The Mark
1267 Words
For several seconds, nobody moved.
I stared at Dorian, waiting for him to take back what he had said.
He did not.
“The same mark?” I repeated.
Dorian nodded.
My eyes moved to Alpha Ronan.
“What mark?”
Ronan did not answer immediately. His attention remained fixed on Dorian.
“Tell me exactly what the patrol found.”
Dorian swallowed.
“They found the body near the northern border.”
“When?”
“Less than an hour ago.”
“Who discovered it?”
“Two patrol wolves. They were checking the border after the morning run.”
Ronan's jaw tightened.
“Was the body identified?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know it has the same mark?”
Dorian hesitated.
“The patrol recognized it from the records.”
My stomach twisted.
“What records?”
Dorian looked at me.
I hated the way everyone kept doing that.
Looking at me as though I was something they were afraid to understand.
Ronan finally spoke.
“Leave.”
Dorian frowned.
“Alpha?”
“I said leave.”
Dorian bowed his head and walked out.
The door closed behind him.
Silence returned.
I looked at Ronan.
“Someone needs to explain.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he looked toward my mother.
“Tell her.”
My mother's face crumpled.
“I cannot.”
“You have kept this from her for twenty years.”
“I was protecting her.”
“From what?”
Her voice broke.
“From this.”
I pushed my chair backward.
“No.”
Everyone looked at me.
“No more.”
My hands were shaking.
“I have spent my entire life listening to people whisper about me. I have been called defective. I have been treated like something that should not exist, and every time I asked my mother why I was different, she told me I was simply unlucky.”
I looked at her.
“You knew.”
She began crying.
“I knew you were different.”
“Different how?”
She looked toward Ronan.
He gave her a small nod.
My mother took a trembling breath.
“When you were born, there was no wolf.”
I stared at her.
“I know.”
“No, Elara. You do not understand.”
She stepped closer.
“The night you were born, the healers could not hear a heartbeat.”
The room became painfully quiet.
“What?”
“You were born without a pulse.”
I shook my head.
“That is impossible.”
“I know.”
She wiped her cheeks.
“You were cold. You were not breathing. The healer told us you were gone.”
My throat tightened.
“Then how am I here?”
My mother looked at me.
“That is what nobody could explain.”
Ronan walked toward the window.
“The night Elara was born, something happened in the forest.”
My eyes followed him.
“What?”
“The entire northern territory went silent.”
I frowned.
“Silent?”
“No wolves. No birds. Nothing.”
Kael folded his arms.
“Patrols were sent to investigate.”
“And?”
“They found blood.”
My stomach turned.
“Whose?”
“We never found out.”
My mother closed her eyes.
“They found you in the middle of it.”
I stopped breathing.
“Me?”
“You were lying beside your mother's body.”
My eyes widened.
“My mother?”
She nodded.
“I was the only one who survived.”
I stared at her.
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
“Then whose body did they find?”
My mother did not answer.
Ronan did.
“We do not know.”
A cold shiver moved through me.
“But you said I was beside my mother's body.”
“You were,” Ronan said. “But that was not the body we found tonight.”
My confusion deepened.
“Then whose body was it?”
“We do not know.”
“Then why does it have my mark?”
Ronan's eyes darkened.
“That is what we are trying to discover.”
I looked down at my hands.
“What mark?”
Nobody answered.
I pushed my sleeve upward.
There was nothing on my wrist.
I checked my other arm.
Nothing.
“What are you talking about?”
Kael stepped forward.
“Your back.”
I froze.
“What about it?”
“You have a mark.”
My fingers went cold.
“I do not.”
My mother looked at me sadly.
“You have never seen it.”
“How would I not know what is on my own body?”
“Because we made sure you could not see it.”
I stared at her.
“What did you do?”
She said nothing.
Ronan motioned toward Kael.
“Take her to the infirmary.”
I immediately shook my head.
“No.”
“Elara.”
“No. I am not going anywhere until someone tells me what is happening.”
Ronan's expression hardened.
“If you want answers, you need to see the mark.”
I hesitated.
Every instinct told me to run.
But I had spent twenty years being kept in the dark.
I was done running from questions nobody else would answer.
“Fine.”
The infirmary was on the other side of the compound.
Kael walked beside me while my mother followed behind.
Nobody spoke.
The silence was unbearable.
When we entered, the healer looked up from her desk.
Her eyes widened when she saw me.
“Already?”
My stomach dropped.
“Already what?”
She looked at Kael.
He gave her a warning glance.
The healer immediately looked away.
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
She swallowed.
“I have treated you since you were a child.”
“That was not my question.”
She sighed.
“Lie down.”
I climbed onto the examination table.
My mother stood beside me.
The healer pulled my sweater upward.
I felt exposed.
Then she turned me around.
I waited.
Nothing happened.
Then I heard my mother's sharp breath.
I turned my head.
“What?”
Nobody answered.
I twisted around as much as I could.
“Let me see.”
The healer reached for a mirror.
She placed it behind me.
I looked.
And forgot how to breathe.
A dark symbol covered the skin between my shoulder blades.
It was not a scar.
It was not a birthmark.
It looked as though someone had drawn it into my skin with ink.
Three curved lines surrounded a black circle.
The exact symbol from the old book.
My fingers trembled.
“What is that?”
The healer stepped back.
“We do not know.”
I stared at my reflection.
“You are lying.”
She looked at my mother.
My mother began crying again.
I touched the mark.
The moment my fingers made contact with it, pain exploded through my body.
I screamed.
The mirror crashed to the floor.
Something moved beneath my skin.
The mark burned brighter.
Gold light spread through the symbol before disappearing beneath my flesh.
Then I heard it.
A voice.
Not outside me.
Inside me.
A whisper so faint I almost convinced myself I had imagined it.
Run.
My eyes widened.
The room suddenly felt freezing.
Then another voice followed.
Deeper.
Closer.
And this time, I knew it was not my imagination.
They found you.
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