THE ROGUE WHO KNEW HER NAME
875 Words
Seraphina, no, Wren, sat frozen on the edge of Alpha Caden’s office couch, her hands clenched in her lap. The rogue had said her name. Her real name.
Outside, voices rose and fell like distant thunder. Wren tried to focus on the firelight dancing across the room’s stone walls, but her mind wouldn’t stop spinning.
Why would a rogue ask for her? Was it a trap? A cruel coincidence?
The door burst open. Elias stepped in first, followed by Alpha Caden, his expression carved from stone.
“He’s secure,” Elias said. “Held in the dungeons. Says he has information, on the fire. On the Luna’s death.”
Caden looked at Wren. “He asked for you again. By name.”
“I don’t” she shook her head, “I don’t remember him. I don’t remember anything.”
“You’ll come with us,” Caden said.
“What if it’s dangerous?”
His eyes met hers. “Then I’ll protect you.”
The dungeon was colder than she imagined. The air was damp and filled with the metallic scent of blood and old rage. Torches lined the stone walls, flickering shadows across the cells.
The rogue sat chained to the wall, his hair matted, one eye swollen shut. But when Wren stepped into view, he smiled.
“Took you long enough,” he rasped.
She didn’t recognize him.
Caden stepped forward, a growl in his throat. “Speak carefully.”
“I mean no harm,” the rogue said. “I’m not here to fight. I’m here to tell her the truth.”
“What truth?” Wren whispered, stepping closer, her voice trembling. “Who are you?”
“My name is Kiran. I was once a spy... under Luna Rowena.”
Caden flinched at the name of his late mother.
“I was sent to watch the borders of the Shadowclaw territory. But I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That night, two years ago, I saw everything.”
Wren’s breath caught. “You saw the fire?”
Kiran nodded. “I saw who lit it.”
A long silence fell. Caden’s hands curled into fists at his sides.
“Who?” he demanded.
Kiran looked at Wren. “She was wearing Luna robes. But it wasn’t her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean your Luna was lured to that room, and someone else wore her robes after. They switched places. Someone made sure you would find the burned body and believe it was her.”
Caden’s voice dropped to a growl. “Are you saying Seraphina didn’t die in that fire?”
“I’m saying she was meant to.”
Wren’s knees buckled, and Elias reached out to steady her.
“But why?” she whispered.
Kiran’s eyes narrowed. “Because she was a threat to someone’s power. Someone high up. I was told to keep silent or die. But when I heard rumors that a girl with amber eyes was found alive beyond the borders,I knew. I had to come.”
Caden turned to Wren, his voice tight. “Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Back in the packhouse, everything felt wrong. The silence. The stares. The chill of paranoia in the air.
Wren sat by the window of her temporary quarters, watching moonlight pool on the garden path below. She touched the glass, heart aching.
So someone had worn her robes. Someone had set the fire. Someone had tried to erase her. And they had nearly succeeded.
There was only one question now.
Who?
The door opened quietly behind her.
“Can’t sleep?” Caden asked.
Wren turned. “Would you?”
He joined her at the window, hands in his pockets. “I keep thinking… if it’s true, then someone inside this pack helped do it. Someone I trusted.”
“Can you trust anyone now?”
He looked at her. “You.”
Wren's throat tightened. “You barely know me.”
“But my wolf does.”
She looked away.
“I know this is terrifying,” he continued. “But if you are Seraphina… the moment you remember, everything changes.”
“And if I’m not?”
He turned to face her fully. “Then I’ll still fight for you. Because something in you matters. Maybe more than anything I’ve known in years.”
That night, the dream returned again.
But this time, it didn’t end in fire.
She was in the throne room of the Council Hall. Luna robes heavy on her shoulders. Voices shouting around her. A man with red eyes staring at her, cold, calculated.
“Step down,” he growled. “You’re not fit to rule.”
Then came the fire.
But this time, it started after she refused to submit.
Wren woke up screaming.
The next morning, a message arrived.
A sealed letter marked with a crest that hadn’t been used in over a decade, two intertwined wolves encircled in flame.
Caden opened it while Wren stood behind him.
He read the words aloud, voice low:
“The Luna was not the only target. The Alpha falls next. Truth dies with her memory.”
- Writer
