Chapter 128: Shadows Stir
Chapter 128: Shadows Stir
Nasir’s POV
The room was quiet except for the sound of her breathing as Trinity was curled against me with her head rising and falling, with each steady thud of my chest and her hand rested just above my heart like she had placed it there to make sure it wouldn’t betray her in the night.
I’d told her things tonight I never imagined I’d say aloud. I admitted truths that had clawed at my insides for years and somehow, instead of pushing me away, she had listened and she had looked at me with those wide eyes, hurt- yes but also hopeful and that was the part that kept me awake.
Her hope terrified me because hope was dangerous, hope meant she might believe me, and if she believed me, then i had the power to break her again.
My wolf stirred uneasily inside me. You won’t break her and you’ll protect her. She’s ours.
I let my hand drift through her hair with soft strands slipping through my fingers as she smelled faintly of lavender which wasn’t just calming but was anchoring and dragging me back every time i thought about walking out of this room and pretending none of this had happened but even as i sat there pretending this peace could last, something outside shifted.
A chill slid down my spine, sharp enough to draw my full attention as I froze and my gaze snapping toward the window where pale moonlight spilled across the glass. Nothing moved and yet everything did.
The shadows didn’t seem right.
I frowned, carefully disentangling myself from Trinity’s hold. Her body stirred a soft sigh escaping her lips and I tucked the blanket closer around her before rising silently, muscles coiled and senses straining.
The air was wrong. Too still and too heavy.
My wolf bristled. Something’s here and I crossed the room in three strides and placed a hand against the windowpane. Far colder than it should’ve been and I narrowed my eyes scanning the dark gardens below. No movement, no rogues and not even a stray guard patrolling the outer grounds but yet every instinct screamed danger.
“Nasir?”
Her voice was soft, sleepy and vulnerable.
I turned sharply. Trinity was sitting up in bed, blinking at me through mussed strands of hair. The sheet had slipped to her waist, leaving her shoulders bare in the moonlight and my throat tightened at the sight.
“Stay in bed” I ordered sharper than i meant.
Her eyes narrowed instantly. Stubborn girl “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing” I lied too quickly.
The shift in her posture told me she wasn’t buying it as she slid her legs off the mattress and stood, the blanket falling away completely and for a second, I forgot about the danger and all I could see was her standing there, vulnerable and breathtakingly trusting me to keep her safe.
Then she whispered something that made the blood in my veins ice over.
“I feel it too”
My heart stuttered “What?”
She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering though the room wasn’t cold and her eyes darted toward the same stretch of darkness beyond the window where I’d felt the shift “It’s like something’s watching”
That wasn’t possible. She had no wolf, no heightened senses as she wasn’t supposed to feel what I felt and yet, she had.
The shadows outside thickened and my hands curled into fists.
Then, they blinked.
I reacted instantly, moving in front of her and shoving her back toward the bed as she stumbled but didn’t protest and her eyes locked on the darkness outside.
The shape emerged slowly peeling itself away from the night as though the shadows themselves had birthed it. A figure, tall and lean moving with the wrong kind of grace too fluid and too unnatural.
It wasn’t a wolf and it wasn’t human but I knew the stories.
Shadowborn.
Whispers from my childhood clawed through my head. Creatures born of curses and hunting the bond between mates. Neither wolf nor man. Beasts that thrived on what was most sacred to us, feeding on the connection the Moon Goddess forged.
I hadn’t believed the tales. No one in my generation had. They were bedtime warnings meant to frighten pups into staying close to home but now, one was standing outside Trinity’s window, silver eyes glowing like coals buried in ash.
Trinity gasped behind me “What is that?” he asked.
The creature tilted its head, studying her. Then it smiled and lips peeling back into a jagged grin that was wrong in every way.
Its voice scraped across the air, low and rasping carried on the night wind.
“She’s glowing, Alpha and the bond has awakened.”
My blood ran cold, not me and not my power...it was her.
Trinity clutched the back of my arm and fingers digging into my skin “Nasir” Her voice trembled “It knows me”
“I won’t let it touch you” I growled, and my wolf surged forward, pushing at my skin and begging to be released. The instinct to fight, to protect her and roared through me until my hands shook with the effort of holding back.
The Shadowborn laughed in a sound like dry leaves scraping across stone “Such a fragile light. You think you can guard it, wolf? You think the bond makes her strong? No, it makes her mine”
I bared my teeth “Step closer and you’ll regret ever crawling out of whatever pit spat you into this world”
It moved shifting forward with slow and deliberate steps like testing my resolve. Every motion it made blurred slightly as though it belonged half in this world and half somewhere else.
Behind me, Trinity whispered “Why can i feel it and why can i sense it if i don’t have a wolf?” he asked
I didn’t have an answer as I couldn't tell her that her body was glowing faintly in my peripheral vision, threads of light clinging to her skin like the first strands of dawn.
The Shadowborn’s grin widened “Because she was never meant to be wolfless”
I stiffened “Liar”
“Ask her” the creature crooned “Ask the girl why she feels the pull of the moon though she’s been told all her life she cannot”
I turned my head slightly enough to catch a glimpse of Trinity’s face. She looked stricken, torn between fear and something else. Something like recognition.
“Nasir” she whispered and her voice breaking “I’ve felt the pull before and i just thought i was imagining things”
My world tilted. She’d never told anyone or had someone silenced her?
The Shadowborn stretched its hand toward the window and long fingers curling like to pluck her from the room. The glass frosted over instantly and spiderwebbing with cracks.
“No!” Trinity cried, clutching at me.
I shoved her behind me again and my body shifted, bones popping as my wolf surged forward then my vision went sharp and amber bleeding into darkness as claws pushed through my fingertips.
“You’ll have to go through me” I snarled.
The creature laughed once more and the sound echoed in places it shouldn’t “Oh, Alpha...i was counting on that”
The window shattered and shards of glass exploded inward, scattering like deadly rain and I threw my arms around Trinity shielding her as the icy air of the night rushed into the room.
When I looked up again, the Shadowborn was gone.