After the flame the choice
1319 Words
The Scent-Eater screamed — not with sound, but with force. The air cracked. The Moonstone, already broken, crumbled to dust. Wolves collapsed. Bonds flickered out.
But Averie held firm.
Her mark — the crescent between her collarbones — blazed gold.
And Kaelen’s bond lit to match it.
They stood, hand in hand, the fire between them forming a wall even the Scent-Eater recoiled from.
Elder Myrra stepped forward.
“Stand with them!” she shouted.
And the warriors — even Darius — joined the circle, pouring their strength into the barrier.
The creature screamed again.
But it could not enter.
Not yet.
---------
As the storm raged, a voice spoke from the Moonstone dust.
An old voice. Female. Wise.
“The one who loses her scent,
who binds her heart by fire,
will awaken the Old One...
but if she stands unbroken,
she will also awaken the True Alpha.”
Gasps.
Averie fell to her knees — light pouring from her chest.
Kaelen caught her.
And from the light…
A new presence bloomed.
Not the Scent-Eater.
Something older.
Something pure.
Averie collapsed into Kaelen’s arms, but the light pouring from her chest did not fade.
It pulsed — like a second heartbeat.
And in that pulse came a memory… not hers, but ancient.
A voice, soft and ageless, spoke inside her:
“You were not born. You were woven.
Spun from the thread of flame and moon.
And when your scent was stolen, the thread twisted.
But now… it straightens.”
Averie opened her eyes, golden with fire. Her mark flared wider, not just a crescent anymore — but a full moon wrapped in flame.
Myrra gasped.
“She’s not a mistake. She’s the answer.”
---
Bloodline of the First Flame
As the sky opened above them, the stars shimmered — brighter than they ever had over Highfang.
And in that moment, the elders saw the truth:
Averie’s scent had been divine because she was descended from the First Flame.
The original line of werewolves blessed by the Moon herself.
The ones who once ruled before the Council was born.
The bloodline thought extinguished… but only hidden.
And Lyra… Lyra had been used by those who feared the return of that power.
The scent-theft was not an accident.
It had been a coup.
---
The Scent-Eater’s Wrath
The Scent-Eater howled as the truth formed around Averie.
“No…” it growled. “She was not meant to return.”
It launched forward, its shadow turning solid — claws scraping against shields of light and bone.
It struck Kaelen first.
He flew backward into stone.
Averie screamed — but her voice didn’t carry pain.
It carried power.
The sound shattered the creature’s form for a moment — and her hands burst into flame.
She ran toward Kaelen, who was barely conscious.
“I’m here,” she said. “Stay with me.”
Kaelen coughed, blood at the edge of his lips.
“End it, Averie. You have to.”
--------
And then… it happened.
The clouds parted.
And a wolf descended from the sky.
Massive. White. Eyes like twin moons. A silver mane like waterfall silk.
The True Alpha.
The one whose bones were said to be buried beneath the Lunar Caverns.
But he was never dead.
Just sleeping, waiting for her light to call him.
He landed between the creature and Averie, and his voice shook the world:
“You hunger for what you do not understand.”
“You feed on threads broken by fear.”
“But she is the fire that will forge us anew.”
The Scent-Eater shrieked and lunged.
But this time — it wasn’t just the Alpha who fought.
It was all of them.
Kaelen rose, wounded but alive.
Myrra cast wards.
Darius, for once, did not hesitate.
Even Lyra… crawled to her knees and whispered a spell of binding.
Together, they stood.
And the True Alpha let out a roar — one that tore the creature apart from the inside out.
Not with violence.
But with truth.
With love.
With the bonds they chose to protect.
---
The Scent-Eater’s body dissolved into mist.
The air stilled.
Averie collapsed beside Kaelen.
The True Alpha lowered his head to her.
“You are not the end of fate,” he said. “You are its beginning.”
And as dawn touched the treetops, the world began again.
---
The battlefield lay quiet.
Ash coated the stones of Highfang. The scent of fire, blood, and old magic hung in the air like morning mist. Wolves stood in silence, not knowing whether to howl in grief or triumph.
Kaelen limped across the broken courtyard, his tunic blood-soaked, chest rising slow. His eyes scanned for one thing only.
Averie.
He found her kneeling beside the remains of the shattered Moonstone, golden dust smeared across her palms like war paint. Her hands trembled — not from weakness, but from too much power still humming beneath her skin.
He knelt beside her.
She didn’t look up. “I thought I lost you.”
“You almost did,” he murmured. “But I’m too stubborn to let go before you make your choice.”
A soft laugh escaped her — cracked, tired, real.
She reached out, fingers brushing his.
“I already chose,” she whispered. “I chose you when I had nothing. When I was no one. I’ll keep choosing you… even now.”
---
Six months later
The banners over Highfang were no longer Council-gray.
They were deep blue — the color of twilight — embroidered with silver thread in the shape of a full moon wrapped in flame.
Averie stood at the edge of the balcony, her scent restored, her power fully awakened. She had become more than legend — she had become law.
No longer a forgotten girl with a stolen fate.
Now? She was the Flamebound Alpha — chosen not by a mate, but by a people.
Kaelen walked up behind her, sliding an arm around her waist.
“Still nervous?” he asked.
“I just redrafted three ancient blood treaties and convinced the Eastpack not to eat each other,” she said. “I think I’m doing okay.”
He laughed, nuzzling into her shoulder.
“And the Alpha?”
She turned to him. “You’re looking at her.”
“I meant the one you were supposed to choose,” he teased. “You know. The mate fate tried to force on you.”
Averie rolled her eyes.
“Poor guy,” she said. “Imagine thinking you could fight fate when fate had other plans.”
---
That night, the True Alpha came to her again in a dream.
The sky burned with aurora light. She stood in a clearing filled with stars.
“You have rewritten the bond,” he said.
“Was I wrong to?” she asked.
“No,” he answered. “You did not break fate. You forged it.”
He stepped forward.
“But there is one final choice.”
Averie’s heart clenched. “Again?”
He smiled — something wild and ancient.
“You may choose to bind yourself fully to Kaelen… and your power will belong to one lineage forever.”
“Or…?”
“You may walk unbound — become more than Luna. A goddess reborn. Free, wild, eternal. But alone.”
Averie swallowed.
“I don’t want to lose him.”
“Then don’t,” the True Alpha said gently. “But power always asks a price. Choose.”
-----
When she woke, Kaelen was asleep beside her.
His arm thrown over her.
His chest rising.
His soul still tethered to hers.
Averie pressed her lips to his shoulder.
And whispered her choice into the morning.
“I choose both. I choose love… and power.
Because if the world must change… then let it change for me.”
- Writer
