Chapter 23 The Pull Beyond the Walls
Evra’s POV
I didn’t move for a few seconds after my bedroom door closed again.
The guards’ footsteps in the corridor were still faintly audible. They moved quickly toward the main staircase, their boots echoing along the long stone walls of the castle. There was no panic in their steps, but something about them was clearly different from usual.
This castle wasn’t having a normal morning.
I was still standing in the same spot, staring at the door like someone hoping the thick wood might suddenly explain what was actually going on.
The forest border.
Something was standing there.
The guard’s words kept replaying in my head.
And worse… my body had already known it was true before he even said anything.
I walked back to the window.
The training grounds below were still running normally, even though something clearly seemed to be happening inside the castle. A few young wolves were still moving in sparring pairs, running fast across the open ground while trading blows and dodging with a speed that ordinary human eyes would struggle to follow.
But now I started noticing something I hadn’t paid attention to before.
There were more guards around the castle walls.
Some were moving toward the west gate. Others were heading to the watchtowers.
I had seen this before when I still lived in the Pack years ago.
This was a defensive formation.
Which meant this wasn’t just a small report from a patrol.
This was something serious enough to make Magnus mobilize the Pack.
I rested my hand against the window frame and let out a quiet breath.
“Fantastic,” I muttered softly. “Now I’m even feeling it before they do.”
Usually, if something happened outside the castle, I wouldn’t know anything unless someone came to tell me. The wolves’ world had never really allowed me to become part of them.
I was just someone bought at an auction.
An expensive prisoner who, for some reason, was still being kept by the most dangerous Alpha in this territory.
But now… my body was reacting to something I didn’t even fully understand yet.
And I had absolutely no idea what that meant.
I rubbed my temple slowly.
“Okay. Let’s think about this logically.”
I tried to organize the possibilities in my head.
First: the black shadow when I first arrived at Rivenhall, the fire that followed wherever it moved, the dark space that was far too silent, and the voice that kept talking about my awakening.
Second: last night’s dream. Red mist. Cracked earth. A creature in the distance.
Third: the pulse I’d been feeling since waking up—something that wasn’t from my body, but from the ground.
Fourth: the patrol’s report. Something standing at the edge of the territory.
I let out a longer breath.
“There’s no way all of this is a coincidence. Something is happening… and somehow it all leads back to me.”
But before I could continue that thought, something extremely subtle brushed against my awareness again.
Not a voice.
Not words.
More like… a small pressure behind my mind.
I immediately stiffened.
The feeling came so softly it was almost impossible to notice. But the moment I became aware of it, the sensation seemed to sharpen slightly.
As if something had just turned its head.
My eyes closed without me realizing it.
“I really don’t like this,” I muttered.
But my awareness caught something else.
Direction.
Not distance that I could measure with steps or a map. More like an instinct that simply knew where to look.
West. The forest border.
My body tensed. The pulse didn’t return.
But the attention was still there.
And for the first time since all this chaos began, one thought appeared very clearly in my head.
They know I’m here.
My eyes snapped open.
“No,” I told myself.
I shook my head hard.
This was getting ridiculous.
I’d already experienced enough strange things since arriving at this castle, but there was no way I was suddenly connected to something that nobody even understood yet.
This had to be the effect of everything that had happened in the past few days.
I had just confronted the entity inside my blood.
On top of that, Magnus had almost been injured because of the energy that came out of my body.
And now my mind was starting to make up its own stories.
Yeah.
That had to be the most logical explanation.
I was just about to step away from the window when fast footsteps echoed in the corridor again.
But this time it wasn’t just one or two people.
There were more of them.
The sound stopped right outside my door.
Before I could react, the door opened again.
Dareth entered first.
His expression was serious as usual, but now there was a clear tension on his face. He stopped one step inside the room, making sure the door closed behind him before speaking.
“Evra.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Wow… busy morning? I’ve lost count of how many people have already come to my room today.”
The Beta’s gaze flicked quickly toward the window before returning to me.
“You need to stay in your room.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Is that Magnus’ order too? If it is, he probably shouldn’t keep giving the same one.”
Dareth didn’t smile. “This time it’s different,” he said.
“That guard said the same thing.”
“Evra!”
The tone of his voice was enough to make me drop the casual attitude.
I stepped a little closer.
“Explain something to me. What makes this order different from the others?”
He let out a short breath.
“The west patrol reported something they’ve never seen before.”
I waited.
But he didn’t continue immediately.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Dareth looked at me for a few seconds before finally answering.
“The creature standing at the border hasn’t moved at all.”
I swallowed slowly.
Exactly what the guard had said earlier.
“How long?”
“Since before dawn.”
My heart started beating a little faster.
Before dawn. That meant while I was still asleep. While the dream happened.
I turned my face slightly so Dareth wouldn’t see my expression change.
But the Beta was far too used to reading people.
“You look like you’re hiding something.”
I sighed quietly.
“If I told you I might already know something about what’s out there before you even reported it, would you think I’m crazy?”
Dareth didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he watched me very calmly.
“Try explaining.”
I walked back to the window.
“I woke up today with a strange feeling,” I said softly. “Not like when the power in my blood goes unstable. Not like when the entity inside my blood first woke up. This is different.”
I touched the glass with my fingertips.
“This time… it feels like there’s a pulse in the ground.”
Dareth stayed silent. I continued.
“And the direction I feel is always the same.”
I glanced over my shoulder.
“West.”
The room became very quiet.
Dareth didn’t say anything for a few seconds.
When he finally spoke, his voice was lower.
“Magnus needs to hear this. He needs to know all of it.”
I exhaled. “Yeah. Of course.”
But before I could say anything else, heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor.
Footsteps I recognized immediately.
Magnus.
The door opened again a few seconds later.
And the Alpha walked in without saying a word.
His eyes found me immediately near the window.
Something in his face changed the entire atmosphere of the room in an instant.
It wasn’t just seriousness.
It looked more like someone who had just seen something he hadn’t expected.
“I just came back from the west tower,” he finally said.
Dareth turned to him.
“What happened?”
Magnus didn’t answer right away.
His gaze was still fixed on me.
“You felt it again, didn’t you?”
I blinked.
“Felt what?”
Magnus walked a few steps closer.
The pressure of his Alpha aura immediately filled the room like usual, but this time I was too focused on his words to think about that.
“That connection.”
My stomach felt a little cold.
“You’re talking like it actually exists.”
Magnus stopped only a few steps away from me.
“There’s something out there.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I know.”
Magnus shook his head slightly.
“Not just something.”
He looked straight into my eyes.
“Then what?”
“They’re standing still. And there are more of them. Every time the guards try to get closer…”
He paused.
His expression shifted slightly, as if the next words sounded strange even to him.
“…the creatures don’t attack. They’re just standing there.”
I waited.
Magnus continued in a flat voice.
“They’re only staring at the castle.”
I felt something move in my chest.
“Like they’re waiting,” he added.
The room fell silent again.
I swallowed slowly.
“Waiting for what?”
Magnus didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at me for a few seconds longer than usual.
And when he finally spoke, his voice was very calm.
“What do you think… they’re waiting for?”
I let out a short breath.
“If I’m being honest… the answer won’t be pleasant.”
Dareth crossed his arms.
“We prefer the truth.”
I looked back at the window.
The forest still stood far away, covered in thin mist that hadn’t completely faded yet.
But now it felt different.
Because I knew something was truly there.
And the possibility forming in my head was getting harder and harder to ignore.
“There’s one thing that’s been crossing my mind since this morning,” I said quietly.
Magnus didn’t look away from me.
“What?”
I swallowed before answering.
“Maybe… those creatures aren’t standing there to attack your territory.”
I paused for a moment.
Then I looked back at Magnus.
“Maybe they’re standing there…”
The air in the room felt heavier even before I finished my sentence.
“…because they’re waiting for someone to come out of the castle.”
Dareth frowned.
“Who are you talking about?”
I didn’t answer immediately.
But Magnus already knew. I could see it in his eyes.
He looked at me for a few seconds before finally saying quietly, “Evra.”
I exhaled slowly.
“Yes.”
The room became very silent after that.
Then Magnus spoke in a very flat voice.
“If that’s true…” He paused for a moment. And the next sentence made the air in the room feel much colder. “…then I need to make sure of one thing before the sun sets.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
Magnus stared straight into my eyes and said quietly,
“whether those creatures came to take you…”
He stopped.
“…or came because something inside you called them.”