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Chapter Five: The Awakening

Charlie awoke with a start, her chest heaving as if she had just surfaced from drowning. The air in her small room felt suffocating, thick and heavy with humidity, and her body was drenched in sweat. She tossed the blanket off of her, gasping for air as she sat up. The skin on her arms felt tight, itchy, and uncomfortable—worse than it had been earlier. She scratched at herself mindlessly, trying to rid her body of the strange sensation. Something felt…off.

Her head throbbed painfully, and a wave of nausea rolled over her. She wiped the sweat from her brow with a trembling hand, trying to calm her racing heart. She felt like she was burning up from the inside, like something was crawling under her skin, desperate to be set free.

A strange pressure built behind her eyes, and she clutched her head, her fingers tangling in her damp hair. The pressure grew stronger, more insistent, until it suddenly burst open, and she heard a voice—clear as day—inside her head.

‘Charlie.’

She nearly screamed, slapping her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound. She looked around frantically, her heart pounding as she searched for the source of the voice. But there was no one else in the room—no one but her.

‘Charlie, calm down. It is just me, Raven. Your wolf.’

Charlie froze, her breath catching in her throat. Her wolf? But that couldn’t be right. She still had time, didn’t she? She wasn’t supposed to get her wolf until she turned eighteen. That’s what everyone always said. She still had months before—

But then it hit her. The gnawing feeling that had been building in the back of her mind all day. Her headache, the way her body had been acting strangely, the sense that something inside her was changing. Her birthday had always been an uncertain thing, a hazy memory from before she was found by the pack. She had no way of knowing her exact age, only what she had been told. But now, it seemed that the pack had been wrong.

‘It’s happening now,’ Raven’s voice said softly, her tone calm but firm. ‘We need to get out of here quickly!. We need to shift soon, and you don’t want to be in here when it happens.’

Charlie’s stomach clenched with panic. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t ready to shift. She had never been prepared, never trained like the other wolves. She wasn’t strong, wasn’t fast—she was nothing like them.

“Trust me,’ Raven urged. ‘I’ll guide you. But we need to go now. Before anyone notices and comes for us. Especially that cruel Alpha!’

Charlie’s hands trembled as she stood from the bed, her legs weak beneath her. The room spun for a moment, but she took a deep breath, steadying herself. Raven was right. She couldn’t stay here. If she shifted inside this tiny room, it would cause a scene and draw attention that she couldn’t afford. Not when her entire world was already on the verge of crumbling.

She quickly slipped on a pair of old sneakers and crept to the door, her senses on high alert. The house was eerily quiet, the pack already asleep for early morning training. Charlie eased the door open and slipped into the hallway, moving as silently as she could with her insides feeling as if they were being ripped apart.

But as soon as she stepped into the corridor, she was hit by a scent so strong, so intoxicating, that it nearly knocked her off her feet.

She froze, her breath catching in her throat as the scent enveloped her. It was a heady mixture of pine, musk, and something distinctly male, something she recognized instantly. It was a scent she had known for years, a scent that had surrounded her just hours ago in the twins’ rooms.

Her heart raced as the realization hit her with the force of a freight train. No. It couldn’t be.

She took another step forward, drawn toward the source of the scent as if it had its own gravitational pull. Her feet carried her down the hallway almost against her will, her body reacting before her mind could process what was happening. Every inhale filled her with that scent—so familiar, so alluring. She reached the end of the hallway, right outside the twin’s rooms, and the scent hit her like a wave, making her knees weak and her pulse race.

Her fingers curled into the fabric of her shirt as she stood there, trying to ground herself, but her heart was spinning out of control. There was no mistaking it. The scent belonged to them—Luther and Liam. The two who had tormented her, the two who had made her life hell for years.

But they couldn’t be her mates. Could they?

Her body rebelled at the thought, her heart rejecting the idea even as her senses screamed otherwise. Her wolf stirred inside her, restless and eager, confirming the truth that Charlie couldn’t bear to face.

Charlie’s breath came in short, rapid bursts. She felt like the walls were closing in on her, suffocating her with the weight of this impossible revelation. How could this be? How could the very wolves who had made her life a living nightmare be the ones she was destined for? The thought was unbearable, terrifying.

Panic clawed at her chest, and she felt herself spiraling, her thoughts spinning out of control. She couldn’t be here. She couldn’t face them. Not now. Not like this.

Before she could stop herself, Charlie turned on her heel and bolted down the hallway, her feet moving faster than they ever had before. The walls blurred around her as she ran, her heart pounding like a drum in her chest. She didn’t care where she was going—she just had to get out. She couldn’t stay here, couldn’t be anywhere near them. Not when her whole world had just been turned upside down.

She pushed open the back door of the packhouse and sprinted into the woods, the cool night air hitting her like a shock of cold water. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her new strength propelling her forward with a speed she didn’t know she could possess. The trees blurred past her, the underbrush crunching beneath her feet as she tore through the forest, driven by the overwhelming need to escape.

Her wolf was stirring, pushing against the surface of her skin, desperate to be set free. The pressure was building, growing unbearable with every passing second, and Charlie knew she couldn’t fight it much longer.

But she kept running, her mind spinning with the weight of everything that had just happened. It was all too much.

She ran until her legs burned, until her lungs ached, until the world seemed to blur and fade into nothing but the sound of her own ragged breathing.

And then, finally, when her body could take no more, Charlie collapsed to the overgrown grass in a large clearing, her hands digging into the dirt as the first wave of the shift ripped through her.

She had escaped the packhouse. But she knew she couldn’t run forever.

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