The Pack (Completed Series)

Chapter 10 - Kael

I ran.

Through trees older than names, beneath a silver-drenched sky. My lungs burned, but I didn't stop. I couldn't. The scent was too strong—wild, electric, laced with earth and blood and something ancient.

She was close.

The forest opened around me like it was breathing too, branches bending away, guiding my path. The moon pulsed overhead, full and red, thick with omen. I felt it in my bones, the pull.

And then I saw her.

Aria.

Naked under moonlight, curled on the forest floor. Her hair tangled, her body streaked with dirt and ash. But her eyes—when they opened—they weren't hers.

They were gold.

Wolf eyes.

I froze, breath caught in my throat.

She was shifting.

Not slowly. Not in the clumsy, painful way first-timers did. This was graceful. Horrifying. Beautiful. Like something being born through fire and storm.

Her bones snapped and realigned. Her skin rippled like water. Fur tore through flesh, and then—

She rose.

A massive she-wolf, taller than she should be, silver-streaked with reddish-brown fur and a dark mark down her spine. Her eyes glowed like wildfire.

She saw me.

And then, behind her—shadows.

Figures emerging from the trees. Wolves. No. Not wolves—Blackfangs.

My blood turned cold.

They were close. Too close. Watching. Waiting.

A voice whispered in the wind.

"She is the key, Kael. And they are coming for her."

I turned, trying to find the source—but the trees blurred, and the moon turned black, and the ground cracked open beneath my feet—

⸻

I woke with a jolt.

Sweat slicked my skin, even in the cold. The fire in the hearth had burned low. My chest rose and fell too fast, my heart hammering against my ribs like it still belonged to the wolf in the dream.

I sat up slowly, rubbing a hand down my face.

It was just a dream.

But not really.

I knew the difference.

This one had roots in something deeper. Something beyond instinct. I'd felt it before—in the war, when our Alpha had died. In the blood moon before Elias nearly lost his life. The dreaming never came without weight.

Aria.

Her first shift was coming.

And so were they.

I stood and crossed to the window, looking out into the woods beyond the house. Quiet. Still. But the quiet never lasted.

I didn't know how much time we had.

But it wasn't enough.