Chapter 5 STRANGE! 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 have 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 we beat 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 herself 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's 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 her 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."