The Girl Who Woke as Someone Else
858 Words
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Roseline POV
I floated.
Not in water.
Not in darkness.
In something soft… warm… weightless.
A voice whispered my name from far away, like I was hearing it underwater.
“Roseline… wake up.”
The world tugged me gently.
My body was heavy.
My mind fogged.
My heartbeat slow.
Another voice, lighter, childlike, echoed nearby.
“Please open your eyes… we missed you…”
Missed me?
Where was I?
A pulse of light flickered behind my eyelids.
My fingers twitched.
My lungs expanded on their own
A breath I didn’t remember learning.
The water around me shifted, as if guiding me toward the surface.
I gasped and broke through.
Cold air filled my lungs. My hair clung wet to my cheeks. Silver water slid down my face like tears I hadn’t cried.
Strong arms caught me before I slipped back under.
“Roseline, look at me.”
My eyes opened.
Darian’s face came into focus, wet hair, sharp jaw, fierce eyes softened with relief. Moonlight glowed on his skin.
“You’re back,” he breathed.
I blinked, lungs rising and falling shakily.
Back…
from where?
I tried to speak, but only a rasp escaped my throat.
Darian helped me to the shallow edge of the lake. My legs wouldn’t hold me. He wrapped his cloak around my shoulders with a gentleness that made my chest tighten.
The little boy I saved ran to me and hugged me around the waist, crying softly.
“You’re alive…”
“You came back…”
I placed a shaky hand on his head.
Alive.
I touched my chest, half-expecting a wound, a burn, something to explain the pain I remembered
But there was no wound.
No blood.
Just warmth.
A wild, golden warmth humming beneath my skin like a sleeping star.
“What… happened to me?” I whispered.
Darian sat on his heels before me.
“You died.”
The words hit me like a punch.
My breath caught.
“But the lake brought you back,” he added quietly. “The Moon Goddess brought you back.”
A cold shiver crawled through my spine.
The prophecy.
My destiny.
My death.
My rebirth.
I looked down at my hands, and gasped.
My veins shimmered with faint silver light, pulsing softly beneath my skin.
“What is happening to me?” My voice trembled.
“Exactly what the prophecy said,” Darian replied. “You’re becoming who you were always meant to be.”
I shook my head, fear rising in my chest.
“I don’t feel like myself…”
Darian held my gaze firmly.
“You’re not yourself,” he said gently. “You’re more.”
My fingers curled into the cloak around me as another pulse of silver flickered through my hands, brighter this time, uncontrolled. The ground beneath my feet cracked slightly, a thin line of light escaping through the soil.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“What, what was that?!”
Darian grabbed my wrists carefully, grounding me.
“Your power is waking. You can’t control it yet. That’s okay.”
I felt myself shaking.
He steadied me.
“I’m going to train you,” he said. “Not as an omega… not as an ordinary wolf… but as the girl reborn under moonfire.”
The child nodded quickly.
“Darian didn’t leave you. He stayed with you all night!”
My heart softened.
I met Darian’s eyes.
“You stayed?” I whispered.
He didn’t look away.
“I wasn’t going to lose you,” he said simply. “Not like that. Not ever.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks, not romantic, but grateful, overwhelmed, seen.
My wolf stirred weakly inside me, whispering a truth:
Safe.
But before I could answer
A sharp pain stabbed through my chest.
I gasped, clutching my ribs.
Darian caught my shoulders immediately.
“What is it? Roseline, look at me!”
The world blurred.
My pulse raced.
A familiar scent, cold cedar and frost, flooded my mind.
Kael.
My wolf whimpered.
“No…” I whispered, breath shaking. “I feel...Kael.”
Darian’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t let go.
“He doesn’t know you’re alive,” he said. “He thinks you’re gone. The pack thinks you’re gone.”
Another wave of pain shot through me.
My wolf clawed at my chest.
Mate.
I shook my head violently.
“No. I don’t want to feel him.”
Darian’s hands slid from my shoulders to my arms, steadying me.
“You don’t have to,” he said softly. “Not anymore.”
My breathing slowed.
The pain eased.
The scent faded.
The connection quieted.
Darian guided me to sit on a dry patch of grass by the lake, the cloak wrapped tightly around me.
He knelt in front of me again, eyes steady.
“Roseline,” he said quietly, “from now on… your training begins with me. Not the pack. Not Kael. Me.”
The lake shimmered behind him, glowing like it had chosen him too, as my guardian.
I swallowed hard and nodded.
“Okay.”
For the first time since dying…
I didn’t feel alone.
- Writer
