Chapter 14

Chapter 14
A Dark Truth Unveiled

As soon as I entered the old Beta's chamber's remains, something changed. The location of my father's clandestine meetings. Always guarded and locked. Now, however, the walls murmured.

Although cobwebs obscured forgotten corners and dust collected on shattered stone, I sensed a strong, alluring pull that seemed to be the truth hidden beneath years of treachery. I should have stayed away. But until I listened, something inside of me screamed, pleaded, and clawed.

In the furthest corner, I forced open the ancient chest. Within, behind parchment and dust-caked books, was a wax-sealed folder. The seal was cracked long ago. My hands were shaking when I opened it.

My breath caught on the first page.

A letter. Dedicated to my dad. Alpha Jake gave his signature. The ink-etched phrases burnt.

Verify the girl's removal before the Blood Moon. She is unable to wake up. The stakes are too high.

Its cage made my heart tremble.

Removal. A girl.

Me.

I let the letter fall. The sting of awareness clouded my vision. I didn't reject you because I was weak. It was prearranged. Planned and carried out.

I looked for more.

And located it.

Transcripts of meetings. Handwritten messages. My name. Again and again. Phrases such as "she must never know what she carries," "control her before it's too late," and "Selena is the better choice."

I felt like every breath was snatched.

Then I noticed it.

An agreement. Between Selena and my dad.

Position and power. Betrayal.

I had been sold out by my own blood.

Something came to mind. The way he looked away from me when Jake turned me down. The rigidity of his stance. The quiet. Everything is made obvious now. He wasn't surprised. He was aware.

Selena grinned. Her gloating manner. She was also aware.

All of my beliefs were destroyed.

I stumbled from the room. The darkness encircled me like armor rather than consolation. I used to fear the whispers, but now they buzzed like comrades.

I wasn't yelling.

It was chilly.

Sharp.

Accurate.

I refrained from crying.

I refrained from screaming.

I grinned.

Because I now comprehended.

My friend wasn't only taken by them.

They had attempted my erasure.

They had also failed.

I watched the horizon burn in the last rays of twilight that night while standing at the edge of Kade's camp. Silence behind me. Vengeance before me.

Darkness stirred as I whispered into the wind.

But a sharp agony tore through my chest before I could move ahead. I dropped to my knees.

I had a vision.

Blood. Fire. A well-known face collapses to the floor.

Jake.

However, he wasn't who I remembered.

He was yelling. Not in charge.

In terror.

And Selena was standing over him, her red eyes gleaming.

Twisting.

Modifying.

Not a wolf.

Another stuff.

A worse thing.

The vision jerked.

It tasted like ash, but I was gasping for air.

Then I heard it.

Just one word.

From what I believed to be my voice.

"Leap."

I stumbled back, my ears still ringing from the echo of that voice my voice, yet not mine. Run. However, I didn't. I was unable to. Something deeper, rather than dread, was causing my legs to shake. Something colder. As though it had heard the warning, the ground underneath me pulsed. The trees moved mindfully, not in response to the wind.

I was no longer alone.

Something had been aroused by me.

The darkness didn't simply follow me. They fed on the rage in my chest, breathed me in, and slithered into my bones. However, there was another force at work beneath that surge of strength.

A presence.

Observing

hunting.

Long before I saw it, I sensed it. A breach in the barrier separating the living from the dead. There was a glimmer of activity on the wood's edge. It vanished after a blink. I extended that aspect of myself that I was just starting to comprehend, and it returned the favor for the first time.

Not Kade. Not a wolf. Something more ancient.

A memory of non-my visions reappeared. Alphas standing in a bloody circle. A chant. A girl in shackles, with silver eyes. Not me, but my face. They etched the insignia into her skin while she screamed.

I staggered back. My breath was labored.

There was more to the reality than treachery.

It had to do with who I was.

What they were afraid I would become into.

Something about "what she carries" has been referenced in the files. An object wasn't what they meant.

They left a legacy.

A curse.

A force.

Buried. Sealed. Inherited.

It makes sense why they wished to remove me. I wasn't supposed to live long enough to awaken this, not because I was weak.

I balled my fists up. Like a second skin, the shadows closed in on me.

And I got it.

I was never adored by Jake.

Selena never felt jealous of me.

They were afraid of me.

I was not rejected by my father out of embarrassment.

He was afraid of what I might do.

It was a non-personal rejection.

It was calculated.

Now, though, it was intimate.

Very.

I glanced down at my hands, which had veins throbbing with shadow light and blazing dimly beneath the skin. Inside of me, my wolf awoke, but she had changed. Her once-gold eyes were now glistening obsidian. She stopped whimpering.

She let forth a shout.

My metamorphosis had started, but it wasn't finished. The voice inside of me talked with promise now instead of hatred. It provided clarity rather than devastation. I wouldn't be a forgotten daughter, a broken partner, or a rogue if I gave it my whole acceptance.

I would be a weapon.

I turned to get back to the camp. To Kade. to responses. However, a person emerged from the shadows as the air suddenly and sharply shattered.

Not a wolf.

Not human.

There's a problem.

It had empty eyes. Its arms and legs moved as if they had lost the ability to bend. Although I didn't know the face, the sigil from the vision matched the symbol etched into its throat.

My back was engraved with the same insignia.

It held up a hand, the dark light coursing through my veins throbbing in the palm.

Not a foe.

A mirror.

Then it talked straight into my head, without using any sound.

"You're the final one. Your blood cracks the seal. They'll arrive.

I took a step back, my heart pounding.

"Which seal?" I muttered, but my lips did not produce a voice.

The animal cocked its head.

"You are aware already."

It was gone in an instant.

There was silence in the jungle. Above me, the stars blinked icily.

And I understood that retaliation was no longer the reason I had rejoined the Shadowfang pack.

It served as a warning.

For them.

As well as for me.

Because someone else would discover who I really was if I didn't.

They would also take advantage of it.

Once more, the murmurs erupted, no longer fragmented.

Unambiguous.UniAlways

"Jake was never intended to hold the Alpha's throne."