CHAPTER 6: Pack And Prey
1002 Words
Elara didn’t sleep.
She sat cross-legged on the living room floor, the pendant around her neck pulsing faintly against her skin, Jesse asleep on the couch beside her, one hand hanging limp off the side. Outside, the world was quiet — too quiet. No birds. No cars. Just wind whispering through the trees like a warning.
She kept hearing her mother’s voice in that journal.
If anything happens to me, I pray she never wakes the wolf.
But the wolf was awake now.
And it wasn’t going back to sleep.
⸻
At dawn, Jesse stirred.
He rubbed his face, blinking up at her. “You didn’t rest?”
She shook her head. “Didn’t want to.”
He sat up slowly. “What now?”
“I need answers,” she said. “Real ones.”
“From Kael?”
“No,” she said. “From someone who’s been hiding them longer.”
⸻
They walked across town, the morning still and oddly cold. Elara’s destination wasn’t a place she often visited — or ever wanted to — but now, it felt unavoidable.
Her aunt Marian’s house.
Marian was her mother’s sister. A quiet, unsmiling woman who lived on the edge of town in a stone house older than any of the others. She’d never been warm. Never shared bedtime stories. Just quick glances and cold tea.
But Elara remembered the one thing Marian always wore — a silver ring shaped like a wolf’s head.
She knocked three times.
No answer.
She raised her fist again when the door opened abruptly.
Marian stood in the frame, robe pulled tight, hair already perfectly tied back. Her eyes flicked to Jesse, then back to Elara.
“You woke up,” she said flatly.
“You knew?”
“I always knew.”
Elara clenched her jaw. “And you just kept it from me?”
“I honored your mother’s wishes. She wanted peace for you. A normal life.”
“Well, that’s gone.”
Marian stepped aside without another word.
⸻
Inside, the house smelled of cedar and lavender. Dark wood floors, heavy curtains, books lining every surface.
Jesse stayed near the door while Elara followed her aunt into the parlor.
“You said I was dormant,” Elara said. “Kael did, too. What does that mean?”
Marian poured tea without asking if she wanted any. “It means the gene was inactive. You were born with it, but it didn’t express — not until recently. Likely triggered by stress or proximity to others like you.”
“Others like me?” she echoed.
Marian’s gaze didn’t waver. “There’s a pack in these woods, Elara. There always has been. Some old. Some new. Your mother was part of it before she left.”
“She left the pack?”
“She left everything. To protect you. To keep you out of the war.”
Elara leaned in. “What war?”
Marian finally met her eyes. “Between those who want us hidden… and those who want us hunted.”
The word hit like a stone in her gut.
“Hunters,” Elara whispered.
“They’ve been around for centuries. Some bound by fear. Others by bloodlines. They don’t see people — only threats. Monsters.”
“And I’m one of them now?”
“No,” Marian said. “You’re still you. You’re just… more now.”
Elara glanced at her claws — retracted, but always close. “It doesn’t feel like me.”
“It will. In time.”
Jesse, quiet until now, stepped forward. “Someone was at her house last night. Broke the window. She wasn’t alone.”
Marian’s expression darkened. “Then it’s already started.”
“What has?” Elara asked.
“The purge. They’re testing the waters. Watching who reacts. Who shifts. You’ve drawn their attention.”
“Why now?”
“Because you’re rare,” Marian said softly. “You come from a bloodline that shouldn’t exist anymore. If the wrong people find out who you really are—”
“They already have.”
⸻
That afternoon, Elara and Jesse returned to the lake.
The same place where Kael first warned her. The sky was cloudy, the trees still. Even the water looked heavier.
Kael was already there, sitting on the rocks, arms resting on his knees.
He looked at them and gave a slight nod. “I figured you’d come.”
“I know the truth now,” Elara said. “About my mom. About the pack.”
“And about the hunters?”
“They came last night.”
Kael stood. “Then you don’t have much time.”
“For what?”
“To decide where you stand.”
He stepped closer. “There are others like you — hiding, isolated. We’re trying to protect them. We’ve built safe zones, shelters deep in the forest. But we’re outnumbered. Outarmed. If you stay here, you’ll be picked off.”
“So you want me to run?”
“I want you to survive.”
She looked at Jesse, his jaw tense, his arms crossed. “And him?”
Kael looked at Jesse long and hard. “If you trust him, he’s safe.”
“And if I’m wrong?”
Kael didn’t answer.
Because he didn’t have to.
⸻
That night, Elara dreamed again.
But this time, she wasn’t running.
She was chasing.
Through the forest, under moonlight, her body moved with power and grace she’d never known. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t hiding.
She was the hunter.
And when she stopped, she stood in a circle of others — wolves, men, women — all with silver eyes like Kael’s.
One by one, they bowed their heads.
To her.
⸻
She woke with a jolt, breath catching.
Her window was open.
And on the floor beneath it, a symbol was carved into the wood.
A crescent moon.
And three claw marks beneath.
Not a threat.
A sign.
An invitation.
- Writer
