Chapter Five.
918 Words
Elara
Kael's blood stained the dirt like spilled wine.
His breathing was shallow, his skin pale beneath the moonlight.
The same lips that once sneered at me now barely moved, cracked and bloodied.
And still… I couldn’t look away.
Damon said nothing. He just stared at Kael like the sight of him had knocked something loose inside him something cold and dark.
“Bring him inside,” he said at last.
"But Damon he's..."
"Bring him inside Tharon." Damon said with authority.
Tharon clenched his jaw so hard I feared it would break.
"Yes Alpha."
They lifted Kael’s limp body, dragging him into the manor, leaving a trail of blood across the clearing.
I followed slowly, heart hammering with too many questions.
I should’ve felt nothing. I wanted to feel nothing.
But something about seeing Kael broken like that.
After everything he’d said, after how easily he tossed me away.
It confused the pain. Twisted it.
Inside, they laid him on a wooden table near the hearth. One of the others fetched water and cloth while Damon turned and disappeared upstairs without a word.
But I didn’t move.
I just stood there… staring.
At him.
The boy who ruined me.
The boy who somehow found me again.
Why?
Why now?
Minutes passed.
I sat beside Kael, careful not to touch him. His chest rose in shallow jerks. His face twitched. I hated the part of me that still wanted answers from him.
“Why did you follow me?” I whispered.
No answer.
Just blood and silence.
And then I heard them.
Footsteps above. The creak of a door. Voices low but firm. Men who didn’t expect me to be listening.
But I was.
“I need to understand, Alpha,” Theron said. His voice was respectful but taut.
“Why did you bring her back?”
“Because I had to,” Damon answered flatly.
Theron paused. “You’ve never brought back strays before.”
“She’s not a stray.”
“She’s not just a wolf either,” Theron said carefully.
“You saw what she did out there. That light? That power? That wasn’t from the moon. That was something older.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Then you also saw what just walked through our borders and collapsed at your feet,” Theron continued, quieter now.
“Kael. Draven’s son.”
There was silence. Then Tharon spoke again.
“You know how long we’ve planned for this,” Theron said, his voice tense but still controlled.
“How long we’ve waited to strike back at Magnus Draven for what he did. For what he took.”
“And now his heir shows up barely breathing on our land. The same night she awakens.”
My stomach turned.
Their voices. Their words.
Planned revenge? Against the Dravens?
Why was Kael here?
How was I connected?
And who exactly was Damon?
“I didn’t bring Kael,” Damon said. “He came on his own.”
“Then why is he here, Alpha? Why now? Why her?”
“I don’t know.”
Another pause.
Then Theron’s voice dropped. “Is she your mate?”
The air shifted.
Even from downstairs, I felt it.
Damon’s energy pulsed like lightning beneath stone.
“I said I don’t know,” he growled.
Theron hesitated.
“But you feel it.”
“Yes.”
“She’s dangerous.”
“She saved your life.”
“She could destroy everything we’ve rebuilt.”
“Drop it.” Damon’s voice hit like a blade low, sharp, Alpha.
The silence that followed felt like thunder waiting to strike.
I pressed my back to the wall, chest rising and falling too fast.
Dangerous.
Power.
Mate?
My thoughts were spiraling.
Everything felt like it was slipping through my fingers.
What was I?
What did Damon mean when he said he felt something?
And why did the name Draven carry so much weight between them?
I slipped back into the room. Kael hadn’t moved.
But now I could barely look at him without hearing those voices. Seeing that trail of blood. Feeling the old, buried memories in my bones.
Silver hair. Fire. A scream. My name.
Suddenly, Kael coughed hard. Blood smeared his lips.
His eyes fluttered open.
I stood up fast, throat tight.
“Elara…” he rasped.
I froze.
“You’re… not safe…”
Then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed again.
The door creaked. Damon stepped in.
“Don’t get close to him,” he said quietly.
“Why? You think he’s going to bite me?”
“He might be marked.”
I stared at him. “What does that even mean?
Damon didn’t answer.
He only looked at me.
And for a moment, I saw it.
Fear. Not of me.
But for me.
“He said I wasn’t safe,” I whispered.
“He’s the one who shattered me. Rejected me. Left me to bleed. So why is he here now?”
Damon walked to the table, eyes narrowing. “That’s what I intend to find out.”
“Tell me the truth,” I said. “What am I?”
He didn’t speak.
But he didn’t have to.
Because just then.
A gust of wind slammed into the manor.
Lanterns flickered. The walls seemed to groan.
And from deep in the forest… a howl rose.
Not wolf. Not human.
Something else.
Something coming.
And when it did.
every answer I feared would come with it.
- Writer
