Chapter 10: The Girl Who Burned
1135 Words
Raine didn’t speak for a long time after she pulled away from Luca. The warmth of his hand lingered on her skin like a brand, but her mind was far away — lost in the parts of herself she had tried to bury.
She stood at the edge of the frozen stream outside the ruined cabin, eyes fixed on the water slipping beneath the ice. In its reflection, she didn’t see herself. She saw a girl she no longer recognized.
“I wasn’t supposed to survive my turning,” she said softly.
Luca moved beside her, not touching her, but close enough that she could feel his presence like gravity.
“I turned when I was ten,” she said, voice steady. “Too young. Most don’t shift until they’re thirteen, maybe fifteen if the blood’s weak. But mine wasn’t.”
Luca frowned. “That’s rare, isn’t it?”
“Rare,” she echoed. “And dangerous. My first shift was during a fire. My mother was inside.”
She swallowed.
“I don’t remember running into the house. Just the smoke. The heat. The scream. And then… the pain. It wasn’t the flames that got me.”
She pulled her sleeve up, revealing the scar again — the deep bite mark on her shoulder that shimmered faintly under the moonlight.
“It was my father.”
Luca froze. “He bit you?”
She nodded once.
“He wasn’t in control. He wasn’t supposed to be in the house. He’d shifted during the full moon and disappeared. We thought he’d gone rogue. I found him in the hallway, covered in blood, eyes glowing like fire. I screamed. He lunged.”
Her voice cracked, just a little.
“I don’t remember much after that. Just waking up in the ashes, my mother gone, and my father…” She exhaled. “Torn apart.”
Luca didn’t speak. He didn’t try to console her. He just listened — which was all she needed.
“The pack should’ve killed me,” she said. “I was too young. Unstable. A liability. But Silas convinced them to let me live. He raised me like I was his own, trained me to control the curse. But it was always there, just under my skin. Waiting.”
Her eyes flicked to Luca.
“That’s why I don’t bond. That’s why I don’t love. Because everyone I’ve ever let close… burns.”
Luca finally moved closer. “But you’re not burning now.”
Her laugh was low. “Aren’t I?”
He reached for her hand. She let him take it.
“You think I’m afraid of fire?” he asked quietly.
“You should be,” she said. “Because I’m the match. And you’re made of fuel.”
The silence that followed wasn’t empty — it was heavy with truth.
“I had someone,” she said suddenly, voice distant. “Before you.”
Luca stiffened, but didn’t let go.
“His name was Eli. He was like you. Brave. Stupid. Charming. He made me laugh, even when I didn’t want to. And one day, he told me he could feel the bond forming.”
She looked away. “I didn’t believe him. I didn’t want to.”
“What happened to him?” Luca asked softly.
Her eyes met his. And in them, something cracked.
“I tore him apart.”
The wind went still.
“I was seventeen. The pack was under siege, like now. Eli and I were sent on a mission to lure the enemy away — a fake trail, just long enough to confuse them. But I lost control.”
She exhaled shakily.
“It wasn’t even a full moon. That’s the worst part. It was instinct. Raw, unchecked. The kind of thing we’re supposed to be trained to master. I woke up with blood on my hands, his body beside me. And the bond… broken.”
Luca’s grip on her hand tightened.
“I’ve never told anyone that,” she said.
“Why me?” he asked.
“Because if I’m going to burn again,” she whispered, “it might as well be for something real.”
He pulled her into his arms without a word.
Raine didn’t cry. She never cried. But her arms slid around his waist, and her face buried in his shoulder like maybe — just maybe — she could rest here, just for a second.
“Your curse isn’t who you are,” Luca murmured.
“And your bloodline isn’t who you are either,” she replied. “But it’s what we’re becoming that scares me.”
They stood there until the wind picked up again, rustling the trees with a whisper of something dark on the horizon.
⸻
Later that night, they sat by the new fire Luca built. Raine poked at the embers with a stick, watching sparks dance up into the chimney.
“You feel it, don’t you?” she asked suddenly. “What’s changing in you.”
Luca nodded. “It’s like… a second voice in my head. Louder each day.”
“That voice is the Alpha,” she said. “It doesn’t whisper. It commands.”
He looked at her. “You knew I was Alpha-Born before Silas said it.”
“I knew the second I saw you shift,” she said. “Your eyes. That glow? It only comes from one line.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want to fall for you.”
Luca was quiet. Then he said, “Too late.”
Raine didn’t smile. But she didn’t look away, either.
“Being with me is dangerous,” she said.
“Being without you is worse,” he replied.
She let herself lean into him again. Just for a while.
They didn’t need to kiss. Not tonight. The connection between them was already bigger than skin. It was bone deep.
But Raine knew something Luca didn’t.
The closer the bond, the faster her curse would spread.
And she had felt it earlier — that split second when her eyes went black, her mind not her own.
She’d been close to hurting him.
Eli all over again.
But Luca didn’t need to know that.
Not yet.
⸻
Across the valley, far from the firelight, a hooded figure stood beneath a twisted pine.
Their eyes glowed faint gold, but not from the moon.
They held a piece of cloth — bloodstained, frayed — taken from a boy’s jacket near a burned den.
The figure smiled.
“The Alpha-Born lives,” they whispered. “And the cursed girl bonds again.”
They turned to the shadows behind them. A pair of wolves emerged, armored and silent.
“Send word to the council. It’s time.”
- Writer
