Chapter5
940 Words
“You want to survive?” Kian asked, standing in the ruins of the old training hall. “Then you stop flinching.”
Ivy wiped blood from her lip and glared at him. “You hit me.”
“I’ll hit you again.”
He moved like wind — a blur, a shadow. She barely dodged the second strike.
This was their third night of training in secret. No one knew. Not Luka. Not Rachel. Not the professors. Not the wolves watching her every move like she was a ticking bomb.
Only Kian.
He said the training hall had been abandoned for decades — too far beyond the Blackfang border for patrols to care, too ruined for official use.
But it felt alive.
The stones hummed when Ivy moved. The sigils on the walls pulsed when her anger rose.
Just like her mark.
Kian circled her now like a predator.
“You keep thinking your power’s some beast locked in a cage,” he said. “It’s not. It’s you. And you need to stop fearing it.”
“I don’t fear it,” Ivy growled.
“Then use it.”
He lunged.
This time she didn’t dodge.
She didn’t run.
She let it in.
The fire burst through her chest, down her arms, through her fingertips — and when Kian’s hand swung forward, she caught his wrist mid-strike.
Her eyes flared gold.
He gasped. Not in pain. In awe.
The ground beneath them cracked.
And then she threw him back with a force that shouldn’t have been possible.
Kian crashed into the far wall — and laughed.
“That’s what I’m talking about.”
Ivy stood in the center of the wreckage, chest heaving, her palm glowing.
And for the first time…
She smiled.
---
Meanwhile, Luka felt it.
He sat in his office, midnight moonlight casting sharp angles across his desk. The journal Ivy had stolen from the library was open before him. Her mother’s words repeated in his head.
> The bloodline awakens in pain.
> And it always demands blood in return.
He rubbed his temples.
Something was wrong.
No — something was changing.
The bond between him and Ivy had frayed, but not snapped. It still tugged at him. Still burned when she was angry. Still screamed when she was afraid.
But now…
It was silent.
Like it didn’t need him anymore.
Like it had turned its back.
A soft knock broke the quiet.
“Come in.”
Caleb, his beta, entered.
“There’s a problem,” he said grimly.
Luka’s voice dropped. “What now?”
“Pack Murrow sent a challenge. Two scouts crossed our border this morning. One’s dead. The other’s been taken.”
Luka’s jaw clenched. “That’s a declaration of war.”
“It gets worse.”
Caleb dropped a file on the desk.
Photos slid out.
One of them showed the symbol Ivy had burned into the courtyard weeks ago when her powers first awakened — the crescent moon in flames.
Another showed the same mark — freshly carved into the chest of the Murrow scout.
“She’s not just awakening,” Caleb said. “She’s becoming a symbol.”
---
Back in the ruins, Ivy sat beside Kian, sweat slicking her skin, her power finally quiet for the night.
“You said my mother was part of a bloodline,” she said softly.
“She was one of the last Moon-Blooded born before the purge. She hid herself here, passed as a wolf. But her blood wasn’t just royal. It was divine.”
“Divine?”
“She was marked by the original flame.”
Ivy stared at him.
“You keep saying I’m more than wolf. What am I?”
Kian’s smile was soft now. Almost sad.
“You’re the last Luna of fire and shadow. A weapon born to end the cycle.”
She swallowed hard.
“And if I don’t want to be a weapon?”
“Then you’ll be the casualty.”
---
That night, Ivy returned to her dorm exhausted — only to find Rachel pacing.
“You missed three messages,” Rachel said breathlessly. “Luka’s looking for you. Something’s happening with the packs. Everyone’s on edge.”
Ivy’s stomach turned.
She didn’t want to see him.
Not yet.
But Rachel stepped closer, voice lowering. “He’s scared.”
That made Ivy pause.
She nodded slowly.
“Fine. I’ll go.”
---
She found Luka alone in the training yard.
He didn’t hear her approach.
He was shirtless, knuckles bloodied from punching the wooden post until it splintered.
“Feeling guilty?” she asked.
He turned, startled.
Their eyes met — fire and ice.
“Ivy…” he said softly. “I can’t protect you from this.”
“I don’t need protection.”
He stared at her for a long time.
“You’ve changed.”
“I had to.”
She stepped closer, her voice cutting. “You broke me, Luka. But now I’m building something new from the ashes.”
“I know.”
His voice cracked — the first real c***k in his cold exterior.
“You scare me now.”
She smiled faintly.
“You should be scared.”
She turned to leave.
But Luka caught her wrist — gently this time.
“I saw the mark again,” he whispered. “On a dea
d scout. Someone’s using it.”
“I’m not the only one burning,” Ivy said. “And if they’re sending warnings, maybe they know what’s coming better than we do.”
“What’s coming?”
She met his eyes.
“Me.”
- Writer
