Chapter3
1032 Words
“Elara?”
His voice hit me like a lightning strike.
He stepped closer, slow, unsure.
I didn’t move. My hands were clenched inside my cloak. My hood stayed up. I didn’t let him see my face—not yet.
Kael’s eyes narrowed. “Is it you?”
I stared at him, steady.
Three years ago, I would’ve looked down. I would’ve shaken. Tonight, I didn’t flinch.
“Who’s Elara?” I asked, my voice cold.
Kael froze.
He blinked, once. Twice.
Then he frowned. “I—I smelled something. Something familiar.”
I tilted my head. “You sure you’re not just chasing ghosts?”
His jaw clenched. “You sound like her.”
“I get that a lot,” I said flatly.
He studied me harder now. His Alpha energy reached out—a quiet force trying to pull truth from me. But I wasn’t the same girl. His pull didn’t reach me anymore.
A door creaked open behind him.
Sariah’s voice rang out. “Kael?”
He turned slightly, enough for me to slip into the shadows.
I was gone before she saw me.
*****
Back in the woods, I tore the hood off.
My heart was hammering.
Ryker appeared from the trees seconds later. “Did he see you?”
“No. He saw the shadow of me. That’s all.”
He raised a brow. “And how do you feel?”
I looked up at the sky.
“Like I didn’t fall apart.”
Ryker didn’t smile, but I saw something soften in his eyes. “Good.”
*****
We moved further from the pack lands that night. Too close, too soon.
We camped near the old watchtower ruins—long abandoned since the rogues destroyed it. Ryker set up the fire. I sat in silence.
Kael hadn’t recognized me. Not truly.
That was good.
It meant I had time.
But part of me—deep down—hated that he hadn’t known.
Was I that easy to forget?
“Tell me something,” I said.
Ryker looked up.
“If I died that night… and you found my body instead of me alive… what would you have done?”
He didn’t answer at first. The fire cracked between us.
Then he said, “I would’ve buried you. And I would’ve found him.”
I looked at him.
“And?”
“I would’ve made him bleed.”
*****
The next morning, I woke to a message left in the dirt beside me:
He’s asking questions. They’ll come looking soon.
Ryker had gone to check the outer trails.
I rolled the note into my hand and stared at the sunrise.
Kael was looking for me now.
Not because he knew I was alive—but because he sensed something wrong.
He would follow the scent.
He would follow the silence.
And one day, he’d find me standing in front of him—with a blade or a crown. I hadn’t decided which.
*****
By midmorning, I walked alone to the old training field—the one outside the Nightfang territory line. No one came here anymore. But I knew the way blind.
The grass was taller. The ring was cracked. But the memories still lived in the dirt.
I dropped my cloak and stood in the center.
I remembered Kael training here. Fast. Focused. Brutal. He didn’t believe in holding back, even with me. He said Luna or not, I needed to be ready to survive.
I hated him for a long time for that.
Now I was grateful.
I closed my eyes and moved through the forms. Shift. Lunge. Block. Strike.
I wasn’t training for him.
I was sharpening myself for whatever came next.
A twig snapped.
I froze.
Then turned fast—knife drawn.
The boy from the village stood at the edge of the field, eyes wide.
“You again,” I said, lowering the blade.
He took a slow step forward. “My sister’s fever broke.”
I nodded once. “Good.”
“She’s asking for you.”
I sheathed the knife. “I can’t go back into the village right now.”
He looked down. “I figured. My mom told me not to find you again.”
I raised a brow. “But you came anyway?”
He looked up. “You’re not like the others. You don’t look scared.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
He took something from his pocket and handed it to me.
It was a pendant.
A moonstone.
The kind the Vale women used to wear. My mother had one just like it.
“Where did you get this?” I asked sharply.
“From the river trail. By the cliffs.”
My heart stopped.
That was where I’d jumped. Where I’d nearly died.
It had to be mine.
I took it gently. “Thank you.”
The boy nodded. “People miss you, you know.”
“I’m not who you think I am.”
He smiled. “Then maybe you’re someone better.”
Then he ran off.
*****
I sat in the grass long after he left, staring at the moonstone.
Kael had thrown me away like I was nothing.
But this stone—this past—still existed.
It meant I existed, too.
I would take my time.
I would come back when he least expected it.
And when I did, it wouldn’t be to ask for love.
It would be to rewrite everything.
*****
At the palace, Kael slammed his fist against the table.
“She looked at me. Spoke to me. I swear it was her.”
Sariah stood across the room, arms crossed. “You’re dreaming again.”
“I’m not.”
“Kael, Elara is dead. You rejected her. She ran off and never returned. You need to stop chasing ghosts.”
He stepped toward her, anger sparking in his eyes.
“I smelled her,” he growled. “That’s not something you forget.”
She lifted her chin. “Even if she were alive, she doesn’t belong here anymore.”
He stared at her.
And for the first time… he didn’t answer.
- Writer
