Chapter 4
1600 Words
We left Seattle at dusk in Bellamy’s Tacoma and Axel’s matte-black Jeep, headlights off until we crossed the eastbound bridge. Tris had forced me into Bellamy’s passenger seat, claiming we needed to bond. Far as I could tell, that meant sitting in a deafening silence for ninety miles while Bellamy gripped the steering wheel like he was trying to choke it to death.
The city lights vanished, replaced by the suffocating black of the pines. My duffel sat at my feet, containing a change of clothes from Axel and the silver briefcase that felt heavier every hour.
"You're going to keep staring at the window, or are you going to ask?" Bellamy’s voice cracked the quiet like a gunshot.
"Ask what?"
"Whatever's making you sweat through your shirt." He didn't look at me. He just shifted gears, the truck roaring as we hit a steeper grade.
"Hushfall," I said. "Tris said it's your land. You don't exactly look excited to be going home."
Bellamy’s jaw flexed. He stayed silent long enough that I thought he was going to ignore me. "Hushfall's old Calder land—a thousand acres of mountain and forest. Been ours since before the state was founded. It was a good life. Until six years ago.”
He slowed for a sharp curve, the headlights cutting through a swirl of mist. "A rival pack wanted our silver mine on the mountain. They came at us during the Blood Moon when we’re weakest. They killed thirty-seven of my people. Our parents included. I was eighteen, and barely past my first shift as alpha.”
The air in the cab suddenly felt very thin. "I'm sorry. No one should have to lose a parent," I whispered.
"Don't be," he snapped. "I killed the man who did it. I tore his throat out in the snow. Then I walked away. Haven't been back since the day of the funeral."
"Why go back now?"
"Because it’s the one place the Council won’t follow. Too much blood debt. They call it cursed ground," his voice dropped to a rasp. "There’s a vault under the house sealed by old magic. If we can open it, there’s a relic that can sever a forced bond or create an unbreakable one. Either way, it gives us options.”
My jaw clenched tight. “You still think I’ll bond with you.”
“I think you’ll do whatever it takes to survive," he countered. "If it were up to me, I'd drop you at a bus station and let the Hunters have their fun. Be grateful my sister sees something in you that I don't."
We drove all through the night. Traded drivers only once so Bellamy could sleep. I stared out the window at the dark, listening to his steady breathing. The human part of me kept glancing at the door handle every time we slowed for a gas station, imagining slipping out into the dark and disappearing. But every time my hand moved, the wolf snarled low inside, refusing to let me go through with it. Staying was the only way to live.
Dawn came cold and gray, winding us up a narrow mountain road. Snow dusted the pines. The air smelled cleaner, like wet stone and evergreen. My phone had no signal. Good. No tracking.
We turned off the paved road and onto a pair of muddy ruts that barely qualified as a trail. Axel’s Jeep followed behind, branches scraping paint on the side windows. After twenty minutes the forest parted into a wide meadow, and there it was.
The house rose from the snow like something half-remembered: three stories of hand-hewn logs with wide porches sagging under time. The windows were blank and dark, while the mountains loomed over it like they were waiting for it to finally collapse.
Bellamy killed the engine. “Welcome home.”
Inside, dust drifted in shafts of pale light. On the table, a half-empty coffee mug had evaporated into a dark, crusty ring of sludge. I nearly tripped over a small plastic truck abandoned on the third step of the stairs, the kind of thing a kid would leave behind before being called to dinner. Except dinner never happened. It felt like the whole family had just stepped out for a hunt and never came back. My throat went tight.
Axel moved straight for the massive stone hearth and started a fire. Bellamy vanished down a hallway, while I wandered alone, trailing fingers over claw marks gouged into a log wall, some were faded silver, some still raw and fresh enough to make my skin prickle.
I eventually followed a low murmur of voices down the hallway. I found Tris and Bellamy in a room that smelled of unwashed laundry. It was a time capsule of nineties grunge posters and dusty wrestling trophies. Tris was standing between a pair of twin beds, while Bellamy leaned against the wall in a corner, arms crossed.
“Still smells like teenage angst,” Bellamy said.
Tris managed a small smile. “You were a jock.”
“State champion. Two years running.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Until I bit the referee during finals. Dad made me finish the season human.”
He opened the closet beside him and pulled out a faded flannel. He held it out to Tris. “You were wearing my hoodie when it happened. I regret that night, Tris.”
Her eyes flared gold for a heartbeat. “Bellamy…”
“I know,” he said roughly. “Vault first. We deal with the rest after we bond with the newbie.”
Tris hissed and looked my way.
We found the vault beneath a bearskin rug in his father’s study: a circular iron door set into the floor, runes carved deep around the rim.
Bellamy laid his palm against it. The runes flickered one pale silver color then went dark again.
“Blood lock,” he muttered. “Needs Calder blood and the land’s consent. It’s been pissed at me for six years.”
He sliced his forearm with a claw, letting blood drip onto the runes. They flared crimson, then faded back to dull iron.
Tris cursed under her breath. “The land remembers you walked away.”
She held out her own arm. “Try mine.”
Bellamy’s head snapped up. “Tris.”
“We’re twins. Maybe it needs to know we’re in this together.”
He searched her face for a few seconds, then nodded once. He cut her carefully letting her blood mingle with his. The runes blazed bright. A low rumble rolled through the house like distant thunder. The iron door swung upward on silent hinges, revealing stone steps that spiraled into the darkness.
"Stay close," he said, looking at me.
We descended in a single-file, the air growing colder with each step downward.
At the bottom was a round chamber, walls veined with soot. In the center, a black stone pedestal. On it lay a thick silver torque—two wolves biting each other’s tails.
Bellamy exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for hours. “The Calder torque, said to bind a lone wolf to an alpha, granting control over the shift, and shared strength in battle.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m starting to hate this idea.”
“You should.” Bellamy placed a hand on one wolf’s head. The torque flared bright silver.
He breathed out, eyes on me. “It’s activated. All you have to do is place a hand on the other half.”
I stared at the glowing metal. Terror crawling up my throat. “I don’t think I can.”
“David.”
“Tris, I can’t.” I stepped back, heart racing. “What happens if I do?”
“You’ll be a part of the pack, and a subject to the alpha… Me,” Bellamy said flatly.
"So I'll be under your command? Great. I'm not going through with it.”
“Bellamy,” Tris snapped at him, turning to me. “David, I know joining a pack is terrifying. And I promise not to let Bellamy overstep.”
I clenched my jaw, eyes on her. “You can't know that for sure. Why him? Why not you? You’re twins.”
“That’s not how it works. I'm not the alpha, I…”
Tris gasped, her head snapping back as her pupils began to flicker, vibrating so fast she looked like she was staring into a strobe light. She clutched her head, a low moan escaping her throat.
“Tris?” I reached for her, but Axel burst into the chamber, descending the stairs fast.
“Guys. We have company,” he stopped, breathing hard. “Shadows are moving against the wind in the meadow. I think the hunters found us.”
Bellamy’s head snapped toward him. “Hunters? That’s not possible.”
Tris stepped forward, eyes shifting gold. “It’s not hunters. It’s something else. Something… wrong.”
Her eyes trembled, pupils flickering like she was seeing through layers of reality. The sight shook me to my core.
“What does that mean?” I asked, voice low. “Tris.”
She turned to Bellamy. “He’s here. The faceless man.”
Bellamy frowned. “Tris, are you sure?”
“I can feel the cold,” she whispered, voice trembling.
She grabbed my arm fast. “David, we're already out of time. If he gets in here, there won’t be enough of you left to own. Touch the torque. Now.”
- Writer
