TWINFIRE

CHAPTER 4

The whispers start before sunrise.

Before the council drum is struck.

Before the warriors finish their morning run.

Before the kitchen fires were even lit.

I wake to them—quiet, shivering voices weaving through the thin morning air like a ghost returning to its bones.

“Someone crossed the northern border.”

“No… not someone. Him.”

“They said he wasn’t supposed to come back.”

“Exiles don’t return unless something is wrong.”

“What did he do this time?”

I hold my breath under my blankets, listening.

There’s a rule in the pack: news of danger travels fastest.

Before warriors, before the Alpha, before anyone in charge speaks, the people feel the shift in the wind.

And right now, the wind feels wrong.

I sit up slowly in my small room, rubbing my eyes. My heart is already beating faster, and I don’t know why—not exactly.

But part of me does.

A knock sounds on my door.

“Lyra?” Kael’s voice.

I swallow. “Come in.”

He steps inside, hair damp with sweat from training, his shirt clinging to him. Normally, the sight would comfort me—Kael is familiar, steady. The kind of boy who knows how to make people feel safe without trying too hard.

But today, even he looks rattled.

“You heard?” he asks.

I nod. “Half the village is whispering about it.”

Kael sits on the edge of my bed. The mattress dips under his weight, and the closeness makes it harder to breathe.

“It’s true,” he says quietly. “An exile crossed the gate this morning.”

The words settle like stones in my chest.

“Do we know who?”

Kael hesitates. That’s what scares me. Kael hesitates only when the truth is worse than the whispers.

“He was seen in the forest around dawn.” His voice drops. “It’s Emeric.”

My blood turns cold.

Emeric.

A name spoken like a curse.

A wound our pack has never healed.

A shadow in every lawbook and lesson on betrayal.

I try to stand, but my legs feel weak. “That’s not possible. Emeric—he—he’s been gone for years. He wasn’t supposed to… he can’t…”

Kael rises, steadying me with a hand on my arm. His touch is warm, grounding.

“I know,” he murmurs. “But he’s back.”

I stare past him, at the wooden wall, the familiar knots in the surface suddenly blurring.

Emeric.

Gone for so long that my memories of him feel like dreams—dark, unfinished, dangerous dreams.

I force myself to breathe. “Why would he come back now?”

“That’s what everyone wants to know,” Kael mutters. “The council is in chaos. Your father is furious. The Elders think it’s a sign of trouble.”

Trouble.

The word seems too small for what Emeric brings with him.

Kael squeezes my arm gently. “I don’t want you involved in this.”

“I’m already involved,” I whisper. “Everyone knows he was… important to my family once.”

And to me.

Though no one says that part aloud.

Kael’s eyes flicker with something—worry? Jealousy?—but he doesn’t push. Instead, he steps back, jaw tightening as the northern horn sounds in the distance.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The call announcing a returning wolf.

Wolves begin pouring out of their homes, murmuring anxiously, moving toward the central clearing.

Kael swears under his breath. “He’s here.”

My stomach drops. My pulse is so loud I can hear it.

“Let’s go,” he says softly. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

I let him lead me outside, though my steps are slow, heavy, each one shaking the earth beneath me.

The clearing is alive with tension. Wolves from every den gather in a wide circle near the main gates—warriors up front, families farther back. No one speaks loudly. No one moves carelessly.

Fear hums through the air.

Beside me, Kael stands tall, shoulders squared, his hand hovering close to mine without actually touching it.

I don’t blame him.

I’m not sure if I’d take the comfort.

Not today.

The northern gate creaks. The sound slices through the silence like a blade.

He steps through.

At first, all I notice is the shape—a tall, broad-shouldered silhouette draped in black, walking with an unhurried, confident gait despite the dozens of eyes trained on him.

Then the details sharpen.

The hair is longer now, falling slightly over his forehead. The stubble darkened his jaw. The scars—new ones—marking his hands, his neck, the side of his temple. His clothes were worn, travel-stained, but his posture unbroken.

And then… his eyes.

Dark.

Electric.

Burning with a wildness no exile ever comes back from.

But it’s him.

It’s really him.

Emeric.

The name crashes into me like a dropped stone, sending ripples through every memory I buried long ago. Memories I’m not supposed to have. Memories, the pack scolded out of me.

“Stay close,” Kael murmurs.

Emeric’s gaze sweeps across the crowd—and stops. On me.

My breath disappears.

I don’t blink.

I can’t.

It’s like he feels my eyes on him, like he’s been looking for them.

For me.

His jaw clenches, something fierce flickering in his expression. No regret. Not guilt.

Recognition.

Possession.

Something ancient and instinctive.

Kael steps subtly in front of me, blocking some of Emeric’s view.

That’s when Emeric smiles.

Not a warm smile.

Not a friendly one.

A knowing one.

The crowd stiffens as Alpha Caelan arrives, flanked by four council members. My father’s eyes are cold steel—focused entirely on Emeric.

“Emeric Morell.” His voice carries like thunder. “You were banished from this pack. For bloodshed. For disobedience. For betrayal.”

Emeric doesn’t bow. Don’t blink. Doesn’t look repentant.

“I remember,” he says calmly.

“You had no right to return.”

Emeric’s gaze flicks briefly toward me before returning to the Alpha. “I had every right. The threat that’s coming doesn’t care about your laws.”

A murmur ripples through the crowd.

Kael stiffens beside me. “Threat? What threat?”

Emeric ignores him.

“You don’t get to speak of danger,” Caelan snaps, stepping forward. “You are the danger.”

Emeric’s lip twitches. “If I were here to harm the pack, Alpha… you’d know.”

The challenge is barely veiled.

A few warriors shift closer.

I grip Kael’s arm to steady myself, my pulse racing. Emeric has always been dangerous, but this version of him… he’s different.

Older.

Sharper.

More… feral.

My father folds his arms. “Say what you came to say, exile.”

Emeric meets his stare without flinching.

“The boundary markers were destroyed,” he says. “All the eastern ones. Something crossed into our land.”

Fear ripples visibly through the older wolves.

“What crossed?” Caelan demands.

Emeric’s expression darkens. “A creature that hunts twinflame wolves.”

My stomach twists violently.

No.

No, that’s impossible.

Those creatures haven’t been seen in decades—not since before I was born.

Kael grips my hand now, hard. “He’s lying.”

Emeric’s gaze snaps at him, hard enough to sting even from across the clearing. “You can keep pretending nothing’s wrong, Kael. But it won’t save anyone.”

Kael steps forward, bristling. “You don’t talk to me. You don’t talk to her. You shouldn’t even be on our land.”

Emeric laughs softly. “Still territorial. Still weak.”

Kael growls under his breath, but Emeric’s eyes have already found mine again.

And this time… he holds my gaze without apology.

“Lyra.”

My breath catches.

He says my name as he owns it.

Like he never lost the right to speak it.

Like the years haven’t passed at all.

Kael moves to block me completely, but I step slightly to the side—barely a shift, barely noticeable.

But Emeric notices.

His expression softens. Just a fraction. Just enough to make my heart ache in a way I don’t understand.

“Why are you here, Emeric?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

He hears it anyway.

“I came back,” he says simply, “because something is coming for this pack. Something strong enough to tear through borders and kill anyone in its way.”

His eyes lock onto mine.

“And because you—” He stops himself suddenly.

The council stiffens.

Caelan’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Finish your sentence.”

Emeric’s jaw tightens. “Lyra is in danger.”

The clearing erupts.

Wolves gasp. Mothers clutch their children. Warriors exchange worried glances. I can barely breathe.

Kael turns on Emeric. “Don’t you dare drag her into your lies.”

“It’s not a lie,” Emeric growls. “She has a target on her back, and you’re too blind to see it.”

My knees almost buckle.

Why me?

Why… specifically me?

Emeric looks at me again, and this time something raw flickers in his eyes—something unguarded. “You’re not safe here. Not until we figure out what broke through the boundaries.”

A cold chill sweeps over me, down to my bones.

My father’s voice booms again. “You expect us to believe the words of the man who betrayed us?”

Emeric’s response is quiet but deadly. “Believe whatever helps you sleep at night. But I didn’t claw my way through hell just to lie to you.”

He pauses, gaze burning.

“Especially not to her.”

The world tilts. The crowd gasps. Kael curses. Alpha Caelan steps forward, fury shaking the ground.

But all I feel is the weight of Emeric’s words settling over me like a shroud.

Especially not to her.

What does that mean?

Why do I care?

Why does hearing it hurt—and comfort—at the same time?

Emeric takes one step forward, and the warriors tense, hands on weapons.

“I won’t leave,” he says. “Not until the threat is dealt with. And not until she’s safe.”

My heart stops.

Because despite everything—

the fear,

the tension, the memories I’m not supposed to keep…

something in me reacts to his presence with terrifying familiarity.

Something ancient.

Something wild.

Something that feels like fate stirring in my blood.

I don’t want it.

I don’t understand it.

But it’s there.

Emeric holds my gaze for one last second—one long, earth-stopping second—and for the first time since his return…

I’m afraid.

Not of him.

But the way my soul moves toward him is like it remembers something I don’t.