Chapter 4 – The Beast Within
521 Words
Chapter 4 – The Beast Within
By nightfall, the forest was restless.
The guards had reported a rogue wolf sighting near the east border. Normally, Torran would’ve handled it — but Kael insisted on going alone.
The pack whispered behind his back. Some said the Alpha was back from the dead. Others said something else had come wearing his skin.
Lira watched from her window as Kael disappeared into the trees.
She couldn’t sleep.
Her fingers trembled as she opened Kael’s journal again. The last few entries were rushed, scratched like they were written in fear.
“The witches promised power. Torran thinks we can control it. I don’t. If anything happens to me, it will be his fault.”
“I found something in the woods. It didn’t have a scent. I think Torran’s trying to summon—”
The last sentence was incomplete. Ink smeared across the page.
Lira’s heart pounded.
Summon what?
A low growl ripped through the night.
She ran to the window.
The howl came again — broken, strangled, not like any wolf she’d ever heard.
And it was close.
Lira didn’t think. She grabbed her cloak and darted outside.
She followed the sound through the trees, breath sharp in her lungs. Then she froze.
Kael stood in the clearing — facing a rogue wolf. Or what had once been a wolf.
The creature’s eyes were wrong. Black. Empty. Like they didn’t belong in a living thing.
Kael didn’t shift. He didn’t need to.
He moved like a shadow.
Fast. Precise. Terrifying.
One moment the creature leapt at him — the next, Kael caught it mid-air and slammed it to the ground so hard the earth cracked.
Lira watched, horrified, as Kael tore into it with claws that shimmered unnaturally. Not silver. Not bone. Something darker.
The creature let out a final screech before going limp. Smoke curled from its wounds.
Kael stood over it, chest heaving.
Then he turned — and saw her.
Lira stepped back, branches crunching underfoot.
“Lira?” he said, voice ragged.
She didn’t answer. Her eyes were on his hands. His claws were still out — but now she saw it.
They weren’t wolf claws.
They were something else entirely.
Kael looked down at his own hands. “I didn’t mean for you to see that.”
“What are you?” she whispered.
He didn’t move. His eyes glowed brighter than ever.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I think something’s wrong with me.”
She took another step back. “That thing — it wasn’t a rogue.”
“No,” he agreed. “It was made. Like me.”
Lira’s breath caught.
Kael dropped to his knees. “I’m losing control. I feel it. There’s something inside me. Angry. Hungry. And I think Torran put it there.”
She stared at him — the man wearing her Alpha’s face, confessing that he might be something unnatural.
And still…
Still, her heart hurt for him.
Kael looked up, desperate. “Help me, Lira. Before it’s too late.”
She swallowed her fear.
Then she nodded.
- Writer
