Chapter 149: The Rise of Nyxara

Ivy’s POV

I turned.

No one.

Just the empty hallway.

So I just shook it off. Probably a servant.

Back to the screen. Minutes passed.

Then—

Another sound. A softer rustling.

From the kitchen hallway. As though someone was tiptoeing towards me.

My heart picked up, but I forced a breath.

No need to panic. It’s probably just a servant, trying to stay quiet so they don’t disturb me.

I took another bite, washing it down with cocoa.

And then the dizziness began.

Slow.

Heavy.

My limbs started to sag.

I stood, intending to head back to bed—

But my legs wouldn’t obey. Too heavy. Too slow.

So I curled back into the couch, eyes drooping.

The tray sat untouched now.

And then—

Two shadows walked in and were standing in front of me.

One leaned in.

A voice—whisper-soft, male—breathed against my face.

“Is she out now?”

I wanted to move. To at least fight back.

But my body wouldn’t obey.

Footsteps circled me—light, efficient. I felt something cold against my wrist.

Metal. A snap. A click.

Handcuffs?

Panic surged through my chest, but I couldn’t lift a finger. My eyes fluttered, heavy as stone.

"Why the cuffs?" the woman muttered, her tone sharp with unease.

No reply. Only the soft click of metal and the sound of breathing.

A hand brushed my arm—testing. My fingers twitched in response.

“She’s not fully out,” the female voice whispered again in a panicked tone.

“She will be,” he murmured. “Just keep her still.”

A heavy silence followed.

I heard fabric shifting. Something being unzipped.

And then—

“Grab her legs.”

My body jerked—helpless—as they lifted me like luggage.

And then—

Everything went black.

The world had gone quiet again.

No figures.

No cuffs.

Just light.

I stood barefoot in a garden that stretched beyond the horizon. Petals floated in the breeze like confetti at a forgotten wedding. The air smelled like rain and sugar—fresh, calming, otherworldly.

All around me bloomed peonies. Soft pink and white ones, lush and full, covering every inch of the earth like a sea of silk. The sky above shimmered a faint violet, casting the petals in hues I couldn’t name.

And in the center of it all—

A creature.

Silver as moonlight.

A giant wolf.

She stood proud and still in the clearing, her fur glowing with an ethereal sheen, her eyes glowing with a kind of ageless sorrow. A sorrow I understood too well.

But I didn’t run.

I didn’t flinch.

My feet moved forward of their own accord, silent among the blossoms. My limbs felt weightless, like I was dreaming—but also like I was exactly where I was meant to be.

Each step pulled me closer to the creature, and still she did not move.

Her gaze locked to mine.

And I froze.

Because when I looked into her eyes…

I didn’t just see a wolf. I saw myself.

A mirror made of fur and soul.

“Ivy,” a soft voice called from somewhere to my left.

But I couldn’t look away.

I didn’t respond with my lips, but in my mind, I answered: I’m here.

And the wolf—she heard me.

She blinked slowly, then stepped forward. Not as a predator. Not as a stranger. But as something ancient… something mine.

With trembling fingers, I reached out. My hand sank into her fur, and it was like touching mist and flame all at once.

And then—

The visions came.

Not mine.

Hers.

Betrayal.

A silver moon hanging high while blood spilled on black stone.

A hand raised against her by someone she trusted.

Claws sinking into her side.

A fire-lit battle in a forest painted red.

Her howl—shattering and desperate—as she was left for dead beneath a rain of black roses.

Pain.

So much pain it rattled my bones and tore through my chest.

“Nyxara,” I whispered into the dream-space.

The name rose up like a memory I’d buried before I was ever born. And the wolf—Nyxara—leaned her head against mine and cooed, a sound that resonated from bone to breath.

“Ivy,” she spoke within me. Her voice was like thunder wrapped in silk. “You were always me. And I was always you. We are one. I was not meant to leave this world, not then… not by his hand.”

His.

A face flared in my mind. Dark eyes, cruel lips. An Alpha. A name I couldn’t recall—but a hatred that I could feel.

And the roses.

Black.

Wilting.

My skin prickled at the memory of them, of how they’d been placed around a body that didn’t feel like it belonged to anyone… except me.

“I was silenced,” Nyxara continued. “Bound. Trapped inside your skin by a witch’s curse… a curse meant to keep us away from saving him. That is why you could not shift. Why your power slept while others awakened.”

A tear rolled down my cheek.

Wait did she say save him? Who? But she continued before I could ask.

“But no more.”

She stepped back, her eyes fierce now. Timeless. Full of promise.

“Time has bent to bring us back, Ivy. The moment of reckoning nears. And when everything is in place… we will end him.”

I felt it—the rage she carried. The storm that brewed in my chest but never had a name until now.

“You are not broken,” Nyxara said. “You were kept waiting.”

Then she bowed her head.

“I am Nyxara. Once the wolf to an Alpha’s daughter, slain in betrayal. Reborn in you.”

I swallowed hard.

And then I bowed too.

“Ivy Blackwood,” I whispered in return inside my mind.

She stepped forward.

“This is our pact, Ivy. Our vow. Let me in. Let me rise. Together, we are unstoppable.”

The world trembled. The petals lifted into the sky like wings of butterflies.

I nodded once.

And then—

I let her in.

A heat ignited in my chest. My limbs burned—but it wasn’t pain. It was awakening.

Like my blood had been waiting its whole life for this single second.

Power flowed through me. Fury. Clarity. Strength.

We merged.

And in that final flash of light, something cracked open inside me—something fierce and ancient.

It wasn’t fear I felt anymore. Not confusion. Not even the dizzy haze of waking.

It was pressure.

Inside my chest.

Deep. Alive.

It pulsed like a second heartbeat.

My breath hitched. My skin prickled. My bones—they itched, like something underneath was stretching, clawing for freedom.

My fingers trembling, nails scraping against a surface as the world tilted. Heat bloomed across my spine, my stomach, my throat. It was like every cell inside me had been lit on fire and there was no place to run.

I gasped.

Then I screamed—

Or I would have—

But it wasn’t a scream that tore from my throat.

It was a howl.

My back arched violently as a white-hot pain cracked down my spine. My arms shot out, muscles contorting, and I heard it—my bones breaking. Shifting. Rebuilding. I tried to cry out but my jaw locked, my teeth grinding until they sharpened. My skin rippled. Every inch of me writhed under the force of it.

The voice inside me—Nyxara’s voice—was no longer whispering.

She roared.

Let go, Ivy. Let me rise. We are not broken. We are born anew.

I slammed onto the ground, breath ragged, fingernails lengthening into claws as fur began to ripple across my skin like silver fire. My legs convulsed, then snapped backward with a sickening crunch as they bent into a new shape—canine, powerful.

Pain.

Lightning.

Rebirth.

The burning in my chest rose to my throat, and with it, a growl tore free. Deep. Savage. Mine.

My eyes blurred. My fingers dissolved. My scream became a howl again.

Then—

Silence.

A pulse of cold swept through me like moonlight kissing a battlefield. And when the pain finally receded, I stood—not on two legs, but four.

The world looked different.

Sharper.

Brighter.

I could see every rain drop, smell the dust in the air, hear the petals fall to the ground.

And then I saw myself. Reflected in the stream in front of me.

Silver.

Luminous.

Majestic.

My wolf. Nyxara. Me.

Our fur shimmered like snow under stars, every movement elegant but deadly. My eyes glowed violet—deep, storming, unrelenting.

I padded forward, slowly at first, then confidently, each step humming with power I hadn’t felt before. No fear. No hesitation.

This was freedom.

I ran—no, sprinted—through the garden, the earth flying beneath my paws, air slicing past my ears.

And then I howled.

A full, glorious cry that ripped through the sky like lightning.

Just then, my eyes snapped open—

Back.

To the waking world.

Chest heaving. Limbs tangled in sheets.

And above me—

Someone was watching.

Smiling.

Waiting.