Chapter 13
1071 Words
The silence of her chamber pressed heavily against her ears. After the brutal display in the courtyard, Lia thought she would never stop shaking. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the omega’s broken body dragged across the dirt. Every time she breathed, she felt Alpha Kieran’s icy words searing into her bones.
But as the night deepened and shadows pooled along the walls, something else stirred inside her.
A voice.
You are not his. You are mine.
Her head snapped up, her eyes darting wildly around the room. The air was still, the only sound the faint whistle of the wind seeping through the cracks in the shutters. Her heart pounded in her chest, fear and disbelief tangling together.
“No,” she whispered to herself, pressing her palms against her temples. “I’m losing my mind. That’s it. I’m finally going mad.”
But the voice came again, softer this time, like a breeze brushing through her soul.
Not madness. Truth. I have always been here.
Lia staggered to her feet, her knees weak. “Who are you?” she whispered, terrified of the answer.
I am you. Your strength. Your wolf.
Her breath caught. Her wolf.
Every werewolf child grew up waiting for the day their wolf surfaced—the other half of their soul, their power, their spirit guide. Yet Lia had waited… and waited… and nothing. Her pack had mocked her mercilessly, calling her defective, useless, a girl with no wolf. She had believed them. She had hated herself for it.
And now, when she was trapped in Alpha Kieran’s suffocating grasp, the voice appeared?
Her legs gave out, and she sank onto the edge of the bed, trembling. “Why now?” she asked the darkness. “Why not before? Why not when I needed you most?”
For a long moment, there was silence. Then the voice pulsed again, a vibration deep in her chest.
Because you are waking. Because you are finally ready to hear me.
Tears stung her eyes. She didn’t know if she should rejoice or break apart. What if this wasn’t real? What if her mind was inventing hope to keep her from collapsing under Kieran’s cruelty?
Still, the voice lingered, warm and certain, a steady heartbeat beneath her fear.
You are not weak. You never were.
---
The following days passed in a blur.
Lia moved carefully, speaking less, observing more. Kieran had tightened his watch over her—two guards shadowed her steps whenever she left her chamber. But her mind was no longer consumed solely with fear.
Every night, she heard it. The whisper. Sometimes faint, sometimes strong, always threading through her thoughts with patience.
Search for me. Learn who you are.
And so she began to listen.
---
Her chance came one evening in the library.
The pack house’s library wasn’t a place she was normally allowed to enter, but Kieran, perhaps testing her obedience, ordered her to fetch him a specific ledger. The guards followed her in, standing stiff at the doorway.
Her fingers trailed along the spines of the books, dust clinging to her fingertips. The shelves stretched high, packed with records of the pack’s history, treaties, bloodlines… and older things, buried beneath cobwebs.
She pulled down the ledger he requested but hesitated. Something tugged at her.
Her gaze shifted to a cluster of worn tomes shoved into the corner, their bindings frayed, their titles faded. She felt it then—an odd pull, like invisible strings tugging at her chest.
There. The voice inside her pulsed stronger. Knowledge waits there.
Her hands shook as she slid one of the books free. The cover was cracked leather, the title barely legible: The Lore of the Lost Wolves.
Her heart pounded. Quickly, she tucked it beneath the ledger, hiding it as best she could.
The guards paid no mind. To them, she was nothing but the Alpha’s fragile possession, incapable of deception.
That night, in the quiet of her room, she opened the tome. Dust rose into the air, catching the candlelight.
The pages were filled with ancient script and symbols, stories of wolves who had been cursed, silenced, hidden from themselves until the moment of great need awakened them.
Her throat tightened as she read words that mirrored her life: Some wolves remain dormant, their voices muted by fear, by bloodline, or by destiny. But when fire tests them, when chains break them, the wolf rises—fiercer for the waiting.
Tears blurred her vision. Was this her? Was she cursed? Or destined?
The voice thrummed inside her chest, stronger than before.
You see now. You were never broken. Only waiting.
But fear shadowed the hope blooming inside her.
Because if Alpha Kieran ever discovered this—if he even suspected she was awakening—he would not rest until he crushed it.
Her mind replayed his words: I’ll make you suffer until your power is unleashed.
He wanted her blood, her wolf, her strength. And if she was truly waking now… it would make her his ultimate target.
---
The next morning, Kieran came to her chamber unannounced.
She stiffened as he entered, his eyes sharp, his aura filling the room like an approaching storm.
He studied her closely, as though searching for cracks in her mask. “You’ve been quiet lately,” he said.
Lia forced herself to meet his gaze, her pulse a frantic drum in her veins. “I’ve… had nothing to say.”
He stepped closer, so close she could feel the heat of his presence. His hand lifted, brushing against her cheek—not gentle, but claiming, invasive.
His lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Be careful with silence, Lia. Sometimes, silence hides secrets.”
Her stomach dropped. Did he know?
But before she could speak, his hand fell away, and he turned toward the door. “Remember—your life is mine to shape. Do not test me.”
When the door shut behind him, Lia collapsed against the wall, her chest heaving.
Her wolf’s voice broke through the terror, firm and unyielding.
He suspects. But he does not own us. Find strength. Find me fully, before he does.
For the first time since being dragged into his world, Lia didn’t feel completely powerless.
Terrified, yes. But not powerless.
And that fragile difference might be the only thing that kept her alive.
- Writer
