The fire within

I didn’t sleep.

The room was too quiet, too warm, too wrong.

My whole life I’d slept on a cot in a cold corner of the servant hall, wrapped in thin blankets and silence. This room with its soft sheets and roaring fireplace felt like a lie. Like something borrowed. Something that could be taken away at any moment.

Maybe it already had been.

My freedom. My pack. As cruel as they were, they were still all I knew.

Now, I was under the roof of an Alpha who claimed me without reason. Said I was “supposed to die.” Looked at me like I was a ghost.

What did he know?

The fire crackled in the hearth, casting flickering shadows on the stone walls. I stared into it, arms wrapped around my knees.

And then just like before, it hit me.

A flash.

Screaming.  

Flames.  

Chains around my wrists.  

A circle of wolves watching, unmoved, as I burned.

I gasped, stumbling away from the fire like it had leapt out at me.

It hadn’t.

But the pain was real. A deep ache in my chest, my skin, my bones. Like something trapped inside me was trying to claw its way out.

I ran to the window, threw it open, and let the cold air slap me in the face.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Behind me, the fire snapped louder. Sparks flew, and for a moment, I swore it shaped itself into a symbol, circular, with sharp, jagged edges.

But when I blinked, it was gone.

At breakfast, Kael didn’t show.

Instead, the Beta from yesterday, his name was Dax, escorted me to a room that looked like a war council chamber. Long table, leather chairs, maps and papers scattered across the surface.

I stood awkwardly while he looked me over like I was a problem to solve.

“So,” he said. “You’re the cursed omega.”

“Good morning to you too,” I muttered.

He smirked. “Cute. Listen, I don’t know what game the Alpha’s playing, but here’s how this works, you do what you’re told, keep your head down, and maybe you’ll survive here. Don’t cause trouble.”

I frowned. “I never asked to come here.”

“Then maybe don’t awaken a bond with the most dangerous Alpha alive,” he said sharply. “You think he’s confused? We’re all confused. You don’t even have a wolf. Yet he nearly lost control yesterday because of you.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“You better figure it out,” Dax said, stepping closer. “Because if you turn out to be a threat…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t have to.

By midday, Kael still hadn’t appeared. I wandered the edge of the training field, avoiding eye contact with the warriors who sparred in the dirt.

Some glared. Others whispered.

None smiled.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. This wasn’t a fairy tale. A mate bond didn’t guarantee affection. It didn’t even guarantee survival.

I sat beneath a tree at the far end of the field and closed my eyes. Maybe if I focused hard enough, I could hear something. Feel my wolf. Feel anything.

But there was only silence.

Until

A whisper.

Not from outside.

From inside.

“You forgot us.”

My eyes flew open.

“What ?”

A sharp heat seared across my back. I cried out, twisting to reach it, but there was nothing there—only the echo of a voice I shouldn’t have heard and a mark I couldn’t see.

I stumbled toward the packhouse, heart racing.

Kael was in the hallway. Waiting.

Our eyes met.

And he froze.

“You felt it, didn’t you?” he asked.

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

Kael stepped closer, scanning my face like he could read the answers there.

“You’re waking up.”

“Waking up… from what?”

A beat of silence.

And then he said the words that changed everything.

“From your past life.”