Chapter Two: The Howl That Chased Us
403 Words
The howl came again.
Closer this time.
It cut through the forest like a blade, low and resonant, vibrating through the ground beneath my bare feet. Ember’s hand clamped around my wrist before I could even think.
“Run,” she hissed.
I didn’t argue.
We bolted from the riverbank, skirts snagging on thorns, boots skidding over loose stones. My lungs burned almost instantly—partly from fear, partly from the lingering wolfsbane still poisoning my blood. The forest blurred as we tore through it, branches whipping my arms, leaves tangling in my hair.
*Rogue,* my mind screamed.
Rogues didn’t howl like pack wolves. Their calls were wrong—too wild, too hungry. And this one felt… massive.
“Rose!” Ember gasped as we leapt over a fallen log. “Don’t look back!”
I wasn’t planning to—until the ground trembled again.
The sound rolled after us, not angry, not frenzied.
Searching.
My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat echoing that strange heat I’d felt moments earlier. It flared now, spreading through my chest and down my spine, chasing away the cold numbness I’d lived with for years.
I stumbled.
Ember swore and yanked me upright, dragging me onward. “Stay with me!”
“I—I can’t breathe,” I rasped, though that wasn’t entirely true. My lungs were working just fine. It was something else—something inside me pressing outward, demanding space.
The forest opened suddenly, the pack boundary stones looming ahead, carved with old runes meant to keep outsiders at bay. Relief flooded me.
We crossed them in a breathless blur.
The howl stopped.
Silence crashed down so abruptly it made my ears ring. Ember slowed first, spinning in a tight circle, eyes glowing as she scanned the tree line.
Nothing followed us.
“No way a rogue just… stops,” she muttered. “They chase. They always chase.”
My legs gave out. I collapsed onto the grass, shaking, palms pressed into the earth. It was warm. Steady. Alive.
Inside me, something shifted.
Not fear.
Recognition.
The heat coiled tighter, a living thing now, brushing against my thoughts like a presence testing the door to my mind.
*Not a rogue,* the feeling seemed to whisper.
I sucked in a sharp breath, dread and awe tangling in my chest.
If that howl wasn’t a rogue—
Then what, exactly, had been calling to me?
- Writer
