Chapter Seventeen: The Calling
614 Words
The whispers turned into screams inside my head.
“Arian… come to us…”
“You belong here…”
The pain in my shoulder and chest felt like fire now. Every step made it worse. Zara kept her arm wrapped tightly around my waist, helping me walk. Max stayed close on my other side, his hand gripping my arm to keep me steady.
“I’m… losing it,” I gasped. My vision kept flashing red. The glowing veins had spread across my entire chest and up my neck.
“Stay with us,” Zara said, her voice shaking. “Fight it.”
But it was getting harder. The wolf wasn’t just pushing anymore. It was pulling me toward something ahead. Something ancient.
The trees suddenly opened into a small clearing. In the center stood a circle of tall stones covered in the same glowing silver symbols we had seen earlier. The ground inside the circle looked black and burned.
Max stopped. “We should go around.”
But my feet kept moving forward on their own.
“Arian, no!” Zara tried to pull me back.
I couldn’t stop.
The moment I stepped into the circle, everything changed.
The whispers stopped.
Silence fell over the Dead Zone like a heavy blanket. Even the wind died.
Then a single voice spoke — calm, deep, and ancient. It came from everywhere and nowhere.
**“Finally… the Anomaly wakes.”**
A figure began to form in the center of the stone circle. Tall. Shadowy. Not quite solid. It had the shape of a man, but its eyes were pure silver light.
Max and Zara tried to run into the circle to reach me, but an invisible wall pushed them back.
“You can’t have him!” Zara shouted, pounding against the barrier with glowing golden eyes.
The figure ignored them and looked straight at me.
“You are not like the others,” it said. “Your wolf was never meant to be chained. It was meant to lead.”
Pain exploded through my body. I dropped to my knees in the center of the circle. The glowing veins across my skin burned brighter than ever. My claws grew longer. My teeth sharpened.
I screamed.
Flashes filled my mind — memories that weren’t mine. Ancient wolves running under different moons. Packs that lived free. And something darker… wars between our kind and the humans who feared us.
When the pain finally stopped, I looked up.
The shadowy figure was gone.
But I felt different. Stronger. Like something deep inside me had unlocked.
Zara and Max rushed to me as the barrier disappeared.
“What happened?” Max asked, helping me stand.
“I… saw things,” I whispered. “Old things. The wolf… it’s changing faster now.”
Zara touched my face gently, her golden eyes wide with worry and wonder. “Your eyes… they’re glowing brighter. And the veins… they look like patterns now.”
Before we could say more, the ground began to shake.
All around the clearing, twisted creatures started crawling out from the trees. Dozens of them. More than we had ever seen. Their black eyes were fixed on me.
“They’re coming for you,” Max said, claws out. “The Anomaly.”
Zara stood on my other side, ready to fight. “We won’t let them take you.”
I looked at both of them — my pack.
The new power inside me hummed like electricity in my blood. For the first time, I didn’t feel afraid of it.
I stepped forward.
The creatures charged.
I roared, and this time the sound shook the trees.
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To be continued…
- Writer
