Chapter 4 Awakened Obsession

Kael Draven

I walked into the clearing with my jaw clenched and my hands itching to curl into fists. I could already feel the tension simmering beneath my skin.

Rowan, Beta and younger brother, stood there, arms folded, flanked by three enforcers like they were waiting for a damn performance. I didn't say anything. I just kept walking, slow, steady - until I stopped a few feet from them.

Five more enforcers stay close behind, All eight there. Rowan, arms crossed like a wall I don't want to climb. Maeve hovers near the edge, eyes wide, hands already glowing with healing light. Blood's crusted down my side, my shirt's torn, and I'm limping. No one says it, but they're thinking it-

What the hell happened to you?

Rowan says it anyway. "You look like you got mauled by the gods."

I try to keep walking.

He stays in my path. "No. You're not brushing this off. Not this time."

"Rowan," I grunt.

Rowan grabbed my arm. "You don't get to ignore this. What the hell happened?"

I sighed. "It was supposed to be a routine run. Territory breach near Hollow Ridge. I caught scent of a lone wolf. No markers. No pack. Figured it'd be a feral. Went to put it down before it hit the border."

"And you ended up looking like that?"

I scowled. "It didn't answer the Alpha call."

Silence.

Callen's face shifted. "That's not possible."

"I gave the shift command three times," I said. "Nothing. It looked me dead in the eye and didn't even flinch."

Maeve's voice was soft. "So you shifted?"

"Yeah. I figured maybe it was sick. Rabid. But no. This thing... this wolf... it moved like it knew me. Like it'd studied me. Every strike I made, it tried to counter. Precise. Calculated. No hesitation."

I let the memory bleed through-dark trees, sharp breath, the sound of paws crunching dead leaves like it belonged to the forest. Like I didn't.

"But somehow I was winning," I added. "I was faster. Got my fangs in it's shoulder. Then out of nowhere-boom. Something slammed into me. Hard."

"What was it?," Darren, one of the Enforcers, asks.

"I didn't see it. Just felt it, like the world cracked sideways and my body went flying. One moment I was upright, the next I was weightless, airborne, until I crashed onto the other side of the damn forest like I weighed nothing. My ribs were on fire."

"Something flung you? Across the forest." Rowan asked incredulously

"Yeah and I blacked out. Maybe just for a second. When I came to, I was gasping, eyes blurry, chest heaving like I'd run a marathon. And that's when I saw her."

"Who?" Maeve asks

"See the thing is, the wolf was lying on the ground. And beside it... a girl. Crouched low. I didn't even see her face. Silver hair. A crimson-red jacket. She wasn't looking at me. She didn't even spare me a glance. Her hand brushed over the wolf's side, gentle. And just like that, they ran. No warning. No words. No eye contact. No nothing. But something felt off"

"Off how?" Callen asks

"It was the way they moved together - like they were one. Same rhythm, same instinct. They ran like they knew each other."

And the second she touched the wolf... that's when I felt it.

Something deep and wild and utterly wrong.

I've fought ferals. Rogues. Enforcers drunk on bloodlust. I've stood my ground against beasts meaner than I am. But this? This wasn't a fight. It was a question. A beginning.

My body was wrecked, but my instincts were worse, whispering things I didn't want to hear. That I hadn't lost. That I'd been chosen.

My wolf was quiet. Not hurt, humbled. Watching. Waiting.

And the moment she touched the wolf-touched her, it was like the forest turned inside out.

The bite I gave the wolf? I felt nothing then.

But her touch?

It snapped something in me.

Like the universe had been holding its breath-and suddenly exhaled straight into my lungs.

I could finally breathe.

Obsession. Recognition. Hunger.

And when they vanished into the trees, I just lay there. Stunned. Dazed. Burning from the inside out.

I won't tell anyone about the bond.

Not yet.

One of the enforcers muttered, "Silver hair... crimson jacket..."

Another cursed under his breath. "That sounds like the prophecy."

I tensed. "What prophecy?"

From the edge of the group, my sister, Maeve, raised her head. No one had asked her. She just... spoke.

Her voice was clear. Steady.

"Silver streak and blood-bound flame,

Comes in dusk with many names.

Not just born, not made from bone,

But forged of shadow, steel, and throne."

The air went still. Even Rowan turned to stare at her.

She just shrugged and said, "I listen."

Of course she did.

And in that moment, something twisted in my gut.

Was she? Could she be... Hollowborn?

"If that's true," I said aloud, "then I'll contact the Council."

A lie.

I wasn't going to contact anyone.

Not until I understood what this was. Not until I knew who - what - she was to me.

Maeve pushed everyone out of the way and dragged me into the sickbay herself. She said nothing, just cleaned the blood from my face like I was still a boy and I wasn't eight years older than her.

"You're welcome," she muttered, finally breaking the silence.

"I didn't ask," I said - but quieter, almost grateful. "Thank you."

She smirked but didn't respond.

I winced as she wrapped my ribs. Every breath felt like I'd had a brush with deathStill, none of that compared to what was happening in my head.

I couldn't stop thinking about her.

That girl.

That wolf.

She was massive. Bigger than me - easily. Bigger than any wolf I'd ever seen. Bigger than an Alpha.

And yet... she ran. She could've finished me. But she didn't. She felt weak, like she was just waking up.

And her scent - her scent - it was still burning beneath my skin.

So, I did what I always do when my world stops making sense.

I formed theories.

Theory one: They're twins. One of them - her or the wolf - is my new mate.

Theory two: They're two different shifters. The girl is a shifter, the wolf her friend. The girl is my mate.

Theory three: They're the same. One being. One soul. A Hollow-born. The scent, the touch, the bond - all of it wrapped in her.

And gods help me... I didn't know which was worse.

But I knew one thing for sure:

I'd find her.

Even if it killed me.