Lycan’s Whisper

Reya’s POV

Riverdale territory. Too close. Too damn close.

“My voice clipped. ‘’ No one questioned me. Not anymore.

As I moved through the trees, the wind shifted. The scent hit me like a punch to the gut—ash, moss, memory. My steps slowed. Then stopped

There it was.

Half-buried in vines and time, the charred ruins of my old village.

I didn’t mean to walk toward it. My body just… moved. Wooden beams collapsed inward. The well was a gaping hole, forgotten. And at the center, blackened and broken—my childhood home.

My knees buckled before I realized it, the earth catching me like it remembered I once belonged here.

Reya?

The voice behind me made me stiffen.

Xander.

“I told you not to follow me.”

Reya,” a low voice behind me murmured again .

I stiffened.

Alpha.” I didn’t turn. “Didn’t expect you to trail me.”

“You told me a lot of things,” he said, voice unreadable. “Most of them lies.”

I didn’t turn.

The silence stretched like sinew between wolves. Fragile. Tense. Ready to snap.

“I know this place,” he said finally.

My heart stalled.

Xander stepped beside me silently. He looked at the ruin, then me. His gaze lingered.

“This place means something to you.”

I swallowed. “It used to.”

“What was it?”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t.

He crouched, brushed ash from a scorched wooden board. “This was wiped out five years ago. Around the same time a Luna vanished from Riverdale.”

My jaw tightened.

He glanced up. “She was never found. No body. No scent trail. Rumor was she died… or escaped.”

My heart hammered. “Is that what this is, Alpha? A history lesson?

“I don’t like unanswered questions,” he said evenly. “Especially not about my soldiers.”

I stood. “Then ask directly.”

His eyes locked on mine. “Who are you, really?”

The silence stretched, heavy and crackling.

“I’m a warrior in your ranks,” I said. “Nothing more.”

“Lies don’t suit you.” His voice was low, sharp. “You fight like someone who’s lost everything. You lead like someone who’s had power stripped away.”

I looked away. “You don’t know me.”

“Then tell me.”

The smoke stung worse than it should’ve.

It wasn’t real. Not anymore.

But the scent clung to my lungs like old memories that refused to die.

I stepped over scorched rubble, once a home, now nothing but ash. My boots crunched glass and bone. Every step forward felt like a betrayal to the girl who used to dance barefoot across this very dirt.

Riverdale territory brushed too close to my past. I hadn’t planned to stop here. But the ruins called to me like a ghost whispering my name.

Xander stepped beside me, gaze scanning the blackened remnants of what once was a home. My home.

“You trained me to read battlefields. This one speaks.”

His eyes slid to me, cold and cutting. “Why didn’t you tell me this was your home?”

“Because it’s dead,” I said flatly. “Like everyone in it.”

Except me.

Xander crouched near a collapsed wall, brushing soot away to reveal a jagged carving—an old bloodline mark.

He froze.

“This is an Alpha mark.”

“I wouldn’t touch that,” I said tightly.

He looked up at me slowly. “You were Riverdale’s Luna.”

My breath caught. The words hit harder than they should’ve. But it wasn’t the title that hurt. It was the ache of what I had lost.

“No,” I said quietly. “I was Tristan’s mate. That’s not the same thing.”

“But it explains everything,” Xander said, rising. “Your scent. Your silence. Why the Riverdale wolves hesitate when they face you in battle.”

“Are you going to use it against me?

He studied me for a long, quiet moment. Then he shook his head. “No. But I’m not your enemy, Reya. Stop treating me like one.”

I laughed—bitter and hollow. “Everyone’s the enemy eventually.”

The wind carried the scent of moss and cinder. Familiar. Haunting.

“My Dad buried my mother under that tree,” I said suddenly, pointing to a twisted husk of oak. “She died screaming my name.”

‘’ As for my Dad he died too but I wasn't there for his burial because I was running away from abuses and suffering. 

Xander didn’t speak.

“I was eighteen,” I whispered. “And pregnant. And hunted. And so gods-damned scared I forgot what it meant to be human.”

I dropped to my knees beside a half-melted ring. I knew that ring. Tristan had given it to me the night he swore to protect me forever.

Liar.

I pocketed it without looking.

“I’m not her anymore,” I muttered.

The wind howled through the ruins, carrying whispers of a past I buried deep.

“You said it yourself, Alpha,” I murmured. “The Luna vanished. Maybe I died.”

“And maybe,” he said, stepping closer, “she’s standing in front of me.”

I didn’t flinch. “If I was, would you protect me ? Or turn me in for lying to you?

He didn’t answer immediately.

“I’d protect you ,” he said finally, voice quieter. “But only if you told me the truth.”

“I’m not her anymore,” I muttered.

“No,” Xander said. “You’re stronger.”

I looked up. The wind lifted strands of my hair. My eyes met his—and for a moment, something unspoken passed between us . Understanding. Not trust. But something close.

“Don’t pity me, Xander.”

“I don’t.” He stepped back. “I fear you.”

That startled me. 

He tilted his head. “And that’s why I follow.”

The sound of distant howls rose—my team calling. The contest would resume soon. I had a role to play. A reputation to earn.

I rose from the ashes of my past and walked away, never looking back.

Xander watched me go, one thought gnawing his gut. 

I wasn’t just dangerous.

I was becoming something unstoppable.

And gods help them all when I realized it.

We stared at each other, two storms colliding.

He grabbed my arm. “This isn’t over, Reya.”

“No,” I said, pulling free. “It’s only just beginning.”

Then I ran toward the howls, back into the fire. Away from the ashes.

And from the truth clawing its way to the surface.