Rise of the Immortal

Chapter 4: Recognition

We stood in the corridor for nearly an hour after they left, none of us quite believing that we were actually outside our cells. The freedom felt surreal, almost dangerous, like we were breaking some fundamental law of the universe simply by breathing air that wasn't filtered through iron bars.

Maya kept touching the walls, running her fingers over the stone as if she was trying to convince herself this was really happening. Henrik had slumped against the doorframe, his broken wolf making it difficult for him to stand for long periods, but his eyes were bright with something that might have been hope.

As for me, I couldn't stop thinking about those golden eyes and the way my wolf had reacted to the Alpha King's presence. For seventeen years, my wolf had been nothing more than a whisper at the edge of my consciousness, so faint I sometimes wondered if I was imagining it entirely. But when Kale had looked at me, when he'd said my name, it had been like someone had lit a fire in my chest.

"What do you think he's saying to Marcus?" Maya asked, breaking the silence that had settled over us.

Before I could answer, we heard voices rising from upstairs – not words, exactly, but tones that carried clearly through the stone. The Alpha King's voice was steady, controlled, but underlaid with a current of fury that made my skin prickle. Marcus's responses were higher, more frantic, with the desperate edge of someone trying to talk their way out of serious trouble.

"Nothing good," Henrik said. "For Marcus, anyway."

The conversation continued for what felt like hours, though it was probably only minutes. Then we heard footsteps on the stairs again – multiple sets, moving fast.

Kale appeared first, his expression grim but determined. Behind him came Marcus, Greg, and two other wolves I recognized as pack enforcers. Marcus looked like he'd been through a blender, his face pale and his hands shaking with barely controlled rage.

"You can't do this," Marcus was saying. "She belongs to this pack. She's been with us her entire life—"

"She belongs to no one," Kale cut him off. "And from what I've seen of how you treat your pack members, that's probably for the best."

They were talking about me. I was certain of it, though I couldn't understand why. What could the Alpha King possibly want with a broken wolf who couldn't even shift?

Kale approached the three of us, his movements careful and non-threatening despite the obvious tension in the air. When he stopped in front of me, that pull in my chest became almost overwhelming.

"Talia," he said, and again, the way he said my name made something flutter inside me. "I'd like to offer you a choice."

A choice. When had I ever been offered a choice about anything?

"You can stay here, with your current pack, and I'll ensure that you're treated properly from now on. You'll have a real room, proper food, and the respect due to any pack member."

It sounded too good to be true. It was too good to be true. Wolves like Marcus didn't change their fundamental nature just because someone told them to, no matter how powerful that someone might be.

"Or," Kale continued, "you can come with me. Join my pack. Learn what you're truly capable of."

The offer hit me like a physical blow. Join his pack? Leave the only home I'd ever known, despite how terrible that home had been?

"She's not going anywhere," Marcus said, stepping forward. "Talia is Silver Fang pack. She was born here, raised here—"

"Imprisoned here," Kale corrected, not taking his eyes off me. "Abused here. Treated like something less than human here."

"You don't understand," Marcus's voice was rising toward desperation. "She's... she's important to us. We've invested years in her care and development—"

Kale finally looked at him, and the expression on his face made Marcus take an involuntary step backward.

"Years of keeping her in a cage qualify as investment in her development?"

"She's dangerous," Marcus said, switching tactics. "She doesn't shift, which means she's unstable. Unpredictable. We keep her contained for the safety of the pack."

"If she's so dangerous," Kale said softly, "why haven't you simply killed her?"

The question hung in the air like a blade. Marcus opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again without making a sound.

Because they couldn't, I realized. For some reason, they couldn't just get rid of me permanently, much as they might want to. There was something about me, something they knew and I didn't, that made them keep me alive despite considering me a burden.

Kale seemed to reach the same conclusion. His eyes narrowed as he studied Marcus, then shifted to Greg, who was trying very hard to look invisible.

"What aren't you telling me?" Kale asked.

"Nothing," Marcus said too quickly. "There's nothing—"

"You're lying."

It wasn't an accusation. It was a simple statement of fact, delivered with the absolute confidence of someone who knew truth from falsehood as instinctively as breathing.

Marcus's composure finally cracked entirely.

"Fine!" he snapped. "You want to know the truth? She's a white wolf, all right? That's why she doesn't shift, that's why she's dangerous, and that's why she can never leave this pack!"

White wolf.

The words hit me like lightning. I'd heard the term before, whispered in stories told when the pack elders thought no one was listening. White wolves were legend, myth, creatures of power so great they could reshape the very foundations of werewolf society.

They were also supposedly extinct.

Kale went completely still, his golden eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made me want to step backward. But instead of fear or concern, his expression held something that looked almost like wonder.

"A white wolf," he said quietly. "Are you certain?"

"Her parents were both white wolves," Marcus said bitterly. "Came to us seeking shelter when she was barely a year old, claimed they were being hunted by wolves who wanted to use their power for their own ends. We gave them sanctuary, protection, and they repaid us by producing a child who could destroy everything we've built."

"What happened to them?" Kale asked.

Marcus shrugged. "Hunting accident. Very tragic."

Even I could hear the lie in that response. My parents hadn't died in a hunting accident. They'd been killed, probably by Marcus's own wolves, probably because they'd started asking questions about why their daughter was being treated differently from the other pack children.

But if I was a white wolf, why couldn't I shift? The stories claimed white wolves were more powerful than any other werewolf, capable of feats that bordered on magic. I could barely make it through a day of cleaning without collapsing from exhaustion.

"She can't be a white wolf," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "I can't even shift."

Kale looked at me with something that might have been pity. "Have you ever tried? Really tried, with someone to guide you?"

"No," Marcus answered before I could speak. "We thought it was safer if she never learned to access her wolf."

"Safer for whom?" Kale's voice was deadly quiet.

"For everyone," Marcus shot back. "White wolves are dangerous. Unpredictable. They can—"

"They can unite the packs," Kale finished. "Or they can destroy them entirely, depending on how they're treated and trained. Which outcome do you think your approach has been encouraging?"

The implication in his words made my blood run cold. If I really was a white wolf, if I really had the power the stories claimed, then every year of abuse and neglect had been pushing me toward the destructive end of that spectrum.

"She comes with me," Kale said, and this time it wasn't an offer or a request. It was a decree. "She needs proper training, proper guidance, and clearly she's not going to get that here."

"Absolutely not," Marcus snarled. "I forbid it."

Kale smiled, and the expression was sharp enough to cut glass. "You forbid it?"

"She's Silver Fang pack," Marcus said, desperation making his voice crack. "You can't just take her. There are laws, protocols—"

"Are there?" Kale's voice carried the weight of absolute authority. "Tell me, Marcus, what law protects a pack's right to keep their members in cages? What protocol allows for the systematic abuse of wolves under your protection?"

Marcus's mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.

"Furthermore," Kale continued, "what law prevents a wolf from choosing their own pack affiliation? Because unless I'm mistaken, that's exactly what I'm offering her."

He turned back to me, and when our eyes met, I felt that strange pull intensify into something that made my knees weak.

"The choice is yours, Talia. No one else gets to make it for you. Not me, not him, not anyone."

A choice. After seventeen years of having every decision made for me, every aspect of my life controlled by others, I was being offered the most fundamental choice of all – where to belong.

I looked at Marcus, at the pack house above our heads where I'd spent ten years in darkness, at the cell that had been my world for so long I'd stopped dreaming of anything beyond its walls.

Then I looked at Kale, at his golden eyes and the promise of something different, something better.

"I want to go with you," I whispered.

Marcus exploded.

"No!" he roared, his wolf bleeding through in his voice. "I won't allow it! She's too dangerous, too unstable! If she leaves here, if she learns to shift, she'll destroy everything!"

"The only thing she'll destroy," Kale said calmly, "is the system that created this situation in the first place."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Marcus snarled.

The admission hung in the air like a confession. Marcus wasn't afraid of me becoming dangerous – he was afraid of me becoming free. He was afraid of what I might do if I ever gained the power to stand up for myself and others like me.

"Then you should have treated her better," Kale said simply. "Because now she's coming with me, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"We'll see about that," Marcus growled.

The threat in his words was unmistakable, but if Kale was intimidated, he didn't show it. Instead, he smiled – a cold, predatory expression that made the temperature in the corridor seem to drop several degrees.

"Are you threatening me, Marcus?"

"I'm protecting my pack," Marcus replied, but his voice had lost some of its conviction.

"No," Kale said, stepping closer to the Silver Fang Alpha. "You're protecting your guilty conscience. You know what you've done here is wrong, and you're afraid of the consequences if it ever comes to light."

"I've done nothing wrong," Marcus said, but the lie was transparent enough that even I could see through it.

"You've kept pack members in cages for years. You've denied them sunlight, proper food, basic dignity, and the chance to develop their abilities. You've murdered the parents of a child and then imprisoned that child for the crime of existing." Kale's voice was steady, controlled, but underneath it I could hear a current of rage that made my wolf shiver. "Tell me, Marcus, which part of that strikes you as acceptable pack leadership?"

Marcus had no answer for that.

Kale turned back to me, his expression softening. "Are you ready to leave this place?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice to remain steady.

"What about us?" Maya asked quietly from where she stood beside Henrik.

Kale looked at both of them, his golden eyes assessing. "The offer extends to all of you, if you want it. My pack has room for wolves who've been mistreated, and we have healers who might be able to help with physical injuries." His gaze lingered on Henrik, who was still leaning against the wall for support.

"You can't take all of them," Marcus said desperately. "They belong to Silver Fang pack—"

"They belong to themselves," Kale cut him off. "And they can choose their own destinies."

Maya looked at me, then at Henrik, then back at Kale. "Together?" she asked.

"Together," he confirmed.

"Then yes," she said, lifting her chin with more defiance than I'd seen from her in years. "We want to come with you."

Henrik nodded his agreement, tears streaming down his weathered face.

"This is not over," Marcus said, his voice shaking with barely controlled fury. "If you take them, if you take her especially, there will be consequences. Other packs will see this as an act of aggression, a violation of territorial sovereignty."

"Let them," Kale said. "I've been looking for an excuse to have some conversations with pack leaders about their treatment of vulnerable members. You've just provided me with the perfect opportunity."

The threat in his words was subtle but unmistakable. If Marcus wanted to make this a larger conflict, Kale was prepared for that fight.

"You don't understand what you're doing," Marcus said. "She's not just any white wolf. Her bloodline... the power she could potentially access... it's beyond anything you've ever seen."

"Then it's a good thing she'll be learning to control it properly, isn't it?" Kale replied.

He looked at the three of us, his expression kind but serious. "Go upstairs," he said. "Get whatever belongings you have, anything you don't want to leave behind. We leave in an hour."

Belongings. I almost laughed at the concept. What belongings could a slave possibly have? The clothes on my back were borrowed, and everything else I'd ever owned had been taken away years ago.

But as we climbed the stairs toward the upper levels of the pack house, I realized that I was wrong. I did have something I was taking with me – hope. For the first time in my life, I had hope that things could be different, that I could be something more than a broken wolf in a cage.

The main floor of the pack house was chaos. Word of what was happening had spread through the pack like wildfire, and wolves were gathered in small groups, whispering and staring as we passed. Some looked curious, others fearful, and a few seemed almost relieved – as if our liberation somehow validated their own hidden doubts about Marcus's leadership.

Kale walked beside me, his presence both comforting and overwhelming. Every few steps, I felt that pull in my chest intensify, like some invisible cord was drawing me toward him. I didn't understand what it meant, but it felt... right. Important.

"What's happening to us?" Maya asked quietly as we reached the main entrance.

"You're getting a second chance," Kale said. "All of you."

As we stepped outside into sunlight I hadn't felt in months, I lifted my face to the sky and felt my wolf stir with something that might have been joy.

Behind us, Marcus stood in the doorway, his expression promising that this was far from over.

But for the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of what came next.