The Truth They Tried to Bury
1868 Words
“I don’t have a home with you.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them—sharp, instinctive, and laced with a fear I refused to show.
For a heartbeat, silence followed.
Then the rogue in front of us smiled.
Not amused.
Not friendly.
Predatory.
“Oh,” he said softly, “you really don’t remember.”
A chill crawled down my spine.
“Remember what?” I demanded, my voice tighter than I intended.
Kael’s body shifted slightly in front of me, his stance widening, his presence darkening as if he was preparing for something far worse than a simple fight.
“Enough,” he growled. “You’ve said enough already.”
The rogue’s gaze flicked to him, unimpressed.
“You can’t hide it forever, Alpha,” he replied coolly. “She deserves to know.”
“She deserves to live,” Kael snapped.
That was all the warning I got.
---
They attacked at once.
No hesitation.
No signal.
Just violence.
The rogue to the left lunged first, his body snapping into wolf form mid-air, claws gleaming as he aimed straight for Kael’s throat.
Kael met him head-on.
The impact shook the ground beneath us.
The second rogue came from the right, faster than I could track, his hand shooting out toward me.
I stumbled back, barely avoiding his grip, panic surging through my veins.
“Stay still,” he said, almost bored. “This will be easier if you don’t fight.”
“Not happening,” I shot back, my voice shaking despite my attempt to sound steady.
He sighed.
Then he moved.
---
Pain exploded in my side as I was thrown backwards, my body slamming into a tree hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
I hit the ground, gasping, my vision swimming as the world tilted violently around me.
“Pathetic,” the rogue muttered, stepping closer. “This is what they’ve been hiding from us?”
Rage flared through me, cutting through the pain.
“I’m not—” My voice broke as I pushed myself up. “I’m not anything you think I am.”
He crouched slightly, studying me like I was some kind of broken object.
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Another crash echoed behind him—Kael, still fighting, still holding them off.
But even he couldn’t be everywhere at once.
And right now—
I was alone.
---
The rogue moved again, faster this time.
I barely had time to react before his hand wrapped around my throat, lifting me off the ground like I weighed nothing.
My breath hitched.
My hands clawed at his wrist, but it was useless.
His grip tightened.
“You should have come willingly,” he said, his voice low. “It would have been less painful.”
My vision darkened at the edges.
Air.
I needed air.
“Let… me… go…” I choked.
His expression didn’t change.
“Not a chance.”
Something inside me snapped.
Not physically.
Not emotionally.
Something deeper.
Something… buried.
---
The world went quiet.
Too quiet.
The sounds of fighting faded.
The pain dulled.
And for a split second—
Everything stopped.
Then—
It came back.
Not the pain.
Not the fear.
Power.
---
It surged through me without warning, hot and electric, tearing through my veins like wildfire.
The rogue froze.
His grip faltered.
“What—” His eyes widened. “What is that?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I couldn’t.
I didn’t understand it myself.
All I knew was that something inside me had awakened.
And it wasn’t weak.
---
My hand shot up instinctively, grabbing his wrist.
This time—
He reacted.
Pain flashed across his face.
“What are you—” His voice broke off into a strangled gasp.
The air around us shifted.
The ground beneath my feet trembled.
And then—
He screamed.
---
It wasn’t a normal scream.
It was raw.
Primal.
Terrified.
I stumbled back as he released me, collapsing to his knees, his body shaking violently.
“What did you do?” he gasped, staring at me like I was something out of a nightmare.
“I…” My voice trembled. “I didn’t—”
But I had.
I felt it.
The power still pulsed beneath my skin, alive and dangerous.
Awake.
And for the first time—
I was afraid of myself.
---
“Elara!”
Kael’s voice cut through the moment.
I turned just in time to see him tear free from the other rogue, his movements sharp and brutal as he closed the distance between us.
His gaze flicked from me to the rogue on the ground.
Then back to me.
And something in his expression shifted.
Shock.
“You’re already manifesting,” he muttered.
“I don’t know what that means!”
“It means we’re out of time.”
The third rogue—silent until now—stepped forward slowly, his eyes locked onto me with something far more dangerous than the others.
Understanding.
“Well,” he said quietly. “That confirms it.”
Kael moved in front of me again, his body tense.
“You’re not taking her.”
The rogue tilted his head slightly.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” he said. “We don’t need to take her.”
My stomach dropped.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
His gaze didn’t leave mine.
“She’ll come on her own.”
---
Something cold slid down my spine.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He smiled again.
And this time—
There was something almost… pitying in it.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Rage flared.
“I always have a choice.”
“Not this time.”
Before I could respond—
He reached into his coat.
Kael tensed instantly.
“Don’t,” he warned.
But the rogue didn’t stop.
He pulled something out.
Small.
Worn.
Familiar.
My breath caught.
---
“No…”
My voice barely came out.
Because I knew what it was.
Even before I fully saw it.
Even before my mind caught up.
I knew.
The necklace.
A simple silver chain with a small, crescent-shaped pendant.
I had worn it my entire life.
Until the day it disappeared.
The day I was told it had been lost.
But it hadn’t been lost.
It had been taken.
My hands trembled.
“Where did you get that?” I demanded.
The rogue’s smile widened.
“From your real home.”
The words hit harder than anything else.
“My home is here,” I snapped.
“No,” he said softly. “This is where you were hidden.”
Hidden.
The word echoed in my mind.
The visions.
The voice.
You were never meant to be hidden.
My heart pounded.
“What are you talking about?” I whispered.
The rogue stepped closer.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
“You were stolen,” he said. “Taken from us when you were just a child.”
My world tilted.
“That’s not true.”
But even as I said it—
Doubt crept in.
Because I didn’t remember my childhood.
Not really.
Just fragments.
Blurry.
Incomplete.
“They erased your past,” he continued. “Buried your power. Turned you into something small.”
My chest tightened.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?” he asked quietly.
Silence fell.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Because I didn’t have an answer.
---
Kael stepped forward, his voice cold and sharp.
“Enough.”
The rogue didn’t move.
“Give it back,” Kael continued, his eyes flicking to the necklace.
The rogue considered it for a moment.
Then—
He dropped it.
Right at my feet.
“Keep it,” he said. “You’ll need it.”
I stared at it, my hands trembling as I slowly bent down to pick it up.
The moment my fingers touched the pendant—
Everything changed.
---
The power surged again.
Stronger this time.
Uncontrolled.
Memories flashed—
Not visions.
Memories.
A burning village.
Screams.
Hands pulling me away.
A voice shouting—
“Protect her!”
My breath hitched.
“No—”
The world spun.
“Elara!”
Kael’s voice sounded distant again.
But I couldn’t focus.
Because the truth—
It was breaking through.
And it hurt.
---
When the world finally settled—
The rogues were gone.
Vanished into the forest as if they had never been there.
Silence filled the space they left behind.
Heavy.
Unsettling.
I stood there, clutching the necklace, my entire body shaking.
“Elara,” Kael said carefully. “Look at me.”
I didn’t.
Because I couldn’t.
Not yet.
“Is it true?” I whispered.
The question hung in the air.
Fragile.
Dangerous.
Kael didn’t answer immediately.
And that was enough.
My heart shattered all over again.
“You knew,” I said, my voice breaking.
His silence confirmed it.
Rage flared, hot and sharp.
“You knew,” I repeated, louder this time. “And you didn’t tell me!”
“It wasn’t safe—”
“It’s not safe now!” I snapped. “They’re hunting me! They think I belong to them! And you just—what? Decided I didn’t deserve to know?”
His expression darkened.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By lying to me?”
“By keeping you alive!”
The words echoed between us.
Raw.
Unfiltered.
And painfully real.
I took a step back.
Then another.
“I don’t even know who I am anymore,” I whispered.
Kael’s gaze softened slightly.
“You’re still you.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not.”
Because everything I thought I knew—
Was a lie.
---
The bond pulsed again.
Stronger.
Different.
Not just pain anymore.
Not just connection.
Something deeper.
Something inevitable.
I looked up at him.
At the man who had rejected me.
Protected me.
Lied to me.
All at once.
“What happens now?” I asked.
His jaw tightened.
And for the first time—
I saw uncertainty in his eyes.
“They won’t stop,” he said quietly. “Not now that they’ve found you.”
My grip tightened around the necklace.
“Then maybe I should go with them.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Kael went still.
Dangerously still.
“No,” he said.
Not a command.
A warning.
But I didn’t back down.
“Maybe they have answers you won’t give me.”
His eyes darkened.
“If you go with them,” he said slowly, “you won’t come back.”
A chill ran through me.
“Then tell me why.”
Silence stretched between us.
Heavy.
Tense.
And then—
Kael spoke.
“They’re not just rogues.”
My breath caught.
“Then what are they?”
His gaze locked onto mine.
Cold.
Unyielding.
“They’re what’s left of your bloodline.”
-
The rogues aren’t enemies—they’re connected to Elara’s true origin. But if they’re her people… why does Kael fear them more than anything?
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