I wake to sunlight filtering through unfamiliar trees.
For a moment, I don't remember where I am or how I got here. My body aches in that deep, bone-tired way that follows a shift, muscles protesting as I push myself up from the forest floor.
I'm naked. Again. The clothes I was wearing before the involuntary shift are long gone, probably shredded somewhere miles back.
Miles back.
The realization hits me as I look around. I don't recognize this part of the forest. The trees are older here, thicker, their trunks so wide it would take three people holding hands to circle them. The underbrush is different too, darker and wilder, like no one has walked these paths in a very long time.
I ran. My wolf ran, answering that call I couldn't resist.
And now I'm somewhere I've never been before, alone and vulnerable and completely exposed.
Panic flares for a second before I force it down. I'm not the same girl who left the pack compound terrified and powerless. I have a wolf now. I have power that even I don't fully understand yet.
I close my eyes and reach for that connection, that thread that ties me to the others. The bond with the twins pulses faintly, distant but present. They're far away but coming closer. Following me again because they have no choice.
Cassian and Bastien are with them. I can't feel them the way I feel the twins, but I sense their presence anyway, like shadows at the edge of my awareness.
Good. They're all still alive. Still following.
Still trapped by choices they made or bonds they never wanted.
I push thoughts of them away and focus on my immediate problem. I need clothes. Need to figure out where I am and why my wolf brought me here.
The forest around me feels different from anywhere I've been before. There's a weight to the air, a thickness that makes breathing feel intentional. The trees don't just grow here. They watch. They remember.
I stand slowly, testing my legs. Everything works, though my muscles shake with exhaustion. The shift took more out of me than I realized, running for who knows how many miles while I was trapped in wolf form with no control.
I take a step forward and the forest responds.
Not obviously. Not dramatically. But I feel it anyway. The way the branches shift slightly to let more sunlight through. The way the undergrowth seems to pull back from my bare feet, clearing a path I didn't ask for.
The forest bows to me.
The realization sends a shiver down my spine that has nothing to do with being naked in the wilderness.
I walk forward, letting instinct guide me because I have nothing else to go on. My feet find paths through the undergrowth automatically, moving with a certainty that shouldn't be possible for someone who's never been here before.
After maybe twenty minutes of walking, I see them.
Stones.
Massive, ancient stones rising from the forest floor like teeth. They're arranged in a pattern I don't immediately recognize, covered in moss and vines that have been growing for longer than I've been alive.
I approach slowly, something in my blood pulling me forward even as my human mind screams caution.
The stones are carved. Not recently. The marks are so old they're nearly worn away by time and weather, but they're there. Symbols I don't know. Patterns that feel familiar in a way I can't explain.
I reach out and touch one of the stones. The surface is rough under my palm, cold despite the sunlight warming the clearing.
The moment my skin makes contact, something shifts.
Not violently. Not dramatically. Just a small change in the air, like the forest has been holding its breath and finally decided to exhale.
Images flood my mind. Not as overwhelming as the vision at the temple, but clear enough to understand.
Wolves. Massive white wolves like me, moving through these same trees. Marking territory. Claiming land. Ruling.
Not through dominance and fear like the Alphas I grew up watching. Through something else. Something older. Balance. Purpose. Right.
The images fade and I'm left standing alone in the clearing, hand still pressed against ancient stone, trying to process what I just saw.
"Direwolf territory markers."
I spin around, hand dropping from the stone.
Cassian stands at the edge of the clearing. He's not looking at me, carefully keeping his eyes averted from my naked form. The others are behind him. Draco and Lucen, also looking away with varying degrees of discomfort. Bastien at the rear, holding what looks like a bundle of clothes.
"How did you find me?" I ask, making no move to cover myself. Modesty feels pointless after everything that's happened.
"The bond," Draco answers, his voice tight. "We followed it."
Of course they did. The bond won't let them do anything else.
Bastien steps forward, eyes firmly fixed on the ground, and holds out the clothes. "Thought you might need these."
I take them without thanking him and dress quickly. The same oversized shirt and pants from before, wrinkled and dirty but functional.
When I'm covered, I turn back to the stones. "What did you mean? Direwolf territory markers?"
Cassian finally looks at me, his expression careful and controlled. "These stones mark the boundaries of old Direwolf territory. Before the Moon Goddess established the pack hierarchy we know now, before Alphas ruled through dominance, Direwolves held these lands."
"Held them how?" I press, needing to understand.
"Not ruled," Cassian corrects himself carefully. "Held. Direwolves weren't like Alphas. They didn't dominate or control. They maintained balance. Between wolves and humans. Between the divine and the mortal. They were wardens, not kings."
"What happened to them?" I ask, though part of me already knows the answer from the visions I've seen.
Cassian exchanges a glance with Bastien before answering. "Their bloodline was erased. Systematically hunted down and eliminated by Alphas working with the Moon Goddess's blessing."
The words land like blows. "Why?"
"Because they chose," Bastien says quietly. "Direwolves chose who to follow, who to serve, who to love. They didn't bow to divine authority just because it demanded obedience. The Moon Goddess couldn't control them, so she helped destroy them."
I stare at the stones, at the ancient markers left by creatures that were murdered for the crime of choosing their own path.
Creatures like me.
"Your existence threatens everything," Draco says, and there's something in his voice I can't quite identify. Not quite fear. Not quite awe. "If the packs find out you're a Direwolf, if they understand what you represent, the entire hierarchy will destabilize. Alphas rule because the Moon Goddess gave them that authority after the Direwolves were gone. But you're living proof that the old ways aren't dead."
"Good," I say, surprising myself with the vehemence in my voice. "Maybe the hierarchy deserves to fall."
Lucen makes a sound that might be a laugh or might be something darker. "You say that like you understand what it would cost. Packs would go to war. Wolves would die. The entire world we've built would crumble."
"The world you built was built on my people's graves," I snap back. "Forgive me if I don't mourn its destruction."
Silence falls over the clearing. The twins look at each other, that wordless communication passing between them again. Cassian and Bastien stand quietly, guilt written across their faces in ways they probably don't realize.
I turn back to the stones, running my fingers over the ancient carvings. "If Direwolves were erased, if the bloodline was destroyed, then how am I here? Where did I come from?"
More silence. Heavier this time.
"We don't know," Cassian finally admits. "No one does. You appeared in the pack as a child with no memory of your past. The Alpha took you in, but he never explained where you came from or why he kept you."
"Someone must know," I insist. "Someone had to have hidden me. Protected me. Kept me alive when the rest of my kind were being hunted down."
I look at each of them in turn. "Was I hidden on purpose? Was someone trying to keep the Direwolf bloodline alive by hiding me where no one would think to look? In a pack, powerless and invisible?"
The twins shift uncomfortably. Bastien looks away.
Cassian meets my eyes. "It's possible. More than possible. If someone wanted to preserve the last Direwolf, hiding you among wolves who would never suspect what you really were would be the safest option."
"Until I awakened," I finish. "Until the ritual forced my wolf to surface and exposed what I am."
"Yes," Draco confirms. "And now everyone who matters will know. The Alpha doesn't know what, but he knows something happened. It's only a matter of time before he realizes what you are."
The weight of it settles over me. I'm not just an anomaly. I'm a threat to the entire power structure that's existed for generations. My very existence challenges the Moon Goddess's authority and the Alphas who rule in her name.
No wonder they wanted to bind me. No wonder the pack won't just let me disappear.
I look at the stones again, at the markers left by my ancestors. Wolves who chose love over obedience. Who valued balance over dominance. Who died rather than submit to tyranny.
And I realize I have one more question. The question that's been hovering at the edge of my thoughts since I first learned what I am.
I turn to face them fully, drawing myself up to my full height. The forest seems to lean in, listening.
"What happened to my parents?"
The question hangs in the air like a blade.
Cassian's expression closes off. Bastien looks at the ground. The twins exchange another glance, this one longer and more weighted than before.
No one answers.
"What happened to my parents?" I repeat, my voice harder this time. Power bleeds into the words without me meaning it to, making the air around us thicken.
All four of them feel it. Cassian and Bastien drop their eyes instinctively. The twins fight the urge but their bodies tense against the pressure of my will.