Carter’s Secret- Part 1
625 Words
The pack grounds were half - asleep under the gray light of dawn when i slipped outside. Mist lay low on the grass, and each breath hung in the air like a ghost. My muscles ached to move; after the dream, after that strange shimmer in my blood, I needed to test what I’d become.
I stretched, rolled my shoulders, and took a stance in the practice ring. The sand felt cool beneath my bare feet. When I struck, the air cracked. The sound startled me - it shouldn’t have been that loud. I tried again, slower this time, and the world seemed to blur around my movements.
Too fast,Emma whispered, half - proud, half - cautious.
“I don’t know my own strength anymore,” I muttered.
A laugh drifted from behind the fence. James leaned against a post, arms crossed, grin wide.
“Since when do you train before breakfast?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
He watched me land another hit on the training post. “That’s new. You’re faster.” I shrugged. “Maybe I finally caught up to you.”
We sparred for a few minutes - quick, clean exchanges. Normally he’d wipe the floor with me. This time, my body moved before though, ducking, countering, until his palm hit the ground instead of my shoulder. “Okay,” he said, breathing hard, “now I’m scared of my little sister.”
I smiled, but the rush in my blood wasn’t only pride. It was power, humming just below my skin.
After breakfast I volunteered for patrol duty, pretending I wanted the fresh air. The truth was, the forest had been calling since sunrise. Each tree seemed to whisper my name.
The farther I walked, the stronger the feeling grew - a pulse beneath the soil, something watching. Bride quieted. Even the wind held it’s breath.
We are not alone, Emma warned.
That was when I smelled him. Pine. Smoke. And something else - metal and ash. Carter.
I froze, scanning the trees. “Show yourself.”
No answer. But a few yards ahead, between two pines, movement flickered - a figure half - hidden in the shadows.
“Carter,” I said, more challenge that a greeting.
He stepped forward slowly, hands raised. Same easy smile, same green eyes, but the light behind them was. “You still know my scent,”he said.
“Hard to forget,” I replied.
He laughed, low. “You look different, Jennie. Stronger.”
“I am.”
He circled closer, and the forest seemed to darken around him. For a heartbeat I caught sight of a faint black vein running up his neck, pulsing like smoke under the skin.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
His grin faltered. “Nothing. I’ve just… learned a few things since you last saw me.”
“Like how to sneak into pack land after being told to stay away?”
He shrugged. “I needed to see you. You’ll understand soon.”
Emma’s growl rumbled low inside my mind.
He lies.
“I d think I want t understand,” I said.
“Go home, Carter.”
His eyes softened for an instant. “This is my home. Or it was - until your father decided I wasn’t good enough.”
“You weren’t banished for being poor, you were banished for -“
He stepped closer, cutting me off with a whisper. “Careful, Jennie. You don’t know the whole story.”
I could feel the energy radiating off him now, thick and wrong. The metallic scent grew stronger. My skin prickled.
Step back, Emma urged. Something taunts his aura.
I took a slow breath, readying to shift if I had to.
- Writer
