Chapter 20 “When Wolves Remember”
The moment the rune stirs, I feel it — like lightning threading through my veins.
A rush of energy slams into me so violently that I drop to one knee, the Heartstone burning hot in my palm.
Kael roars inside my mind, his voice raw and alive.
She’s touched the gate.
My vision fractures, filled with flashes — silver roots winding through earth, her hand pressed to them, light spiraling around her like a living flame.
“She found it,” I whisper.
I can feel her heartbeat pounding in my chest. Not just a faint echo now — real. Rhythmic. Steady. Our bond no longer asleep, but awake and alive.
I stagger to my feet, clutching the balcony rail. The night beyond the Silver Keep is restless, the wind carrying a strange scent — the tang of magic and something older, something sacred.
Kael growls again, pacing within me.
Do you remember now, Aiden?
I grit my teeth. “What are you talking about?”
Her name.
The word strikes deep. Images begin to unfurl behind my eyes — memories not of now, but of before.
A moonlit field.
Laughter like sunlight breaking through mist.
Elera’s hand in mine, her eyes silver and bright.
Our wolves circling beneath twin moons, howling as one.
The bond wasn’t born yesterday. It’s ancient. Older than the gate itself.
My pulse stutters as I sink against the railing. “I thought I’d imagined it all. That night she vanished…”
Kael’s tone softens, almost mournful. You didn’t lose her. You were bound to her. They tore her from this realm to protect her — and to protect you.
“Protect me from what?”
From what you were becoming.
I blink hard, the world spinning. The memories keep coming in shards and fragments — a council chamber lit by cold fire, Maera’s younger face as she warned, “She is the Luna of the Veil — her death will open the gate.”
Then Elera’s scream, her hand torn from mine as light swallowed her whole.
I remember the scent of burning silver. The echo of her voice as she fell through the veil.
And then — silence.
My chest tightens painfully. “I thought she was gone.”
She was never gone, Kael says. Just sleeping. Just waiting for you to remember who you were when you loved her.
The doors behind me open, slamming against the walls. Thorne strides in, breathless. “The Heartstone flared again — the entire eastern sky lit up like dawn! What happened?”
I hold up the stone. It glows faintly now, pulsing in time with the beat in my chest. “She found the gate.”
His expression shifts from awe to fear. “Then the veil is weakening. You know what that means.”
“Yes.” I turn toward the horizon where the mountains curve like the spine of a sleeping beast. “The balance is shifting. The realms will soon overlap.”
Thorne hesitates. “And you? What will you do?”
I look down at the Heartstone, the light dancing through my fingers. “What I should have done the day she was taken — bring her home.”
That night, I can’t rest. Every time I close my eyes, I see her — not the dream version I’d been haunted by, but her as she is now. Her hair loose around her shoulders, her eyes filled with both fear and courage. I can feel her confusion through the bond, her heartbeat trembling in sync with mine.
I whisper her name into the quiet, and the wind answers with a soft hum that feels like her breath.
“Elera,” I murmur, pressing a hand to the mark beneath my collarbone — the same one she bears. It glows faintly under my touch, warm and alive.
Kael stirs again, restless. If you go to her now, you may never return.
“I know.”
And you’ll break the council’s laws.
“I’ve broken greater things for her.”
He lets out a low, approving growl. Then it’s time the Alpha chose his own destiny.
I move through the keep in silence, the corridors lit only by torchlight. Every wolf I pass bows their head, but I barely see them. My thoughts are all on her. On the way her voice trembled when she said my name across the veil.
At the edge of the keep, the path leads down to the sacred pool — the Mirror of Moons. The water glows faintly, reflecting both moons above, a place where truth and memory merge.
I kneel by the water and let the Heartstone hover just above the surface.
The ripples form instantly, glowing lines that twist into symbols — the same ones she touched beneath the roots.
Her rune. My bond.
When the lights merge, I see her — not a dream, but her reflection staring back at me from another world.
She looks tired, her hair tangled from sleep, her lips parted in wonder.
Her hand rises — and in the reflection, it meets mine through the water.
The bond flares, bright and whole. For a heartbeat, the veil is nothing.
I whisper, “Do you remember me?”
Her lips move in reply, but no sound comes. Only a feeling — a rush of warmth so pure it hurts.
And then I hear her voice, faint but certain. I’m trying.
I close my eyes, fighting the ache in my chest. “Then I’ll help you.”
The connection fades, the water stilling once more.
I sit there for a long time, the weight of centuries pressing against me. When I finally rise, I know what must come next.
If the past won’t give her back, I’ll take her from the future.
The gate is waking. The moons are aligning.
And when the time comes, I’ll be there — waiting on the other side.
Not as the Alpha of Silverfang.
But as the wolf who never stopped loving her.