The awakening
1057 Words
The nightmares returned before dawn.
Fire. Blood. Screams in the dark.
And always… the pit.
I woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat, heart slamming against my ribs like a beast trying to claw its way out.
Kael was already gone, the bed cold where he’d once slept beside me. I should’ve felt relief. Instead, I felt hollow.
My skin prickled.
Something in the air had changed.
The moonlight leaking through the window was sharp. Almost alive. It felt like it was crawling beneath my skin, whispering to something ancient—something buried.
My wolf.
She stirred.
No. Not now. Not here.
I stumbled from the bed, clutching my side. My body trembled, bones twitching beneath my skin like they no longer belonged to me. It was happening again.
My shift.
But this time, it wasn’t forced.
It was rising.
I barely made it down the hallway before I collapsed. My knees slammed against the cold stone floor, and a scream ripped from my throat as pain surged through every nerve like wildfire.
My bones cracked. My skin split. My vision blurred.
The shift wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t clean.
It was violent. Raw.
My wolf was not gentle.
She had waited too long to be born.
⸻
Kael had just returned to the pack house when he heard it—a howl. But not just any howl.
Hers.
His blood ran cold.
He was already running before the guards could speak.
“She’s in the west wing!” someone shouted.
He didn’t answer. He didn’t slow down.
Because he’d felt it too. The pulse. The pull.
She was shifting.
When he turned the corner and saw her, his heart stopped.
She lay half-shifted on the floor, her body caught between human and wolf, her eyes glowing with untamed power. Her fur was black, but not just any black. It shimmered like oil in moonlight. Her claws were silver. Her body was trembling, but her power, goddess help him, her power flooded the corridor like a wave of heat.
“Aria,” he breathed.
Her eyes flicked to his, and for a split second, he didn’t see the broken omega they said she was.
He saw the creature they feared.
He saw a queen.
Then she collapsed.
Kael caught her before her head hit the floor. Her skin was hot, burning with the fever of first shift.
But there was more.
Something ancient. Something wrong.
Her scent had changed. There was wolf… but beneath it, something else. Older. Wilder.
He lifted her into his arms.
And for the first time in years, he was afraid.
⸻
I woke in his bed again.
My body ached in ways I didn’t know were possible. Every limb felt stretched. My skin burned. But more than anything, I felt…
Awake.
Whole.
I shifted. Sat up slowly.
Kael sat by the fire, shirtless, his eyes stormy and unreadable.
“You shifted,” he said quietly.
I nodded.
“And?”
“It wasn’t like I expected.”
His jaw ticked. “No. It wouldn’t be.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He stood. His presence filled the room in a way that made the walls feel too small.
“Your wolf isn’t just a wolf, Aria.”
I stilled.
“What are you talking about?”
He came closer. His eyes didn’t leave mine. “You know what I’m talking about. You’ve felt it. Since the first time you shifted. Since before.”
I swallowed. “No.”
“Lying doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m not lying—”
He growled, low and quiet. Not angry. Just… broken.
“Then tell me why your wolf’s aura filled the entire wing. Why your claws glowed like silver. Why every elder in this house nearly dropped to their knees when you howled.”
I stared at him.
He stepped even closer.
“You’re not just wolf-blooded.”
My voice shook. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“What are you?”
I looked away. “A mistake.”
“Try again.”
I looked up at him. “They called it a curse. Said I was born under a red moon. That my blood wasn’t pure. That I was… something else.”
Kael’s breath hitched.
“There’s a story,” he said quietly. “An old one. About a bloodline that was wiped out generations ago. A wolf born of moon and flame. They said she would bring the end of the old rule. The packs hunted them. Burned them. Said the line was gone.”
I stared at him.
“I think,” he said slowly, “they were wrong.”
He reached out and touched the scar on my wrist—the one that always burned under moonlight.
“You’re her descendant,” he whispered. “The flame wolf.”
I pulled my hand away.
“You don’t understand. That’s why my pack turned on me. They were afraid. They tried to drown it out, to break it, but they couldn’t. I didn’t know who I was—I still don’t. But I know what happens when I lose control.”
Kael was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, “Good.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You shouldn’t want to control it. You should own it.”
“Why? So I can be a weapon?”
“No.” His voice dropped, intimate and sharp. “So you can be free.”
The room crackled with energy.
He stepped closer again. And this time, I didn’t pull away.
“You’re not broken,” he said. “You were never weak. They just feared what they couldn’t control.”
“I scare you too,” I whispered.
“Yes,” he admitted. “But I’d rather face fire with fire… than live in a world that keeps putting you in chains.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
The bond flared.
His hand cupped my jaw. His lips hovered over mine. But he didn’t kiss me—not yet.
“I’ll wait,” he said. “But don’t ask me to walk away.”
“I never did.”
“Then don’t run.”
I nodded.
But inside, I knew something he didn’t.
I wasn’t just born to burn.
I was born to rise.
- Writer
