Chapter 5
1569 Words
Ava's POV
I couldn't hold the form. Within seconds, I collapsed, shifting back to human. Michael caught me before I hit the ground, wrapping his jacket around my naked body.
"A Prime," he breathed, his eyes full of something I'd never seen directed at me before—awe. "You're a Prime wolf."
"I don't understand." My voice was weak, my whole body shaking from the transformation. "What's happening to me?"
"Your real power. It's been suppressed your whole life, and now—" He was cut off by the sound of wolves crashing through the door above us.
"Move!" Michael commanded his guards.
He lifted me into his arms and ran. I'd never felt more helpless, my body completely drained from the shift. But something had changed. I could feel it—power humming just beneath my skin, waiting.
We burst out of the stairwell into an underground parking garage. Three black SUVs were waiting, engines running.
"Get in," Michael ordered, practically throwing me into the middle vehicle.
He climbed in after me as his guards piled into the other cars. We peeled out of the garage, tires screaming.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Safe house. Forty miles north." He pulled out his phone, typing rapidly. "I'm calling in reinforcements."
"Michael, what's a Prime? Why did everyone react like that?"
He looked at me, his expression serious. "Primes are the original wolves. The first blessed by the Moon Goddess. They're stronger, faster, more powerful than any Alpha. They're also supposed to be extinct."
"But I'm not strong. I've always been weak."
"Because they've been poisoning you since birth, apparently." His jaw clenched. "Suppressing your wolf with herbs. If you really are Marcus Shadowbane's daughter, and a Prime..."
"Then what?"
"Then you're either the most dangerous wolf alive, or our salvation."
Before I could ask what he meant, his phone rang.
"Report," he barked into it. Then his face darkened. "How many?" A pause. "Understood."
He hung up, cursing.
"What is it?"
"The Council has officially declared you a threat. There's a kill order. Every pack in the country will be hunting you by dawn."
My stomach dropped. "Maybe I should just—"
"No." His voice was firm. "You're not sacrificing yourself."
"But your pack—"
"Will stand with me. With us." He took my hand, and that electric feeling shot through me again. "You're my mate, Ava. That means something in my pack."
"We don't even know each other. You can't throw away everything for me."
"Watch me."
The convoy suddenly swerved. Through the windshield, I saw wolves on the road ahead. Dozens of them.
"Ambush!" the driver shouted.
The SUV flipped as something massive slammed into it. I screamed as we rolled, Michael's body covering mine, protecting me from the worst of it.
When we stopped moving, we were upside down. Blood dripped from a cut on Michael's forehead.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, even though he was the one bleeding.
"I'm okay."
He kicked out the window, pulling me through. We emerged to find ourselves surrounded. Wolves from multiple packs, all growling, all focused on me.
Michael shifted instantly, his massive black wolf standing protectively in front of me. His guards formed a circle around us, but we were outnumbered five to one.
"Surrender the girl," a voice called out.
I looked up to see my father—the man who raised me—standing at the edge of the circle. Luna was beside him, smirking.
"She's an abomination," my father continued. "Her real father killed my brother. My cousins. She has his blood, his evil."
"I'm nothing like him!" I shouted. "I didn't even know!"
"Blood tells," Father said coldly. "You'll become a killer, just like him. Better to end you now."
"Over my dead body," Michael growled, somehow speaking even in wolf form—an Alpha ability.
"That can be arranged," Luna said sweetly. "Kill them all. Leave no witnesses."
The wolves charged.
Michael fought like nothing I'd ever seen, taking down three wolves before they could even react. His guards were skilled, but there were too many enemies.
I watched Luna shift, her sandy-colored wolf heading straight for me. She'd always been stronger, better at everything.
But something in me snapped.
The heat came again, faster this time. Power flooded through me like liquid fire. When I shifted, it was instant, painless.
My Prime wolf form towered over Luna's. She skidded to a stop, fear finally showing in her eyes.
With one swipe of my paw, I sent her flying into a tree. She hit with a crack and didn't get up.
The fighting stopped. Every wolf turned to stare at me.
In this form, I could feel everything. Every heartbeat, every breath, every emotion. And I could feel something else—power calling to power. Other Primes, somewhere far away, awakening to my presence.
"Impossible," my father whispered. "They're all dead. The Primes are gone."
"Not all," a new voice said.
A woman stepped out of the forest. Ancient, powerful, with silver hair and golden eyes. She wore no clothes, having just shifted from wolf form, but carried herself like a queen.
"Grandmother," Michael said, shifting back to human form. Someone tossed him pants.
Grandmother? This was Michael's grandmother?
"Hello, Michael." She looked at me, and I felt the weight of centuries in her gaze. "And hello, little Prime. I've been waiting for you."
"You're a Prime too," I said, somehow managing to speak in wolf form.
"One of the last. I've been hiding for fifty years, waiting." She walked closer, unafraid. "Your father wasn't evil, child. Marcus Shadowbane was my son."
Gasps echoed around us. Michael's grandmother was Marcus Shadowbane's mother? That meant...
"We're related?" Michael asked, looking sick.
"No," his grandmother laughed. "I adopted you after your parents' death, remember? We share no blood. But Ava here is my granddaughter by blood. My true granddaughter."
She turned to address everyone. "Marcus wasn't a killer by choice. He was driven mad by the loss of his mate—killed by the very packs that now hunt his daughter. He sought revenge, yes, but he was not evil. He was broken."
"He killed innocents!" my father protested.
"And you've been poisoning a child since birth," she shot back. "Who's the monster here?"
She looked at me again. "Shift back, child. We need to move. The Council will send their executioners soon."
I shifted, and Michael immediately wrapped his jacket around me again.
"Where will we go?" he asked his grandmother.
"To the Sanctuary. Where the other Primes wait."
"Other Primes?" I gasped. "There are more?"
"Seven, including us. We've been in hiding, waiting for the eighth. You, my dear. The one prophesied to unite the packs or destroy them all."
"What?" I stepped back. "No. I'm nobody special."
"You're the daughter of the strongest Prime ever born and a witch of considerable power," Michael's grandmother said. "Your mother wasn't just any wolf. She was a hedge witch who hid among wolves. That's why she could bear a Prime's child and survive."
My head was spinning. Everything I knew was wrong. My father wasn't my father. My mother was a witch. I was some prophesied Prime. And Michael...
I looked at him. "You knew, didn't you? That's why you were at the hotel. You were looking for me."
He had the grace to look guilty. "I suspected. Grandmother had visions about a hidden Prime who would emerge from the Winters pack. When I heard about a weak omega with a forced mate bond..."
"You used me as bait."
"No," he said firmly. "I came to investigate. But the moment I saw you, scented you, I knew you were my mate. That was real. IS real."
Before I could respond, howls echoed in the distance. Many howls.
"The Council's executioners," Grandmother said. "We need to go. Now."
"I won't run," I said, surprising myself. "I'm tired of running, of hiding, of being afraid."
"Child, you're not ready—"
Power exploded out of me, cutting her off. Every wolf in the clearing, including the ancient Prime, was forced to their knees. Only Michael remained standing, though he was fighting against the pressure.
"I said, I'm not running."
When I spoke, my voice echoed with power I didn't know I possessed. The arriving executioners—elite wolves trained to kill—stopped at the edge of the clearing.
"The Council wants me dead," I continued, the power growing with my anger. "My pack wants me dead. Everyone wants me dead because of who my father was. But I'm not him. I'm Ava, and I'm done being everyone's victim."
The ground cracked under my feet. The trees swayed despite there being no wind.
"Tell the Council this," I said to the executioners, who were backing away in fear. "I'll give them one chance to rescind the kill order. One chance to leave me in peace. If they refuse..."
I let more power flow, and several wolves whimpered.
"If they refuse, I'll show them what a real Prime can do when pushed too far."
The executioners fled.
I collapsed, the power draining out of me as quickly as it had come. Michael caught me, holding me close.
"That was incredibly stupid," he murmured into my hair. "And incredibly brave."
"What happens now?" I asked weakly.
"Now," his grandmother said, standing slowly, "the real war begins."
- Writer
