Chapter 21 When the Earth Calls

Chapter 21 When the Earth Calls
Evra's POV
I woke up even before the first light slipped into the room.
Not because something disturbed me, but because my own body woke me up.
There was a strange sensation running through me. Not pain. Not the restless feeling from the previous nights when the power in my blood tried to break out without direction. This one felt more… organized.
Like something was pulsing.
At first I thought it was just my own heartbeat. But a few seconds later I realized the rhythm was too slow. And too large.
Was this the effect of the wolf-less part of my soul finally ending? Or… was it something else?
I slowly opened my eyes.
The ceiling of my room in the west wing of Rivenhall Castle was still wrapped in the shadows of dawn. Thick curtains blocked most of the light, leaving only a thin line stretching across the wooden floor near the window.
I slowly sat up at the edge of the bed.
The pulse was still there.
One.
Silence.
Two.
I held my breath.
The third pulse came with something that made the skin on my arms prickle.
The ground.
It was coming from the ground. I was sure of it.
The feeling didn’t come from inside my body like it usually did. This time it felt like something out there was moving… and my body was responding to it.
I pressed my palm against my chest.
My heart was beating normally.
But the other pulse was still there, faint but clear, like a distant echo traveling through bone.
I stood up and walked toward the window.
The wooden floor felt cold beneath my feet.
The moment I pulled the curtain aside slightly, the castle courtyard opened up in front of me. Morning fog still hung low over the training grounds. A few wolves were already moving down there—some training, others patrolling along the stone walls.
Everything looked normal.
But the feeling inside my body said otherwise.
I pressed my hand against the window glass.
The pulse came again.
Clearer this time.
And for a fraction of a second, I felt something that made my breath catch. As if the world outside had turned its head this way. Toward the castle. Toward me.
I immediately pulled my hand away from the glass.
“Okay,” I muttered quietly to myself.
This wasn’t the first time my body had reacted strangely since I arrived here. After everything that had happened—the voices in my head, the red light that appeared without warning, the entity claiming to be part of my blood, flashes of memories that I didn’t even know the origin of—I should have started getting used to it.
But this felt different.
Before, the power always felt like something trying to get out.
This time it felt like something was… calling.
I paced across the room for a few steps.
The pulse came again. Repeating, almost like it was forming a pattern I couldn’t understand.
I stopped in the middle of the room.
“This isn’t funny,” I whispered.
No answer came.
But something inside my head shifted slowly.
Not a clear voice like before. More like a shadow of awareness brushing lightly at the back of my mind.
I closed my eyes.
And suddenly the image from last night’s dream returned.
Red mist. A sky too dark to be called night. And a wide land I didn’t recognize.
I was standing alone in the middle of it.
No castle. No pack. No Magnus.
Just cracked ground and air that felt ancient.
In the distance, something moved behind the mist.
I couldn’t see its shape clearly. But I knew one thing for certain back then.
That creature was searching for something.
And somehow, I knew that something was me.
I opened my eyes quickly.
The room looked normal again. But my breathing was a little faster than before.
“Great,” I muttered under my breath. “Now I’m even having weird dreams.”
I tried to ignore it.
At least until the sound of footsteps in the corridor made me turn my head.
Guards.
They had been stationed outside my room since the incident some time ago. At first it made me feel like a prisoner, but after everything that had happened I started to understand why Magnus did it.
The problem was, today I didn’t want to stay inside this room.
I opened the door before the guards even had the chance to knock.
The two men standing outside immediately straightened.
“Miss Evra.”
I leaned my shoulder against the doorframe.
“Morning.”
They looked slightly confused.
Usually I didn’t leave my room this early.
“Is there something we can help you with?” one of them asked carefully.
I shook my head.
“Just want to take a short walk.”
The two guards exchanged glances.
“I’m not going to run,” I said flatly.
The taller one let out a short sigh.
“The Alpha’s order still stands, Miss. If you want to leave the west wing, we have to accompany you.”
“Then accompany me.”
I had already turned around before they could answer.
The castle corridor was still quiet. Morning light streamed through the tall windows along the stone walls, creating long streaks of brightness across the floor.
But unfortunately… the pulse appeared again.
Stronger this time.
I stopped walking.
One of the guards almost ran into my back.
“Miss?”
I didn’t answer.
The feeling came again.
Not from beneath my feet this time.
From outside.
From the forest.
My body reacted before my mind could process it.
I turned toward the west.
Toward the windows facing the outer territory of the castle.
And for one strange second, I felt like I was standing in the middle of a crowded room… even though there was actually no one there.
The feeling disappeared as quickly as it came.
I frowned.
“Okay,” I muttered again. “This is getting weirder.”
Eventually I stopped at the end of the corridor.
I wasn’t even sure when my feet had carried me this far from my room. At first I only wanted some fresh air, or maybe just to make sure the strange feeling in my chest wasn’t simply leftover imagination from last night’s dream. But the farther I walked through the stone hallways of this castle, the clearer one thing became—something I couldn’t ignore.
It felt like the entire castle was slightly more alive than usual.
The old stone walls that had probably stood for hundreds of years felt like they were holding something inside them, something I couldn’t see but somehow could faintly feel against my skin.
I rubbed my temple slowly.
“It’s just the dream,” I muttered to myself.
A strange dream that felt too real.
I had just turned around to go back to my room when the sound of footsteps came from the direction of the main staircase. Instinctively, I stepped back slightly into the shadow of a large stone pillar beside the corridor. An old habit I still carried from the human world—avoiding attention before knowing who was coming.
A man appeared from the corner of the hallway.
And I recognized him immediately without even needing to see his face clearly.
Magnus.
His steps were calm as usual, heavy and steady, but there was something different in his shoulders this morning. A subtle tension that was almost impossible to notice unless someone was really paying attention.
His long black coat moved lightly with each step, and even from this distance I could feel the Alpha aura that always followed him like a shadow. That pressure never truly disappeared—it only changed intensity.
I held my breath.
For some reason, my first instinct wasn’t to step out of the shadows and greet him. Instead, I took another step back.
Then another.
Without really thinking about it, I turned around and walked back toward my room before he could see me standing alone in the corridor like someone hiding. The guards who had followed me looked confused, but they stayed professional and said nothing before eventually returning to their positions in front of my door.
The bedroom door closed softly behind me.
Only then did I realize my heartbeat was a little faster than usual.
“What is wrong with me…” I muttered quietly.
I walked toward the window to distract myself, watching the young wolves training down below.
Everything looked normal. Nothing strange. Nothing had changed.
But once again, that strange feeling was still there in my chest.
A few seconds later, the sound of footsteps stopped right in front of my door.
I glanced back briefly, then looked at the window again.
A short knock followed.
I hadn’t even answered yet when the doorknob moved.
The door opened.
Magnus stepped in first.
His large frame immediately filled part of the room, making the space—which was actually quite large—feel smaller than usual.
I turned around fully.
Magnus’ gaze landed directly on me.
It took a few seconds before I realized something was different in his eyes.
Not anger.
Not suspicion like I had often seen before.
More like someone making sure something was truly where it should be.
Magnus let out a slow breath from the doorway. He had already anticipated our conversation from the beginning.
He simply stepped a little farther into the room and closed the door halfway, leaving no small gap for anyone else to slip inside.
I frowned after answering all his questions.
Especially when Magnus suddenly left my room and closed the door again.
Faintly, I heard Lorian’s voice on the other side of the door. I was sure something bad had happened, but I couldn’t hear their conversation clearly.
“Something isn’t right. I have to find out myself.”