CHAPTER NINE
955 Words
Maya's Pov
I left Louis’s house angry. Not the loud kind. The quiet, cold, gut-deep kind that makes your legs shake even when you keep walking like nothing’s wrong.
My mind was a mess. How won’t it be when I was just told I wasn’t human. That I was something else. A werewolf. As if that word could fit neatly into my life.
I didn’t want to think about what he said. I didn’t want to remember the way his eyes changed. Or how he said he loved me.
I hated him for it. And hated myself for not hating him enough.
I walked straight home. Same street. Same porch. Nothing had changed, except me.
Mrs. Hawke opened the front door before I could. "Maya!” She greeted me with that half-sweet, half-distracted voice she always used when half-watching the news. “There you are. I didn’t know you’d gone out.”
I didn’t answer.
She gave me a worried look. "Maya darling? Are you okay?”
I didn’t turn. I didn’t nod.
I made it to my room, shut the door behind me and slid down with my back pressed against it.
Her knocks came quickly.
"Maya darling, open up. Talk to me."
I couldn’t. I just sat there, eyes burning, body shaking.
She went still for a beat. Then:
"Okay... I’ll give you space. I’m here when you’re ready."
I heard her sigh and then her footsteps fading down the hall.
I let out a shaky breath.
Then the tears came.
They weren’t graceful or quiet. I cried into my knees, hands gripping the fabric of my jeans so tightly my knuckles hurt. Everything felt wrong. I sobbed until my throat ached. Until my stomach knotted. Until I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like Maya Hawke and not some haunted, cursed thing.
How could he say that? How could he look at me like that, like he pitied me?
I hated this. All of it.
I hated the voice in my head. The instincts. The cravings. The strength I didn’t ask for. I hated that Louis knew more about me than I did.
I wiped my face and reached for my phone. Opened my chat with Sienna.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard.
Typing...
Backspace.
I wasn't ready for that conversation.
Instead, I opened my browser. Typed in a word that made my skin crawl.
Werewolf.
Hundreds of results.
Stories. Legends. Murders. News articles. Witchcraft. Pack rituals. None of it helped. All it did was make my stomach twist.
Then I remembered the old Anti-Werewolf Club group chat. I hadn’t checked it in forever.
I scrolled through it now.
Half-jokes. Some angry rants. A few links that looked promising.
"Signs you're being turned."
"How to test your humanity."
"Known cures (none verified)."
My breath caught at that last one. I opened the link.
Curses. Myth. Suicides. Potions. Self-exile. Dark rituals. Something about witches. More curses.
This is a sickness, I thought. There has to be a cure.
But everything looked like nonsense.
I dropped the phone beside me and let my eyes close. I didn’t plan to sleep. But I must have drifted.
***
I was standing barefoot in a clearing.
It wasn’t night or day. Just soft, glowing light everywhere. The grass was warm under my feet. The air smelled like spring rain.
In front of me stood a tall woman in a silver dress. Her skin seemed to glow and her eyes so gracefully I couldn't make up a color.
"You’re not dreaming," she said.
I blinked. "Where am I?"
"With me."
She stepped closer. Her voice was calm. Regal. Distant and loving all at once.
"Who are you?”
“I am Selene. The Goddess of the Moon. Mother of wolves. Guardian of bloodline and soul."
I stared.
She smiled gently. "Maya, you’ve always been mine."
"No," I said. "No, this... this isn’t real."
She raised her hand and the space around us shimmered.
It was like a memory I didn’t know I had.
A woman with red curls smiling at a child and tucking it in.
Flames behind her. Screams. Fangs.
She fought to protect, took a fatal hit.
I gasped. That woman, she looked like me.
"That was your mother," The Moon Goddess said. "She died protecting you."
"That can’t be. I was told they died in a fire."
"They did. But the fire wasn’t an accident. It was an attack."
I stepped back, shaking my head. "No. No, I was normal. I am normal."
"I am human," I whispered.
"You’ve never been human, Maya. Your wolf has always been within you. Her voice was buried.”
"Then why now? Why is it happening now?"
"Because the time has come."
Behind me, a warmth. A heartbeat that wasn’t mine.
I turned.
She stood taller than me. Thick red fur. Amber eyes. Powerful legs. A glowing mark on her chest like a living flame.
My wolf.
She stepped forward, slow and regal.
I couldn't move.
She pressed her forehead against mine.
And spoke.
"My name is Amari. I am you. I’ve always been with you. You’re finally ready.”
I choked on the air. My chest rose and fell like I was drowning.
"What does that mean?"
Selene stepped closer.
"It means you are becoming. And the world will not be kind to what you are becoming."
The vision began to fade.
"Wait! I have more questions!" I shouted.
Selene's voice echoed through the clearing.
"You’ll find the answers. But first, you must su
rvive what’s to come.”
I woke up gasping.
My pillow was wet with sweat. My hands trembled.
But I remembered it.
Every word.
And I knew nothing would be the same again.
- Writer
