Chapter 5 The Bone-Masked Man

Elara's POV

The man in the bone mask didn't move.

He didn't need to.

Just a wave of his hand, Kalen's cold was stopped from frozen mid-step, muscles taut, eyes blazing with fury.

Elara could feel the bond between them strain like a taut rope ready to snap. She stepped in front of Kalen.

The man's eyes, silver and empty, locked onto hers. Interesting,

he said, voice like silk over steel. You didn't run.

Let him go,

Elara said, her voice shaking. Now?.

The man tilted his head.

"I've waited nineteen years to meet you. You think I will waste our first conversation on him?"

Kalen growled behind her though his body still couldn't move.Who are you?

Elara demanded.

I have had many names, he said, stepping closer. "The packs once called me the Bone Priest.

Others knew me as Thorne's End. But you, Elara... He paused, as if savoring her name.

You may call me what I truly am: the one who placed the curse in Kalen's blood.

Her stomach dropped.

"You cursed him?"

The man smiled under his mask. "And the rest of his bloodline. The Thorne pack thought themselves untouchable.

Divine. But every legacy has its reckoning.

"Why?"

"Because they stole what didn't belong to them. The Moon's favor. The last moonborn.

The old magic.

Everything."He stepped even closer, and the air chilled.

And you, child... you are the result of everything they tried to hide." Elara backed up Kalen's body twitched, trying to break free, but failing.

His eyes blazed with silent warning:

Run!.

But she didn't. Because something deeped inside her bones whispered not to turn away.

Says: "I don't know what you are talking about,"

Elara said. "I'm not magic. I am 'not whatever it is you think I am." Oh!, but who are you, the man said softly.

I can feel it. It's awakening in you even now.

He reached for her. Elara flinched, but didn't run.As his fingers brushed her cheek, the crescent mark above her heart burned.

A blinding heat surged through her chest. It felt raw, wild, and untamed.

She gasped stumbling back. The man reeled too, as if shocked.

Ah!. There it is. The Moon's fire.

The trees around them trembled. Wind roared through the Hollow. Something ancient stirred.

Elara's skin glowed faintly silver.

The man's smile twisted into something darker.

"You're already stronger than I expected. That changes things.

"What do you want from me?" she asked "To finish what I started," he said. With your help.

She stared at him. Help you what? Break the bloodlock. Unbind the curse. Reshape the future of all wolves.

He gestured to Kalen.

"The curse in him is just the beginning. It was meant to purify. To burn away the corruption of the old Alphas. But then... happened.

The bond changed him. Changed everything.

"So this is about control?" she asked. "You cursed him so you could rebuild the packs your way?" He laughed.

"I cursed him because power left unchecked devours the world."

"Then what do you need me for?"

He stepped closer. "Because only a moonborn can rewrite what the Moon herself has bound. You are the key.

The hinge between fate and freedom. With your blood... I could unmake the curse."

"And if I say no?" she whispered. Then she smile vanished. "Then he dies," the Bone Priest said.

"Slowly. Painfully. As the curse eats him from within. As you watch."

Elara's heart twisted. She looked at Kalen, still frozen, sweat on his brow, jaw clenched with fury.

He was strong, yes. But the curse was stronger. And this man, this monster, held the chains. "You are lying," she said.

"I never lie," he replied. "Lies are for cowards. I offer only choices."The wind stilled. The Hollow grew silent.

The Bone Priest reached into his cloak and drew out a vial, glowing silver-blue. "His curse lives in the blood," he said.

"Yours can balance it. All I ask is a drop." Elara stared at it. It shimmered like moonlight.

She took a step forward. Then another. Kalen made a sound behind her, choked, desperate.She paused.

Her bond burned with warning.

"Don't listen to him!" Kalen growled, voice breaking through the paralysis. "He's using you!.

The Bone Priest hissed. "Impressive. He's resisting."

He turned back to Elara, tone softening.

"Make the choice. End his suffering. Fulfill your purpose."

Elara reached for the vial. The moment her fingers brushed it, her mind fractured.She saw flashes.

A younger Kalen, bloodied and kneeling in the snow. Wolves screaming. A moonless sky. Fire raining from the heavens.

And then, A child. Crying. Wrapped in wolfskin. Left at Mira's door.

Her own face, Her own past. She gasped yanking her hand away.

The vial exploded into sparks.

The Bone Priest snarled, mask cracking down the center.

"You saw."

Kalen broke free with a roar and slammed into him, driving him back into the earth.

Elara collapsed, breath stolen. Kalen grabbed her hand

"We need to move!" "But, what I saw, "No time!" he growled.

Behind them, the Bone Priest rose slowly, silver eyes burning with fury. "You'll regret that, girl," he said. He vanished in a gust of wind and ash.

Elara clung to Kalen, shaking. The truth pulsed inside her like thunder:

she wasn't just tied to his curse.

She was part of it. And maybe... the one who had started it all.

"Mira?" I whispered.

But it wasn't her, not really, her eyes glowed silver, her voice layered with something ancient and otherworldly.

"I watched over you for years," she said. "But the time for hiding is over."

Kalen stepped between us, growling. "She's not Mira anymore."

"She's more," the voice answered, "and less."

The runes on the walls pulsed faster, reacting to the rising power between us.

"Elara," the voice whispered, "choose."

"Choose what?"

Suddenly, the chamber trembled.

Behind me, a second door opened, and Ashen Vale stepped through it. Armed. And not alone.

As they stumbled from the Hollow, Elara's mark shimmered brighter than ever, and a second mark began to form beside it, one Kalen recognized too well.

The Alpha's Mark.