Chapter Two – Unfinished Scars
1398 Words
The problem with truth is that it never shows up alone.
It always drags more questions behind it—questions that don’t care how tired you are or how long you’ve worked or whether you even want the answers.
I didn’t sleep that night. Not even for a minute.
I sat at my work table, staring at Kael’s name on the last page of the file, trying to forget the sound of his voice when he said she threatened to make me disappear.
His mother.
Marena Donovan.
The former Luna.
A woman known for her control, her composure, her perfectly painted smile. The woman who shook my hand when I was a child and said, “You’re sweet. Not made for this world.”
And now she was dead.
I didn’t ask how. I didn’t want to know yet. Not until I could look Kael in the eye again and figure out if he was telling me the truth—or just saying what I needed to hear to do my job.
By morning, I was already in the lower wing of the pack house, examining the first infected wolf. His name was Rowan. Seventeen. His bones hadn’t shifted back properly. His spine was curved too far to the left and his ribs were sore to the touch, even days after the fever had passed.
He was pale, sweating, and weak. But his eyes followed me carefully.
“Does it hurt when you breathe?” I asked.
“Only when I lie down,” he whispered. “But not as much today.”
I glanced at the chart. “Did you feel anything strange before your shift went wrong?”
He hesitated. “My wolf was… scared. It was like something else was pushing me from inside. Like it wasn’t just me anymore.”
That made my chest go tight.
Talia looked up from the herbs she was mixing. “That’s what the last one said too.”
I nodded slowly. I’d seen this kind of pattern before, but never here. Never this strong.
Possession? No. It wasn’t that. Their wolves were still inside. Just not in control.
Something was disrupting the connection between body and soul.
“Do you remember what triggered it?” I asked Rowan again.
He hesitated longer this time. “I was walking past the old well. The one near the North ridge. I… heard something. Or felt something. I don’t know. But after that, my chest started burning and my shift came too fast.”
The old well.
I hadn’t thought of that place in years. It used to be where Kael and I met when we were still kids, before everything got complicated. It had been sealed off after a storm caused the stones to shift, but it wasn’t dangerous. At least, not then.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
“Get some rest,” I told him softly. “We’ll try something stronger tonight.”
He nodded, eyes already fluttering closed.
Talia waited until we stepped out of earshot before speaking.
“You’re thinking the infection started there.”
“I’m thinking this isn’t a normal sickness. And that Kael’s pack has been sitting on it for too long.”
“You think he knew?”
“I think Kael knows more than he’s telling.”
We spent the rest of the morning checking on two more patients. The symptoms were almost identical—shifts that started too early, bodies that didn’t fully return, voices in their heads that didn’t feel like their own.
By midafternoon, I was bone-tired. I returned to the infirmary alone. Talia went to find food.
I washed my hands, pulled my hair into a tie, and sank into the old wooden chair by the window.
The forest was quieter than usual.
Something was watching. I could feel it.
I didn’t hear him come in.
Kael stood just inside the doorway, not speaking, just watching me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” he replied. “But we both made our choices.”
I looked at him. He hadn’t changed much in the way he moved—still precise, still careful. But the weight in his face was heavier now. Like he hadn’t rested in weeks.
“I didn’t lie to you,” he said after a moment. “What I told you last night was true.”
I folded my arms. “Why now? Why wait ten years to tell me?”
“Because I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. And because saying it sooner would’ve changed nothing. She would’ve followed through.”
I studied his face. He looked tired, yes—but not broken.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
He took a breath. “She died a year ago. But not by age. Not by sickness.”
Something in his voice shifted.
“How, then?”
“She was attacked.”
My body went cold.
“By who?”
“We don’t know. She was found near the border, her throat torn, but no scent trail. No claw marks. Nothing.”
That wasn’t normal. Wolves didn’t leave no trace.
“Do you think it’s connected to what’s happening now?” I asked.
“I think everything is connected.”
We stood there in silence.
Then he stepped closer. I didn’t move.
“Seraphina…”
“Don’t,” I cut in. “Don’t use my name like we’re friends.”
“I never stopped thinking about you.”
I looked away. “Then you should’ve tried harder.”
He nodded once. Said nothing more. Just turned and left.
That night, I went alone to the old well.
I don’t know why I didn’t tell Talia. Maybe I wanted to see it with my own eyes before the truth got twisted in someone else’s mouth.
The path was overgrown. Twigs snapped under my boots. The trees leaned closer here, the air thick with moss and old earth.
When I reached the well, I almost didn’t recognize it.
The stones had cracked deeper than I remembered. There were black marks along the edge—burns or rot, I couldn’t tell.
But something was wrong.
I stepped closer.
The air around it was colder. Not chilly. Cold like something old had sunk into the dirt and never left.
I knelt, touched the edge. My fingers burned. I pulled back.
Then I saw it.
Etched into the stone.
A mark.
Not just a scratch. A rune. Old. Twisted. Not from our pack. Not from any pack I knew.
My heart thudded hard.
I reached for my phone to take a picture. My hands shook. I stepped back.
That’s when I heard it.
A whisper.
Not loud. Not clear. Just a single sound behind me.
I turned fast.
No one was there.
But I felt it—hot breath against my neck.
Something unseen.
Something old.
I ran.
Not because I was afraid. Because instinct told me whatever was near that well wasn’t meant to be seen. Not alone. Not yet.
When I reached the edge of the woods, Kael was there.
His eyes widened. “What the hell were you doing out there?”
I didn’t answer. I was still catching my breath.
He grabbed my arm. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“We need to talk,” I said, pulling away. “Now.”
He nodded. “Come with me.”
We didn’t go back to the infirmary.
He led me down a corridor I hadn’t seen in years—beneath the estate, past the wine cellar, to a locked door I never knew existed.
He opened it with a key from around his neck.
The room inside was quiet. Cold.
And filled with things I hadn’t seen since childhood.
Old scrolls. Cracked stones. Lunar relics.
Witch marks.
Kael closed the door behind us.
“I didn’t show you this before because I wasn’t sure what I was dealing with,” he said. “Now I am.”
I looked at him. Slowly.
“What is this?”
He looked back at me.
“This is what my mother was hiding.”
And just like that, I knew.
Whatever was killing the wolves…
Whatever was dragging their souls away during their shifts…
Didn’t start with a sickness.
It started with a curse.
- Writer
