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Echoes of the Feral
Pain.
It wasn't sharp like a knife or the deep ache of a bruise. It was something older, deeper, a firestorm unraveling her, twisting through every inch of her body, every cell rewriting itself into something unfamiliar.
Riley gasped, clutching her ribs as a shockwave of raw, electric energy rolled through her.
It wasn't just inside her.
It was around her.
The ruins pulsed with it, the air thick and charged, as if the walls themselves remembered.
She collapsed to her knees, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps.
The visions rushed in not as memories, not yet, but as glimpses, flashes of something ancient, something hungry.
A battlefield.
Snow, red with blood.
A figure standing over the body is tall, armored, and wearing a crown of bone and silver.
The whisper of a name, curling through time like smoke.
Not Riley
Something else. Someone else.
Her pulse thundered. She pressed her hands against the cold stone, grounding herself. This isn't real. This isn't real.
A shadow moved in front of her.
Callum.
His golden eyes gleamed as he crouched down, his voice low, edged with satisfaction.
"You felt it, didn't you?"
Riley's fingers curled into fists.
"Shut up."
She wasn't ready. She couldn't be.
Callum didn't look surprised. If anything, he looked pleased.
"You were never just a girl, Riley."
Her breath caught.
She forced herself to her feet, ignoring the way her legs trembled. "I don't believe you."
Callum smirked, slow and knowing. "Liar."
Her chest ached.
Because the worst part?
The part she had been trying to shove down, to ignore?
Was that a small, treacherous part of her that did believe him?
The instincts she shouldn't have. The way her body knew things before she did how to fight, how to run, how to survive.
And the ruins.
She had never been here before.
But she had.
Hadn't she?
Her breath hitched. "What am I?"
Callum's smirk faded.
For the first time, his expression was unreadable.
"You were the beginning, Riley." His voice was quiet, but it struck like a blade. "And now, you're at the end."
Kieran felt it the moment it happened.
A pulse of wrongness, sliced through his chest like claws.
He staggered, gripping a tree for balance, his breath coming fast, uneven.
No.
No, no, no.
It was too soon.
His hands shook as he clenched them into fists. The air around him was charged, electric, the same feeling that came before a storm, before a shift.
He lifted his head toward the night sky, his golden eyes flashing.
"Riley."
Then he ran.
Riley's breathing slowed, her pulse still hammering.
Callum watched her, waiting.
She didn't like that.
Didn't like that he seemed so sure of her.
Like he had already won.
Her fingers twitched at her sides. "What do you mean, I was the beginning?"
Callum exhaled, running a hand through his dark hair. "The pack tells stories. Legends. They say we were always here. That we were always the strongest." His lips curled into something bitter. "But they're wrong."
Riley frowned. "What does that have to do with me?"
Callum's golden eyes darkened.
"Because you weren't one of us, Riley."
She went still.
A slow, creeping cold settled in her bones.
Callum took a step closer, his voice soft.
"You weren't a wolf," he said. "You were the one who hunted them."
The words slammed into her, knocking the breath from her lungs.
No.
That Wasn't
That couldn't
Her legs buckled again, and this time, when her knees hit the cold stone, the visions came back.
A blade in her hand.
Silver flames curled around her fingers.
A wolf, a man falling at her feet, golden eyes wide with rage.
And her voice, not her voice, but hers whispering something ancient, something final.
She gasped, jerking back into the present. Her whole body shook.
Callum was still there, watching. Waiting.
She forced herself up, her hands trembling.
"I don't believe you."
Callum raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure?"
Her breath came fast, shallow.
Because she wasn't.
Not anymore.
A wolf howled in the distance.
Low. Long.
Mourning.
Or maybe
A warning.
Riley swallowed hard, her fingers twitching.
A dark realization settled over her, heavier than the night air.
The pack didn't fear her because of what she was becoming.
They feared her because of what she had already been.
A killer.
A monster.
The reason the war had started in the first place.
And if that was true if the past was truly repeating itself
Then this time, Riley wasn't sure she would survive it.
Everything changed.
The air inside the ruins felt heavier, and thicker, like the walls themselves were breathing. Riley's pulse roared in her ears, her body locking up as the visions crashed over her.
Not just memories.
Something more.
She staggered, her knees nearly buckling. Callum caught her before she hit the ground.
His grip was firm, steady too steady.
Because he had expected this.
He knew.
Riley gasped, her hands clutching at the stone floor beneath her, feeling the energy pulse through her veins like a second heartbeat.
"I" she started, but the words caught in her throat.
Callum crouched beside her, his golden eyes unreadable. "You're waking up."
Riley's breath came in short, sharp bursts. "No."
Callum's smirk was slow, knowing. "You can fight it all you want, but you felt it, didn't you?"
She shook her head, desperate to deny it.
Because the truth was terrifying.
Because she had felt something.
A connection.
A power she didn't understand.
And worst of all it felt familiar.
Callum leaned in slightly, voice dropping to a whisper. "Now tell me, Riley"
His golden eyes burned into hers.
"Who do you think you are?"
A chill slithered down her spine.
And for the first time, she had no answer.