Chapter Four.
913 Words
Elara
I didn’t remember falling asleep.
But something pulled me out of the fog.
A sound, no, voices. Low and sharp, not Damon’s. Not steady like his. These were rough. Unfamiliar. Angry.
I blinked up at the cracked ceiling. My heart started pounding before I was even fully awake.
Then I heard it.
Clash!
Steel? Or claws?
I shot upright, blanket tumbling to the floor. My body was stiff, heavy but adrenaline shoved that aside. I rushed to the door, yanked it open without thinking.
The hallway was darker now. The lanterns were out. Only moonlight spilled across the cold floor, and something about the silence that followed that clash made my blood chill.
Then I heard footsteps. More than one. And a growl, low, guttural, not human.
I didn’t hesitate.
I ran.
Down the narrow stairs, gripping the railing so hard I could feel splinters dig into my palm. The second I reached the bottom, I froze.
The front doors were wide open.
Wind rushed through them, bringing in the scent of blood and something fouler, wet fur, rage, rogue.
I darted across the hall and stepped outside.
And stopped dead.
The clearing wasn’t empty anymore.
Figures moved through the shadows wolves, but not like the ones I’d grown up fearing. These ones looked wild, half-shifted, torn clothes clinging to their muscled frames. Scarred. Rabid. Rogues.
There were six of them.
And Damon stood between them and the manor.
His back was to me, but I could see the tension in his body. Like a coiled spring. Ready to snap.
Beside him stood two others men I hadn’t seen before. One of them had a scar running down his neck and eyes as sharp as winter ice.
He looked like he belonged beside Damon. His Beta?
They stood shoulder to shoulder, outnumbered but completely unshaken.
“Get off my land,” Damon said, voice as cold as the night. “You’ve got ten seconds.”
One of the rogues laughed, a twisted, broken sound. “What’s a fallen king without a crown gonna do? Huh? Bark us off the lawn?”
“Five seconds,” Damon growled.
I should’ve stayed inside.
I should’ve done the smart thing. The safe thing.
But I couldn’t just watch.
Something tugged me forward, something in my chest that wouldn’t sit still.
The wind shifted, and one of the rogues sniffed the air then turned toward me.
“There’s a scent here,” he snarled. “A sweet one. Female.”
Damon stiffened. His head turned slightly. “Elara. Go back inside.”
I took a step forward instead.
Another rogue lunged toward me.
Everything went white.
I didn’t think.
Didn’t move.
But something inside me did.
Like a thread snapped.
The air cracked literally cracked, a sharp sound like lightning without the light and the rogue was thrown back mid-air, his body slammed against the stone wall with a sickening crunch. He dropped, motionless.
Everyone froze.
Even me.
My hands… they were glowing.
A pale silver light danced across my skin like mist in moonlight. It pulsed once, twice then vanished.
Dead silence.
The rogues stared.
Damon turned slowly to look at me.
His eyes didn’t hold fear. Or anger.
Just shock.
The man beside him. The Beta, I guessed muttered something under his breath. I caught only one word: witch.
The rest happened fast.
The rogues attacked at once, rage twisting their faces. Damon and his men met them head-on growls, claws, blood.
I ducked back toward the wall, heart racing, the glow gone from my hands but the tingling still there. Like something inside me was awake now. Stretching.
Damon fought like he owned the battlefield.
Every move precise. Brutal.
He didn’t shift, but he didn’t need to. His power radiated through every punch, every kick, every crack of bone beneath his fists.
His Beta was just as fast, moving with a kind of savage grace that only came from fighting side by side for years.
One by one, the rogues fell.
Until only one was left.
And just as Damon moved to finish him, something shifted again.
A growl, different this time. Familiar.
From the trees behind the wall… another figure staggered into view.
Tall. Bloody. Barely conscious.
His knees buckled.
And he dropped to the ground.
My heart stopped.
Kael.
His face was cut, shirt torn, amber eyes fluttering shut as he collapsed onto the dirt like a broken thing.
Damon halted mid-step.
His eyes locked on Kael’s body, sharp and unreadable.
His Beta growled low. “What the hell is he doing here?”
I couldn’t breathe.
What was Kael doing this deep in the forest?
How did he even find us?
And why did he look like he’d just crawled through hell?
Damon took one step toward me toward Kael then froze again. His hand twitched, like something invisible was tugging at him. Holding him back.
He didn’t look at me this time.
He just stared at Kael, jaw tight, breathing hard.
I couldn’t look away either.
Because no matter what he’d done…
No matter how badly he’d broken me…
Seeing him like this barely alive, discarded like trash.
It did something to me I didn’t want to admit.
I didn’t know what to feel.
But I knew one thing:
The past wasn’t done with me yet.
And Kael’s presence here… meant trouble.
Trouble I wasn’t ready for.
Not now.
Not when something inside me had just begun to stir.
- Writer
