Chapter4
1267 Words
Aria Valehart
The fire hissed low in the hearth as Mave scattered herbs into the flames. They sizzled and cracked, sending pale green smoke curling into the rafters. The air grew thick with the scent of sage, myrrh, and something sharper—like crushed violet stems and lightning.
“Breathe it in,” Mave said. “Let it slow your thoughts.”
I sat cross-legged on a worn pelt, trying to follow her lead. My heartbeat refused to settle. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him.
Kade.
The way his gaze hardened. The brutal calm in his voice as he said, “I reject you.”
I opened my eyes. My chest throbbed like a phantom bruise.
“You won’t heal if you keep picking at it,” Mave murmured.
“I’m not—”
“You’re drowning in it, girl. Let it go.”
I hated how easily she could read me. I hated even more how right she was.
I looked into the fire and forced myself to breathe.
Deep inhale. Deeper exhale.
The smoke coiled through my lungs and circled my mind. Not dizzying, not drugged. Just… open. Quiet.
“Now,” Mave said, “reach for your wolf.”
I blinked at her. “What?”
“Reach inward. Call her.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You’ve done it once already—violent and uncontrolled. You’ll do it again. But this time, with intention. That’s the difference between a monster and a wolf.”
I clenched my hands on my knees. “She doesn’t listen to me.”
“She is you,” Mave said. “Listen first. Then call.”
I closed my eyes again.
The pain hadn’t left me, but beneath it, something stirred.
Heat. Not anger, but instinct—a wild thread humming through my blood.
I followed it inward.
At first, there was only the sound of my breathing and the crackle of fire. Then… the forest. My forest.
A memory—or something deeper—unfolded behind my eyes. Trees stretched tall and endless. Wind brushed my skin. My hands were paws. My mouth was a muzzle. I was running.
But I wasn’t alone.
She was there. My wolf.
She shimmered at the edge of my vision—silver-furred, luminous under the moon, eyes glowing amber like starlight in fog.
You.
Her voice wasn’t words. It was sensation. Heat and ache. Rage and sorrow.
You let him break us.
“I didn’t know how to stop him,” I whispered. “I didn’t know what we were.”
The wolf stared at me for a long moment, then turned and vanished into the trees.
When I opened my eyes, the room was spinning.
Mave caught me before I hit the floor.
“Well,” she said, lowering me onto a bed of moss, “that’s one way to begin.”
“I saw her,” I murmured. “She’s… furious.”
“She should be. Rejection doesn’t just hurt—it severs something sacred. It leaves scars on both sides.”
I looked at Mave. “Even on his?”
“Especially on his,” she said with a knowing smile.
I didn’t want to care, but her words stuck like thorns in my heart.
Especially on his.
Could Kade feel it, too?
Before I could ask, the door creaked open.
A boy stepped inside.
Tall, lean, with brown curls that flopped into his eyes. He wore a rough jacket and carried a basket of herbs.
“Mave,” he said. “I brought what you asked for.”
“Thank you, Elias. You’re just in time.”
He looked at me, curiosity flickering in his amber-brown gaze.
“This her?”
“She has a name,” I snapped before Mave could answer. “Aria.”
Elias grinned. “Alright then, Aria. You look like you got trampled by a wild boar.”
“Elias,” Mave warned, but I couldn’t help a short laugh. It caught me off guard.
He set the basket down and crouched beside me. “I’m the local herb-runner. I bring what the forest offers.”
“And in return?” I asked warily.
He smirked. “She teaches me how to keep from being killed by things in the dark.”
“Fair.”
Mave sorted the herbs into bundles and hung them near the fire. “Elias may not look it, but he’s one of the few left with old blood. His people used to run with the moon before the packs outlawed the ancient rites.”
“Old blood?” I echoed.
Elias held up his palm. A faint mark—spiraled and pale—was etched there.
“I was born in the Hollow. Most of us were forced out. The Blackfangs don’t like anything they can’t control.”
My heart clenched at the mention of that name.
“Why are you helping her?” I asked.
“Because I see the same thing Mave sees.” He stood and tilted his head at me. “You’re more than just a wolf, Aria. You’re… something old that shouldn’t have survived.”
“Comforting.”
He winked. “Or terrifying.”
Mave stepped between us. “Enough chatter. Aria needs rest. Her body’s still adjusting.”
I started to protest, but the exhaustion in my limbs betrayed me.
As I sank back onto the moss bed, Elias handed me a flask. “For the dreams.”
“What dreams?”
He just gave me that same crooked smile. “You’ll see.”
Later That Night…
The dream didn’t come gently.
It crashed over me like a wave.
I was no longer in Mave’s cabin.
I stood in a stone circle deep in the forest. Thirteen ancient pillars loomed around me, each carved with wolves, moons, and fire. The sky above was violet-black, stars swirling like embers in ink.
And in the center of the circle… a woman stood with her back to me.
She wore a silver cloak, and her hair—my hair—was braided down her back.
I stepped forward.
“Mother?”
She turned.
Her face was soft and beautiful, but her eyes… her eyes were filled with terror.
“Aria,” she whispered. “You have to run. They’re coming. They’ll never let you awaken fully.”
“Who’s coming?” I asked, my voice a child’s cry.
“The ones who silenced our bloodline. The ones who wear crowns of ash and teeth.”
A distant howl split the sky.
She pressed something into my hand—a locket. Silver, with a spiral crest etched on the front.
“They must never find you.”
Then the dream shattered.
I woke gasping, the scent of ash still in my nose.
My hands were empty.
But the memory of the locket burned in my palm like fire.
I sat up, heart racing, and looked around the darkened cabin.
Mave sat in the corner, watching.
“You saw her,” she said.
“My mother.”
Mave nodded slowly.
“Your bloodline was hidden for a reason. The Valeharts weren’t just wolves. They were Moonborn.”
The words echoed through the room.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the power inside you is older than the packs, older than Alpha laws. You were never meant to be claimed. You were meant to awaken.”
A storm brewed in my chest.
I thought I’d lost everything when Kade rejected me.
Now I realized… that was just the beginning.
- Writer
