Chapter Five: The Wolf in Chains
1238 Words
The key burned in my palm long after Kael left.
I didn’t move for minutes, maybe hours. I just sat there on the edge of the bed, staring at the metal like it could somehow unlock more than just the door. Like it could unlock the truth. Or the part of me I’d kept buried so deep, I didn’t know if I could ever pull it back out.
He said I had power. Royal blood. Something that drove Alphas mad.
It had to be a mistake. A lie. Some twisted game.
But deep down, a part of me didn’t think he was wrong.
Because ever since the moment Kael looked at me, something in me had started shifting. Stretching. Rising from the ashes of my old life. My wolf had stirred, stronger than before. Not angry. Not scared. Just... waiting.
I stared at the key for a while longer, then slowly stood and crossed the room. My hand trembled as I slid it into the lock. There was a small part of me that expected alarms, or guards, or Kael himself bursting in.
But the door clicked open with a soft groan.
And no one stopped me.
The hallway outside was silent. Empty.
Candlelight flickered along the stone walls, throwing dancing shadows across paintings and weapon mounts. Everything here was dark and polished, as if time itself had been dipped in ink and sealed away. It didn’t feel like a home. It felt like a kingdom in mourning.
My bare feet were quiet on the cold wood floor as I moved down the hallway. I had no idea where I was going. I only knew that staying in that room, trapped with my thoughts, would drive me mad.
The second floor led to a balcony that overlooked the main training yard. I stopped there, pressing my hands to the railing as I stared down.
Dozens of men and women—wolves, all of them—were training in formation. Moving with brutal precision, sweat gleaming on bare arms and backs, snarls and growls slicing through the air like music. They weren’t soldiers. They were warriors. Trained for blood. For survival.
This was not the kind of pack I’d grown up in.
This was a battalion.
And Kael was their general.
I stepped back, heart pounding, only to freeze as a low voice cut through the stillness behind me.
“You shouldn’t be out here.”
I turned slowly.
The woman from yesterday—the Beta with the silver braids—stood at the end of the corridor. Her arms were folded across her chest, and her gaze was sharp enough to flay me where I stood.
“He gave me the key,” I said. My voice didn’t shake. I didn’t let it.
“I’m aware,” she said, her eyes flicking to the key still clutched in my hand. “But keys don’t make you safe. Not here.”
“I’m not afraid.”
A small, bitter smile curved her mouth. “You should be.”
She walked toward me, the click of her boots echoing like warning shots. She was beautiful in a deadly sort of way—tall, strong, eyes like storm clouds and skin like carved obsidian.
“Why did he bring me here?” I asked, before I could stop myself. “Why is he keeping me?”
She stared at me for a long moment. Then she sighed.
“Because Kael’s made mistakes. Big ones. And saving you might be the only thing that lets him sleep at night.”
“What kind of mistakes?”
She leaned in close enough that I could smell the steel and leather on her skin. “The kind that get people killed. Packs burned to the ground. Lives shattered.”
I swallowed. “And you? You’re still loyal to him?”
“I owe him my life,” she said simply. “But loyalty doesn’t mean blindness. And it doesn’t mean I trust what he’s doing with you.”
I took a step back. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“No one does,” she said. “But you better start figuring out what you are. Because if you lose control in this place, there won’t be anything left of you to save.”
With that, she turned and walked away, leaving me with her warning.
My hands tightened around the balcony rail. The view below blurred. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or fury.
Because no one had ever expected anything from me. Not my old pack. Not Rowan. Not even my mother.
But now everyone seemed to think I was some ticking bomb.
I didn’t want power. I didn’t want to be special.
I just wanted to be.
But fate never asked permission.
Later that night, I dreamed of fire.
Of blood soaking the snow. Of wolves howling in a circle around me, their eyes glowing with rage. I stood in the center, naked, trembling, my hands covered in crimson. Something inside me pulsed with light. Like a second heartbeat.
Then a voice.
“Luna.”
I turned.
Kael stood there, half-shadow, half-smoke. His eyes weren’t amber anymore. They were gold. And his chest bled light like a wound.
“You have to choose,” he said. “Let it out. Or let it kill you.”
When I woke, I was screaming.
Morning came cold and quiet.
Kael was waiting outside my door.
He didn’t ask why I screamed. Didn’t ask if I was okay.
He just looked at me and said, “It’s time.”
I followed him, still shaken, down into the lower levels of the fortress. We descended stair after stair, the air growing colder, damper, until the torches were fewer and the shadows deeper.
“What is this place?” I asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“Where I go when I need to be reminded of who I am.”
We reached a wide door made of iron and wood. Kael pushed it open, revealing a chamber lined with chains.
And in the center—
A cage.
Inside it, a man crouched low, his skin slick with sweat, his eyes glowing a sickly red.
He snarled the moment he saw me.
Kael stepped forward. “Don’t get too close. He hasn’t shifted in days. He’s barely holding on.”
“Who is he?”
“Once, he was a prince,” Kael said quietly. “Now? He’s what happens when power eats the soul.”
The man growled, yanking at the chains. “She has it,” he hissed. “I smell it on her. The blood. The flame.”
I stepped back instinctively.
Kael’s hand wrapped around my arm, grounding me.
“I brought you here so you’d understand,” he said. “The thing inside you—it’s not evil. But if you ignore it, if you pretend it’s not there, this is what you’ll become.”
The prisoner howled, his body jerking violently. Bones cracked. Skin shifted. His face contorted in pain and rage.
I couldn’t look away.
“Who is he really?” I asked.
Kael’s eyes didn’t leave mine.
“My brother.”
And suddenly, everything made sense.
The warnings. The chains. The fear in Kael’s voice whenever he spoke about power. He wasn’t just protecting me.
He was protecting everyone else from what I might become.
- Writer
