CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT
Lyra’s POV
At first, it was faint. A whisper in the back of my mind. A flutter beneath my skin. A heartbeat that wasn’t mine.
I sat still, cross-legged on the soft forest floor, eyes closed. The air was damp with dew and smelled of pine, pulsed with memory. I breathed deep, waiting and listening.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
I opened my eyes and huffed in frustration. “It’s not working.”
Anna was sitting nearby, calm as ever. “You’re forcing it.”
“I’m trying,” I snapped.
“You’re waiting for it like it’s supposed to knock on your door. That’s not how this works.” She tilted her head slightly. “You have to let it come to you. Wolves don’t like cages. Even mental ones.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel.”
“Start by asking for its name.”
I frowned. “What?”
“Your wolf,” she said softly. “She has a name. You won’t hear her clearly until you call her properly. That name is your bond. Your truth. Let it come naturally.”
I stared at her, her eyes serious, silver, and steady. Then I sighed, closing mine again. Let it come naturally. Right. As if anything about this felt natural.
But I tried.
I slowed my breathing. Let my thoughts quiet. I tried not to chase the feeling, just… listen.
And then I felt it.
Like warm wind brushing against my cheek. Like fire sparking behind my ribcage.
A voice  thought but it hummed inside me.
Ria.
The name landed in my mind with weight and grace. My eyes snapped open, heart racing.
“Ria,” I breathed.”That’s her name.”
Anna’s smile was slow and knowing. “There she is.”
And then it started.
The warmth grew, spreading through my limbs, seeping into my skin like sunlight through silk. I stood quickly, panic threading with awe. My hands trembled. My breath hitched.
“What’s happening?”
“You’re shifting,” Anna said gently. “Don’t fight it.”
But how could I not? My bones… they felt like they were breaking. Reshaping. My body was folding into itself and rebuilding from the inside out.
I fell forward onto all fours, gasping as the fire surged through my spine. Pain shot through my fingers, then claws. My skin rippled, then fur, white, soft, endless, erupted across my vision.
My ears shifted. My vision blurred, then sharpened in ways I couldn’t describe. The world smelled like rain, bark, the faint salt of wind from the east. I could hear everything. The crunch of a beetle under a leaf ten feet away. Anna’s steady breath. My own heartbeat, fast but steady.
I turned, half-stumbling, and caught my reflection in the water nearby.
White.
White fur. Bright and soft, like powdered snow under moonlight. Deep brown eyes stared back at me, my eyes.
I was… beautiful.
My wolf was beautiful.
“She looks just like Mother,” Anna whispered, stepping beside me.
I turned toward her voice and saw her shift, elegantly and seamlessly. Her body folded into itself and emerged again as a white wolf. But her eyes, they were silver. Pale and glinting like a blade under moonlight.
Two white wolves.
Two sisters.
My breath hitched again. “I thought I didn’t have a wolf,” I murmured. “I thought I was… wolfless.”
“You were never wolfless,” Anna replied. “She was waiting. Just like you.”
“Why didn’t she come before?”
Anna nudged me gently with her snout. “Because you weren’t ready. You weren’t whole.”
A beat passed between us.
Then she stepped back. “Come. Let’s run. Let her feel the earth. Let her be free.”
And I did.
I ran.
I bounded through the trees, my paws pounding against the soft earth. Every step was lightning. Every breath was fire. I could feel the strength in my limbs, the power in my speed. Branches danced past me, the forest opening wide as if it had been waiting just for us. The wind in my fur. 
I didn’t know how long we ran. Time blurred. Hours, maybe. Maybe minutes. But it didn’t matter.
This was freedom.
This was Ria.
And she was my wolf.
We ran until the forest blurred around us, until the air in our lungs was sharp and clean, until laughter, yes, laughter, came out of my chest and filled the woods with sound. I shifted back without thinking, without fear. My body knew what to do. I landed in the grass on shaky knees, breathless and light, like something old had finally lifted from my chest.
Anna shifted too, her laugh following mine as she fell beside me in human form, cheeks flushed, silver hair tousled with wind and leaves.
“I’ve never had a sister before,” I said softly, breath catching again, but this time from emotion, not exhaustion.
Anna’s eyes sparkled as she looked over at me. “I have,” she whispered. “But she didn’t remember me. She didn’t know herself yet. She didn’t know her wolf.” She nudged my shoulder with hers, warm and teasing. “But now I finally have her back.”
I blinked hard. “You waited for me?”
“I waited a long time, Lyra. Too long. This—” she gestured between us, to the trees around us, to the earth still humming beneath our feet, “—this is everything I wanted. To run with my family. To not be alone anymore.”
Something in my chest softened, then melted entirely. She wasn’t just my twin. She was the only one in the world who knew exactly what it meant to carry what I carried. To lose what I lost. And now… to find what I found.
“We’ll bond now,” Anna added, smiling wide. “We’ll train together. Hunt. Learn. Laugh. Maybe even drive the elders crazy.”
I let out a shaky laugh. “That actually sounds kind of perfect.”
But before the moment could settle, the forest shifted again. Not with wind. Not with energy. But footsteps—heavy, fast, purposeful.
Anna straightened first, her body tensing as a figure burst through the trees.
A man. Broad-shouldered, dark-eyed, cloaked in navy and silver. The man from before—the one who brought me here.
“Annastasyria,” he called, urgency cutting through the calm. His voice was rough with concern.
Anna immediately turned to the small bundle of clothes folded on a nearby tree stump and tossed a tunic over her head. I did the same, suddenly aware of the sweat and leaves clinging to my skin.
“What is it?” she asked, her tone calm but commanding.
The man’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Anna. “They found her.”
My blood ran cold.
“Who?” Anna pressed.
“Alpha Kade,” he said grimly. “He’s entered fox territory. He knows she’s here.”
I froze. My pulse stumbled. That name. That title.
Kade? 
He found me. So soon?
The man stepped closer, quieter now. “He’s not alone. He brought his twin, Kael with him.”
My hands curled into fists at my sides. I didn’t know what emotion was burning through me. 
Anna looked at me, her expression unreadable. “You don’t have to go with them,” she said carefully. “You’re not theirs to keep. They are traitors”
“I’m not sure what I am,” I whispered. “Not anymore.”
Anna moved to me, gently placing a hand on my arm. “You’re mine,” she said, voice steady. “My sister. My blood. That doesn’t change just because they showed up.”
But it did change something. Everything. Because I’d still wanted to go back. A part of me.  And now it has caught up to me.
“What does he want?”  She asked.
The man answered this time. “Her.”
He directed towards me. 
I shook my head slowly, heart hammering as if it wanted to leap out of my chest. “Don’t… don’t do anything to them. Please.”
Anna’s eyes narrowed. “Delyria—”
“No,” I cut in, stepping closer. “I don’t believe they’d hurt me. Not Kael. Not even Kade. I know what happened… I know what it looked like. But part of me still wants to believe it wasn’t what it seemed. That there’s more.”
Anna’s jaw tightened, her voice low and full of disbelief. “You still want them to be part of you.”
“They are part of me,” I whispered. “I lived with them. I laughed with them. I—” My throat burned. “I trusted them. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe I’m a fool. But I can’t just throw it all away.”
Anna’s gaze turned cold. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I am,” I said firmly. “I just need to talk to them. One conversation. Just let me speak to them. I have to know.”
Anna stepped back, eyes flashing. “Delyria, no.”
The way she used my full name made my chest ache.
“These people are not confused allies or lost friends. They are evil. They will twist you. Manipulate you. Separate us.”
Her voice trembled on the last word, and I saw it, underneath all her fire and fury, she was afraid.
“They’ve taken everything from us once already,” she whispered. “I won’t let them do it again.”
I swallowed hard, torn between the warmth I’d found and the ties I still couldn’t sever.
“They are my mates.” I whispered.