CHAPTER THREE
1632 Words
“Rowan, stop biting your sister!”
Lyra’s voice echoed through the apartment. The clatter of a chair tipping over followed as she rushed from the kitchen, holding a dripping wooden spoon.
“I didn’t bite her,” Rowan said, standing stiffly beside the couch. “I nipped.”
Lia stood across from him, rubbing her arm.
“He was growling again,” she muttered.
Lyra’s brows knit tightly. “Rowan. You can’t growl at people. Especially your sister.”
“But I don’t mean to,” he said, wide-eyed. “It just… happens. My chest feels weird and hot and then it comes out.”
She knelt between them, heart thumping a little too hard.
“You’re not in trouble,” she said gently. “But you have to control it, okay? It’s not normal.”
That part slipped out before she could stop herself.
The children looked at each other, then away.
Lyra stood slowly, brushing her hands on her jeans.
“Go play,” she said softly.
---
Later That Evening
She sat at the kitchen table, staring into a cup of half-cold tea.
Emile entered, wiping flour from his hands. “That bad?”
She looked up at him. “He growled at her. Like a dog.”
Emile blinked. “Kids growl. I growled at my sister until I was ten.”
“No,” Lyra said, voice low. “This was… different. It sounded deep. Like it didn’t come from him.”
He walked over, placed a hand on her shoulder.
“They’re just kids, Lyra.”
She gave a tight smile. “Then why do they keep doing things that scare me?”
---
Two Weeks Later – Park
“Push me higher!” Lia shouted, clinging to the swing ropes.
Rowan ran across the grass, arms out, pretending to fly. Lyra sat on a bench nearby, sipping warm juice and pretending everything was fine.
She knew Lia’s reflexes were too sharp. She dodged falling objects like she had eyes in the back of her head.
Rowan could climb faster than most twelve-year-olds—and he wasn’t even five yet.
Other parents noticed too. Whispers at the daycare.
“Is she feeding them steroids?”
“Maybe something’s off…”
Lyra sat straighter.
She’d never believed in witches. Monsters. All that supernatural crap.
But these kids… weren’t normal.
And she had no idea what to do.
---
Home – Midnight
A scream jolted her awake.
She shot up in bed, heart hammering. Then silence.
“Rowan?” she called, stumbling into the hallway.
He was sitting upright in bed, wide-eyed, breath ragged.
Lyra knelt beside him. “Did you have a nightmare?”
He nodded.
“I was running,” he whispered. “I wasn’t me. I was faster. Bigger. And everything smelled like blood.”
Lyra wrapped her arms around him, gently rocking.
“You’re okay. It’s just a dream.”
But his eyes glowed faintly in the dark as he looked over her shoulder. And Lyra, too tired to notice… missed it.
---
Daycare – The Next Day
“She broke the glass,” the teacher said flatly.
Lyra stared at her, confused.
“What?”
“Your daughter. Lia. She screamed at a boy who pushed her. Just one shout. The window next to her shattered.”
Lyra blinked. “Was she cut?”
“No. Somehow the shards flew away from her.”
The teacher folded her arms. “Ms. Callen… I think you need to consider getting them assessed.”
Lyra’s stomach twisted. “Assessed… like therapy?”
The woman hesitated. “Or something else. I don’t know what this is. But it’s not normal.”
---
Café – That Evening
“Maybe they’re gifted,” Rosa said. “Like, you know… psychics or something?”
Lyra rubbed her eyes. “I don’t believe in that crap.”
Rosa laughed. “Then what do you think is happening?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But it’s too much. They’re growing fast. They eat more than I can afford. They… say weird things in their sleep. Sometimes they speak a language I don’t understand.”
Rosa reached over, gently taking her hand.
“You don’t have to understand it all. You just have to keep loving them.”
“I do,” Lyra whispered. “I just don’t know what I’m loving into.”
---
Meanwhile – Ronan’s Territory
“Beta says the northern packs are stirring,” Valeria said, pouring herself a drink in his quarters.
Ronan barely looked up. “Then stir back.”
“You haven’t been to a single meeting this week.”
“I sent Caleb.”
“You’re losing focus,” she said sharply.
Ronan turned to face her.
“I’m not your husband,” he said coldly. “And you’re not my concern.”
Valeria’s jaw clenched. “Still mourning the human?”
His silver eyes flared. “She wasn’t just a human.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Your wolf hasn’t spoken in years,” she added softly. “You’re hollow. Dead inside.”
Ronan looked out the window toward the tree line. “Maybe she took him with her.”
---
Lyra’s Apartment
“Mama,” Lia whispered as Lyra tucked her in.
“Yes, baby?”
“Will we ever be normal?”
Lyra kissed her forehead.
“You’re already perfect,” she said.
Rowan, already drifting to sleep, muttered softly: “Even if we’re monsters?”
Lyra froze.
Then whispered, “Even if.”
Outside, a dog howled somewhere far away.
And inside, something ancient stirred inside two small children who didn’t yet know… what they were becoming.
---
The Crescent Ridge Pack had once been feared.
Now, it was watched.
Not because they were weak—but because they had grown quiet.
Too quiet.
At the top of the mountain stronghold, Alpha Ronan Thorne sat in the old war hall, back straight, eyes like carved silver, scanning the reports spread across the black-stained table.
His Beta, Caleb, stood near the hearth, arms folded.
“You’ve ignored two summons from the Elders’ Circle,” Caleb said.
Ronan didn’t look up. “They’ll live.”
“And the Shadow Vale Pack just claimed border land near the southern ridge.”
“I let them.”
Caleb blinked. “What?”
“Let the snake stretch before you cut off its head. They grow bolder. It’s useful.”
---
Valeria entered, hips swaying, eyes sharp.
“We had a meeting this morning,” she said coldly. “Remember? You skipped again.”
Ronan glanced at her briefly, then back at his maps. “You handled it.”
“I’m not your assistant,” she snapped. “I’m supposed to be your mate.”
“Supposed to,” Ronan said, voice low. “We’re not bonded. You know that.”
Valeria stepped closer, her voice dropping. “The pack doesn’t care about that. They only care that we lead together.”
“They care that I lead,” he said.
She smiled bitterly. “And they care that you haven’t shifted in years.”
The room went silent.
Even Caleb looked down.
Ronan rose slowly from his chair. His presence filled the room like a storm cloud.
“My wolf is quiet,” he said. “Not gone.”
“Too quiet,” she replied. “The Shadow Vale wolves can smell blood in your silence.”
---
That Night – Inner Sanctum
Ronan stood alone beneath the moon, bare-chested, scarred, his eyes fixed on the dark forest beyond the walls.
“Azerin,” he whispered. “Enough of this.”
Silence.
He took a step forward, eyes burning. “I didn’t reject her. She left.”
Still, nothing.
Then a voice—low, broken.
“…You pushed her away.”
It was Azerin.
“You left her alone. You refused to acknowledge her existence, if not you would have gone in search of her even if it means searching the whole world.”
Ronan’s breath hitched. “She ran.”
“Because you left first”
“She was human.”
“She was ours.”
Ronan growled, claws threatening to push through his skin. “She’s gone. And we have a pack to protect.”
Azerin went silent again.
---
Pack War Room – Days Later
“Shadow Vale now controls the Pine Gate territory,” Caleb reported. “And they’ve entered Red Ash land. If we don’t act, they’ll surround us in two moons.”
Ronan tapped the table slowly. “Then it’s time we remind them who we are.”
“What about the Elders?”
“They want peace. We want power.”
Valeria leaned forward. “If you start a war, you risk rebellion.”
Ronan’s lips curled into a bitter smile. “Let them rebel. Let them bleed. Wolves follow power, not permission.”
---
Elsewhere – Northern Watch Post
A young scout burst through the frost-covered woods, panting.
“The Hollow Claws have entered our borders,” he said.
Caleb tensed. “That’s two packs now.”
Ronan stood from the shadows.
“Good,” he said darkly. “Let them come.”
---
Later That Night – Private Room
Valeria lit a candle. “You’re going to destroy this pack.”
“No,” Ronan said. “I’m going to remind them who the real Alpha is.”
“You can’t rule on brute force alone forever,” she warned.
He looked at her, calm and cold. “I won’t need to. Once Azerin returns… they’ll kneel again.”
Valeria stared. “He hasn’t returned in years.”
Ronan didn’t blink. “He will. When blood flows, he’ll wake.”
---
- Writer
