chapter 14
998 Words
Chapter 14 — Wolfblood Secrets
Ella sensed the changes in scattered shards, each one a glimmer of truth her mind could not yet fit together.
It began with her senses.
At first, she blamed stress. Sleepless nights could make the world too sharp, every sound too loud, every light too harsh. But this was something else. She heard the mansion breathe at night: the gentle sigh of wood, the far-off tread of guards circling the grounds, the secretive voices of wolves outside walls that should have kept every whisper hidden.
Yet she did.
She caught Lucas’s approach before his fist touched the door. She tasted rain in the air long before the sky darkened. She woke just before the morning bell, body humming with readiness, pulse calm and clear.
And then there was the healing.
A glass slipped and shattered as she washed dishes, her mind elsewhere. A slender cut traced her palm, sharp and stinging. Blood bloomed at once. She drew a breath, steeling herself for pain.
But it never came.
The bleeding faded, then ceased. Before her eyes, the wound closed, a gentle warmth unfurling beneath her skin like a secret. In under a minute, only unbroken flesh remained.
Ella stared at her hand until her fingers trembled.
“No,” she whispered.
She wrapped her hand anyway, heart thundering, and kept silent. But in this pack, secrets always found a way out, especially those etched in blood.
The dreams came next.
Every night, she ran.
In the dreams, she was not quite Ella. Her body felt weightless, powerful. She ran with ease through ancient trees, moonlight pouring through the canopy like liquid silver. The forest seemed to know her, to greet her as one of its own.
She woke gasping, tangled in sheets, heart pounding with a hunger she did not recognise. It was not fear. It was not painful.
Longing.
That longing unsettled her more than any wound or secret ever had.
During the day, Rylan watched her with increasing intensity.
She felt him always, his presence looming at the edge of her senses like a gathering storm. When she startled at sounds no human should hear, his gaze grew shadowed. When she drifted toward the forest, his jaw tightened until she thought it might crack.
“What’s happening to you?” he finally demanded one evening as they crossed paths in the corridor.
His voice was calm, but there was steel beneath it.
Ella crossed her arms. “Why? Afraid I’ll grow claws?”
His wolf stirred. She sensed it, a wave of heat brushing her skin, making the air vibrate. Rylan recoiled, nostrils flaring as if he had caught a dangerous scent.
“You smell different,” he muttereHis words struck deeper than any accusation could.ation.
That night, she didn’t sleep at all.
By morning, the healer summoned her chambers, which waited at the compound’s edge, part stone, part wood, steeped in the scent of herbs, ancient magic, and something older still. Bones marked with runes dangled from the rafters. Candles burned with unwavering blue-white flames.
Mara studied Ella in silence for a long time.
“You’re changing faster than I expected,” the healer said finally.
Ella’s throat tightened. “Changing into what?”
Mara motioned for her to sit and pressed two fingers to Ella’s wrist. Heat bloomed instantly beneath the touch. The healer’s brows knit together.
“Your pulse,” Mara murmured. “Too steady. Too strong.”
“I’m human,” Ella said sharply. “I’ve always been human.”
Mara’s gaze softened not wiMara’s gaze softened, not with pity, but with a respect that felt almost reverent,” she corrected. “That does not mean you are only human.”
The room seemed to tilt.
The room seemed to shift beneath her, as if the world itself was changing shape. er fElla’s thoughts spun: her father’s secrets, the stories left untold, the grandmother whose name was forbidden. The wThe woman was erased from memory, as a wound closed too soon.whispered.
Mara exhaled slowly. “You carry wolfblood. Old blood. Dormant blood. It slept for generations.”
Ella shook her head. “No. That’s impossible.”
“Nothing about you is impossible,” Mara replied. “Not anymore.”
Fear crept in then, cold and sharp. “Why now?”
Mara’s eyes flicked toward the window, where the moon still lingered pale in the morning sky.
“Because dormant blood awakens when it recognizes power,” she said. “Or a bond strong enough to call it forth.”
Ella’s chest tightened painfully. “The mate bond.”
“Yes.”
The word echoed like a verdict.
“You were never meant to be a pawn,” Mara continued gently. “Your blood waited. And when the Alpha rejected the bond, it didn’t break it.”
“It challenged it.”
Ella surged to her feet. “So what my body is punishing me for his choices?”
“No,” Mara said quietly. “Your body is remembering who you are.”
The healer stepped closer. “Your wolf is waking. Slowly. Painfully. If denied, it will rage. If guided, it will grow.”
Ella’s voice cracked. “What happens if I can’t control it?”
Mara’s expression darkened. “Then the pack will fear you. And fear makes wolves dangerous.”
When When Ella left the chamber, when Ella stepped from the chamber, the world felt changed: edges sharper, shadows deeper. The sound rang louder. Every scent seemed to whisper secrets. In a forced marriage.
She wasn’t just an unwanted Luna.
She was something ancient She was something ancient now, awakening beneath her skin. And somewhere within the compound, Alpha Rylan Wolfe felt it too: the pull he would not name, the power he fought to resist a curse.
It was a key.
And Ella was no longer sure. And Ella no longer knew which doors the key would open—or which it might shatter.
- Writer
