Fated To You

Chapter 2 THE AWAKENING

Elara didn’t go back to the pack house that night. Nor the next.

She was roaming around the outskirts of the Nightshade territory, sleeping under the trees, living with the forest’s rhythm. Every single time she closed her eyes, she saw the Blood Moon behind Kael’s face and heard his voice resounding in her bones: I reject you.

It kept coming back to her.

However, an even more bizarre thing kept her haunted.

Their body was altering.

The first time she realized it, she had tripped over a root and fallen on her wrist quite hard. She had cried out, thinking that it was broken. But within the hour, the swelling disappeared. The pain went away. By the time it was dark, there was no bruise at all.

That was not normal. And neither was the way her senses had heightened.

She is able to hear the heartbeats from a considerable distance. Her vision at night is bright like a cat’s. And the whispers—those had started two nights ago.

Whispering, breathing ideas, coming from between the trees. Elara would turn quickly holding her dagger tightly which she had taken from an old cabin but finding no one.

Still, she was not quite terrified. Deep inside, a part of her was beginning to awaken. Something she had buried long ago.

The tattoo— the weird black swirl on her forearm—was almost constantly burning now. Sometimes it would pulsate in time with the moon’s movement. Sometimes it would hurt when she walked in the vicinity of old places: stone circles, moss-covered ruins, forgotten graves.

And the dreams… the dreams were even worse than the voices.

Last night, she had the vision of the woman of the moonlight again—long silver hair and radiant eyes, standing in a black void. Elara had reached out to her. The woman had whispered a name.

But Elara had woken up screaming before she could remember it.

By the fourth night, her hunger had made her return towards the pack’s border. Not to the main village—she wouldn’t have taken that risk—but to an abandoned storage hut near the training fields. There she found dried meat and water, probably left by hunters.

She hid in the woods till it was dark, but she was not that secret a presence.

Next day, she decided to leave the woods and heaved a look at the doorway of the hut where a dead rabbit lay. Its throat was ripped. A warning.

The pack knows that she is still here.

They do not want her back.

Elara was sitting on a rock bank near the river, legs folded under her, the rabbit lying unhandled beside her. She felt empty—ashamed, betrayed, but above all... she felt alive.

Her head turned up fast as a gentle wind came by, carrying the scent of lavender and fire.

She looked over the river a woman was standing—tall, dressed in layers of moss-colored fabric. Her hair was untamed, mixed with feathers and beads. Her eyes were of light gold, wolf-like but very old.

Elara got up slowly.

The woman didn’t move. She only stared.

“Are you from the pack?” Elara spoke cautiously.

“No,” the woman said, her voice as calm as the still water. “I come from before them.”

Elara’s skin turned cold. “What are you?”

The woman took a step nearer. She did not disturb the water. “An echo. A warning. And a truth your Alpha fears.”

Elara’s heart was racing. “Why are you here?”

“Because you are awakening, child. And the curse they fear is not what they think.”

Elara’s mark started to flame. “What is it then?” she asked, her breath uneven.

The woman looked at her with one eye. “A seal. A key. A power hidden in blood and forgotten by time.”

“That”ll make sense later.”

Elara came nearer to the riverbank. “Who are you?”

“A daughter of the old blood. Just like you.”

The world seemed to spin a little. There was a ringing in her ears.

“Why me?”

“Because the Moon remembers you.”

The woman extended her hand—and the trees around her bowed as if under her command.

Elara took a step back, stumbling. “Wait—don’t go. What do I do?”

“Listen,” the woman said, her voice becoming more and more distant. “And don’t trust the silence around you.”

Elara was amazed to see that the woman had disappeared after her blink.

Only the sound of the river was there.

***

That night, Elara was in her makeshift shelter, curled up, her heart pounding. She could feel the mark on her arm getting hotter as if it were reacting to the presence of the strange woman.

She did not sleep. Not really.

And it was just before the sun was coming up that she heard the voices again. This time, they were very clear.

She carries it... the old power... the moon’s breath…* *The Alpha fears her. That’s why he pushed her away.* *She will either rise… or ruin them all…

Elara held her head. “Stop,” she whispered. “Please stop.”

The wind stopped.

Nevertheless, the earth shook beneath her.

A low growl could be heard from far away—deeper than a wolf’s. Heavier. Older.

Elara got up, dagger in her hand. Something was on its way.

She went back to the woods, trying to escape the sight of the moon with the help of the trees. There was the sound of leaves moving in the dark. Her heart was hammering away. She turned suddenly—

And there, at the edge of the forest, was *Kael*.

Her breath got stuck in her throat.

He appeared…wild. Unshaven. As if he hadn’t slept since the night of the Blood Moon.

“Elara,” he said, moving closer. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

She responded by tightening her grip on the knife. “You rejected me.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you here?”

His eyes briefly meeting hers. “Because something’s going on with you. And you’re not safe if you’re alone.”

She laughed, bitterly. “I have never been safe, not even in your pack.”

“Elara—”

She moved her foot back. “You don’t get to care now.”

Kael pulled back a little.

For a moment, she felt sorry for him.

Then the atmosphere changed once more. Colder. More severe.

Kael got ready for a fight. “Put me behind you.”

Elara was yelling with her instincts. She turned—

Out of the woods came a figure—tall, gray-skinned,Half-wolf, Half-human a twisted creature, red eyes shining, teeth oozing with black saliva. A *rogue*—but not like any she’d seen before.

“Elara, run,” Kael said in a hoarse voice.

However, she was frozen.

The monster attacked.

Kael changed position in the air, hitting the monster with full force and biting its throat.

Elara screamed as claws were tearing her and, without thinking, she lifted her hands.

A silver ray burst from her palms.

The monster screamed—a terrible, gurgling shriek—and disappeared into smoke.

Kael was on the ground, panting, his fur burnt at the edges.

Elara was standing there, shocked, with the light slowly disappearing from her hands.

Neither of them spoke.

The forest was completely silent.

Kael changed back, breathing heavily. Blood was all over his arms.

He looked at her.

"You just..." he was going to say.

"I have no idea what I did."

He glanced at her mark. Then he looked into her eyes. And for the very first time after the rejection, he saw something in her face that chilled him.

Fear.

Not the rogue.

Of her.

“Elara,” he said slowly, voice low. “You need to come with me. Now.”

She moved away from him, "No."

“You don’t understand—”

“No, Kael. You don’t understand. You threw me away. You let the pack look at me like I was poison. And now that something’s changing, you want to act like I matter?”

He looked like he was really struggling. “It’s not that simple.”

“No. It is.”

She turned and left, her mark dimly shining under her sleeve.

And Kael, the Alpha who was feared by all, didn’t follow her.

The forest was whispering again behind her.

She is awakening…