Chapter 4

Elena's POV:

The word "home" made me recoil. I pulled my hands from Blair's grasp, putting a small but definite space between us. "I can't go back."

"Why not?" Blair pleaded, her eyes soft with concern. "The nightmares are getting worse. You know they are. Only on pack lands, with the elders' protection, can Lyra truly settle."

I avoided her gaze, looking out the window at the quiet, tree-lined street of our human neighborhood. "There are too many rules there," I said quietly. "Too much hierarchy. I don't want to live like that again." The unspoken words hung in the air between us: *I don't want to be weak again.*

Blair sighed, a sound of deep understanding and deeper frustration. "I know why you left, Ellie. I do. But it's been five years. We can't run forever."

She walked over to my desk and picked up a silver picture frame. Inside, two teenage girls-us-grinned at the camera, arms slung around each other. Standing behind us were my parents, Gideon and Serena Thorne, their faces gentle and kind.

"Have you forgotten the promise you made to Elder Gideon and Serena?" Blair's voice was firm now, cutting through my defenses.

My body tensed. I remembered it all too clearly. The tearful goodbye five years ago. My parents' reluctance, their fear for me. They had only agreed to let me go on one condition: that I return for the first Pack Run after my twenty-first birthday.

The annual Run was this summer. And I was twenty-one.

It was a sacred vow, an oath made to an elder. In our world, such a promise was unbreakable.

As if on cue, Lyra stirred in my mind, letting out a soft, mournful whimper. She was homesick. She missed the scent of the deep woods, the feeling of running with her own kind, the safety of the pack bond.

Blair saw the flicker of doubt in my eyes and pressed her advantage. "Besides," she said, her voice softening again, "don't you want to know what these dreams really mean? Maybe the pack's new Oracle can give you some answers."

"Oracle?" The word startled me. Our pack hadn't had an Oracle when I left.

Blair nodded, her expression serious. "A new one was appointed three years ago. They say she can communicate directly with the Goddess."

The possibility of an answer, of an end to the torment, was a lifeline I couldn't ignore. My mind became a battlefield. On one side was the suffocating fear of returning to the cage I'd escaped. On the other was the desperate hope for a cure, the unshakeable weight of my promise, and the longing in my own wolf's soul.

My gaze fell back to the photograph, to my parents' loving smiles. My defenses crumbled.

I closed my eyes, took a deep, shuddering breath, and when I opened them again, my exhaustion had given way to a weary resolve.

"Okay," I whispered. "I'll go back."

Blair's face broke into a brilliant, relieved smile. She launched herself at me, wrapping me in a tight hug. "Oh, thank the Goddess! You made the right choice, Ellie. I promise."

I hugged her back, but my heart felt like a stone in my chest. I wasn't making a choice; I was walking into a trap I had set for myself five years ago.

She pulled away, her energy infectious as she started planning. "We'll leave as soon as finals are over! I have to let my mom-I mean, I have to let Uncle Corbin know we're coming."

She'd almost mentioned her mother, Jenna Hale, who had passed away years ago. I saw a shadow of grief pass over her face before she expertly masked it. I didn't press. Jenna's death was a wound that never truly healed for Blair.

The "Uncle Corbin" she mentioned was Corbin Draven, the former Lycan King. He had been her mother's closest friend and had watched over Blair like a daughter ever since.

I just nodded, my mind too numb to process much else.

Blair was already chattering excitedly about what we needed to pack and which old friends we had to see, her cheerfulness a deliberate attempt to lift my spirits.

I managed a weak smile, but a sense of foreboding settled over me, cold and heavy.

I didn't know it then, but this decision wasn't just taking me home. It was sending me straight into the arms of the very fate I had spent five years trying to outrun.

In my head, Lyra did a happy little flip. *Home! We're going home!* Her joy was a stark and painful contrast to the dread coiling in my gut.