CHAPTER FIVE: The One Who Should Be Dead
1021 Words
The halls of Blackthorn Pack’s ceremonial temple had always been sacred — a place of vows, oaths, and moonlit offerings.
But tonight, they echoed with gasps.
Every wolf in the room stared at me like I was an apparition. Maybe I was. Maybe the part of me that once belonged to this pack died beneath the cold soil that night Dominic Raine let me be torn apart.
I didn’t move from the doorway.
Let them stare.
Their whispers were trembling things, curling in the air like smoke.
> “Is that… her?”
“No. Lena Rivers died. This must be a trick…”
“Then why does she smell like Luna-blood?”
Dominic stood frozen at the altar. His ceremonial cloak slid from one shoulder as if even the fabric recoiled from him. And in his eyes — no longer glowing with fury, but something else—was recognition.
And fear.
> He knows it’s me.
He thought I’d stay dead.
The girl beside him — his newly chosen mate — clutched his arm, trembling like a leaf. Her scent screamed submission. She wasn’t chosen by the Moon. She was chosen by Dominic’s cowardice.
I stepped forward slowly, each heel-click echoing like thunder.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Alpha,” I said, my voice steady, sultry, dangerous.
He blinked.
“Lena…”
His voice cracked.
> Good. Let it crack. Let it break like you broke me.
“Yes,” I said. “The girl you left to die. The one you marked… and abandoned.”
Gasps turned to chaos.
The Elders rose. The crowd shifted. But none of them dared come near me. There was something different in my scent now — darker, older, and more powerful than anything they remembered.
And Dominic — powerful Alpha of Blackthorn — didn’t speak again.
Because deep down, he could feel it.
> I wasn’t just a wolf anymore.
---
Flashback – The Night of the Betrayal
I had been running through the woods, bleeding, half-shifted, when I saw the mark fade from my wrist.
The mate mark.
The one Dominic placed on me three nights after I turned eighteen — when the Moon herself confirmed I was his fated.
I begged for answers. But he vanished.
By the next morning, I was summoned by the Elders, stripped of my Luna title, and accused of lying. They said the mark had never been real.
That night, the rogues came.
My own pack locked the gates. I was left outside.
Ripped.
Torn.
Dead.
Or… I should have been.
---
Resurrection
I woke beneath a blood moon in a river of ice. The air was wrong. Colder than any Alpha's breath.
A voice — not human, not wolf—echoed in my mind.
> “Lena Rivers, your blood is not just of the wolf. You carry the curse of the Crimson Witch.”
And I screamed.
The ground shook.
My body healed.
And something inside me awoke.
---
Back to Present – The Ceremony Hall
“I demand recognition,” I said now, staring down the Elders with a power that made their limbs stiffen. “You cast me out. But I carry the mark still.”
I raised my hand.
The mark that had once vanished was glowing red-hot now — burning not gold like an ordinary mate bond, but crimson.
Crimson. Like blood. Like vengeance.
“No,” Dominic growled. “You died. I buried you.”
I smiled darkly. “You buried a girl. What rose was something else.”
“Witchcraft,” someone muttered.
“Silence,” I hissed — and the entire temple obeyed.
My voice carried weight now. Authority. Magic. Rage.
I turned to Dominic.
“Reject me, then,” I said, stepping closer. “If you think I don’t belong to you. If you think your mate beside you is chosen by fate, not convenience… say it.”
He hesitated.
And that was all the answer I needed.
> Coward.
“I’m not here to reclaim you,” I said, turning away. “I’m here to claim something else.”
“What?” Dominic whispered hoarsely.
“Justice.”
---
After the Ceremony – Midnight in the Old Graveyard
I stood over the grave that bore my name.
Lena Rivers
Beloved daughter. Betrayed Luna.
Died under the Blood Moon.
A fitting epitaph, if not so tragically ironic.
A breeze carried the scent of frost and herbs. Someone was behind me.
I didn’t turn.
“You shouldn’t be here, Dalia.”
She stepped forward anyway, clutching a shawl around her shoulders.
“I knew it,” she whispered. “The moment you walked into that hall… I knew it was you.”
My only friend. The only one who’d tried to fight for me when the Council turned.
“I’m not who I was,” I said.
“No. You’re stronger now. Lena… there’s talk. Rumors that the Moon marked you twice.”
I nodded.
“I’ve seen the visions, Dalia. There’s something ancient in my blood. Something older than werewolves. Something that wants revenge.”
She looked at me, wide-eyed.
“What will you do?”
I touched my grave gently.
> “Remind them all that some ghosts don’t haunt.
They burn.”
---
In the Alpha’s Chambers
Dominic paced.
“She’s back,” he said aloud. “But how?”
He turned to his Beta.
“I killed her.”
“No, Alpha,” the Beta said softly. “You let her die.”
Dominic’s eyes burned.
“She was never meant to be Luna. She wasn’t strong enough—”
“Then why does she now carry the mark of Crimson Flame?” the Beta asked quietly.
Dominic didn’t answer.
Because even he knew — whatever Lena had become, she was no longer beneath him.
She was above.
---
Meanwhile…
In the shadows of the Blood Forest, deep beneath the earth, a seal cracked.
Ancient runes lit in red.
A creature long slumbering opened one eye.
> “She awakens,” it hissed. “The Bloodmarked Mate has returned.”
- Writer
