Chapter Three: The Awakening

The silence pressed down on Kaia like the damp air around her, thick and suffocating. The room stank of mold, blood, and something older—like rot buried in the bones of the building. Her fingers twitched against the mattress as her breath came in shallow gasps.

She hadn't moved since the mirror.

Her reflection still haunted her, even with her back to it now. That girl—the bruised face, the split lip, the gold-flecked eyes staring with dazed horror—she wasn't Kaia Moonstone.

And she wasn’t Kaia Ambers either.

Not anymore.

Not entirely.

She didn’t know what she was. Only that something inside her wasn’t quiet.

And now—it was moving.

At first, it was subtle. A chill creeping up her spine. A tremor in her fingertips. A heat in her gut, too warm to be natural.

Then came the pressure.

It built slowly—like a tide rising under her skin, flooding her bones and joints. Her back arched suddenly as pain stabbed through her ribs.

She gasped. “Wh—what…”

The pressure didn’t stop.

It intensified.

Something was clawing its way out.

From the inside.

Her body jerked violently, seizing on the mattress as a scream tore from her throat. Her fingers dug into the floorboards. Her teeth clenched as her jaw locked tight.

Her blood boiled.

Her vision split.

It felt like her soul was being peeled open—every part of her hollowed, then filled with light and pain and power.

Her chest cracked with a sickening snap. Her spine shifted, curling. Her nails ripped into claws. Her scream turned into something more primal, deeper, ancient—

And then everything went white.

When the light faded, the room was no longer small.

It was full.

A massive silver wolf now stood in the center of the basement, its head bowed yet still brushing the low ceiling. Its fur shimmered like moonlight kissed by frost, each strand glowing with an ethereal sheen. Its breath came out in slow, heavy gusts, fogging the mold-stained air.

Its eyes—her eyes—were a sharp, piercing silver, glowing with eerie calm.

The beast didn’t growl. It didn’t howl.

It simply stood, colossal and still, as though it had been sleeping for centuries and had just remembered how to breathe.

Its thick coat brushed both walls, completely filling the space. Its claws, long and glinting faintly white-blue, curled against the concrete floor. Cracks spidered out beneath its weight.

No ordinary wolf could’ve survived this basement.

But this wasn’t an ordinary wolf.

This was something else.

Something divine.

A relic of forgotten bloodlines.

A myth in living flesh.

The Silver Moon God Wolf.

Its silver eyes narrowed—intelligent, ancient, aware.

And just like that—its form flickered, shimmered—

And collapsed inward.

Kaia fell forward onto the floor, gasping.

Her body was back. Human. Fragile. Bare and trembling in the thick air.

Sweat dripped down her back.

Her limbs shook uncontrollably.

She pushed herself up slowly, hands pressing against the cold floor as she tried to catch her breath.

She looked down at her hands. They were shaking. But they were hers.

Except…

No. They weren’t.

“This body…” she whispered, her voice raw and broken. “It isn’t human.”

She staggered to her feet. Blood smeared beneath her.

The room was too quiet.

The mattress behind her had been shoved into the wall. The moldy ceiling tiles were cracked. Her clothes—torn. Her skin burned with fading magic, but her bones held still.

Whatever had just happened… had been real.

And it wasn’t over.

Far away—thousands of kilometers to the north, deep within the frozen mountains of the highlands—the air shifted.

In a grand, dark-stone study high above the snowline, Alpha Seiko Silverclaw sat hunched over a map spread across his desk. Candles flickered against the wooden walls, the room lit in soft gold.

And then, without warning, his hand stopped mid-mark.

His wolf stirred.

Not just stirred—lunged.

Seiko’s breath caught. His golden eyes widened slightly as a sudden, bone-deep pulse crashed through his chest.

It was nothing like a normal wolf link. Not like sensing danger. Not like a rogue crossing into his territory.

It was pure presence.

Vast. Radiant. Otherworldly.

Silver.

His wolf growled in his mind, restless.

She’s here.

He stood abruptly, the old chair crashing back against the wall. His heartbeat matched the pulse—irregular. Drawn. He didn’t question it. He didn’t hesitate.

He simply moved.

Within seconds, he was outside—shirtless, barefoot, letting the cold bite his skin. Snow flurried around him as pack warriors stood aside instinctively, sensing their alpha’s sudden intensity.

They didn’t speak. No one dared.

His gaze turned to the dark forest that surrounded the cliffs of Silverclaw territory.

He stepped forward once—

And shifted.

Bones cracked, reforming. Muscles rippled and grew. In the span of a breath, Alpha Seiko was no longer human.

He was the Blood Red Wolf—three times larger than a normal alpha, his fur gleaming crimson, eyes burning gold like twin suns. A predator. A king.

A beast with the bloodline of the Red Moon God Wolf.

He turned to the mountains, lifted his massive head—and let out a single, thunderous howl.

The sound rolled across peaks and valleys, stirring the snow from trees, echoing into the void.

Calling.

Searching.

Somewhere, far away, the Silver Moon had awakened.

And he had felt her.

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