Bound to my Awakening

Shadows on the Perimeter

My claws dug deep into the pine floorboards, splintering the old wood as I crouched on all fours.

"Kaela...?" Liam’s voice trembled, a frail human sound slicing through the roar of blood in my ears.

He stood frozen, his knuckles against the wooden doorframe, his eyes taking in the sight of my lengthened jaw, the thick grey fur sprouting along my forearms.

A low, vibrating rumble tore from my chest, a warning from a monster I couldn't control.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Liam whispered, taking a slow, agonizingly deliberate step forward. The floorboards groaned beneath his boots. "Look at me, Kaela. Just look at me."

"Stay... back..." The words scraped out of my malformed throat, raw and painful. "Liam, please... I can't... I can't stop it!"

"Yes, you can," he insisted, his voice dropping into a steady, grounding murmur as he slowly sank to his knees, bringing himself down to my eye level. He was completely unshielded, his throat entirely exposed to a creature that could rip it out in a fraction of a second.

"You're safe here. It's just me. It's Liam."

"I killed them," I choked out, my body shivering violently as the feral pulse in my veins fought against his gentle words. "My family... the blood... I'm a monster, Liam!"

"You're not a monster," he said firmly, though I could smell the cold sweat breaking out across his skin, and could hear the rapid, thumping of his heart. Yet, despite his body’s natural instinct to flee, he extended a trembling hand toward me.

"I don't care what happened in those woods. I see you. Right now. Breathe, Kaela. Just breathe."

Slowly, excruciatingly, the burning heat under my skin began to recede, pulling back like a deadly tide. The claws retracting into my fingers caused a sickening, snapping pain, and the coarse fur faded back beneath my pale skin.

Before I could hit the ground completely, Liam was there. His strong arms caught me, pulling my shaking, exhausted frame against his chest. I buried my face in his shoulder, sobbing quietly as the reality of what I almost did washed over me.

"I've got you," he muttered into my hair, holding me tightly against the cold morning air. "I've got you, Kaela. I'm not going anywhere."

"You saw it," I whispered, my voice barely audible, completely human once more. "You saw what I am. Why aren't you calling your father? Why aren't you?"

Liam pulled back slightly, his hands resting gently on my trembling shoulders. His eyes searched my face, intense and fiercely protective.

"Because I know who you are when you're not afraid. My dad... he wouldn't understand. The pack elders wouldn't understand. They'd kill you, Kaela. I won't let them."

"You're hiding a rogue," I warned him, tears spilling over my eyelashes. "If they find out—"

"They won't," Liam interrupted softly, his thumb brushing a tear from my cheek. The sheer devotion in his gaze made my chest ache with a bittersweet pain. "I'll fix these floorboards before my dad comes up. This stays between us. Do you hear me? Your secret is safe with me."

For the first time in my life, someone had seen the darkest, most terrifying piece of my soul, and hadn't run away. Looking into Liam's soft, determined eyes, a quiet hope blossomed in my chest. Maybe I didn't have to be a cursed monster forever.

Maybe, in this small, hidden life on the farm with Liam, I could finally be safe.

A sudden, violent pain spiked straight through the center of my skull, so sharp it knocked the breath out of me.

I gasped, clutching my head as a dark, suffocating wave of foreign energy crashed through my mind.

"Kaela? What's wrong?" Liam gripped my arms, his face pale with concern.

In my mind's eye, a psychic link snapped into place, violently dragging my consciousness miles away to the eastern border of the territory.

I wasn't in the attic anymore. I was standing in the shadows of the ancient forest, watching an armored convoy grind to a halt on the dirt road.

The heavy door of the lead vehicle opened, and a man stepped out.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and draped in effortless authority, radiating a dark, crushing power that made the very air around him feel thin. Draven. The tyrant Alpha of Ashen Ridge.

Suddenly, through the link, I felt him freeze.

Found you, a voice echoed in my mind, deep, command-laden, and feral.

"Kaela! Wake up!" Liam's frantic voice pulled me back to reality.

I snapped back into my body, gasping, cold sweat soaking my nightclothes. I scrambled backward, away from the window, my eyes wide with absolute horror.

"He's coming," I choked out, my voice laced with pure panic.

"Who?" Liam demanded, dropping to his knees beside me, his hands grasping mine. "Kaela, who is coming?"

"The Alpha... Draven," I gasped, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against my ribs. The phantom feeling of a heavy, dark invisible leash was tightening around my neck, pulling me toward the dark woods outside. "He knows. Liam, he feels me! He's hunting me!"

"That's impossible, the Citadel is miles away—"

CRACK.

The distant sound of breaking branches echoed from the perimeter of the property, followed by the heavy, synchronized thuds of massive, predatory paws striking the damp earth.

Liam froze, his head snapping toward the window.

Heavy, dark shadows began to emerge from the treeline, encircling the Croft cabin.

"Get behind me," Liam whispered, his voice deadly serious as he reached for the heavy iron fire poker resting by the hearth.

"Liam, no," I begged, clutching his arm in sheer terror as a massive, obsidian shape stepped into the clearing outside. "You can't fight him! He'll kill you!"

"I don't care," Liam said, turning to look at me one last time. "I won't let him touch you."

A low, thunderous growl shook the very foundations of the house, rattling the glass in the attic window. The monster at the door had arrived.