CHAPTER5
1205 Words
The forest was dead silent.
Too silent.
Kaia stood between Jace and Liora, heart pounding in her chest. Shadows shifted at the edges of the trees, distant eyes glinting red in the darkness.
The Blackfangs were out there.
Waiting.
Liora drew her blades, her jaw tight. “They’re circling. But they’re not attacking. That’s not their style.”
Kaia narrowed her eyes. “Then what do they want?”
Jace scanned the woods with sharp precision. “A message. Or a warning.”
A low howl echoed through the trees, followed by another. Then silence.
Liora tensed. “We have to move. Now.”
But before they could shift or flee, a figure stepped out of the shadows.
Unarmed. Calm. And all too familiar.
Kaia’s breath caught. “Rylan?”
The young man stepped into the firelight. His dark hair was longer now, his wolf mark visible on his neck—a jagged streak of black instead of silver. His green eyes flicked to Kaia, but there was no warmth in them.
Only sorrow. And guilt.
“Kaia,” he said, voice low. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
Jace growled, stepping in front of her. “What the hell is this?”
Kaia shoved past him, heart slamming against her ribs. “You were my friend, Rylan. You disappeared two years ago. We thought you were dead.”
“I should’ve been,” Rylan murmured. “But they found me first.”
“The Blackfangs?” she whispered.
He nodded. “They spared me. Said I had potential. That my loyalty was wasted on a dead cause.”
Kaia’s hands shook. “So you joined them?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice!” she snapped, voice breaking. “You chose to betray everything we stood for.”
Rylan’s gaze dropped. “No. I chose to survive.”
The woods erupted then.
Blackfangs burst from the trees—at least ten of them, each one tall and muscular, their fangs bared, their eyes glowing red. They didn’t attack—just surrounded them like wolves toying with prey.
Jace bared his teeth. “We’re not walking out of this, are we?”
“Not unless you listen,” Rylan said, stepping between the two groups. “I came alone. I convinced them to wait. I didn’t want blood tonight.”
Kaia stepped forward. “Then why come at all?”
Rylan looked at her with haunted eyes. “To give you this.”
He pulled something from his pocket—a necklace.
Kaia froze.
The pendant was shaped like a crescent moon, made of obsidian and silver. Her breath hitched.
It had belonged to her mother.
“I found it in the ruins of her den,” Rylan said. “I think… she left it for you. As a warning.”
Kaia reached for it slowly. The moment her fingers brushed it, a jolt of warmth pulsed through her chest.
Memories—quick and disjointed—flashed behind her eyes.
A woman’s voice.
Fire.
A cry of betrayal.
Silver blood on the snow.
Kaia staggered back, clutching the necklace to her chest.
“She knew,” she whispered. “She knew someone would betray her.”
Rylan nodded. “It wasn’t just the Blackfangs who destroyed your family. There was a spy. Someone close. Someone inside the Shadowguard.”
Jace stiffened. “Who?”
“I don’t know,” Rylan said. “But they’re still active. And they’ve marked Kaia for death.”
Liora stepped forward. “We need to get her out of here. Now.”
Rylan raised a hand. “Wait. I can help.”
Kaia’s head snapped up. “Help? After what you did?”
“I know their routes. Their weaknesses. Their plans.” He looked at her, voice urgent. “Let me make this right.”
Jace growled, stepping between them. “No way in hell.”
Kaia hesitated.
Every instinct in her screamed to walk away. To run. To fight. But something about Rylan’s eyes—the pain, the guilt—made her pause.
“Why now?” she asked. “Why come back?”
He looked at her, heart exposed. “Because I couldn’t forget what we were. What you are. And because if they kill you… the last chance at uniting the packs dies with you.”
The fire crackled between them.
Kaia closed her eyes for a moment. Her wolf stirred beneath her skin, restless. She clutched the necklace tighter.
Then she opened her eyes.
“You walk with us,” she said. “But the first time you lie, I end you.”
Rylan bowed his head. “Understood.”
They moved before dawn.
Kaia traveled beside Rylan in silence, her thoughts racing. Every step away from the clearing felt like walking deeper into fate.
“Your mother was powerful,” Rylan said after a while. “They feared her.”
Kaia glanced at him. “And now they fear me?”
“They will,” he said. “You’re her daughter. And you’ve already done what she couldn’t.”
Kaia frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She tried to unite the bloodlines,” he said. “The Shadowguard, the lone wolves, even the hybrids. But they didn’t trust her. Too much history. Too much blood spilled.”
“And they’ll trust me?”
Rylan looked at her. “If you survive long enough.”
That night, they took shelter in a hollow beneath an abandoned train station. The concrete walls were cracked with moss and rust, but it was defensible and hidden.
Liora stood watch. Jace paced. Kaia sat beside a rusted bench, fingering her mother’s necklace.
“You trust him too easily,” Jace said without looking at her.
“No,” she said. “I don’t. But I trust the truth in his eyes.”
“He disappeared. Turned. And now he’s back with a gift and a sad story. That’s not loyalty. That’s manipulation.”
Kaia turned to him. “And if it’s real? If he can lead us to the traitor?”
Jace clenched his fists. “Then I’ll still be watching him. Every second.”
She gave a small smile. “I’d expect nothing less.”
He stepped closer, crouching in front of her. “You’re changing, Kaia. Every day. And not just your wolf. You’re stepping into something bigger.”
“I don’t want to lead.”
“You don’t get to choose. The blood in your veins made that choice for you.”
She exhaled, the weight of it all pressing down.
“Then I’ll lead,” she said softly. “But I won’t lead with fear. I’ll lead with truth.”
Jace reached out, resting a hand over hers. “Then you’ll do better than all of them.”
The firelight flickered across their faces, and for one quiet moment, the war paused.
But outside, in the shadows…
Someone was listening.
Far above the sleeping camp, in the trees just beyond the station, a figure crouched in the branches.
Eyes gold.
Breath silent.
Mark hidden.
They watched Kaia closely.
Then turned and vanished into the dark.
- Writer
