Chapter 21
hapter 21
The first thing I felt was warmth.
Then pain.
I opened my eyes slowly. Everything was blurry. There was a fire burning somewhere nearby, and the scent of smoke clung to the air like a warning.
Where the hell was I?
I pushed myself up, my arms trembling. My back.scraped against rough stone, and I realized I was inside a cave.
I wasn’t alone.
A figure sat across from me, his head bowed, and hands clasped between his knees. Watching the fire.
I froze.
My heartbeat thudded in my ears. “Who-?”
He looked up.
My breath caught.
“Zane?” I whispered.
He nodded once.
‘What-what is this place?”
‘You’re safe,” he said. “For now.”
My muscles ached as I stood slowly, staring at him. “How did I get here?”
‘i brought you here.”
frowned. “But Kael was with me. Where is he?”
‘You were the only one. I didn’t see Kael with you.”
My head ache and then I remembered the fight I had with Kael.
Kael was working with Shadowborn all this while, we can’t trust him.”
Beta Zane’s eyes didn’t move from the fire. He only nodded.
raised a brow, “You knew?”
He finally looked at me.
‘I do.”
crossed my arms. “Then talk.”
He exhaled slowly. “You need to hear the truth, Alice. The whole truth.”
My heart dropped. “About what?”
‘About why your mother ran. Why Helena died. Why you were hidden for all these years.”
I wasn’t sure I could handle the answers, but I was done running from them.
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Beta Zane shifted, the fire reflecting in his eyes.
“Your mother… she wasn’t just Red Fang royalty. She was the one to give birth to the chosen
pup.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Everything.”
Beta ane’s voice cracked.
“The prophecy didn’t name your mother as the threat. It named her daughter.”
Silence fell heavy between us.
I blinked. “What?”
“She was told that her child-her second daughter- would rise in a time of war and either bring ruin… or reign.”
My knees weakened. I sank to the cold floor.
“She didn’t want that for you,” he continued. “She begged the elders to help her silence the prophecy. They refused. So she ran. Took you with her to Shadowborn. Unknown to her what their true motive were, she blindly trusted them not until she realized that they wanted to make that prophecy happen.”
“And my sister?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“She knew. She always knew.” Beta Zane’s face softened. “Helena agreed to take the burden. Tc protect Silverclaw from within. But when she realized that shadowborn were not relenting … she tried to tell you.”
“Five years ago.” My voice cracked. “The warehouse.”
He nodded.
“She asked to meet you. She was going to tell you everything. But something… or someone… got there first.”
I closed my eyes.
The memory hit like a punch to the ribs.
“I thought she died from the fire.”
“Yes she did, but someone had caused it,” Zane whispered.
I shook my head slowly. “This whole time… all of this… for something I never asked for?”
Beta Zane leaned forward, his voice firmer now.
“You didn’t ask for it. But it’s yours.”
“And the Shadowborn?”
“They want to rule over all other wolves, they aim for destruction and power.”
I clenched my fists.
“They want to kill me.”
“No,” he said grimly. “They want to use you.”
The words sank like stones in my chest.
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“But they can’t,” Beta Zane continued. “Unless you activate the pendant.”
I flinched. “What?”
“The jade your mother left you-it’s not just a keepsake. It’s a blood seal. It binds your power. Keeps it dormant.”
My hand moved instinctively to the chain around my neck.
“As long as that pendent is with you, you can surpress the other side of you wanting to take
over.”
I looked down at it, suddenly aware of the heat radiating from the stone. I remembered feeling strange when Nathan broke the pendent. It felt like something had broken free in me.
I exhaled slowly. “So what now? What do I do with all this?”
Beta Zane’s jaw tightened.
“You prepare. Because the Shadowbotn are coming.”
Before I could respond, a scream pierced the air.
Beta Zane shot to his feet.
We ran toward the sound. Outside the cave, the sky had turned to ash. Smoke curled in the air.
A Red Fang scout lay on the ground, his chest sliced open, his blood smeared into words beside him:
‘Time is up.”
My legs buckled.
Beta Zane knelt beside the body. “Damn it… They know where you are.”
‘How?” I whispered.
Beta Zane’s eyes flicked to my pendant.
‘Because it’s waking up.”
Just then, the jade stone pulsed-once. Bright and green and hot against my skin.
gasped, clutching at it. “Zane-!”
His eyes widened. “Alice, get back!”
But it was too late.
The pendant flared again, flooding my chest with heat.
My knees hit the ground as something inside me uncoiled.
It felt strange, overwhelming.
Memories not mine flashed through my mind-my mother screaming, Helena crying, a white-haired woman whispering something I couldn’t understand in a burning forest. My wolf- my true form-howling in chains.
Then it all snapped into focus.
The pendant cracked. A beam of light exploded outward, rising into the sky like a flare.
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