Chapter four
880 Words
The walk to the Seer’s chambers was silent.
Kael didn’t explain where we were going. He didn’t look at me, didn’t touch me, didn’t even acknowledge the heat of our bond humming between us. But something about the way his hands clenched into fists and his jaw locked tight told me this wasn’t routine.
This was war-level serious.
We stopped in front of a hollowed-out tree, massive and ancient. Vines wrapped around its bark like veins, pulsing faintly with a glow that didn’t come from sunlight. Magic. Old magic.
Kael turned to me. “Stay close. Don’t speak unless she speaks to you first.”
“Who is she?”
He hesitated. “She’s not a wolf.”
I blinked. “Then what is she?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped forward and pressed his palm to the bark. A moment later, the tree split open with a groan like a living creature.
I followed him into the dark.
The inside was warm and quiet, filled with the scent of herbs, smoke, and something metallic—blood, maybe. Candles flickered in niches carved into the wood. Symbols painted in ash circled the room like wards.
And in the center, sitting cross-legged in a nest of bones and silk, was a woman.
Or… what looked like a woman.
Her skin shimmered like oil on water, constantly shifting. Her eyes were pure white, no pupils, no irises. And her voice, when she spoke, felt like it slid into my bones without touching my ears.
“You brought her.”
Kael nodded. “She needs to know.”
The Seer tilted her head toward me. “Come.”
I didn’t move.
Her voice slithered again. “You fear me.”
“I don’t trust what I don’t understand.”
“Good,” she said, almost smiling. “You’ll need that instinct where you’re going.”
She reached forward, offering a curved dagger etched in runes.
“Your blood,” she said. “Give it freely, or this ends now.”
I hesitated.
Kael stepped beside me. “She won’t hurt you.”
I met the Seer’s empty gaze. “What do you want with it?”
“To show you the truth.”
Swallowing hard, I took the dagger. My hand shook as I pressed it to my palm and drew a shallow cut. Blood welled up, dark and rich, and dripped into the bowl between us.
The moment it hit the carved symbols inside, the air changed.
The candles blew out.
The chamber darkened.
And the world spun.
Visions hit me like lightning.
A burning village.
A woman with golden eyes screaming as wolves tore her apart.
A child—me?—hidden beneath floorboards, sobbing.
A voice echoing from the void:
“The blood of Riven will rise again.”
Another flash—Kael, younger, standing in a circle of bodies, eyes wild.
A promise made in blood.
A vow never to take a mate.
Never to love. Never to risk it again.
Then—darkness.
I gasped, stumbling backward as the vision shattered. Kael caught me before I hit the floor.
My breathing was ragged. “What… what was that?”
The Seer’s eyes glowed now, like embers.
“You are the last descendant of the Riven bloodline,” she said. “The bloodline the Elders swore to erase.”
“I thought they were extinct.”
“They thought so too.”
Kael stared at her. “What does this mean?”
“It means she is not just your mate,” the Seer said slowly. “She is your reckoning.”
My blood turned to ice.
The Seer reached out and pressed a skeletal hand to my cheek.
“You were hidden to protect you. Sealed. Suppressed. But now your blood remembers. And others will feel it. They will come for you.”
“Who?” I whispered.
“The ones who destroyed your family. The ones who fear what you could become.”
She turned to Kael, her voice suddenly sharp. “And if you don’t protect her, Alpha, she will burn this world down in grief.”
We left in silence.
My mind reeled with what I’d seen, what I now knew. I wasn’t broken. I wasn’t a mistake. I was suppressed. My wolf, my power—it had been locked away to keep me safe. And now, it was waking up.
“I need answers,” I said quietly.
“You’ll get them,” Kael said. “But not here.”
“Then where?”
He turned to face me, his expression unreadable.
“There’s an old ruin. My father took me there once. It holds records from the time before the packs unified. Before the Riven bloodline was erased. If anything survived… it’ll be there.”
“Will we be safe?”
“No,” he said. “But we’ll be ready.”
He stepped closer, just enough for me to feel the heat of him, the bond thrumming like a heartbeat between us.
“I meant what I said,” Kael whispered. “I’ll protect you. Even if it costs me everything.”
He didn’t kiss me.
But his hand brushed mine, and in that simple touch, something shifted.
Hope.
And fire.
- Writer
