Chapter 5: Beneath the Bones
751 Words
Raine didn’t go home that night.
She ran.
The woods were a blur around her,trees flashing past, her breath sharp in her lungs, her feet pounding through damp earth and twisted roots. Her wolf was close to the surface again, tugging at her skin, but she held it down. She had to think. She had to find Elijah.
The scent trail was still there. Blood, sweat, fear, but no death. Not yet. She clung to that.
Every time her legs gave out, she got up again. Every time her lungs screamed, she kept going. Because if Elijah was gone, if the Barrow Pack had him… she didn’t know what she’d do. But she knew she wouldn’t just sit and wait.
She found his phone first.
It was smashed, the screen spider-webbed, half-buried in the mud. Still warm.
“Dammit,” she whispered, clutching it like it could answer her.
She didn’t realize she was crying until the tears blurred her vision. The wind howled overhead, cold and sharp like claws against her cheeks.
She had no plan. No backup. And she couldn’t go to the council ,she didn’t belong to any pack. She was a stray. Worse, she was an Omega without a tether. A rogue.
But her wolf knew these woods.
And her instincts , the ones she spent years suppressing ,were screaming now.
So she followed them.
At the edge of Ridgeway, near the ruins of an old chapel eaten up by moss and roots, Raine stopped.
The moonlight filtered through the broken windows and empty rafters. Her breath caught.
Something was buried here. Not bodies. Secrets.
This place used to mean something like a meeting point before the packs turned on each other, before the council took control. Her mother once brought her here as a child. Told her the stories.
Raine pressed her hand to the stone floor.
For a second, the earth pulsed back.
A vision slammed into her. Elijah chained, bloodied, his head slumped forward. Voices snarling around him. One pair of eyes standing out in the dark.
Silver.
She gasped and stumbled back, heart hammering. Not a memory. A connection.
He’s alive.
But not for long.
She forced herself to breathe. Think.
Barrow wolves didn’t stay in one place. They moved. Traveling in shadow. But if they were here now, that meant something had drawn them. And she had to guess what or who.
Her.
Back at the town border, near the old bus depot, a man waited.
He leaned against the side of a rusted signpost, eyes fixed on the distant trees. His coat flapped in the wind. Silver glinted at his wrist.
Another figure approached from the east, a young woman, sleek black hair braided tight against her head. Her boots were muddy.
"She's searching,” she said simply.
“I saw.”
“She doesn’t know what’s coming.”
He didn’t answer right away.
“She’s a stray,” the woman added. “The council won’t protect her. And if the Barrow Pack takes her ”
“They won’t,” he interrupted, voice low. “I’ll get to her first.”
“You better,” the woman said. “Because if she dies, it won’t just be her blood spilled.”
Raine stood at the edge of the ruins, fists clenched.
The connection had faded, but the urgency hadn’t. Her wolf paced inside her, anxious, ready.
She took one last look at the chapel, then turned into the wind.
It was time to stop hiding.
If the Barrow Pack wanted her they’d see exactly what they were chasing.
But before she could shift, before she could move, something moved behind her.
A voice she hadn’t heard in years.
“Well, look who finally came home.”
Sh
e spun around.
Her breath caught.
Her brother.
Gray.
Alive.
And very much not alone.
- Writer
