Chapter2
1055 Words
The Voice That Wasn't Mine
Ivy didn't fall.
She exploded.
Her scream never left her lips—swallowed by the heat rushing through her chest, twisting into something unrecognizable. Her body jerked backward, spine arching unnaturally, eyes wide with raw, blinding pain.
Every nerve felt like fire. Every bone screamed.
Someone shouted her name. Another gasped. But the world blurred, distorting at the edges like melting glass.
She wasn't breathing.
She wasn't alive.
She wasn't... Ivy.
Not anymore.
The courtyard had fallen silent.
The crowd that had jeered moments ago now stared in horrified awe as Ivy hovered two inches off the ground—limbs trembling, hair lifting with a charge that didn’t belong to any werewolf.
Red sparks danced across her skin.
The ground beneath her cracked.
A sigil—ancient and glowing—lit up in a ring around her. The air turned thick, heavy with power.
“She’s shifting!”
“No. That’s not a shift—that’s... something else.”
Luka stood frozen, staring at the girl he had just rejected.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
A rejected mate was supposed to break. Wither. Fade quietly.
Not... this.
Not awaken.
The moment shattered.
Ivy collapsed.
She hit the ground hard, limp, her head cracking against the stone with a sickening thud. Blood pooled beneath her temple.
And still, her fingers twitched.
She woke to cold hands on her face.
“Ivy? Can you hear me? Ivy!”
The voice was panicked. Soft. Female.
Rachel.
Her roommate.
Ivy blinked, vision swimming. White ceiling. Harsh lights. Beeping monitors.
The infirmary.
Rachel exhaled shakily. “Oh, thank God. Ivy, you scared the hell out of me.”
“What... what happened?” Her throat was dry. Her lips cracked.
“You collapsed,” Rachel whispered. “In the courtyard. It looked like you were having a seizure. But then... your eyes went red, and the ground—” She stopped herself. “They sedated you. You’ve been out for nearly a full day.”
A full day?
Ivy sat up quickly, then groaned as the room spun.
Rachel gently steadied her. “Don’t push it. You’re lucky to be alive.”
Lucky.
She didn’t feel lucky.
She felt... hollow.
And yet...
She also felt watched.
Later that night, Ivy sat alone in the dorm room, staring at the palm of her hand.
There was a burn mark.
It looked like a crescent moon surrounded by flame. Faint, almost invisible now, but she could feel it pulsing.
Alive.
She pressed her hand against her chest.
Something in her was different. Changed. Hungry.
The voice from the courtyard whispered again—not in her ear, but from inside her skull.
“He rejected you. Good. Now we’re free.”
Ivy gasped, stumbling away from the mirror.
Her reflection blinked a second later than she did.
She tried to sleep. Failed.
At 3 a.m., she wandered the halls of the dorm.
When she passed the quad window, she saw someone standing beneath the moonlight.
Luka.
Alone. Shirtless. His back covered in claw marks and scars. He stared at the sky like he was waiting for something that would never come.
Ivy’s chest tightened.
The bond still ached—like it hadn’t fully broken.
He rejected her. She should hate him. And yet... she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Luka turned.
As if he sensed her watching.
His gaze locked on hers through the glass.
Silver. Empty. Tortured.
And then he looked away.
The next morning, Ivy returned to class.
Every hallway fell silent when she entered. Whispers trailed her like smoke.
“She’s not human.”
“I heard she levitated.”
“She’s cursed.”
“She tried to kill the Alpha.”
They avoided her now—not out of cruelty, but fear.
Even the wolves.
But Luka wasn’t in class.
Not for two days.
When he finally returned, he walked past her like she didn’t exist.
Ivy gritted her teeth.
Fine.
Let him pretend.
She would too.
That night, she dreamed of blood.
She stood on a battlefield, surrounded by broken wolves. The moon above her was red. Her claws were soaked in something dark.
And Luka knelt before her.
Bleeding. Barely breathing.
“Ivy,” he rasped. “Don’t do this.”
She stepped forward, power surging in her chest like a second heartbeat. “You broke me. You made me this.”
He looked up at her, eyes dim. “Then end it.”
She raised her hand.
Her fingers glowed with fire.
And she burned him alive.
She woke up screaming.
Rachel shot up from the other bed, wide-eyed. “Ivy?!”
Ivy was drenched in sweat. The sheets beneath her were smoking.
Actual steam rose from her body.
And when she looked down—
Her hands were glowing.
Faint orange veins ran up her wrists, fading slowly.
She rushed to the sink, splashing cold water on her face.
And then she heard it again.
A voice behind her.
“You’re not safe here.”
She spun around.
No one.
But on the mirror, words had been scrawled in foggy letters.
"You’re awakening too fast."
Ivy’s heart thudded wildly.
She skipped class that day.
Wandered the old library halls instead, searching for something—anything—that could explain what was happening to her.
That’s when she found him.
A boy.
Tall. Lean. Pale skin. Silver eyes so dark they were nearly black. Sitting on the floor beside the restricted archives like he was waiting for her.
“You’re late,” he said without looking up.
“Do I know you?” she asked cautiously.
He smiled.
“Not yet. But I know you, Ivy Cross.”
She backed up. “How do you know my name?”
“I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.” His gaze finally lifted to hers. “Before the Alpha breaks you... before you become the thing they all fear.”
“What are you talking about?”
He stood.
And the
air shifted.
Power rippled from him like static. Old, deep, and terrifyingly familiar.
“I’m here to help you unlock what’s inside you,” he said.
“Why?” she whispered.
He leaned in.
“Because if you don’t—Luka Thorn will be the first one you kill.”
- Writer
