CHAPTER 4: WHEN EYES BEGIN TO FOLLOW
1033 Words
Vexa’s POV
The morning mist still clung to the edges of the Silverclaw forest, curling between the pines like breath refusing to leave. My boots sank into the damp earth as I walked toward the training grounds, the echo of steel and growls already rising in the air.
It should’ve been just another day. Another morning to pretend I was fine. But my body didn’t feel like mine anymore. My senses were too sharp, my heartbeat too fast. Every sound hit like a blade, the clash of weapons, the rustle of a raven’s wings, even the quiet murmur of wolves shifting in their skins.
“Morning, Vexa,” Elen called from across the field, tossing her braid over one shoulder. She was one of the few who still bothered talking to me since the rejection. Her tone was kind, but her eyes flicked down my frame, searching maybe for weakness, or something else.
“Morning,” I murmured, gripping the wooden staff beside me.
I caught the glint of Kale’s black hair at the far end of the grounds. The Alpha’s aura pressed over everyone like a storm cloud. Even when he wasn’t looking, I could feel him there, the weight of his presence, steady, familiar, and suffocating.
He didn’t speak to me. Not anymore. But sometimes, when I caught him glancing my way, there was something unreadable behind those silver eyes. Regret, maybe. Or guilt.
“Again,” shouted Elder Liora from the edge of the ring, her tone sharp. “Keep your focus, Vexa.”
“Yes, Elder.” I raised the staff and exhaled.
The fight was supposed to be a simple drill, a test of balance and precision. But the moment Elen lunged, something inside me snapped. My body moved before my mind caught up faster, sharper. The staff whirled, connecting with her weapon in a flash that sparked a strange heat through my arms.
Elen stumbled back, eyes wide. “What— Vexa, how did you—?”
“I… I don’t know.” My voice shook. The staff vibrated in my hands, faintly glowing beneath my fingers. Then, just as quickly, the light vanished.
Whispers rippled through the trainees. Someone gasped. Elder Liora’s eyes narrowed, and I could almost hear her thoughts turning.
“That shouldn’t be possible,” muttered one of the warriors, a tall man named Joren. “No one’s that fast, not without shifting.”
Heat flushed my neck. I dropped the staff. “It must’ve been an accident.”
But accidents didn’t make the air hum like that. They didn’t make my blood sing.
The Elder dismissed the group early, though her gaze lingered on me. “Come to the healer’s den before dusk,” she said. “We’ll need to check your energy signature.”
I nodded, pretending I wasn’t terrified.
---
By afternoon, the camp buzzed with low gossip. Wherever I walked, conversations faltered. Children stopped playing. Even the elders looked uneasy, whispering “signs” and “omens.”
At the healer’s den, herbs hung from the rafters, scenting the air with sage and pine. Mira, the pack healer, motioned me inside. Her hands were steady, but her eyes were shadowed.
“Sit, child,” she said softly. “You’ve felt changes, haven’t you?”
I hesitated, then nodded. “It’s like my skin burns under the moonlight. And I hear things and feel things that aren’t there.”
Mira’s gaze flickered toward the curtain where a stranger stood, a cloaked figure, older, eyes silvered with time. A traveler, maybe. Or something else.
“This is Seer Dareth,” Mira said. “He’s passing through the northern packs. He asked to see you.”
The man stepped forward. His voice was low, almost wind-like. “Your aura is wrong, girl. Not cursed. Not blessed either. It’s… rewritten.”
My pulse stuttered. “Rewritten?”
He tilted his head, studying me like he was reading my bones. “The Moon doesn’t make mistakes. But she sometimes changes her stories mid-way.”
“What does that mean?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached into his cloak and pulled out a small shard of obsidian. The surface shimmered as though holding a reflection not of me, but of the moon bleeding red.
My breath caught. The same crimson light from my dream.
“Where did you get that?”
He smiled faintly. “You’ll remember soon enough.”
Then, without another word, he turned and left just like that, disappearing into the fading daylight.
Mira pressed a trembling hand against my arm. “Stay quiet about this, Vexa. Don’t let the Alpha hear.”
“Why?”
“Because some powers,” she said softly, “don’t belong in this pack.”
---
When I stepped outside, the forest edge was drenched in twilight. The scent of rain clung to the air, heavy and sweet. I thought I was alone until I heard footsteps behind me familiar ones.
“Vexa.”
It was Kale.
My heart lurched. “What do you want?”
He hesitated, gaze unreadable. “I saw what happened at training.”
I crossed my arms. “So you came to remind me I’m an embarrassment?”
His jaw tightened. “No. I came because… something’s happening to you.”
“Don’t act like you care.” My voice cracked before I could stop it. “You already made it clear what I am.”
He flinched, just slightly. Then his tone lowered, almost gentle. “Be careful, Vexa. Power like that attracts eyes and not all of them are kind.”
Before I could respond, thunder cracked through the clouds, and he was gone fading back toward the Alpha’s quarters, leaving the storm between us.
I stood there in the rain, heart pounding, the obsidian shard’s reflection still burning in my mind.
And for the first time, I felt something inside me stirred, not fear, not sorrow.
Something wild. Something that didn’t want to be contained.
---
That night, when I closed my eyes, I could still see the shard, but now, the reflection wasn’t the moon.
It was me, standing beneath it, glowing red.
- Writer
