CHAPTER THREE — WHAT AWAKENS IN THE DARKNESS
1162 Words
The sky cracked open with thunder.
Clouds rolled violently over the Moonfall territory, swallowing the moonlight. Wolves scattered through the courtyard, shifting, preparing, panicking. Fear thickened the air like smoke, but one thing was clear:
The Shadow Beast was close.
Too close.
I gripped the window frame, fighting the tremble in my hands. My heart hammered against my ribs, and the strange energy inside me pulsed harder—hotter—like something was clawing its way to the surface.
But I wasn’t ready.
I didn’t understand it.
I didn’t want anyone to see me like this.
A loud howl cut through the chaos.
Rowan stood in front of the gates, chest heaving, eyes glowing. His Alpha aura spread across the courtyard like fire, a desperate attempt to collect respect.
Even though he didn’t deserve it.
“ALL WARRIORS, FORM A LINE!” he barked.
Dozens of wolves shifted, forming defensive arcs. Their howls echoed in the trees.
But the forest answered with a deeper, more monstrous sound.
Something moved.
Branches snapped.
The earth trembled under the weight of something unnatural.
My breath hitched.
Then… the Shadow Beast stepped out.
Black fur so dark it swallowed the moonlight.
Eyes red like embers.
Claws long enough to slice bone.
A shape shifting and rippling like smoke with flesh.
Wolves gasped.
Some stumbled backward in fear.
The beast growled, and the sound vibrated through the ground, shaking the stones beneath my feet. My wolf whimpered inside me, but the other presence—
the ancient one—
rose like a tide.
Burning.
Demanding.
Awake.
My fingers dug into the wood as I struggled to contain it.
“Stay back!” Rowan commanded.
But he was already stepping forward.
Beta Caleb grabbed his arm. “Rowan, no! You cannot fight that alone!”
Rowan shoved him away. “I am your Alpha!”
“That doesn’t make you immortal!” Caleb shouted.
Rowan ignored him.
Pride had always been his greatest flaw.
He shifted—fur bursting from his skin, bones cracking, his wolf form taking shape, silver and enormous. He growled, circling the beast.
But the Shadow Beast didn’t circle.
It lunged.
Fast.
Silent.
Deadly.
Rowan barely dodged. The beast’s claws scraped the earth where he had been a heartbeat before. Wolves charged in from both sides. Some attacked bravely, others were thrown across the courtyard like leaves in a storm.
The beast roared, slashing a warrior in half in one brutal swipe.
Gasps and screams filled the air.
My nails dug into the window frame so hard they cracked the wood.
“No… no, no…” I whispered.
Every instinct screamed for me to stay hidden.
Every bit of logic told me not to get involved.
After all, Rowan had rejected me.
Humiliated me.
Treated me like filth.
But the pack…
My home…
My parents…
They were in danger.
And something in me responded to that danger like fire responds to air.
A pulse.
A glow.
A whisper:
“Rise.”
I gasped and stumbled backward, clutching my chest.
This… presence inside me wasn’t wolf.
Wasn’t human.
Wasn’t anything I had ever felt.
It felt ancient.
Powerful.
Royal.
Like something older than the Moon Goddess herself.
Heat spread down my arms, my legs, my spine—
burning without burning—
awakening something I didn’t understand.
Outside, Rowan snarled in pain as the beast slammed him into the ground. Dust exploded upward. Warriors howled, but none could stop the creature.
The beast lifted Rowan by the throat.
My heart lurched into my mouth.
No matter how he hurt me, I didn’t want to watch him die.
But then—
everything changed.
The presence inside me surged violently.
My vision blurred.
My breath caught.
And suddenly—
I wasn’t in my room anymore.
Not physically.
Not fully.
But somehow…
I was seeing the battlefield from above.
Through someone else’s eyes.
Someone far away.
Someone powerful.
Someone ancient.
A deep, commanding voice entered the edges of my mind, like a whisper carried on the wind:
“A flare… in the east.”
The voice echoed with dominance.
A voice that didn’t belong to any wolf I had ever known.
“A power waking… bound to the Empress bloodline.”
My heart stopped.
Whose voice was that?
Another voice answered—a warrior’s voice.
“My King… what did you feel?”
My King?
The Alpha King.
But he was hundreds of miles away.
How… how could he sense me?
The ancient presence inside me hummed.
Because you belong to him.
I gasped.
The vision snapped away.
My room came back into focus.
The screams outside crashed into my ears again.
The Alpha King had felt me.
From miles away.
But before I could process it, the Shadow Beast roared, dragging Rowan across the ground.
His silver fur was stained with blood.
He struggled weakly, barely able to stand.
My heart squeezed painfully.
Then—
the beast opened its jaws wide.
Ready to kill him.
“ROWAN!” I screamed.
My voice wasn’t loud.
But the power inside me was.
Something burst out of me—
an invisible force—
rushing out the window like a shockwave.
The trees shuddered.
The earth trembled.
The air rippled.
The beast froze mid-lunge.
Rowan collapsed to the ground, gasping and coughing blood.
Every wolf turned toward my window.
Eyes wide.
Fearful.
Confused.
The beast turned too—
slowly—
its red eyes locking onto me.
It sensed me.
It recognized me.
It bowed its head.
I stumbled backward in shock.
Why…
why would a creature created from darkness bow to me?
The ancient presence inside me whispered again, stronger this time:
“Because you are not meant to fear monsters.
You were born to command them.”
My knees buckled.
Outside, wolves stared upward at my window in utter horror.
“What… what was that?” a warrior whispered.
“Some kind of magic,” another gasped.
“Did Aria do that?” someone else cried.
And then—
The Shadow Beast lifted its head…
and howled.
But not at the pack.
At me.
Like a servant calling to its rightful ruler.
My blood turned to ice.
The beast turned back toward the forest—
paused—
and vanished into the darkness with unnatural speed.
Gone.
Just like that.
But the pack wasn’t relieved.
They weren’t grateful.
Dozens of glowing eyes turned toward me again.
Fear.
Suspicion.
Accusation.
And Rowan—
bleeding, shaking, breath ragged—
stared at my window like I was something monstrous.
Something dangerous.
Something he should have feared instead of rejected.
His voice cracked with horror.
“Aria… what are you?”
I stepped back from the window, trembling from head to toe.
Because I had no answer.
None at all.
But deep inside me, that ancient voice whispered one final time—
dark, powerful, and impossible to ignore:
“You are the Luna he threw away.”
“But you were born to be a Queen.”
- Writer
