One word to describe how I felt.

The

ground beneath me pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat matching my own. I could

feel the earth, the air, the life pulsing through every root, every tree, every

soul within reach.

"What

am I?" I whispered.  “What is

happening to me?"

Della

stepped closer, her expression gentler now. "That’s a question only you

can answer, Mira. But you’re not just a wolf. And you’re not just your mother’s

daughter."

"What

does that mean?" My voice rose, but she only gave me that same unreadable

smile.

The

clearing was silent, save for the soft crackling of the torches placed around

the perimeter and the rustle of leaves dancing in the evening breeze. Through

the corner of my eyes, I saw creatures gather, their eyes and undivided

attention all on me, and it only made me want to disappear even more.

Della

was hovering above me, her voice echoing in my head, probing and intense. “Tell

me what you feel, Mira."

It—whatever

it was—was starting to overwhelm me. It kept swirling like an over-agigated

turnado, threatening to take everything in it's hurl.

"Tell

me how you feel, Mirabel.” She pressed.

My

nails dug into my palm. "I can't explain. Make it stop. Make it stop,

please."

“If we

stop now, you'll never discover what's inside you. You have to push, it's not

meant to be easy, but you can't give up. Tell me. Tell me how you feel,

Mira."

Is this woman listening to me?

“I

said make it stop!" I growled angrily, my eyes snapping open.

She

took a step back, her expression changing from shock to collected in the

twinkle of an eye.

I

heard another voice. “Mother, I think we should stop. We don't know what she's

capable of. It's dangerous.”

He

appeared before me, my vision blurry. Della said, "I'm not in control. She

is.”

"Make

it stop!” I yelled again, as voices began to echo in my head. I was clearly in

pain.

"That's

it. I'm putting her to sleep." I heard a voice say, and the next minute, I

saw darkness settle.

The

shadows shifted at the edge of the clearing, a low whisper curling through the

trees, and for a fleeting second, it felt like the forest itself was calling my

name.

Mira.

Whatever

I was, it was waking up.

***

“Mira!"

The

voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. Not until I opened my eyes,

and I saw him.

A

sharp glint flashed through his eyes, as they met mine. “You're awake.

Finally!"

I

blinked, trying to adjust to all the light. My head was spinning, doing very

little to stop the reeling room.

He

walked closer to me, waving a palm over my eyes. “Can you recognize me? It's

Luca."

I took

him in. He was handsome, his eyes were brown and held this calm, yet tempting

gaze. His jaws were fixed, and his body was properly masculine, with chest

sculpted to perfection.

He reminded me so much of him.

“Say

something, Mira." He tried again.

I sat

up, taking in the room. “How long have I been unconscious?" I asked, my

voice coming out in a tiny whisper.

“About

24 hours, you gave us quite a scare." Luca said. “How do you feel?"

My

mind drifted back to the scene right before I passed out. I had never felt that

way before, like I was someone else entirely—someone I couldn't recognize.

“What

is happening to me?" I asked again.

Luca

heaved. I watched him pull a chair, and sit beside me. “I’ll tell you the

little I know.” He paused slightly, fixing his eyes on me. "Your mother,

and mine built this village. A safe place where creatures like us—who people

felt were too much for them—could call home. My mum trusted so much in your

mother, they were best friends, yes, but my mum looked up to yours more.”

He

paused again. "Like I heard, yours was more powerful, and when she died,

she made mine promise that you would cross the lengths she couldn't. So it

might seem like my mum was doing too much, but I promise she was just trying to

fulfill her promise.”

I

swallowed, trying to piece everything I just heard.

"You'll

get a more reasonable explanation form Mother, or maybe you can get them for

yourself, but first you need to figure out who you really are. Are you ready to

do that?”

A deep

breath escaped as he added, “It's what your mother would have wanted."

I

hesitated, feeling the same feeling from earlier rise all over again. “Fine!

Let's try again."

He

took me to the same field where Della was waiting. She looked briefly at me,

then turned to her son. “Is she ready?"

Luca

looked at me. "Are you?”

I

nodded. "Let's do this!”

They

led me to the center, my feet bare against the cool dirt, eyes closed, sweat

glistening on my brow. The air felt heavier here, charged with a kind of energy

I couldn’t fully understand—like something ancient was watching.

“Again,”

Della’s calm voice carried from the edge of the circle. “Feel, don’t force.”

I

exhaled sharply, clenching my fists at my sides. My skin tingled with raw,

unstable power, just beneath the surface, too wild to grasp. “I’m trying,” I

muttered through gritted teeth. “It’s—there, and then it’s not.”

Beside

Della, Cara stood with her hands clasped, watching me with an odd mixture of

awe and unease. Even the young hybrid could sense it—the shifting energy inside

me wasn’t normal. It wasn’t just my wolf.

“You’re

not trying to call your wolf,” Della said softly, stepping closer. “You’re

trying to call yourself. Every part of you.”

My

eyes snapped open. “What does that even mean?” Frustration bled into my voice.

“I know who I am.”

“No,”

Della said gently. “You know who you were told you were.”

My

breath caught in my throat. I wanted to argue, to reject the implication, but

some part of me knew Della was right. There had always been something—an

undercurrent of difference I couldn’t name, even as a pup. My connection to the

land, the way I  sometimes sensed things

before they happened, the strange dreams I dismissed as fantasy. It was all

connected, and I'd been too blind to see.

“Try

again,” Della instructed. “This time, don’t just look for your wolf. Look for

the piece of yourself you’ve been told to forget.”

I

swallowed hard, closing my eyes once more. I inhaled, pulling the cool night

air into my lungs, letting it settle. This time, I didn’t reach for the silver

thread of my wolf’s spirit, the familiar connection I'd always leaned on.

Instead, I let go—opening myself to everything.

The

earth hummed beneath my feet, the air shifted, and a faint pulse thrummed

through my chest.

And

then the visions began.

I didn't know what I was expecting, but this

was way beyond it.

The

first vision came in flashes—fragments of sound and color, the way memory

distorts with time.

A

woman stood at the edge of a darkened clearing, her silhouette backlit by a

dying fire. Her hands clutched a leather-bound book—the same book I had stolen.

Her fingers trembled, not with fear, but with urgency. It was my mother.

“Take

it,” her voice said, though her face was blurred in the vision. “Take the book,

and take this.”

A

glint of silver caught the firelight—a ring, intricately carved with ancient

runes I couldn’t read. My mother pressed it into the hands of a shadowed

figure. “You must hide it. Both of them. They can never find it.”

“Who?”

the figure whispered.

“The

Council. The Darkborn. Even the Alphas. They’ll all want it. They’ll all want

her.” Her mother’s voice shook. “Please—keep her safe.”

The

scene shifted. Blood. So much blood. The book lay open, pages fluttering in the

wind, stained crimson. My childlike scream echoed through the trees, messing

with my head.

The

vision shattered.

I

stumbled back into reality with a sharp cry, falling to my knees in the dirt.

My hands braced the ground, fingers digging into the earth as my breath came in

ragged gasps.

“Mira!”

Della was at my side in seconds, her hands firm on my shoulders. “What did you

see?”

I

couldn’t speak right away. My heart pounded so loudly I could barely hear

anything else. The image of the ring—silver, ancient, powerful—burned behind my

eyelids. “My mother…” my voice cracked. “She gave the book and a ring to

someone. She begged them to hide it.”

Della’s

face paled slightly, but she hid it well. “What kind of ring?”

I

closed my eyes, trying to recall every detail. “Silver… engraved with symbols,

ancient ones. I don’t know what they mean.”

Della’s

hand trembled against my shoulder. “It’s the Aurora's Seal.”

My

gaze snapped to her. “What?”

“The

ring isn’t just jewelry,” Della explained, her voice low with reverence. “It’s

part of your birthright. Your mother was a Bloodline Guardian, Mira—a wolf born

with the ability to awaken and command dormant magic within her bloodline. That

ring is the key to unlocking every piece of power sealed within you.”

It

took a while for me to process what she had just said, but when I did, all I

could ask was, “Why would she hide it?” my voice a whisper.

“Because

if the wrong hands got hold of it, they could use you—or your bloodline—for

terrible things,” Della said. “Power like that isn’t just rare. It’s

dangerous.”

My

stomach churned with a mixture of fear and fury. My mother had died for that

secret. And all this time, I had been walking around blind to who I really was.

“But

if I don’t have it,” I began slowly, piecing it together, “I can’t fully unlock

my power.”

Della

nodded. “Not safely.”

My

throat tightened. “Well, where is it?”

Della’s

brow furrowed. “I can try to find it.”

She

stepped back, raising her hands. Pale blue light formed between her fingers,

swirling like liquid starlight. The spell took only a few moments—a whisper of

ancient words, a flicker of intent. Then her eyes flew open, wide with

disbelief.

“No,”

she whispered.

My

stomach clenched. “What?”

Della

looked at me, her expression livid. With her next words, the air seemed to

leave the clearing all at once.

“It’s

in Thane’s pack.”