too tight. My blood felt like acid in my veins.

I fell from the bed to the floor, convulsing. My fingernails lengthened into claws. My teeth sharpened to fangs. I was shifting, but not into my weak half form. This was something else entirely.

Through the agony, I heard the figure speaking.

“Let it burn away the weakness. Let it consume the girl you were. In three days, you will be ready. In three days, they will see what they created when they tried to break you.”

The pain was endless. I clawed at the floor, leaving gouges in the wood. I bit my own arm to keep from screaming again, not wanting to alert the guards outside.

Blood filled my mouth. My blood. It tasted different. Stronger.

I do not know how long the transformation lasted. Hours, maybe. Or minutes that felt like hours.

Finally, the pain began to fade. My body stopped convulsing. My breathing slowed.

I lay on the floor, covered in sweat and blood, shaking.

But I felt different. Stronger. My wolf was no longer a weak, whimpering thing. It was awake and angry and powerful.

“Good,” the figure said. “The worst is over. Now rest. When you wake, the real work begins.”

“Wait,” I gasped. “How do I find you again?”

“You do not need to find me. I will always be watching. And when the time comes, I will show you the path forward.” The figure began to fade back into the shadows. “Remember, Aria. Three days. Let them think they have won. Let them believe you are still the weak omega they broke. And then show them the monster they created.”

The figure disappeared completely, leaving only darkness and the scent of winter storms.

I dragged myself back onto my bed, every muscle screaming. But beneath the pain was something new.

Hope. Real hope. And rage.

So much rage.

I closed my eyes and felt my wolf settle inside me, still weak from years of poison but growing stronger by the moment. I could feel the wolfsbane leaving my system, purged by whatever magic had been in that vial.

In three days, Damien would reject me in front of the entire pack.

He thought it would destroy me.

He had no idea he was about to set me free.

I smiled in the darkness, and for the first time in five years, it was not a broken smile.

It was the smile of something dangerous being born.

Outside my locked door, I heard Beta Marcus laugh with another guard.

“Think she is dead yet?” Marcus said.

“Another day or two without food and she will be,” the other guard replied. “Weak omega like that cannot last long.”

“Good riddance,” Marcus said. “The pack will be better off without her.”

Their footsteps faded down the hall.

I lay in the darkness, listening to my strengthening heartbeat, feeling my wolf grow more solid with each passing moment.

They thought I was dying.

They were right.

The old Aria was dying.

But something else was being born in her place.

I drifted into sleep, and my dreams were full of silver light and blood and the screams of those who had hurt me.

When I woke, it was dawn. The second day of my imprisonment.

My stomach cramped with hunger, but I felt stronger than I had in years. The pain from my injuries was fading quickly. My wolf was healing me from the inside out.

I stood and walked to the small mirror on my wall. The face staring back was still mine, but different. My eyes seemed brighter. My skin had a faint glow.

And there, barely visible in the early morning light, my eyes flashed silver.

Just for a moment. Then back to their normal blue.

But I had seen it. The proof that everything the shadow figure had told me was real.

I was not an omega. I was something far more dangerous.

A knock on my door made me spin around.

“Aria?” It was Sarah’s voice, barely a whisper. “Are you alive in there?”

I moved to the door, pressing my ear against it.

“Sarah?”

“Oh thank the Goddess,” she breathed. “I brought you some food. Just bread and water, but it is something. If you stand back from the door, I can slide it under.”

“Marcus will punish you if he catches you,” I said.

“I do not care. Nobody deserves this.”

I stepped back, and a moment later, a piece of bread and a small bottle of water appeared under the door.

“Thank you,” I said, my throat tight with emotion. In a pack full of cruelty, this small act of kindness meant everything.

“I have to go,” Sarah whispered. “But Aria? Whatever happens at the gathering, know that not everyone thinks you are weak. Some of us see how you have survived all these years. That takes more strength than any of them will ever know.”

Her footsteps hurried away.

I picked up the bread and water, my hands shaking. I should eat it slowly, make it last. But my wolf needed strength, and I needed to complete the transformation.

I ate and drank, and felt the last traces of wolfsbane burning away.

By the time the sun was fully up, I was pacing my small room, energy thrumming through my body. My wolf wanted to run. To hunt. To fight.

Soon, I promised it. Soon.

I spent the day doing exercises. Push-ups. Sit-ups. Anything to build back the muscle I had lost. My body responded faster than it should have, the Lunar Wolf blood finally flowing free.

When night fell again, I was not tired. I was restless.

One more full day until the gathering. One more day until Damien rejects me in front of everyone.

One more day until I could begin my revenge.

I stood at my window, looking out at the full moon rising in the distance. It seemed brighter than usual. Or maybe my eyes were just seeing more clearly now.

“I am ready,” I whispered to the moon. “Show me what to do.”

As if in answer, a howl rose from somewhere far away. It was not a wolf from this pack. It was something else. Something wild and ancient and calling to me.

My wolf answered with a howl of its own, rising from deep in my chest.

The sound that came from my throat was nothing like my old weak howl. This was power. This was fury. This was a challenge to every wolf who had ever hurt me.

I clapped my hand over my mouth, horrified. The guards would have heard that. They would come investigate.

I heard shouting in the hall. Footsteps running. The scrape of furniture being moved away from my door.

The door burst open. Beta Marcus stood there with two guards, all of them staring at me in shock.

“What was that sound?” Marcus demanded.

I shrank back against the wall, forcing myself to look weak and afraid. Hiding the power now coiling in my muscles.

“I do not know,” I whimpered. “It came from outside. From the forest.”

Marcus studied me suspiciously, then turned to the guards. “Search the perimeter. Something is out there.”

They left, locking the door behind them again.

I waited until their footsteps faded, then smiled.

They had heard my howl and thought it came from something in the forest.

They could not imagine that it came from me.

Perfect.

I returned to the window and looked out at the moon. Tomorrow night was the full moon gathering.

Tomorrow night, everything would change.

I pressed my hand against the glass and whispered a promise to the broken girl I used to be.

“They will pay. Every single one of them. I swear it.”

The moon seemed to glow brighter, as if in approval.

And somewhere in the distance, that ancient howl answered mine again.