Chapter 6

The first light of dawn broke through the canopy, spilling golden rays across the forest floor. The air was cool, laced with the scent of pine and earth, but in the training grounds a storm of power stirred—raw, untamed, and alive.

Aria stood in the center of the circle, her breath uneven, her chest rising and falling as though she carried the weight of the entire world. She had not slept since the revelation of the previous day. Kael’s words echoed in her mind again and again: You are the White Wolf. You are chosen.

But today, something was different.

Her skin tingled with a strange heat. Her wolf, Larah, paced restlessly inside her, no longer the quiet voice of support she had always known, but a blazing force demanding to be unleashed. Aria pressed a hand to her chest as her vision blurred, the forest around her spinning. Then, without warning, it happened.

A surge of light burst from her body.

Her bones cracked, reshaping, her muscles stretching and shifting. Her cries mixed with Larah’s howl as their forms became one. Where moments before had stood a young woman scarred by rejection, now rose a creature of legend—her true self.

Snow-white fur cascaded down her body, but it wasn’t just white; it shimmered with streaks of gold that glistened like molten sunlight. Three long, powerful tails swayed behind her, each one glowing faintly as though woven from divine flame. Her eyes—once icy blue—now gleamed with a fusion of her soul and Larah’s essence: one iris glowing silver, the other a piercing sapphire, both burning with an otherworldly fire.

She had become the White Wolf of prophecy.

And she was magnificent.

Kael, watching from the edge of the clearing, stiffened as her aura washed over him. Even as Alpha, with the strength and authority that came with it, he felt the sheer force of her presence crush against him like an unstoppable tide. His golden eyes widened, breath caught in his throat.

“She’s… enormous,” he muttered to himself.

It was true. Aria’s wolf towered above him, nearly twice the size of Kael’s own form. Power rippled through the air around her, bending leaves, stirring dust into the air. This was no ordinary wolf, no ordinary shifter. This was the blood of the Moon Goddess awakened.

Aria tilted her massive head, ears twitching as her senses exploded with clarity. She could hear every heartbeat in the forest, smell the faintest trace of prey hidden miles away. Even the pulse of Kael’s wolf called to her, strong but somehow… lesser.

We are no longer the same, Larah whispered in her mind, voice steady and strong. You are more, Aria. We are more. Remember this moment—it is the birth of who we were always meant to be.

Aria lowered her gaze, staring at her claws. They shimmered faintly, tipped with light as though forged from starlight. When she flexed them, the ground beneath her cracked.

“This is impossible…” she whispered, her voice echoing both through her wolf’s throat and her human spirit. “I was nothing. I was rejected.”

Kael stepped forward, his voice sharp, cutting through her disbelief. “You were never nothing. Rion’s rejection did not strip you of worth—it revealed what you were meant to become. You think this power was born of his cruelty? No. It was born from you. From your will to rise, to endure, to fight.”

Aria met his gaze, something fierce kindling in her chest. For the first time, she believed it.

---

The days that followed became a blur of grueling training.

Kael, though powerful in his own right, struggled to keep pace with her. He pushed her relentlessly, testing her endurance, her control, her connection with Larah. Together, they discovered what the three tails meant.

The first tail burned with speed, allowing her movements to blur faster than the human eye could follow. The second glowed with strength, each strike shattering trees, each leap spanning impossible distances. And the third pulsed with an energy Kael had never seen before—an aura of pure lunar power that could shield her, heal her, and devastate enemies with a blast of light.

But with each new discovery came new struggles.

Her body, though powerful, trembled under the weight of such energy. Sometimes her vision dimmed, sometimes the glow of her fur flickered. On her second night of training, she collapsed, her wolf form flickering back into her human body, leaving her shivering and drenched in sweat.

Kael was there instantly, steadying her, his warm hands anchoring her against the storm within.

“Control, Aria,” he said firmly. “It doesn’t matter how much power you hold if you let it destroy you.”

She grit her teeth, pushing herself upright. “I won’t break. Not again. Not for Rion, not for anyone.”

Kael studied her, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Good. That’s the fire you need. Keep it burning.”

---

By the end of the week, the forest around the training grounds bore the scars of her growth. Trees lay splintered where her claws had slashed them apart. The earth was torn in great furrows from her leaps. Even the air seemed heavier, charged with her energy.

But perhaps the greatest change was not in the forest—it was in Aria herself.

The timid woman who once trembled at rejection had hardened into something unshakable. Her gaze no longer wavered. Her stance no longer faltered. She had learned to weave her grief and anger into strength, to stand taller, to strike harder.

One evening, as the sun sank behind the trees, Kael called her to a stop. She shifted back into human form, golden-white hair tumbling down her shoulders, her mismatched eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. Her chest rose and fell with exhaustion, but she didn’t collapse as she once had. She stood firm.

“You’re ready,” Kael said simply.

Aria lifted her head, brushing sweat from her brow. “Ready for what?”

He stepped closer, his golden eyes burning with intensity. “Ready to face him. Rion. And the one who took your place at his side.”

At the mention of their names, fire licked at her veins. Rion. Bethanie. The pair who had shattered her pride, who had humiliated her before the pack. Once, the thought of them would have left her broken. Now, it only sharpened her resolve.

“They won’t face the same Aria they rejected,” she whispered, her voice carrying a dangerous edge. “They will face the White Wolf.”

Her wolf, Larah, howled in agreement, a sound that echoed through the forest, shaking the air with its power. Even Kael, strong as he was, felt the tremor in his bones.

Yes. She was ready.

---

That night, under the glow of the full moon, Aria stood at the edge of the forest, gazing toward the distant territory of the Crescent Pack. The place she once called home. The place where she had been cast aside.

Her golden-white hair shimmered in the moonlight, her three tails flickering faintly even in her human form. She looked less like a girl and more like a goddess walking the earth.

Kael stood beside her, silent, watching the determination etched into her face.

“Your path will not be easy,” he warned. “Rion is still Alpha. His pack will follow him, and Bethanie will not surrender her place without a fight. They will see you as a threat.”

Aria tilted her chin, her mismatched eyes blazing. “I am a threat.”

For a long moment, Kael only stared at her. Then, slowly, a proud smile curved his lips. “Yes. You are.”

And in that moment, Aria knew—when the day came that she faced Rion and Bethanie again, they would not be standing before the same fragile woman they had scorned.

They would be standing before the White Wolf.