CHAPTER 20
1559 Words
Elise sat alone on the wide stone steps of the packhouse, knees drawn to her chest.
The night air stung her cheeks, but she barely noticed.
She just sat there, staring out at the moon as if it could explain what had just happened.
The wind carried the scent of blood and smoke, but it was the silence pressing down on her that hurt the most.
Behind her, the packhouse buzzed with muffled voices, she didn’t blame them.
They were as fearful and confused as she is.
Even she has never seen anybody glow the way she was glowing.
Inside the packhouse, she would have to see all the confused faces and she’d feel guilty about the fact that they’re all confused because of her.
More so, most of them sustained injuries because of her.
Because the shadowborns came for her.
But out here, it was just her and the moonlight.
Moonbreather.
The word repeated in her mind like a song she couldn’t stop humming.
Not wolf.
Not human.
Something else.
Something ancient.
Something none of them seemed to understand.
A part of her wanted to scream.
Another part wanted to disappear into the woods and never come back. That part made her mind go back to the pack she had packed jokingly to run away if Elder Kion gave her a tough time.
But now, it wasn’t even elder Kion who made her want to run away.
It was the fear of discovering who she was in front of many judgy eyes.
There was an approaching steps, but Else didn’t mind.
The steps came closer than stopped behind her.
She didn’t turn around.
“If it’s Elder Kion, tell him I’m not in the mood to be stared at like I’m a ticking bomb.” She said nonchalantly, thinking it was one of the servants.
“It’s not him,” Kai’s voice said quietly.
Elise sighed, letting her chin rest on her knees. “Then you’re safe.”
He sat beside her without another word.
For a while, they didn’t speak.
Just watched the moon hang low and tired in the sky, like it too had seen too much tonight.
Finally, Kai spoke. “You were amazing.”
She snorted, eyes fixed on the tree line. “Amazing? I was terrified. I still am.”
“Being afraid and still standing your ground… that’s strength, Elise.
You didn’t just protect yourself. You protected all of us.”
She turned her head to look at him. “Then why do they all look at me like I’m dangerous?”
He hesitated. “Because they don’t understand you. Not yet. And we’re wolves, we fear what we don’t understand.”
She looked away again, her voice smaller now. “Do you?”
“No,” he said without pause. “But I think I’m the only one who doesn’t.”
Elise didn’t know what to say to that.
She hugged her knees tighter. “I keep wondering what would’ve happened if I’d gone with him, the cloaked one. If I’d just… said yes.”
Kai stiffened slightly beside her. “You didn’t. That’s what matters.”
“But they’re not done,” she whispered.
“They’ll come back. They said I was ‘the bridge”.
“That something was taken from me. What if they’re right? What if I’m not supposed to be here at all?”
Kai reached out and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“You are. With us. With me. Whatever they want from you, whatever you are it doesn’t change what you mean to this pack. To me.”
She blinked fast, her throat tightening. “You don’t even know who I am.”
“I know enough,” he said softly.
Elise just stared into a blank space still trying to reply the day’s events in her head.
“It all still feels unreal”, she said.
Kai started to say something before the footsteps behind them broke the moment.
Lucien cleared his throat. “Sorry, hate to interrupt the brooding romance, but Elder Kion’s summoned Elise.”
“Now?” Kai asked, eyes widening.
Lucien shrugged. “He didn’t ask nicely.”
Elise stood up slowly, brushing dust off her pants. “It’s fine. Might as well get it over with.”
Kai rose too. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” she said. “Let me handle this alone.”
He frowned, clearly reluctant. “Elise—”
“I have to face him sooner or later, alone, you won’t always be there to save me, Yunno?”. She said facing Kai.
Lucien gave her a small nod of respect. “We’ll be outside if you need us.”
Inside the packhouse, the once-lively corridors now felt like a haunted house.
Warriors lined the walls, their gazes sharp and wary as she passed.
No one said anything to her, but their eyes said everything she needed to know.
Mutant.
Outsider.
Other.
She felt flagged.
She found Elder Kion in the war room, standing alone by the large table scattered with maps, reports, and ancient texts.
He didn’t look up when she entered.
“Elise Thorne,” he said, his tone dry. “Our miracle of the evening.”
She didn’t rise to the bait. “You wanted to see me?”
“I wanted to understand what I saw,” he replied. “And I hoped foolishly, perhaps, that you might be able to explain it.”
“I don’t have answers,” she said honestly. “Just more questions.”
He finally looked at her.
His eyes were sharp, piercing, but not cruel—just deeply skeptical.
“You displayed a power no wolf in this pack has seen in a hundred years here tonight” he said. “Power that doesn’t belong to our kind. And yet, you claim to be one of us.”
“I never claimed that,” she said quietly.
“You all just assumed I wasn’t anything.” No one has ever said I was one of you.
Not even me. The only kind people who treated me as one of you were Kai and Lucien.
The rest of you plagued me like an outsider. She said, voice breaking.
That silenced him for a second.
He walked slowly around the table. “You should’ve come forward sooner. We could’ve prepared. We could’ve tested you, trained you—”
“I didn’t know,” Elise snapped.
“Do you think I’ve been hiding this? I only just started having those dreams. I didn’t even know what a Moonbreather was until tonight.”
Not that she even knew it still, she only just knew the word and knew that she was one.
He stopped in front of her, folding his arms. “Then tell me now. What are you?”
She looked him in the eye. “I’m still figuring that out.”
Kion studied her, and for the first time since she met him earlier, Elise saw a flicker of doubt in him.
Not doubt in her, but in himself.
After a pause, he said, “The Council will need to be informed.”
“Of what?” she asked. “That I glowed?”
“That the Shadowborn came to our doorstep for you. That you’ve shown signs of an ancient, possibly unstable power. And that you may be the key to something much larger than this pack.” He said, talking faster than normal.
“I’m not a weapon,” she said, voice steelier than she expected.
“You keep talking about me like I’m a new specie you need to take to the lab”. She said, bluntly.
She was frustrated.
Kion’s face tightened. “No. You’re a liability.”
The words hit like a slap, but Elise held her ground.
“Maybe. But I’m your liability now. And you need me just as much as I need answers.”
He didn’t respond to that.
Just turned and looked back down at the maps.
“You’re dismissed,” he said without another glance.
Elise left the room, heart pounding.
In the hall, Lucien was waiting with two mugs in hand. “Thought you could use something warm.”
She took the mug gratefully, cradling it in her cold hands. “Thanks.”
He leaned against the wall. “Kion gave you the classic ‘you’re a threat to us all’ speech?”
“Word for word,” she said with a dry laugh.
Lucien smiled faintly. “He’s predictable like that.”
They sipped in silence for a moment.
“Hey, Elise?” he said after a while. “For what it’s worth, what you did back there… it scared the crap out of me.”
She looked at him, brow raised.
“But,” he added, “I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my life.”
Something in her chest softened.
“Thanks, Lucien.”
Just then, the packhouse door creaked open. A young warrior peeked in, eyes wide. “The council envoy’s arriving early. They’ll be here by sunrise.”
Lucien groaned. “Of course they are.”
Elise’s fingers tightened around the mug. More eyes. More judgment. More questions she couldn’t answer.
But this time, she wouldn’t run.
- Writer
