005

(Lyra’s POV)

I didn’t know what to expect when the guard came for me.

He didn’t speak—just motioned. His face was blank, impassive, like whatever message he’d been given, it wasn’t up for discussion. I followed without argument. My stomach twisted the deeper we went into the pack’s stronghold, past the servant wings and stone corridors I knew.

This was deeper.

Quieter.

More dangerous.

The hall curved slightly, and I noticed the torches on the walls had changed. They burned with blue flames now. Colder, unnatural. The air thinned the closer we drew to the large iron-arched doors bearing the Moonfang crest—an open mouth with silver fangs, circled by phases of the moon.

The moment I stepped through, the guard shut the door behind me.

And I was alone.

With him.

Rael.

He stood at the far end of the room, near the massive window that framed the forest like a painting of shadows and wind. His posture was tense—hands behind his back, head tilted slightly as if he was listening to something only he could hear.

He didn’t turn when I entered.

He didn’t need to.

“I told you not to run,” he said calmly, without looking at me.

“I didn’t run.”

“You almost did.” His voice was soft, but there was steel underneath. “Your heart was screaming it.”

I didn’t know how he could hear my heart. But I didn’t argue. My fingers clenched at my sides as I took another step in, unsure if I should approach or wait.

“You brought me here,” I said slowly, “not to punish me, then?”

He turned then. Finally.

The weight of his gaze was worse than his silence. Golden eyes that pinned me in place.

Not cruel. Not kind. Just watching. Measuring.

“No,” he said. “You’re not here for punishment.”

A breath of relief loosened my shoulders—but only for a moment.

“You’re here,” he continued, walking toward me, “because I need to know if you’re going to become a threat to my pack.”

I blinked. “A threat?”

He didn’t stop until we were only a few feet apart.

“You’re shifting. Slowly. Not like any other wolf I’ve ever seen.”

I frowned. “But I’m not a wolf. I never have been.” Rael’s head tilted slightly. “You were never told the truth.”

I stared at him.

Truth?

He saw the question in my face.

“You were born a wolf, Lyra. Your scent, your blood, your energy—it’s not human. It never was.” His voice dropped lower. “But someone blocked your shift. Sealed your wolf deep enough that not even you could feel her.”

My chest tightened. “That’s not possible—”

“It is,” he cut in, sharp and certain. “Old magic. Forbidden rituals. The kind done by wolves desperate enough to erase bloodlines.”

I shook my head, trying to push the idea away. But some part of it clicked.

The nightmares.

The flashes of silver eyes.

The hollow ache in my chest I’d never been able to name.

“How do you know this?” I asked quietly.

Rael’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “Because I felt it the moment I touched you.”

---

He stepped closer. Slowly.

One hand reached out—fingers grazing the side of my neck, so lightly it barely felt real.

“You were buried alive inside your own body. But your wolf is waking now. You felt her, didn’t you?”

I swallowed hard.

That night. In the woods. When I’d screamed and my skin had burned. When I felt like I was breaking open.

“I don’t know what she is,” I whispered.

Rael leaned closer, voice like thunder wrapped in velvet. “She’s you. The real you.”

A shiver ran through me, but I didn’t pull away.

“Then why does it hurt?” I asked.

“Because the seal is breaking. And you were never meant to be caged.”

---

He pulled back then, the weight of the moment shifting.

Rael paced to the side, jaw clenched.

“I marked you to protect you,” he said finally.

The air in my lungs froze.

“What?”

“The scar,” he clarified, nodding toward the place beneath my collarbone. “I left it there. When we were young. Before you forgot me.”

My blood turned cold.

“You—?” My hand instinctively moved to the faint crescent-shaped scar. “That was you?”

“It was the only way I could keep the others away from you. Wolves don’t touch what’s marked.”

“But you didn’t claim me.” My voice cracked. “You rejected me.”

His eyes darkened.

“I had to.”

That answer wasn’t enough. “Why?”

“Because if I claimed you then,” he said quietly, “you’d be dead now.”

---

Silence dropped like a stone.

I stared at him, unable to form words.

“I wasn’t strong enough to protect you,” he admitted. “And you didn’t know what you were. It would’ve painted a target on your back. So I marked you as an enemy.”

A knot formed in my throat.

“You made me an outcast,” I whispered.

“I made you invisible to the ones who would’ve hunted you,” he corrected.

My legs felt weak. I moved toward the edge of the desk and leaned on it for support. “And now? Why are you telling me this now?”

Rael’s voice hardened. “Because I can’t protect you anymore if you don’t learn to defend yourself. The elders are asking questions. The other Alphas are circling. They can sense something’s shifting. And if they find out you’re untrained—half-shifted—they’ll strike first.”

---

I didn’t want to believe it.

But I remembered the way the warriors looked at me in the clearing. The way whispers seemed to follow me. The way the wind howled when I screamed.

“What do you want from me?” I asked.

Rael stepped close again.

“Let me train you.”

I looked up, startled.

“I’ll teach you how to fight. How to shift. How to access the part of you that was stolen.”

“Why?”

His voice was low, raw. “Because I failed you once. I won’t do it again.”

I stared at him for a long moment.

He didn’t look like an Alpha now.