Fated to Break Open

Chapter 6

The land changed before I crossed into it.

The air thickened first, scent piling atop scent until it pressed against my lungs—pine, damp earth, old blood worked deep into stone. Wolves. Many of them. Not wild, not scattered.

Claimed.

I slowed at the river’s edge. I knew this place. The water curved the same way it had the first time I’d crossed it, fleeing with nothing but fear and instinct driving me forward. The current whispered quietly now, unconcerned with my return.

I stepped through.

The moment my paws touched the opposite bank, something inside me stilled.

Not fear.Not pain.

A warning.

I stopped.

My body lowered on its own, muscles folding as I eased down just inside the boundary. Carefully, I shifted the small wooden box from my mouth and tucked it beneath my chin, resting my jaw over it as if my body understood its importance better than I did.

I waited.

I didn’t wait long.

Four wolves emerged from the trees, fast and silent. Their hackles rose together, lips pulling back to bare teeth that caught the light. A low growl rolled toward me, heavy and territorial.

My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.

I forced myself lower, rolling slightly to expose my throat. The movement felt wrong—dangerous—but instinct demanded it. My tail tucked tight, ears flattening as a soft whimper slipped from my throat before I could stop it.

The wolves slowed.

They circled me, steps deliberate, eyes sharp. I felt their attention like claws scraping down my spine.

Two of them exchanged a look.

One stepped forward—and shifted.

The sound startled me. Bone and muscle reshaping, fur melting into skin. A man stood where the wolf had been, breath steady despite the violence of the change.

“Shift,” he ordered.

Hope flared so sharply it hurt.

I searched myself for whatever trigger I was missing. Whatever pull or command would make it happen. I tried to want it hard enough.

Nothing.

A whimper tore free, frustrated and helpless.

“I said shift,” he snapped, irritation creeping into his voice.

I shook my head, small and uncertain, eyes wide. The wolves released low growls around me, unease rippling through them.

Another wolf shifted, this one slower. He leaned toward the first man, lowering his voice—but I heard him anyway.

“She might be stuck.”

The word hit me like a blow.

Stuck.

“She’s not hostile,” he continued. “She submitted immediately. And look at her—she matches the description. The one that ran.”

I barked sharply, tail betraying me with a thump against the ground before I could stop it.

All eyes snapped to me.

The first man scowled. “Enough. Get her up.”

I rose obediently, lifting the box back into my mouth as they guided me. Every step felt watched, measured. This time, I wasn’t running.

They didn’t take me to the place of sharp smells and bright lights.

They took me to someone I wasn’t sure I wanted to see again.

I smelled him before I saw him.

Pine, cold air, smoke, and something beneath it that made my chest tighten. My steps slowed, the box clenched carefully between my teeth as a strange awareness moved through me. Not fear. Not exactly. Something deeper. Something that pulled instead of warned.

Then he came into view.

He stood waiting, presence heavy enough that my paws faltered despite myself. His gaze locked onto me immediately—sharp, assessing, unreadable.

I froze.

It was the wolf from before.

Now a man.

Of course he was. Everyone here seemed to move between skin and beast as easily as breathing.

But knowing that did nothing to steady me.

His eyes were the same. His scent was the same. But the pull I felt toward him was sharper. My body recognized him with a certainty that made no sense, relaxing toward him even as my mind screamed that I did not know him.

I wanted to step closer.

I wanted to press my nose to his hand and breathe until the fear in my chest quieted.

The thought horrified me enough to keep my paws still.

I didn’t know this man. I didn’t trust this place. I didn’t understand why every part of me seemed to believe he mattered.

So I stayed where I was, damp paws planted against his floor, teeth locked around the only thing I had left.

I watched the exchange between them.

“Alpha Valik.” He spoke in low tones, approaching the man he referred to as ‘Alpha’.

My assumption was correct. The word played in my mind, and the wolf in me seemed to accept it more than I did.

Power. Authority. Leader.

My gaze was set on Alpha Valik. I couldn’t even focus on what they said.

Eventually the other man left, and I was alone with the Alpha.

He walked up to me with a scowl. I was sitting on his carpet, damp paws dripping melting snow.

My grandma would have my head for making such a mess. I felt bad, but I didn’t have a choice…

“Drop it,” he said, nodding toward the box.

A growl tore out of me before I could soften it. My teeth tightened reflexively around the wood, body angling protectively, muscles coiling as if I could fight the world itself if I had to.

The Alpha sighed.

“Shift back, wolf.” He ordered.

The name stung for some reason, but I was still unable to comply.

I closed my eyes, wishing for fingers and toes again instead of paw pads. Thinking in my minds eye about how I had seen others shift a handful of times now.

I screamed in my head in frustration, my wolf body interpreting it into a groaning whine.

I plopped to laying down and huffed, whimpering some more in frustration.

He stared at me a moment, seeming to understand the situation more now.

“Why can’t you shift back?”

I tilted my head, ears twitching. I nodded once. Whimpered. I couldn’t explain in a language I barely understood.

His hardened gaze left me and looked towards the door.

Footsteps approached.

I lifted my head, watching the same door I had come through moments ago.

Two people entered. I recognized them both immediately. They were the ones I woke up to.

“Alpha.” They both acknowledged him before facing me.

The woman gasped lightly, hand to her chest. Then she moved closer, eyes scanning me with something gentler than suspicion. Recognition flickered across her face—and relief.

“You’re alive,” she murmured.

My tail thumped once before I could stop it.

“Yes, she is. Maybe you can explain why she’s not able to shift back?” Valik asked.

“Probably doesn’t want to face the consequences.” The man with them spoke. I felt something off with him. Something in his tone. My body wanted to move away.

“Cut it out Zach.” The woman spoke, her voice sharp, immediate.

She knelt slowly, keeping her hands visible. Her voice softened. “She’s not being difficult. She can’t shift.”

The Alpha frowned. “Are you certain, Heather?”

“She’s trapped between forms,” the woman, Heather, said. “It happens. Rarely. And usually after trauma.”

She looked at me then—not at my teeth, or my size, or the box I refused to surrender—but at my eyes.

“I’ll take her,” she said. “I can help her adjust.”

The Alpha hesitated only a moment before nodding. “Just make sure she can shift. Bring her back tomorrow, once she can. We will figure out what to do then.”

Heather gently scratched under my chin before leading me away while the others spoke.

“We still have those prisoners to interrogate as well, Alpha. Perhaps we should handle them as well today?”

As we left, I felt it again—a pull, sharp and unfamiliar, tugging somewhere deep inside me toward the Alpha.

I glanced back for a moment, watching his face as he thought. It was a nice face, but I had to ignore the feeling.

There were too many things I didn’t understand already.

VALIK POV

She was gone by the time I turned back.

The pull lingered anyway.

Zach stepped back in after notifying a guard to ready the prisoners for interrogation.

“She ran once,” my Beta said darkly. “She’ll do it again.”

“No,” I said, scanning the tree line. “She submitted. Protected something. That’s not a runner.”

“Yet she already ran. And has now brought something back with her.” He said.

I knew what he meant. An outside threat, unknown person who has come and gone as they pleased at this point. He was questioning me, in his own right.

I turned toward the forest, jaw tightening.

Then I felt it. The shift in the air, an urgency running deep within the pack.

Then the alarm went off.

I ran out the door and towards the main entry, meeting my warriors there.

“What happened?!” I shouted. The she-wolf darted through my mind, that she had run off again or attacked someone.

“One of the prisoners, sir. When we went to get them ready, one of them was…”

I snapped on him. “Was what?”

“Missing, sir. He’s… Missing.”

My mind went into action immediately.

“Lock down procedure! Notify patrols immediately. Have them check for anywhere someone left recently.”

I ran towards the prison cells, needing to check them for myself.

And somewhere deep inside, something told me he wasn’t after the pack. He would have made a move already.

He was after something else.

Something that had just crossed back into our borders.