CHAPTER4
1003 Words
Kaia woke with a start, breath catching in her throat.
She wasn’t in her bed anymore. The soft blankets from the safehouse had been replaced by damp leaves and rough earth. Cold moonlight filtered through the treetops above her.
She was in the woods. Alone.
And something was watching her.
She sat up slowly, heart pounding. The trees around her whispered in the wind, their branches creaking like bones. Every instinct screamed at her to run—but where?
A low growl echoed from somewhere behind her.
Kaia froze.
She didn’t need to turn around to know it wasn’t Jace. Or Liora. Whatever was behind her didn’t belong to her pack.
It wanted blood.
She spun and sprinted through the trees, branches whipping at her face, the growling getting closer. Her mark flared—hot and searing—and she felt her bones twitch, ready to shift.
But then—
“Kaia!”
Jace’s voice rang out, slicing through the panic.
She burst into a small clearing and nearly collided with him. His arms wrapped around her instantly, steady and solid, grounding her.
“It was there,” she gasped. “I swear it was right behind me.”
He glanced past her, sniffing the air. His eyes narrowed.
“No scent,” he muttered. “Nothing fresh. Just… residual energy.”
Kaia’s breathing slowed. “So I imagined it?”
“No,” Jace said, voice grim. “You were lured out here.”
Her blood ran cold. “By who?”
A twig snapped in the woods.
Kaia and Jace spun around, ready to attack, but it was only Liora, stepping into the clearing with two short blades drawn.
Her expression was unreadable. “The girl’s getting stronger.”
“She’s also getting hunted,” Jace growled. “They’re testing her. Toying with her.”
Kaia looked between them. “They?”
Liora lowered her blades. “The Blackfangs. They can manipulate dreams—create illusions that feel real. But they have to be close. Which means they’ve crossed into our territory.”
Kaia’s voice trembled. “So what now?”
“We move,” Jace said. “Tonight.”
They packed fast.
Within the hour, they were on foot, taking back trails through the forest that even the GPS couldn’t track. Liora refused to travel by road, claiming it was “too obvious.”
Kaia followed closely behind Jace, the scent of pine and earth thick in her nose. Her mark still tingled, but it wasn’t fear—it was something else now. Awareness. Like a radar.
Something was off.
They stopped to rest near an old ravine, and Kaia pulled Jace aside.
“There’s something I don’t get,” she whispered. “How did the Blackfangs find me so quickly? I only just shifted. It’s not like I’m broadcasting my location.”
Jace’s jaw clenched. “They’re hunters. They’ve tracked Silver bloodlines for decades. Your first shift sent a shockwave through the ley lines. Every supernatural being within two hundred miles felt it.”
“But what if it’s more than that?” she asked. “What if someone’s helping them?”
Jace blinked, caught off guard. “You think there’s a traitor?”
Kaia nodded. “Maybe someone in the Shadowguard. Or someone close to you. We’ve moved twice and they’ve found us both times. That’s not a coincidence.”
He didn’t answer right away.
Then he said, “I’ll look into it. Quietly.”
Kaia swallowed the uneasy lump in her throat.
She didn’t want to believe it. But her instincts—the wolf’s instincts—kept whispering the same thing:
Someone was betraying them.
Later that night, they made camp in a hollow beneath the roots of a massive dead tree. It offered cover and warmth, and the fire burned low, casting flickers of orange across the dirt.
Kaia sat with her back against the bark, hugging her knees to her chest.
Across from her, Jace sharpened a blade, the rhythmic scrape of metal oddly comforting. Liora was out scouting the perimeter again, which left Kaia and Jace alone—something that hadn’t happened much since their arrival.
She cleared her throat. “You ever regret it?”
He looked up. “Regret what?”
“This life. Being a werewolf. Fighting wars you didn’t start.”
Jace gave a low laugh. “Every day. But regret won’t change what I am.”
Kaia nodded. “What we are.”
There was a pause. Something flickered in his gaze.
“You’re not like the others,” he said softly. “You still see yourself as human.”
“I am human,” she said. “Half, anyway.”
He shook his head. “Not anymore. That part of you—it’s still there, yeah. But it’s not dominant anymore. You’re something more now. Something dangerous.”
Kaia met his eyes. “Does that scare you?”
He leaned forward, voice low. “No. But it should scare them.”
Something warm and electric pulsed between them, like the tension before a storm.
Kaia glanced away quickly. “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
“You can trust me,” he said without hesitation.
She looked back at him. “I want to.”
He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face, his fingers lingering for just a second too long.
Then the moment broke.
Liora’s voice cut through the night like a blade. “They’re here.”
Kaia stood up fast. “How many?”
“Too many to count,” Liora said. “But they’re holding back. Watching us.”
“They’re waiting for something,” Jace muttered.
“Or someone,” Kaia added.
The three of them stood in silence, surrounded by trees and shadows, the fire crackling at their backs.
Kaia didn’t say it out loud.
But in her heart, she already knew:
The betrayal was coming from within.
And when it surfaced…
There would be blood.
- Writer
