chapter four
1195 Words
✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ CHAPTER 4 ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
ELSA MCKINLEY
He still thinks I am…
Silverfang was usually quiet… not in the cozy kind of way, but the kind that made you feel like even your thoughts were being judged. Still, I went there after classes, hoping to hide between dusty books and the scent of old paper. Hoping the ache behind my ribs would ease. Spoiler: it didn’t.
I sat in the farthest corner, barely looking at the biology notes spread across the table. None of it made sense. Mitochondria, cell membranes… all of it blurred together in my head, drowned out by Ethan’s voice from earlier:
“Looks like you still belong to me after all.”
My fists clenched just remembering it.
I barely noticed someone approaching until his shadow crossed my notebook.
Luca.
Golden hair. Light eyes. That same soft kind of stillness he carried like a second skin. The opposite of his brother’s stormy silence.
Well, it's too early to judge… especially since I thought Ethan was an angel in human clothing.
Luca smiled like he didn’t realize everyone in this town was supposed to be pretending I didn’t exist.
“Mind if I sit with you?” he asked.
I blinked. “Why?”
He looked down at the mess on the table. “Because unless you’re preparing to fail spectacularly, you might need help. That diagram is upside down.”
I looked down. Crap. It really was.
I sighed and flipped the page.
“I’m fine,” I said, trying to sound sharper than I felt.
“You don’t look fine,” he replied easily, sitting down anyway.
I stared at him. “You always this persistent?”
“Only when someone’s clearly drowning in mitochondria.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why do you even care?”
He shrugged. “Maybe I like underdogs.”
I almost laughed — almost — but I caught myself. Then he leaned in, voice lower.
“Or maybe I figured I’d come help the girl who didn’t scream when we saved her life in the woods.”
My entire body froze.
“What did you say?” I asked slowly.
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I said the diagram was upside down.”
I stared at him, heart pounding. But he didn’t say anything else. Just opened a notebook and grabbed a pen.
“Shall we?,” he asked, smiling.
I just nodded, not sure if I meant it.
We studied in silence for a bit. Or tried to. He started making weird jokes about how the nucleus was just a "lonely bossy potato," and how if mitochondria were the powerhouse, then DNA must be the overworked manager filing lawsuits.
“Okay, stop,” I laughed. “That’s not even biologically correct.”
“But it made you laugh,” he said softly, eyes watching me like he wasn’t just checking if the joke landed… like he needed to know he was helping.
And just like that, for the first time in days, something cracked open in me.
He kept talking, slipping in these dumb jokes between the explanations, and before I knew it, I was laughing again… not because I forgot everything… but because, for a second, it didn’t hurt so much to remember.
And then… Ethan showed up.
I felt him before I saw him… that familiar pressure in the air, like the room tightened itself to make space for his ego. He leaned against a nearby shelf, arms folded, and watched us.
I ignored him.
Didn’t work.
He strolled over, voice smooth and heavy. “Playing tutor now, Nightbane? Or just collecting strays?”
Luca looked up. Calm. “Just helping.”
Ethan’s eyes slid to me. “Funny. She never needed help when she was mine.”
I stood up so fast my chair scraped loudly. “I was never yours.”
He smirked. “Sure you were. Still are. Until I say otherwise.”
“You don’t get to say anything anymore,” I snapped.
He leaned in slightly, voice low and sharp. “You really think you’re safe because you’re talking to some transfer with a tragic last name? You don’t know what you’re walking into, Elsa. You’re playing with fire.”
I didn’t flinch.
“You set me on fire first.”
For the briefest second, something flickered in his eyes. Surprise. Maybe even regret. Then it was gone, replaced by that smug Alpha gleam.
He stepped back, but not before looking at Luca.
“Keep playing hero, Nightbane,” he said. “But even heroes get burned.”
Then he walked off, just like that… like he hadn’t dropped a live grenade in the middle of the library.
Luca sighed and shook his head. “Well, that wasn’t dramatic at all.”
“You okay?” I asked him.
He gave me a sideways look. “I’m not the one being claimed like a piece of furniture.”
“Fair point.”
Later that night, I stayed back to return some books, trying to avoid walking home too early. The thought of seeing Madison and Ethan together again made my stomach twist. I was almost at the exit when I heard it… voices.
Low. Urgent. Familiar.
I followed the sound down a hallway behind the auditorium. No lights. Just flickering bulbs and the faint echo of shoes.
I stopped when I heard Madison’s voice.
“You need to stop watching her like that.”
“I’m not watching her,” Ethan replied. Cold. Annoyed.
“Yes, you are! You looked at her the same way you used to look at me before we—”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he snapped.
Madison hissed. “You’re still attached. And she’s… she’s changing. You feel it, don’t you? There’s something off about her now.”
There was silence.
Then Ethan said, “If the Nightbanes bond with her, the prophecy might come true.”
Every hair on my body stood up.
Prophecy?
Bond?
I pressed tighter against the wall, barely breathing.
“I won’t let that happen,” Ethan said.
“You already did,” Madison whispered. “The moment you let her go.”
I stumbled back as quietly as I could, heart slamming in my chest. I ran all the way home. I didn’t stop… not until I was in my room, door locked, back against the wall.
Prophecy. Nightbanes. Bond.
I grabbed my phone, opened my browser, and typed “Nightbane family” into the search bar.
Nothing. Just old stories, blurry articles, and dead links. Some rumors about a bloodline that vanished after betraying the Silvershadow pack. Nothing helpful.
I scrolled for hours, until my eyes burned.
And that night, I dreamed.
I was running. Barefoot. Dressed in silver. The moon above me was like a crown. Trees rushing past.
Something chased me.
But something else ran beside me.
Two wolves.
One dark, one golden.
They didn’t attack. They guarded.
I kept running.
Behind me, a voice…
Deep. Familiar.
“You don’t belong to them anymore.”
- Writer
