Chapter 4: The Wolf That Shouldn't Exist
Running Toward the Unknown
Ivy ran.
The forest was an abyss of shadows and whispered dangers, the kind of darkness that had swallowed many before her and never spit them back out.
The cold air tore through her lungs, her heart pounding so loudly she swore the rogues could hear it. But she didn't slow down. She couldn't.
Her legs burned. Her body screamed for rest.
But fear was louder.
She didn't look back. She didn't need to.
The snarls of the rogues slithered through the trees, low and hungry.
They weren't chasing her because they saw her as a threat.
They were chasing her because she was weak.
She was the easy kill.
She had been running her entire life from rejection, from the cruelty of her pack, from who she was. But tonight, she was running from something else.
Death.
Her foot caught on a root.
She barely caught herself before slamming into the ground, her breath ragged.
A growl rumbled somewhere too close.
She forced herself forward, her pulse thrumming.
Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop.
The trees around her grew denser, their trunks twisted and gnarled, their branches clawing at the sky like skeletal hands. The shadows stretched and deepened, thick as ink.
Then
She felt it.
A force.
It wasn't something she could see or touch, but she knew it was there.
Like an unseen hand, firm yet ancient, reaching for her from deep within the forest.
A presence.
An instinct she didn't understand.
It was calling her.
And she didn't hesitate.
Ivy veered off the path, deeper into the unknown.
A Warning the Rogues Could Feel
Something changed.
The moment she left the path, the air thickened, charged like the seconds before a storm.
Behind her, the rogues hesitated.
For the first time since the chase began, their snarls faltered.
She could hear their paws skidding against the dirt, their breath hitching in uncertainty.
A pause. A hesitation.
Then—a sharp, clipped bark. A command.
They didn't understand where she had gone.
And they were afraid.
A rogue, afraid?
The thought should have terrified her.
Instead, a strange sense of calm spread through her.
She pressed forward, her heartbeat still frantic, but her steps steady.
The forest had been waiting for her.
The Ruins That Shouldn't Exist
The trees parted, and suddenly, she was somewhere else entirely.
A clearing stretched before her, bathed in the pale glow of the moon.
Ruins.
Massive stone pillars loomed in the darkness, half-buried beneath thick vines and moss. Time had left its mark, wearing down the once-proud structure, but the air around it felt alive.
Ivy's breath hitched.
She had never seen this place before.
And yet—something in her recognized it.
A memory that wasn't hers stirred, curling at the edges of her mind like smoke.
Slowly, she stepped forward, past the shattered stone archways.
The moment she did
The air shifted.
A pulse of energy, invisible but undeniable, swept through the ruins.
A force pressed against her chest, not painful, but demanding.
Ivy gasped, a sudden pressure building inside her, something tightening, locking into place.
And then
Pain.
A searing, white-hot bolt of agony ripped through her body.
She collapsed to her knees, her fingers digging into the dirt as she let out a strangled cry.
It felt like fire had been poured into her veins.
Like something inside her had been waiting for this exact moment to wake up.
She clawed at her skin, her nails raking across her arms as the burning sensation crawled under her flesh.
The world around her blurred
And then her vision shattered.
Visions of the Past
Flashes.
Not memories.
Not hers.
Something older.
Something buried.
- A wolf with silver eyes, standing atop a mountain as the world trembled beneath its feet.
- A war—fire, blood, the clash of teeth and steel—screams of wolves that had been more than wolves.
- A mark—a symbol carved into stone, glowing with ancient power, burning itself into the fabric of time.
And then
A voice.
"You are not what they told you."
The words thundered through her, familiar yet unknown.
A name echoed, half-formed—not hers, but somehow it was.
Ivy gasped, her body jerking as if being yanked back into reality.
The ruins pulsed around her.
The ground beneath her vibrated.
And inside her
Something answered.
The Awakening
Ivy lifted her hands.
They weren't hers.
Not entirely.
Dark veins pulsed beneath her skin, glowing faintly, an unnatural light flickering through them like dying embers.
Her breath came in sharp, shallow gasps.
This isn't normal. This isn't wolf.
A deep, sinking dread settled in her chest.
Panic clawed at her throat.
But beneath it, something else stirred.
A knowing.
A truth she wasn't ready to face.
"The Cursed One."
The legend. The whispers of a wolf that shouldn't exist.
The elders had always spoken of it with fear, warning of power that could never be controlled.
Could they have been talking about her?
The wind howled through the ruins, swirling around her like a living thing.
Something inside her shifted.
She felt it in her bones, in her blood.
And for the first time in her life
She wasn't afraid.
She stood slowly, the pain fading, replaced by something else.
Something new.
The ground trembled beneath her feet.
And then—
A deep, guttural snarl rumbled through the clearing.
Ivy's head snapped up.
A figure stood at the edge of the ruins.
Tall. Unmoving. Watching her.
Not a rogue.
Something worse.
Something waiting for her to awaken.
The shadows twisted.
And the last thing Ivy saw
Was silver eyes staring back at her.