CHAPTER 5

“Amelia!”

The voice echoed through the darkness, and I turned around, trying to find the person calling my name. I couldn’t see anything. The silver light that had surrounded me moments ago was fading, leaving me in a place that felt cold and unfamiliar.

“Who’s there?” I called, but my voice sounded weak.

I took a step forward. A sharp pull caught in my chest, I pressed a hand against it as an unfamiliar warmth spread through my body. It wasn’t the pain I had felt when Aiden rejected me. This feeling was different, as if something inside me was slowly waking up.

“Amelia, wake up!”

My eyes flew open. I sat up with a gasp and looked around, trying to understand where I was. The bed beneath me was softer than the one in my room back at the packhouse. The sheets smelled faintly of lavender, and beyond the quiet room I could hear the wind moving outside.

Then I noticed the two picture frames hanging on the wall opposite the bed.

I stared at them. Both pictures were of me. In one, I looked older; in the other, I was much younger. I couldn’t remember ever having that second picture taken, and I didn’t recognize the place in the background. I climbed off the bed and took a step toward it, hoping that looking closer might help me remember, but It didn’t.

Where was I? And how had I got here?

The last thing I remembered was standing before the Moon Goddess and listening to her warning. Then the silver light had swallowed everything around me. I couldn’t remember travelling, falling asleep, or arriving in this room.

I slowly made my way toward the door, but dizziness swept over me as soon as my feet touched the floor. I caught the edge of a nearby table and waited for the room to settle.

“Easy, my dear.”

I spun toward the voice. A woman stood outside the open doorway, watching me with concern. She looked to be in her late twenties, with dark hair tied back and a careful expression. I had never seen her before, yet there was something strangely familiar about her that I couldn’t explain.

“Who are you?” I asked.

Her shoulders relaxed slightly. “You’re finally awake.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. Where am I, and how did I get here?”

She remained at the doorway. When I moved back a step, she noticed and didn’t come any closer.

“You don’t need to be afraid of me, Amelia.”

I went still. I hadn’t told her my name. “How do you know who I am?”

For a moment, she studied my face without speaking. Her expression shifted, as though she was holding back words she wasn’t sure she had permission to say.

“Because we’ve been waiting for you,” she answered quietly. “You have no idea what your return means to this pack, especially after what happened to your family.”

“My family?” I repeated. “What happened to them? And why would your pack be waiting for me?”

She glanced down the corridor before meeting my eyes again. “I can’t explain everything right now.”

“Then take me back to wherever I came from.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t bring someone to a strange place and refuse to tell them anything!” My voice rose, but I was too exhausted to keep arguing for long.

“I didn’t bring you here,” she said. “You were found unconscious outside our territory.”

Outside their territory? The words made no sense. I remembered the Moon Goddess, the silver light, and the feeling that something had changed inside me. There had been no road, no journey, and no reason for me to wake up in a place I had never seen before.

“What territory is this?”

She hesitated before answering. “You’re somewhere your old pack has no authority.”

I stared at her, trying to decide whether that was meant to reassure me or warn me. I had spent so long wishing I could escape Aiden and the life I had with him. Now that I was away, I had no idea where I was—or whether I was safe.

I pressed a hand to my chest and reached inward for my wolf. For most of my life, she had been so weak that I could barely sense her. This time, I found her almost immediately. She wasn’t struggling or hiding. She felt calm, alert, and strangely content, as if being here had eased something in her.

“What’s happening to us?” I whispered.

No answer came, but I could feel her presence more clearly than I ever had before.

Then I remembered the Moon Goddess’s words. I was pregnant.

My hand moved to my stomach. There was a child growing inside me—a child I hadn’t even known about until the Goddess told me. Aiden had rejected me, and the thought of facing the future alone frightened me more than I wanted to admit. I didn’t know what kind of life I could give this baby, or what would happen when Aiden learned the truth. But I knew I couldn’t let my child suffer for the choices he had made.

I took a slow breath and kept my hand against my stomach. “I’ll protect you,” I whispered, though I had no idea how I would manage it.

As I lowered my hand, a faint warmth spread through my wrist. I looked down and saw a small silver mark beneath my skin. At first, I thought it was dirt, so I rubbed it with my thumb. It didn’t disappear. Instead, it glimmered softly for a moment before fading until it was almost impossible to see.

I turned my wrist toward the light, searching for it again. What was that mark? Had it appeared because of the Moon Goddess, or had it been there all along? I had no answer, and I didn’t get the chance to look more closely. Footsteps sounded in the corridor.

The woman fell silent. Her posture changed, and when she spoke again, the worry in her voice had given way to something more serious.

“There’s someone who needs to see you.”

“Who?”

She looked directly at me. “Your uncle.”

My uncle?

I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had spoken about him. I had questions about my family, but no answers—not even enough to know why this woman’s pack had been waiting for me. Before I could ask anything else, a shadow appeared behind her in the doorway.

The person didn’t enter. He stood just beyond the threshold, and when he spoke, his voice carried the quiet authority of someone who was used to being obeyed.

“Amelia Bennett,” he said. “You’ve finally returned.”