Chapter 4 The One Who Knows Her Name

Elowyn didn't move.

The man at the door stood tall and still, his hands tucked calmly into the pockets of his dark coat, as if they'd met before. As if he'd been waiting years for this moment and had imagined it in his mind a hundred different ways. But she had never seen him in her life. She would remember those eyes glowing gold like wild heat.

And then he said it.

"Elowyn Maeloria."

Her throat tightened. He knew her name.

Not just Elowyn..., 'Elowyn Maeloria.'

The sound of it coming from a stranger's mouth was enough to make her step back. "Who...how do you know me?"

He didn't answer right away. His gaze dipped slightly, landing somewhere near her collarbone. A familiar warmth tingled there, beneath her sweater. The mark. It was reacting again soft, slow heat pulsing just under her skin.

"Your mark burned last night," he said, quiet, as though they were sharing a secret. "They saw it."

"They?"

"You lit the flame," he said, matter-of-fact. "That was the signal. You may not know what you've called, but they do. And they're already moving."

Elowyn didn't know what terrified her more: his calm tone or the fact that part of her believed him.

"You need to leave with me. Now."

"No." She reached for the door. "You can't just show up at someone's apartment and tell them they're being hunted. You're insane."

"You saw the mark," he said simply. "You felt it. That wasn't random."

"I'm calling the police."

He nodded once, slowly. "Do it. They'll come but it won't matter. They won't see what's coming."

Elowyn stared at him. There was no panic in his face, no impatience or threat. Just absolute certainty and that made it worse.

"Who are you?" she asked, her fingers still gripping the door.

"My name is Solric Nareon."

That name meant nothing to her. And yet, it rang faintly in her bones, like a note struck deep in a piano that hadn't been played in years.

"I've waited a long time to find you, Elowyn. I made a promise–"

"To who?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Your father."

Her body turned cold.

"No." She took another step back. "Don't. You don't know anything about him."

"I know he disappeared before you were born. I know what they told you that he ran, that he was hunted, cursed, gone. But the truth is more complicated."

Her pulse throbbed in her neck. No one ever said his name. Not her mother, not the family she'd left behind. She was told he was the reason her bloodline was broken. That he'd passed on nothing but a dead name and a ruined legacy. And now this stranger stood here like he knew more about her father than she ever had the chance to learn.

"You were cursed," Solric said, like it wasn't a big deal. "Born human in a bloodline of wolves. Your mother tried to hide you, protect you. But the moment you lit that candle–"

"It was a birthday wish."

"It was a call."

She couldn't breathe.

Solric stepped forward, not over the threshold, but just close enough for her to see the shadows shift behind his eyes. For a second, she thought he might force his way in, but instead, he looked down at his hands.

"You're scared. I understand. Let me show you why."

Before she could react, his eyes changed.

The gold in his irises brightened, glowing unnaturally, as if someone had lit twin flames inside his skull. The pupils shrank, sharp and animalistic. And then his voice deepened, not in tone, but in vibration. It reached something old and buried inside her.

Elowyn gasped and stumbled back, one hand gripping the frame of the door.

The air around them thickened. She could feel it humming in her bones, this primal energy, ancient and alive. Not a man in front of her now but something more. Something that existed between the human and the monster.

Then, just as quickly, it was gone.

Solric's features softened. The golden eyes dimmed. The strange heaviness in the air lifted. He took a breath and said gently, "You have nothing to fear from me. I made an oath to your father long before you were born. I came the moment I felt the mark return."

Elowyn swallowed hard. "You expect me to just believe you?"

"No. I expect you to choose for yourself. But if you stay here tonight, they'll come. You won't have time to change your mind."

Something in his voice made her believe it. Against every instinct telling her to shut the door and call for help, there was a deeper, quieter voice whispering that he was right. That she had woken something she couldn't run from.

"I need... a minute." Her voice cracked.

Solric nodded. "Take it. But not more than five."

Elowyn shut the door, heart pounding, and stumbled toward her mirror.

She pulled the sweater aside and stared at the mark.

It was glowing.

Faint and golden like warm metal beneath the skin, it pulsed with something alive. She touched it, wincing at the burn. Not painful but heated, like the edge of something waiting to break through.

She didn't know what to believe anymore.

Her father. The family that cast her out. Maedra's look of fear. And now this stranger with a name like a riddle, telling her the birthday wish she made in secret wasn't just heard, it was answered.

She ran a hand through her hair and leaned closer to the mirror.

That's when she saw it.

For a second, just in the corner of her reflection something moved behind her.

She turned fast, but the room was empty. Quiet.

Until the lights flickered.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose. The hum of the refrigerator cut out. A soft clicking sound ticked under the floorboards like something pacing beneath them.

No, another flicker,he lightbulb above her hissed.

Then–

Bang.

A knock...hard, not from the man outside, this was different.

Lower... heavier..., a thud that rattled the doorframe like something much bigger had found her.

Bang...,again.

She backed up, staring at the door. It wasn't Solric's knock. It was something... primal, measured. Like a beast rapping with a single claw.

Then a voice low and inhuman whispered from the other side.

"Elowyn..."

It wasn't Solric.

And whoever it was, they hadn't come to offer her a choice.