What I Truly Am
1878 Words
The phone slipped from my fingers.
Rowan caught it before it hit the floor of the truck.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
The road stretched ahead, empty and pale under the morning light. Trees flashed past the windows. Behind us, Silver Moon territory had disappeared into the distance, but I could still feel it like a chain around my throat.
Bring the girl back before sunset.
Or we tell Kael Blackthorn what she carries.
And we tell him what she truly is.
My hands went cold.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Rowan did not answer.
He tossed the phone into the cup holder and pressed harder on the gas.
“Rowan.”
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.” My voice cracked. “I just ran from the only home I’ve ever known. Kael’s wolves almost tore me apart. Some stranger is threatening to expose me, and you apparently know more about my life than I do. So don’t tell me not now.”
His jaw worked.
The old truck rumbled over a cracked bridge. Beneath us, the river glittered silver.
Rowan glanced at the rearview mirror.
“We’re being followed.”
My heart jumped.
I twisted around.
At first, I saw nothing but road and fog. Then, far behind us, two black SUVs appeared over the hill.
“They’re Kael’s?” I whispered.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“There are worse people than Kael Blackthorn.”
I almost laughed. It came out bitter and breathless.
“He rejected me in front of the entire pack.”
“I didn’t say he was good,” Rowan said. “I said there are worse.”
The first SUV gained speed.
Rowan cursed under his breath and turned sharply onto a narrower road. The truck lurched. I grabbed the dashboard with one hand and my stomach with the other.
“Careful,” I snapped.
His eyes flicked to my hand.
For the first time, his expression softened.
“Are you in pain?”
I wanted to say no.
I wanted to be strong, cold, unbreakable.
But another wave of nausea rolled through me, and my body betrayed me. I leaned back against the seat, breathing slowly through my nose.
“A little.”
“Rejection pain?”
“And something else.”
The tiny pulse inside me fluttered again, faint but stubborn.
Rowan’s face darkened.
“Your body is changing faster than it should.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the seal is cracking.”
I stared at him. “You keep saying that. Seal. Bloodline. Moon Throne. Start explaining.”
The truck sped past an abandoned farmhouse. Rowan turned again, this time onto a dirt road hidden between tall grass.
The SUVs shot past the main road behind us.
For a few seconds, I allowed myself to breathe.
Rowan slowed the truck but did not stop.
“Your mother’s name was Elara Moonstone,” he said.
My chest tightened at the sound of her name.
I had been six when she died. Most of my memories of her were broken pieces. Warm hands. Soft singing. The smell of lavender. Her body cold in a white sheet.
“She was born into a line older than the packs,” Rowan continued. “Before territories were divided, before Alphas ruled through blood and violence, there was the Moon Throne. One royal line believed to carry the first blessing of the Moon Goddess.”
“That sounds like a fairy tale.”
“It became one after they were slaughtered.”
My breath caught.
Rowan looked straight ahead.
“Twenty-three years ago, the great packs formed an alliance to wipe them out. They claimed the royal line was dangerous. Too powerful. Too unpredictable. But the truth was simpler.”
“What truth?”
“They were afraid of being ruled.”
The pendant around my neck warmed again.
I touched it through my shirt.
“My mother survived.”
“She escaped with your father. Your father was not royal, but he was loyal to her. He helped hide her. I helped them both.”
“Why?”
Rowan’s mouth tightened. “Because I owed your grandfather my life.”
I tried to picture it. My mother, not as the tired woman from my childhood memories, but as someone hunted. Someone important. Someone who had carried a secret so dangerous she sealed her own daughter to hide it.
“Why did she never tell me?”
“She planned to when you shifted.”
“I never shifted.”
“Because the seal held too long.”
I turned toward him. “What happens if it breaks?”
Rowan was silent for a moment.
“Your wolf wakes.”
“That’s supposed to be a good thing.”
“Not if everyone nearby can smell what you are.”
I swallowed.
The dirt road ended in front of an old cabin hidden beneath heavy trees. Moss covered the roof. The windows were dark. It looked abandoned, but when Rowan stopped the truck, the front door opened.
A woman stepped outside.
She looked around forty, with dark skin, silver-streaked braids, and eyes so pale they were almost white. She wore a long gray coat despite the season, and a black raven tattoo curved along one side of her neck.
Rowan killed the engine.
“Who is she?” I asked.
“Someone who can keep you alive.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting until we’re inside.”
The woman on the porch lifted her chin.
“Hurry.”
Her voice carried across the yard.
Rowan got out. I hesitated.
Every instinct I had screamed not to trust strangers.
Then the baby pulsed inside me.
Small.
Alive.
Depending on me.
I opened the door and stepped down.
My knees nearly buckled.
Rowan was beside me instantly, one hand under my arm. I hated needing help, but I hated falling more, so I let him guide me toward the cabin.
The woman watched me approach.
Her pale eyes moved over my face, my pendant, then stopped at my stomach.
She went still.
“Moon save us,” she whispered.
I pulled away from Rowan.
“Why does everyone keep looking at me like that?”
The woman’s gaze met mine.
“Because you should not exist.”
I laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“I’ve been told that in different ways my whole life.”
Her face softened, but only slightly.
“My name is Mara.”
“Lyra.”
“I know.”
Of course she did.
I was getting tired of people knowing my name.
Inside, the cabin was warmer than it looked. Shelves lined the walls, filled with jars of dried herbs, old books, candles, and bundles of silver thread. Strange symbols were carved above the doorway and along the window frames.
Protection marks.
I did not know how I knew that.
Mara noticed me staring.
“You can read them?”
“No.”
“Your blood can.”
A shiver ran through me.
Rowan bolted the door behind us.
Mara pointed to a chair near the fireplace. “Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re pale, shaking, and carrying a child whose power is already pulling at your sealed wolf. Sit before you fall.”
I sat.
Mostly because my legs agreed with her.
Mara knelt in front of me and held out her hand.
“May I?”
I leaned back. “May you what?”
“Check the seal.”
“No.”
Rowan exhaled. “Lyra—”
“I said no.” My voice sharpened. “Everyone keeps touching my life like it belongs to them. Kael rejected me. His guards chased me. You dragged me here. Now she wants to check some magical seal I didn’t know existed yesterday. So no.”
The room went quiet.
Mara studied me.
Then, slowly, she lowered her hand.
“Good.”
I blinked. “Good?”
“If you agreed too easily, I’d worry your spirit was broken.”
I did not know what to say to that.
Mara stood and poured something dark from a kettle into a cup.
“Drink. It will settle your stomach. It will not harm the child.”
I looked at Rowan.
He nodded.
I hated that I trusted him even a little.
Still, I took the cup.
The liquid tasted bitter and earthy, but warmth spread through me after the first sip. The nausea eased.
Mara pulled a chair across from me.
“Your mother sealed your wolf to hide your scent. Royal blood has a signature. To wolves, it smells like moonlight before a storm.”
“That’s poetic and unhelpful.”
One corner of her mouth lifted.
“It means powerful Alphas can recognize it if they know what to look for.”
“Kael didn’t.”
“Because your seal held.”
My hand tightened around the cup.
“But now?”
“Now you are pregnant by an Alpha heir. The child is feeding the bond between your blood and his. That kind of blood does not sleep quietly.”
I thought of the river of heat in my veins. The way Darius had whimpered. The way Kael’s command had reached me even after rejection.
“What am I?” I whispered.
Mara’s pale eyes did not look away.
“The last living daughter of the Moon Throne.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“And my child?”
Rowan answered this time.
“The first heir born from royal blood in over twenty years.”
My throat closed.
I wanted to deny it.
I wanted to say I was just Lyra Moonstone, orphan girl, weak girl, unwanted girl.
But the pendant pulsed again.
And beneath my hand, so did the child.
Mara leaned forward.
“Listen carefully. Kael Blackthorn may have rejected you, but the moment he realizes what you carry, he will come for you.”
“He already knows I’m pregnant,” I said.
Rowan’s head snapped toward me.
“He saw me.” I swallowed. “At the road. I think he understood.”
Mara’s face went very still.
“Then we have less time than I thought.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Rowan moved silently, pulling a knife from his boot.
Mara lifted one finger to her lips.
I stood too quickly. Pain flashed through my stomach, and I grabbed the chair.
The knock came again.
Then a voice called from outside.
“Rowan Vale.”
My blood froze.
I knew that voice.
Not Kael.
Worse.
Selene.
Mara’s eyes flashed silver.
Rowan swore.
Selene’s voice turned sweet.
“I know she’s in there.”
My hand moved to my stomach.
Outside, another voice spoke.
Low.
Cold.
Male.
“Open the door, Lyra.”
Kael.
The broken bond inside me screamed.
Mara looked at me, then at the back window.
“Run.”
But I could not move.
Because Kael spoke again, and this time his voice carried something I had never heard before.
Not command.
Not anger.
Desperation.
“Please. Before they kill you.”
- Writer
