Chapter 15

Chapter 15
The Power Within

The discomfort doesn't alert me. It engulfs me.

Like molten metal poured into a delicate shell, a heat tears through my bones. My scream is held beneath clamped teeth and coils deep in my throat, unable to escape. Something primordial erupts from my spine, yanking me to the ground and dragging me into the earth instead of letting me fall.

It's taking place.

My skin breaks. My senses go haywire. My blood beats to a different rhythm.

Not totally.

The wolf appears.

However, it's not the wolf I used to sense the feeble murmur that shuddered beneath my skin, battered and humiliated by rejection. This wolf is enraged. Storm is who she is. The quiet of the clearing is broken by her roar, and as I open my eyes

I've stopped looking through mine.

Midnight fur. darker than the darkness. Inscribed with smoke-like streaks of darkness. I can't even recognize my reflection in the lake. Something more than a wolf.

eyes. Not gold. Not amber.

Ancient, piercing, silver.

I walk along the beach, my physique elegant but lethal, my muscles coiled like cables. Every motion is deadly and silent. The wind bows to me and whirls through the trees. I sense it. I sense them. every root. Each and every leaf. In my veins, the earth beats like a drum.

Power isn't all I'm touching.

Power is who I am.

It's still insufficient.

My hunger gnaws at me, not for food, not even for retribution. It's knowledge. At my heart, an ancient, unsaid energy twists. The Whispering Shadow exudes acceptance through rhythm and instinct rather than words. It is living. Within me. all around me. A portion of myself.

She wasn't born, this wolf. She was forged.

Now I am aware of it.

A feeble female was not turned away by them.

They threw aside what they were afraid of.

The wind changes. Someone comes over. Not Kade. None of the outlaws. Another stuff. It smells familiar, but tainted. metallic. bitter. False.

I become one with the trees.

The footsteps are cautious. trained. A hunter.

Not for me, though.

I come out behind him, but he doesn't see me.

I leap. Hold him down.

His eyes enlarge. Recognition.

It's too late.

At his throat, my teeth linger. I don't bite. Not quite yet.

He lets forth a single word. Just one name.

"Jake."

I go cold.

Not him.

Another Jake.

His sibling.

Nate.

alive.

I don't murder him. Not because I'm looking for solutions. Not out of compassion.

Because I feel the same evil that flows through his bloodline.

I move quickly and viciously back. The transition is painful, but it's far away now and muted in comparison to the previous explosion.

I grab his collar and pull him up. "What brings you here?"

Nate spat blood. He laughs. "You believe that they only tested on you?"

I twitch my fingers.

"What were you saying?"

"You're not the original. You won't be the last, either.

His eyes are filled with anxiety, but his pulse remains steady.

"Lily, do you think you've found power? That wolf of yours is only the first step.

"What knowledge do you possess regarding the Whispering Shadow?"

His smile widens. It's not a what. It's a who.

Something jolts me. Who is  someone the Shadow?

He laughs. "She hasn't finished with you yet."

He bites down hard before I can say anything. His mouth erupts with poison. foams. He rolls his eyes back. Lost.

Dead.

As simple as that.

My heart is racing as I look at his body.

What made him say that?

For what reason would he refer to the Whispering Shadow as her?

I turn.

The trees are quiet now.

Too quiet.

The night twists.

A presence emerges. Not human. Not wolf.

Pitch-like eyes. Skin that flickers between substance and shadow. A female.

Tall, barefoot, and timeless.

Grinning.

"At last, you're awake."

Not in my ears, but in my head, her voice reverberates.

"You've spent too much time dreaming in someone else's body."

I stumble back. "Who are you?"

She cocks her head. "They attempted to bury me."

For a brief moment, I see my own reflection in her as her body changes. A mirror. but more senior. Crueler. War has touched me.

"My blood is in you," she says. "Not my chains, though."

"What are you looking for?"

She takes a step forward. Trees wither. The air gets thicker.

"To complete what I began."

I give a headshake. "I am not a weapon for you."

"No. You are my resurrection.

My cheek is touched by her fingers. chilly. blazing.

"You'll destroy their entire world."

I take a step back. "No. If it's necessary, I'll burn yours.

Her smile broadens.

"I picked you for that reason."

She disappears.

Not into smoking.

Into me.

I fall to my knees. It makes my skin crawl. My bones hurt.

I have her inside of me.

Not a traveler.

An additional soul.

No, a first.

mine.

I howl like a wolf.

The woods shudder.

My blood has awakened to something old.

Furthermore, it's not done.

I get up. Shaking. Inhaling. altered.

Kade is at the tree's edge. Not even his arrival was audible to me.

His eyes widen as he stares. "What did you do?"

I give a headshake. "I believe the true query is"

The wind changes.

Blood.

A lot of blood.

Kade spins around. "The camp."

We sprint.

quicker than previously. My legs are blurry. I have no sense of the ground.

The trees rip by.

Then

We halt.

It's too late.

There are bodies everywhere.

Rogues. ripped to pieces.

killed.

Kade collapses on the ground.

With my heart racing, I take a step forward.

Then I notice it.

written on the cave's wall.

in blood.

"SHE’S OURS NOW."

It has Jake's emblem underneath it.

His crown.

Not the one I recall, though.

The rock is charred by this one. twisted. contaminated. shadowed.

I take a step toward you. Something else is involved.

Not only blood.

Ash.

bones.

Additionally

a beating heart.

One, little, and frail.

I rummage through the debris.

A kid.

Breathing heavily.

Silver eyes.

Similar to mine.

Not a rogue.

Do not pack.

Something new.

Her mouth opens. Whispers.

"She assured me you would come."

"Who?"

"The woman in the shadows."

I gently raise her.

She takes hold of my wrist. I get a burn on my skin.

A mark.

A sigil.

Something otherworldly carved into me.

Her eyes also shine.

Not only silver.

The color purple.

My vision becomes blurry.

And her voice comes back to me.

Not the girl's. Hers.

"Now is when the real war starts." 

A mystery youngster with a sigil that matches the Whispering Shadow shows up at the scene of a rogue massacre, suggesting a prophecy and the start of a supernatural conflict that extends beyond wolves.