CHAPTER 4 – Eyes in the Shadows
573 Words
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CHAPTER 4 – Eyes in the Shadows
Arielle
The forest wouldn’t let me rest.
Every time I slowed, the power inside me surged again—sharp, unstable, burning through my veins like fire without direction. My wolf whimpered weakly, unable to shift, unable to shield me from the backlash ripping through my body.
My knees hit the ground without warning.
Pain exploded behind my eyes, blinding and violent. I screamed as shadows burst outward, cracking the earth beneath me, snapping branches and uprooting vines like they weighed nothing.
“Stop,” I gasped, clutching my chest. “Please—stop.”
The power didn’t listen.
It ripped through me again, stronger this time, and I collapsed fully, vision darkening as the forest spun. My body shook uncontrollably, muscles locking as the backlash tore through nerves that had never held this kind of force before.
I was burning from the inside out.
So this was the price.
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Kael
Kael should not have crossed the border.
Yet his feet moved on instinct, tracking a scent he knew better than his own—hers.
Blood.
Fear.
And something else.
Power.
His wolf prowled beneath his skin, restless and alert, hackles raised as the forest thickened around him. The land itself resisted him, branches shifting, roots tightening as if warning him away.
She had been here.
He crouched beside a scorched patch of earth, fingers brushing fractured soil. The ground was still warm.
No ordinary wolf could do this.
His chest tightened.
What did I unleash?
A sudden scream sliced through the forest.
Kael didn’t think.
He ran.
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Arielle
I barely registered the sound of footsteps before darkness swallowed me whole.
The last thing I felt was the forest closing in—shadows wrapping instinctively around my body, hiding me, protecting me.
And then—
Nothing.
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Lyra
High above the ravine, a woman watched.
Her eyes gleamed unnaturally black as she leaned against the trunk of an ancient tree, lips curling slowly into a smile.
“So,” Lyra murmured softly, amused. “The rejected one awakens.”
She felt it—the Hollow’s stir, the imbalance rippling through the forest like a heartbeat long dormant. Power like that was rare. Dangerous.
And ripe.
“She doesn’t know what she is yet,” Lyra continued, fingers trailing over the bark. “But she will.”
Her gaze shifted, tracking movement below.
The Alpha.
Lyra chuckled under her breath. “Ah… and the regret begins.”
She melted back into the shadows as silently as she’d arrived, her voice echoing faintly through the trees.
“Let them burn first,” she whispered. “I’ll collect what’s left.”
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Kael
Kael skidded to a halt when he saw her.
Arielle lay crumpled at the base of a tree, skin pale, breath shallow. Shadows pulsed weakly around her like a dying heartbeat.
His chest clenched painfully.
“She’s burning up,” he muttered, dropping to his knees beside her. His hand hovered, hesitant—touching her now felt like crossing a line fate itself had drawn in blood.
The bond was gone.
And yet…
The ground shuddered faintly beneath them.
Kael swallowed hard.
“I was wrong,” he whispered to the unconscious girl he had rejected. “And I don’t know if admitting that will save you… or doom us both.”
The forest listened.
And somewhere deep beneath the earth, something ancient stirred.
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