Chapter 2: Five Years Later
687 Words
The guard station looked exactly the same.
Same gray stones. Same iron gates. Same pair of wolves sniffing at the perimeter, their eyes catching hers with hostile recognition.
Sera hadn't stopped walking for four days. Four days since Shadow Pine territory. Four days since she'd decided to come back. Four days of teaching Lumi to sleep through cold and hunger and the constant scent of predators.
Four years of hiding. Four years of running. Not anymore.
"Mama." Lumi tugged at her hand. "Why are the scary dogs growling?"
"They're not dogs, baby. They're wolves."
"They look like dogs."
"They're not." Sera crouched down, adjusting the straps of the worn backpack on her daughter's shoulders. "Wolves are different. And these ones — they're guarding their home. We have to be respectful, okay?"
Lumi nodded. Her golden hair — that telltale sign of Royal Blood — fell across her face. She pushed it back with an impatient gesture that was pure Sera.
*The things she doesn't know yet*, Sera thought. *The things I'm going to have to teach her.*
"The little one has a point." The guard station door opened. An old man emerged, his silver hair catching the morning light. "These wolves haven't seen a visitor in years. They're not used to—"
He stopped.
His eyes found Sera's face. Traveled down to Lumi. Back up again.
"Garrett." Sera straightened. "You look older."
"Sera." His voice was barely a whisper. "They said you were dead."
"Not quite."
Old Garrett — pack keeper for three generations — stood frozen in the doorway. His hands were shaking. His eyes were wet.
"Garrett." Sera kept her voice neutral. "I need to see Alpha Dax."
"He—" Garrett coughed. Cleared his throat. "He doesn't know you're here."
"I know."
"The whole pack thinks you—"
"I *know*." She didn't raise her voice. Didn't need to. "But my daughter needs protection I can't give her anymore. I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm here because I have nowhere else to go."
Garrett's gaze dropped to Lumi again. The little girl stared up at him, utterly unimpressed.
"What's your name, little one?" His voice cracked.
"Lumi." She didn't smile. Didn't hide behind Sera's legs. Just looked at him with those golden eyes — Royal Blood, unmistakable — and waited.
Garrett made a sound. Something between a laugh and a sob.
"She looks like you," he said to Sera. "Exactly like you. Same eyes. Same chin." He knelt down to Lumi's level. "How old are you, little one?"
"Four." Lumi tilted her head. "Are you the boss?"
"No." A small smile. "Just the caretaker."
"Oh." Lumi considered this. "Okay."
Garrett looked at Sera for a long time. Then he stood, his joints creaking with the effort.
"Alpha Dax needs to know," he said quietly. "Right now."
He turned and disappeared into the guard station. A moment later, the gates groaned open.
Sera took Lumi's hand and stepped through.
The territory stretched ahead — familiar paths, familiar trees, familiar landmarks that hadn't changed in five years. Everything exactly as she'd left it.
Everything except her.
"Mama?" Lumi's small voice broke through her thoughts. "Why is everyone looking at us?"
Sera followed her daughter's gaze. Pack members lined the main path, their whispers cutting through the morning air.
*She looks just like... It's her. It's the traitor.*
*After all this time. She had the nerve to come back.*
*With a child. Look at that kid's eyes — what the hell?*
Sera didn't slow down. Didn't acknowledge them.
Let them look. Let them whisper. She'd stopped caring about their opinions five years ago.
*Four years of hiding*, she thought, squeezing Lumi's hand. *And now we can finally stop.*
But even as she thought it, she caught a familiar scent on the wind.
Pine. Iron. And something else.
Something that made her heart stop.
Dax.
Garrett was hurrying toward the main hall. Sera took a breath. Straightened her spine. And followed, her daughter's hand still wrapped in hers.
*Time to see what five years has done to him*, she thought.
*And what it's done to us.*
- Writer
