Sienna didn't move.
Her breath came fast and shallow, her pulse a frantic rhythm against her ribs. The clearing spun, the weight of Aldric's words pressing down on her like a vice.
More than just a wolf.
Capable of both saving and destroying.
No. No, that couldn't be right.
Her fingers curled into the dirt as if grounding herself could somehow change the truth unraveling before her. She had spent years feeling different, but this? This was something else entirely.
Kael watched her closely, his golden eyes unreadable. "You need to get up."
Sienna swallowed hard. Her body still buzzed with the aftershock of whatever had just happened. "What if I can't?"
Kael crouched in front of her, resting his forearms on his knees. "Then we're already running out of time."
His words sent another shiver down her spine.
Aldric exhaled. "We knew this was a possibility."
Sienna's head snapped up. "You knew?"
Aldric's expression darkened. "Not for certain. But there have been… signs."
Rage and confusion warred inside her. "And no one thought to tell me?"
Kael stood up, running a hand through his dark hair. "Would you have believed us?"
Sienna opened her mouth, ready to snap back—but she didn't have an answer.
Because the truth was, she wouldn't have.
Not until now.
A tense silence settled between them. The morning air, once crisp and clear, felt suffocating. Sienna forced herself to her feet, her limbs unsteady beneath her.
"I need answers," she said, voice tight. "No more half-truths."
Aldric hesitated, then nodded. "Inside."
---
The cabin's wooden walls felt smaller than before, the air heavy with unspoken truths. Sienna paced as Aldric and Kael stood by the old table.
"The prophecy," Aldric began, folding his arms, "speaks of a wolf born with something beyond the ordinary. A wolf who will either bring balance or destruction."
Sienna's chest tightened. "And you think that's me?"
Aldric's gaze didn't waver. "You felt it, didn't you?"
Her mind flashed back to the clearing, to the heat that had surged through her veins, raw and uncontrollable.
"Yes."
Kael leaned against the wall, watching her closely. "When did you first suspect you were different?"
Sienna hesitated. She had spent her life ignoring the signs. The way her father had watched her was like he was waiting for something. The nightmares. The strange, almost unnatural connection she felt to the moon.
But the biggest sign?
"The night I first shifted."
Aldric's brows lifted. "Tell me."
Sienna crossed her arms, suddenly feeling exposed. "It was… violent." She swallowed. "Most wolves say their first shift is painful, but this was something else. It felt like I was being torn apart. Like my body wasn't meant to contain what was inside me."
Kael's gaze sharpened. "And after?"
Sienna hesitated. "I blacked out."
Aldric and Kael exchanged a glance.
"What?" she demanded.
Aldric's voice was quiet, but firm. "Do you remember what happened when you woke up?"
She clenched her jaw. She didn't like thinking about that night. The silence. The smell of blood in the air.
And the bodies.
Kael must have seen something in her expression because his voice softened. "Sienna. What happened?"
Her fingers curled into fists. "When I woke up… there were three dead wolves around me."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Kael exhaled sharply. Aldric's expression turned grim.
Sienna's stomach churned. "They were rogues. I had no reason to kill them, but I did. And I don't remember how."
Aldric ran a hand down his face. "It's worse than I thought."
Panic clawed up Sienna's throat. "What does that mean?"
Kael pushed off the wall, his face unreadable. "It means whatever is inside you is waking up."
Sienna's blood ran cold.
Aldric rubbed his temples. "This is why we need to move fast."
"Move fast?" Her pulse spiked. "To do what? Train me? Lock me up? Kill me?"
Kael's jaw tightened. "To teach you control. Before it's too late."
The words sent another wave of fear crashing over her.
Because deep down, she already knew.
Something inside her was waking up.
And she wasn't sure if she could stop it.
---
Night had fallen.
Sienna sat on the wooden steps outside the cabin, staring up at the moon, lost in thought. Every part of her ached, her body still recovering from the failed shift earlier.
The conversation with Aldric and Kael replayed in her head over and over again.
She was more than a wolf.
She was something dangerous.
A cold gust of wind swept through the trees. She shivered, hugging herself.
A twig snapped behind her.
Sienna tensed, her senses sharpening. "Kael?" she called.
No answer.
Her heartbeat quickened. Slowly, she turned her head and froze.
A figure stood at the tree line, barely visible in the shadows.
Not Kael. Not Aldric.
Someone else.
Golden eyes gleamed in the darkness, watching her. Studying her.
Sienna's pulse pounded. "Who's there?"
The figure stepped forward, just enough for the moonlight to catch his features.
Sienna's breath hitched.
She knew that face.
But that was impossible.
Because he was dead.
Or at least he was supposed to be.
Her chest tightened. "No," she whispered.
A smirk curved the stranger's lips. "Miss me, little wolf?"
Her blood ran ice cold.
Because standing before her, alive and whole was her father.
The same father who died five years ago.
Sienna stumbled back, her mind spinning. No. This isn't real.
Her father took another step forward. His golden eyes glowed unnaturally in the dark, his presence humming with something she didn't understand.
Something wrong.
"You're dead," she rasped.
His smirk widened. "Am I?"
Before she could move, he blurred too fast, faster than any wolf should be.
Then he was in front of her, close enough that she could feel the unnatural heat radiating from his body.
Sienna's breath caught. This isn't my father.
His head tilted slightly, as if reading her thoughts. "Oh, Sienna." His voice was almost gentle. "You have no idea what you really are, do you?"
Her stomach twisted. "Stay away from me."
He chuckled. "I can't do that."
The wind howled around them, the trees whispering secrets she didn't understand.
Then his golden eyes changed.
For a second, just a flicker.
They turned black.
A deep, endless black that swallowed everything.
Sienna's body locked up in terror.
What the hell is he?
Her father or whatever this thing was leaned in, his voice whispering against the night.
"They lied to you, little wolf." His smirk faded. "And now, it's time you learned the truth."
Sienna's world tilted..
And then everything went dark.