Ghosts of Blood and Prophecy

Serena’s heart raced against her ribs, her breath frozen in her throat. It was so surreal that her mind struggled to comprehend what stood before her. she couldn’t look away from. Herself, facing her now —Isolde.

She looke so different yet so familiar, Isolde’s hair was wild, unkempt black curls, her eyes shining with sin and defiance. But something was off. Her mother was no longer the person she once knew. She looked like she was under a spell or something. And the Isolde in front of her now felt like a stranger.

“ Mum?” Serena’s voice cracked. She was baffled at what was happening. She found out that the same woman, who came to her side all those years later, and elusive told a few truths in her favour, was turned against her.

Isolde looked at her, and then she smiled, just a little, which might have been wistful. “You’ve changed… you’re more like your father,” she said, her voice flat, distant, but there was a glimmer of something else shining in her eyes — regret?” Guilt? Serena couldn’t tell.

As he stood beside Serena, Lucian stiffened, his body frozen with an almost unseen tension. His keen eyes darted back and forth between Isolde and the rogue wolves, who darted slow, predatory circles around them, each movement deliberate and measured, with cutthroat, almost premeditated malice, as if they were playing a waiting game and wanted to wait for an opening to pounce on their prey.”

“What are you doing here, Isolde?” His voice was gravelly, low, but the hint of anger and suspicion was unmistakable.

" What do you think? I came to retrieve my daughter. You’ve helped me do what I never could do.”

You must have lost your mind Isolde to believe you could sneak into our pack for a second time." Lucian said through clenched teeth angrily.

“It’s been twice, but it’s not only twice. She glanced up as though recalling the actual hours.

Serena moved forward, her head spinning. What was this? She had hundreds of questions — why did her mother vanish? Why had she left her and her father, without a word? But she couldn’t ask any of them — at least not yet. She had so many emotions in her that her mind was just so, so up and down.

It was Lucian that snuffed out her train of thought with a growl. “You can’t come back, she is no longer your daughter. he said. His protective instincts kicked in, and there beside her, she felt him bristle.

“I’m not going to justify myself,” Isolde said, the tone coming out of her suddenly cutting, sharp with the air. “I came here, because there’s something at stake here. Something you’re all already embroiled in.” She looked through Serena, surveying the group of rogue wolves that had surrounded them, moving with methodical slowness. “And the crazy part is that you don’t even know it.”

" What do you mean?" ‘Yes they are,’ Serena asked in a slow voice.

“ She is now blessed with the power of the Luna and the Onyx wolf. You just put a huge target on her back by making her your Luna. Isolde spat out.

Serena felt her Onyx wolf stirring inside of her, restless, agitated, picking up on the danger cloaking the air. She felt its appetite, its predatory instincts howling at her to get out of the way. She coiled, a familiar rush of power stroking her veins.

But even as Serena felt something change inside her, there was a quiet chorus way in the back, deep in her chest. Was she actually ready for whatever this was? Would the wolf inside her save her? Or would it lead her farther from the people she loved?

Lucian’s voice sliced through her uncertainties. “I know what you think you’re here for, Isolde,” he said, quiet, steady. “But you are not dragging Serena into nothing.”

The expression on Isolde’s face hardened, her lips pinching into a thin line. “I’m not here for you,” she snapped, but there was a glimmer of something else in her, though, something like regret, or maybe fear. “I’m here because the war has already begun, like it or not.” Her gaze shot to the rogues, who were closing fast, cruelty glimmering in their slanted eyes.

We are aware of that, you did not have to come tell us.

What the prophecy says… I have to make sure it never comes true. Isolde sneered.

Her mother’s words had settled like lead in Serena’s throat.

You just need to come with me, do you think Lucian care about you? He does, he’s just as bad as the rest of us, he’s just after the power.”

Serena's eyes flickered between her mum and Lucian, both of them battling it out in her mind.

“Serena she’s just trying to turn us against one another don’t listen to her. Lucian pleaded with her, trying to persuade.

Serena was still standing there trying to collect her thoughts when the rogue wolves sprang before she could even speak. They barked the sounds in unison, and the night was filled with snarls and the loud thumping of paws on the ground. The air vibrated with the pulse of combat, and Serena went feral.

She had no time to think. The Onyx wolf was already in control, telling her where to go before her mind could even find its bearings. She spun on her heels, cutting high and low through the air. Her talons raked diagonally down a rogue’s chest, and he staggered backward with a howl. But there was no time to celebrate the victory. Another rogue attacked, fangs bared, eyes aglow with rage.

Lucian stood next to her, moving just as fast and as deadly, but Serena didn’t need protection from him anymore. The version of her was not the same she’d previously been. The wolf within her raged and her hair felt like it was standing on edge, her bone marrow burning with the heat of all the fierce, raging wind of night, but now it was her turn.

It was a fury on the battlefield, and all at once, everything Serena sensed invaded her. She was top heavy with the strength bred from the Onyx wolf, yet this was a little too off, even for her. Her mother’s ghosts, the renegade wolves — something bigger was out there in the dark and she could feel it.

The clearing fell silent before the final rogue thudded to the ground. Her mother had disappeared again without a trace. Serena shifted back to her human form.

Whatever the case may have been, it was obvious that whatever business she had, will not be done, for it felt as though whatever there was still was not completed, still hung on and lingered as a task undone, a process that still needed to be become terminated.