The wolf's heir

A broken trust

Chapter 4

The days that followed blurred into one another, but each morning Kael found himself wandering back to the river. And each morning, Selene was there.

She was unlike anyone he had ever known. She didn’t mock his failures or compare him to the others. She asked him questions no one dared ask: what he dreamed of, what he feared, what he longed for when he closed his eyes at night.

At first, Kael had kept his walls high, answering only with guarded words. But little by little, the weight of her silver gaze chipped away at his defenses. For the first time, someone made him feel seen.

One evening, as the sky burned red with sunset, Kael sat on the riverbank with Selene beside him. The sound of the rushing water filled the silence between them. He hadn’t meant to speak, but the words spilled out anyway.

“I see him in my dreams,” Kael said quietly.

Selene tilted her head. “Who?”

“The wolf. Massive… silver fur drenched in blood. His eyes burn like fire.” Kael’s hands clenched in his lap. “He calls to me. Says I’m blood of the Alpha. But that makes no sense. I can’t even shift. I’m nothing.”

Selene’s breath hitched, almost imperceptibly. But when she spoke, her voice was soft, coaxing. “Dreams are more than shadows, Kael. Wolves carry blood memory. Perhaps it means something… greater.”

Kael shook his head. “No. My uncle says I’m weak. That I’ll never be more than a stain.”

Her fingers brushed his arm, gentle as falling snow. “Do you believe him? Or do you believe the fire in your blood?”

He met her silver eyes, his chest tightening. For the first time, he let himself wonder if she was right—if maybe the voice in his dreams meant something. Maybe he wasn’t useless. Maybe…

“I don’t know what to believe,” Kael admitted, his voice breaking. “But I want to know. I need to know.”

Selene leaned closer, her hand lingering on his wrist. “Then trust me. Whatever truth you carry, I won’t turn from it.”

Her words sank into him like balm. In that moment, Kael made the mistake that would nearly end him. He trusted her.

He told her everything. About the wolf. About the woman in the forest with emerald eyes who whispered of Alpha blood. About his suspicion that Veynar’s scar and the bloodied wolf were connected.

Selene listened with rapt attention, nodding, her gaze unwavering. But deep inside, her heart twisted. She knew the shadows were listening. She knew Veynar’s spies lingered close, waiting for her word.

When Kael finally fell silent, his chest rising and falling as though he had laid bare his very soul, Selene pressed her forehead against his for a fleeting moment. “Thank you for trusting me,” she whispered.

That night, long after Kael had left with a rare smile tugging at his lips, Selene did not go home. She slipped deeper into the woods, to where the shadows waited.

The same cloaked figure from before emerged, his eyes glinting like coals beneath the hood.

“Well?” he hissed.

Selene’s chest ached as she spoke, her voice steady despite the war inside her. “It’s true. The boy dreams of the Alpha. He suspects. He… he knows more than he should.”

The figure’s grin was sharp as a blade. “Good. Veynar will want to hear this.”

Selene turned away, her hands trembling. She told herself it was the only way, that Veynar’s wrath was too great to defy. But in the pit of her stomach, guilt gnawed like a starving wolf.

The forest swallowed her as she walked back into the night, the

echo of Kael’s voice chasing her: “I trust you.”