Chapter 9

Charlotte pov

The seal under my skin started cracking that week, not visibly, but I could feel it, like a bone healing wrong and starting to reset itself.

During training, mid sentence, the world tilted sideways and I hit the ground.

In the dark behind my eyes, a wolf stood beneath a blood red moon, silver from muzzle to tail, eyes like twin moons of its own.

Remember me, it whispered.

"I don't know how," I whispered back, in whatever place we were standing.

You will. You always were going to.

I woke up screaming, Coach Draven's hands on my shoulders, my own eyes, reflected in his shocked expression, flashing pure silver.

All five of them felt it. I found that out within the hour, when Kaiden, Ronan, Elias, Lucien, and Zane all arrived at the infirmary within minutes of each other, faces identical in their disbelief.

"She isn't wolfless," Zane murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.

"She was sealed," Elias finished.

"Sealed by who?" I asked, sitting up too fast, the room tilting again. "Sealed how? I've spent three years thinking there was nothing there."

"There was always something there," Zane countered. "It just wasn't allowed to answer."

"Then why now?" I pressed. "Why after three years does it suddenly decide to speak?"

"Seals don't hold forever," Elias said. "Something's weakening it. I intend to find out what."

Coach Draven stood at the foot of the bed with his arms crossed, quiet for once, watching me the way he'd watch a fighter he'd underestimated.

"You're not weak," he offered finally. "You never were. Somebody just made sure you couldn't prove it."

I didn't sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes, the silver wolf was waiting there behind them, patient, watching me the way it always did, like it had been waiting far longer than three years for me to finally listen.