SHE WHO SHOULD NOT HAVE RISEN
994 Words
The forest whispered her name, but none of them knew it.
Only that something wrong had taken root in Moongrave
A reborn she-wolf draped in shadow, with magic that warped the very air with no scent, no past, no pack, and yet she walked like one who had ruled them all.
The clans are called a hunt.
Not knowing they were chasing the girl they’d executed under the blood moon.
Not knowing she had come back changed
Not knowing Auren had risen
Kael stood over a map of the southern woods, jaw clenched tight, fingers bleeding from where he’d torn through parchment.
"There’s no trail," Kellen muttered beside him.
Nothing real. Every scout reports something different.
Kael didn’t look up. They’re lying.
They’re scared.
They should be.
He pointed to the curve of Moongrave.
They say she walks without scent.
Without sound.
She appears beside fires and vanishes with the wind.
Kellen stiffened. You think it’s a spirit?
"I think it’s a warning," Kael said, eyes narrowing.
And I intend to meet it head-on.
Riven was already in the forest.
He hadn’t waited for permission, hadn’t answered any summons.
He hunted alone, like always now.
He knew what he was chasing, not a myth, not a tale, but a soul he could still feel like fire under his skin.
Auren
He’d heard the whispers, too.
The she-wolf reborn. Magic leaking from her skin.
A child with stars in his blood
He didn’t care what she was now.
He just wanted to see her again.
And maybe die trying.
Auren stood barefoot at the edge of the glade, Rowan on her hip, her hair tangled in brambles and moonlight.ght
Claws scratched the soil behind her thin skeletal ones, not of any living creature.
And above, crows circled, silent, watching. Their feathers gleamed red under the twilight.
Why are they here again? She asked softly.
Thorne didn’t answer immediately.
He stood beside her, quiet, his arms crossed.
They followed him, he said finally, nodding at Rowan.
Auren’s brows furrowed. Why?
Because he doesn’t belong to this world," Thorne said. Not fully.
Rowan blinked up at her, too quiet, too aware.
She didn’t remember birthing him. But she remembered the ache.
She remembered pain so deep it split her bones and the scream that had dragged her back from death.
Kael moved like a ghost through the trees, his blade drawn, every sense on edge.
He wasn’t prepared for what he found.
The birds came in hundreds of them, cawing in a spiral above a distant clearing.ng
Then the sum was not of rot, not of blood, but of resurrection magic, old and tangled.
And then he saw the child.
Small, wrapped in dark cloth, sitting on a mossy stone as if left there by the moon herself.
Kael stepped forward slowly, hand trembling.
Then he saw her
And his world stopped.
Riven emerged from the other side of the clearing at the same time.
He froze when he saw Auren and Kael.
Their eyes met across the space like drawn knives.
You, Kael spat. Of course.
Riven ignored him. Auren
She took a step back, holding Rowan tighter.
You know me.
Neither of them spoke.
The moment cracked under silence and weight.
Then Kael barked, How are you alive?
Thorne moved between them, blocking Auren with his body. Back off.
She was executed, Kael hissed.
I watched her die.
And I felt her die, Riven growled. You made sure of it, Kael.
You betrayed the pack, Kael snarled.
"You betrayed her," Riven snapped. Don’t act like we’re the same.
Auren’s voice cut through their rage. Stop.
Both men turned to her, breathing hard, raw and stunned.
"I don’t remember you," she said to Kael.
That hurt more than any knife.
And yo u, she turned to Riven and said You keep looking at me like I had broken something, but I don’t even know what I held.
Riven’s face twisted.
Kael stepped forward. That child…
Is mine, she said
They both froze.
Riven’s hands curled. Do you know who the father is?
Auren looked down at Rowan.
The birds above screamed louder.
The claws scraped against the earth like something ancient trying to rise.
She said quietly. But he has fire in him. And the forest listens when he cries.
Kael’s voice was almost a whisper. He’s not normal.
"No," Thorne said. He’s the prophecy.
Far away, Kellen unsealed the scroll.
The prophecy he had stolen from the Temple of the Silver Moon
The ink glowed as he read:
From death, she rises, reborn in moonfire and blood, and from her womb comes the soul that ends the bond.”
His hands trembled.
The child would destroy the mate bond system itself.
Kellen looked up toward the woods, toward his brother, toward the path of truth and war.
And he made a choice.
In the glade, the wind howled.
Rowan looked up.
And the birds descended.
Not to attack but to shield
Crows, black hawks, spectral owls, wings spread wide, circling him like a moving halo of feathers and warning.
And around the stone he sat on, ghostly claws erupted from the long, skeletal, protective.
Kael took a step back. What the hell is he?
Thorne bared his teeth. He is what you made possible when you let her die.”
I didn’t…
You branded her a traitor, Riven cut in, and left her to burn!
Kael’s eyes narrowed. And you slept with her the night she was rejected.
The silence after that was volcanic.
Riven didn’t deny it.
Auren looked between them, and something inside her twisted.
Then the birds screamed again, this time in warning.
Because something else was coming
Not wolf
Not human
Not anything known
A cold wind slammed through the trees, and the earth cracked open behind them.
Rowan stood without command.
His eyes were glowing white.
And said, in a voice not his own.
She’s not yours to judge anymore.
- Writer
