Home?!
896 Words
I went home alone.
The house was warm when I stepped inside, too warm after the cold of the woods. Snow melted from my boots onto the floor as I stood there longer than necessary, listening to the sounds drifting from deeper inside. Voices. Movement. Life continuing like nothing had happened.
I closed the door quietly and went straight to my room.
The mirror waited.
I stood in front of it, studying my reflection like it might betray me if I looked away. My hair was pale, almost white-blonde in the low light, falling loose around my shoulders. My face looked the same. Tired. Familiar.
My eyes were still wolf-gold.
I leaned closer. Blinked once. Then again.
Still the same.
I lifted my hand and touched the skin beneath my eye, pressing lightly, then harder, as if something might be hidden there. Something waiting.
What if it comes back.
What if it never left.
What if I am already changing.
My chest tightened. I turned away and splashed cold water on my face again and again until my skin burned.
When I looked back, nothing had changed.
That frightened me more than if it had.
I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at my hands. Hands trained to lead. To protect. To command.
They did not feel like mine.
Star was silent.
The absence pressed against me until a knock sounded at my door.
“Aelira.”
My father’s voice.
I opened it.
He looked tired. Not Alpha tired. Something older. He studied my face longer than necessary before looking away.
“You left suddenly,” he said.
“I needed air.”
He nodded slowly, as if that explanation carried weight. His gaze flicked to my eyes again, brief but careful.
“There will be a dinner tonight,” he said. “The elders will be present.”
I stiffened. “Why.”
“Silas is coming,” he replied.
That name landed heavier than I expected.
“He is bringing the woman the elders have chosen for him,” my father added.
Chosen.
I swallowed. Everyone knew the story.
Silas was twenty-five and unmated. The most powerful Alpha among us. The elders believed power demanded balance, and when fate did not provide it, they forced it. They called it tradition. They called it necessity.
I had always thought it was cruel.
“He hasn’t accepted her,” I said quietly.
“No,” my father agreed. “But he hasn’t refused either.”
That felt worse.
“You should be there,” he said. “As heir.”
I nodded.
By the time I went downstairs, the hall had transformed. Long tables stretched across the room. Elders spoke in low voices. The air felt tight with expectation.
Saera found me immediately.
She moved closer without a word, sitting beside me like it was instinct. She was Silas’s sister, though you would never know it from the way she carried herself. Quiet. Observant. Strong in a way that didn’t demand attention.
Her jaw was tight.
“He hates this,” she murmured under her breath.
“I know,” I said.
The doors opened.
The room changed.
Silas stepped inside without announcement. He did not need one. His presence settled over the hall, calm and heavy, the way true authority always did.
My chest reacted before my thoughts did.
I had seen him before, but never like this. Never close enough to feel the weight of him.
Our eyes met.
Only for a moment.
Something stirred inside me. Not heat. Not desire. Recognition without memory. I looked away first.
Then she entered.
The woman chosen for him.
She was beautiful in a way that felt deliberate. Every step measured. Every smile rehearsed. The elders greeted her warmly.
The rest of the pack stayed quiet.
She took the seat beside Silas as if it belonged to her already.
Her eyes flicked to Saera first. Cold. Assessing. Then to me.
Her lips curved faintly.
I understood then.
She hated us both.
Dinner began.
Conversation filled the space, but my attention kept drifting. Silas barely spoke. He did not look at the woman beside him unless necessary. His focus stayed distant, controlled.
She leaned closer to him, her hand brushing his arm possessively.
He did not move.
Did not respond.
Saera’s fingers curled against the table.
“They think because he has power, fate took something from him,” she whispered. “They think a mate is the price.”
I swallowed.
“And if he doesn’t accept her,” I asked.
“They will force it harder,” Saera said.
The woman’s gaze slid back to me again, sharp and triumphant, as if she already believed she had won.
Star stirred faintly inside me.
Careful, she murmured.
I focused on my plate, forcing myself to eat, to stay present.
But the feeling would not leave.
The pull.
The awareness.
The sense that something had already begun moving.
Silas looked up.
Our eyes met again.
This time, neither of us looked away.
I did not know what the sky had touched inside me. I did not know why my wolf felt uneasy. I only knew that sitting there, between a forced future and a power that refused it, something felt wrong in a way that mattered.
And whatever it was, it was watching us both.
- Writer
