29: The Mark Of The Shadow Wolf
716 Words
Dawn crept gently over the mountains, painting the sky with shades of rose and gold. The storm had passed, but the world still felt… different. Lighter. Quieter. As though even nature was holding its breath.
Damon stood at the window of his room, shirtless, watching the first light wash across the valley. His reflection stared back — golden eyes still faintly glowing, his pulse unsteady. The scent of moonflowers still clung to him, ghostlike.
He hadn’t dreamed since Selene died.
Now, every time he closed his eyes, she came to him.
He turned when he heard footsteps. Darius entered, hair tousled, still wearing the same black pants from last night. His eyes were shadowed — not from lack of sleep, but from too many thoughts.
“You saw it too,” Damon said quietly.
Darius nodded. “The moonfield. The mark. And her.”
They stood facing each other, the air between them thick with everything they didn’t know how to say. They were brothers — and rivals — but after the dream, the boundary between them felt blurred. They had shared the same vision, the same heartbeat, the same woman.
Damon finally broke the silence. “She said the mark of the Shadow Wolf. Do you think it’s a place?”
Darius hesitated. “No. I think it’s us.”
He stepped closer, holding out his forearm. “Last night, after the dream, this appeared.”
Faintly glowing under his skin was a crescent shape — half gold, half silver — intertwined with thin black lines that shimmered when the light hit them. Damon’s breath caught.
He looked down at his own chest, near his heart — and saw the same symbol, mirrored.
“It’s her mark,” Darius whispered. “It appeared when we touched her.”
The room seemed to hum softly, the same low energy that had filled their dreams. Damon reached out, brushing his fingers against the mark on Darius’s arm. The symbol pulsed once — golden light merging with silver. The air between them trembled.
A flash — a memory not his own.
Selene’s laughter in the moonlight. Her voice whispering “Two souls, one heartbeat.”
Then pain — her hand slipping from his in that final moment.
Damon staggered back, breath ragged.
“What was that?”
“A memory,” Darius said, eyes wide. “Hers.”
They both fell silent, realization dawning slowly. The marks weren’t just symbols. They were keys — living remnants of Selene’s soul, binding her to them even beyond death.
“She gave part of herself to each of us,” Damon murmured. “Half her light, half her shadow.”
Darius’s jaw tightened. “Then maybe… together, we can bring her back.”
For the first time, Damon didn’t argue. The rivalry between them — the bitterness, the unspoken tension — melted away beneath the weight of a shared purpose.
But there was something else beneath it too. Something softer.
In the dim light, Darius’s gaze lingered on his brother — the exhaustion in his eyes, the raw emotion in his face. It struck him then how much Damon had been carrying.
“Damon,” he said quietly. “If this mark is tied to our souls, then we can’t afford to fight anymore.”
Damon’s golden eyes lifted to meet his. For a long moment, neither moved. The air hummed again — golden and silver threads of power wrapping faintly around their marks.
They both felt it — the bond Selene had left behind.
It wasn’t rivalry. It wasn’t hate. It was something deeper. A balance between fire and calm, light and shadow, both halves of the same destiny.
When Damon finally spoke, his voice was low, almost tender.
“Then we find her. Together.”
⸻
That night, the brothers sat beneath the full moon once more. The marks on their bodies glowed faintly, pulsing in time with their heartbeats.
And far beyond the stars, in the liminal space between worlds, Selene opened her eyes — the light of both symbols reflected in her irises.
The marks had awakened her.
But so had something else.
The shadow moved beside her, smiling faintly.
“They think they can save you,” it whispered.
“But they are already mine.”
- Writer
