FAMILY
1243 Words
CHAPTER NINE - Family
The house was dark when Maya slipped back inside, her heart still racing. The necklace Leo gave her was warm against her chest, like it pulsed with memory. She tiptoed through the kitchen, avoiding the one creaky floorboard near the fridge.
But the moment she turned the corner—
“Maya.”
She froze.
Her aunt Ilena stood in the hallway, arms crossed, lips pressed into a thin line. Behind her, Maya caught movement—figures in the living room. Not just Ilena. More. A cluster of them. Her mother’s cousins. Her uncle. Even her great-aunt Corinne, who rarely came down from the mountain unless something serious happened.
Maya stepped forward slowly, her stomach sinking.
“You’re all here,” she said quietly.
“Yes,” Corinne said from the armchair, voice like dry leaves rustling. “Because we heard you.”
Maya’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”
Ilena’s eyes narrowed. “The howl, Maya. It wasn’t from a full-blooded wolf. It came from someone turning. Someone trying not to.”
Her uncle spoke next, voice tense. “You think we don’t monitor the woods? That we wouldn’t notice when a new signal echoes through the territory?” Panic fluttered in her chest. She kept her hand over the necklace, trying not to show how badly her fingers trembled.
“I didn’t shift,” she said. “I—I felt something, but I stopped it.”
“That something is your birthright,” Corinne said sharply. “And you tampered with it. You resisted. That’s dangerous.”
Maya stepped back a little. “So what, I’m just supposed to let it happen? Become something I don’t even understand?”
“You are something you don’t understand,” Ilena snapped. “And we need to figure out how far it’s gone. If you’ve already started the transformation, it’s not safe for you—or for anyone around you—to be sneaking out alone. Especially at night.”
Her cousin Leif stood now, tall and stoic. “You weren’t alone, were you?”
Maya hesitated.
“No,” Corinne murmured. “We didn’t think so.”
Maya’s heart thundered in her chest. She had the sudden, horrible realization: they hadn’t just heard her. They knew she’d been with someone. And that someone wasn’t part of the family. Wasn’t part of the pack.
“You need to tell us who was with you,” her uncle said. “Now.”
Maya’s lips parted—but she said nothing. Because if she told them it was Leo, it wouldn’t just be her life that was in danger. Maya stayed perfectly still, eyes darting between the gathered faces in the living room. The pressure in the room was suffocating—like the walls themselves were closing in.
“I wasn’t alone,” she admitted quietly. “But it wasn’t what you’re thinking. It was just a friend. Someone from school.”
Ilena folded her arms. “A friend out in the woods at midnight, during a full moon, while your transformation is beginning?”
Maya forced herself to meet her aunt’s eyes. “Yes.”
Her uncle’s voice was steel. “Was it a human?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because humans don’t draw the kind of energy we felt last night,” Corinne cut in sharply. “Whoever you were with—he’s not human. And he’s not part of us.”
Maya’s silence answered them before her mouth could.
Ilena took a slow breath, trying to steady herself. “Maya… we didn’t want it to happen this way. We were going to tell you soon. But you need to know why we’re watching so closely. Why did we've had to hide everything from you.”
Maya’s jaw clenched. “Because I’m too weak to handle it?”
“No,” Corinne said, leaning forward, eyes fierce. “Because you’re too important.”
That silenced the room.
Maya blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Ilena sat down, gesturing for her to do the same. “Your bloodline isn’t like ours. Not exactly. You’re born from both branches—the mountain pack and the forest blood. It makes you… rare. It makes you valuable. And dangerous.”
Her cousin Leif added, “You’re a descendant of the original bloodline—the true alpha blood. The one we thought was lost.”
Maya’s voice dropped. “So I’m some kind of heir?”
“You’re the heir,” Corinne confirmed. “To our side of the pack.”
Her uncle stood again, pacing. “But that also means something else. Something we’ve tried to keep buried.”
Maya felt a cold twist in her stomach. “What?”
“Kai’s pack,” Ilena said, her voice tightening around the name like it was poison. “They’ve been hunting for you since before you were born.”
Maya blinked. “Who is Kai?”
Corinne’s expression hardened. “He was once part of this family. A beta under your great-grandfather’s rule. But when your great-grandfather refused to let him pursue dark shifting practices—he rebelled. He split off. Formed his own pack of rogue wolves and outcasts who broke every law our kind lives by.”
“Dark shifting?”
Ilena nodded. “Using rage, blood, and black magic to force transformations. Even among children. Even the bitten.”
Maya’s blood went cold.
“Your mother ran while she was still pregnant with you,” her uncle continued. “Because Kai wanted you. He believed a child born with dual-pack blood—especially the alpha line—could become the Catalyst.”
“The what?”
Corinne’s voice dropped to a near-whisper. “The one who tips the balance. The one who could unite the fractured packs… or destroy them all.”
Maya shook her head slowly. “That’s insane. I didn’t ask for any of this. I don’t want it.”
“We didn’t want it for you either,” Ilena said, softer now. “That’s why we’ve kept you away from the truth. Why we lied. We didn’t want them to sense you. To find you.”
“But last night,” her uncle said, grimly, “something shifted. That surge we felt? It was a beacon. Kai’s pack felt it, too. If they weren’t already here… they are now.”
Maya felt like the floor had been ripped out from under her.
“And you think I’m the reason they’ll come?” she asked.
“No,” Corinne said. “We think you’re the reason they’ll fight.”
Her heart hammered. “So what now? What am I supposed to do—hide forever? Pretend this isn’t real?”
“No,” Ilena said. “Now… you train. Now you learn what you are. So when they come, you’re not helpless.”
Maya stood slowly, breath shallow, fingers curling around the necklace Leo gave her.
“I already have someone teaching me,” she said. “And I’m not sure you’d like him very much.”
“Then be very careful, Maya,” Corinne warned. “Because if he’s not one of us, he might be one of them.”
Maya looked toward the window, where the forest pressed dark against the glass.
“Maybe,” she whispered. “Or maybe he’s the only one who’s told me the truth.”
- Writer
