Chapter 5

Aria

I should be afraid.

There’s a stranger standing in front of me in the middle of nowhere—hooded, powerful, watching me like she’s been waiting for this moment forever.

But I’m not afraid.

I’m… cold. Exhausted. Naked. Still buzzing from the shift. My bones ache in places I didn’t know existed, and my skin still tingles with that strange silver light that came and went like lightning through my veins.

And yet… something about her feels familiar.

Like the forest itself brought her to me. The ground beneath me hums like it is agreeing with my thoughts. The air has weight, like the woods are listening.

She steps closer to me, her eyes moving over me as if she is studying me. I should feel uncomfortable, naked and without being able to protect myself. But I don’t.

“You survived the first part,” she says, voice calm but carrying power beneath the softness. "I wasn’t sure if you would."

My throat is dry. “Survive what?”

“The awakening,” she replies simply like that explains anything at all.

I flinch as I try to stand fully upright. My limbs still feel like they’re not fully mine. “Who are you?”

“People call me many things.” Her lips twitch in a faint smile. “Outcast. Witch. Seer. I prefer Sera.”

A witch. Of course.

The pack always said witches were dangerous—rogues who played with forbidden powers and cursed those who crossed them.

But right now? She’s the only one who hasn’t tried to break me. She hasn’t tossed me aside. She doesn’t look at me like I’m nothing.

“I… I don’t understand what’s happening,” I admit, wrapping my arms around myself. “I shouldn’t have shifted yet. Not fully. Not like that.”

Sera hums and crouches beside the stream, trailing her fingers through the water. “You’re not just shifting, child. You’re transforming. Your blood is waking up. And it’s not the blood of a common omega or any other common wolf.”

I freeze. “What do you mean?”

She doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, she pulls something from her satchel—an old, worn scrap of parchment, yellowed with age. She unrolls it and points to a symbol etched in fading ink.

It’s a wolf.

Not just any wolf—my wolf. Silver fur. Glowing eyes. A mark on its shoulder.

The same mark that burned into my skin during the shift.

“You bear the mark of the Nightshade bloodline,” she says. “A royal line. One long thought dead.”

My stomach drops. My wolf, however, is silent. Like she is waiting for me to get on the same page as her.

“No. That’s not possible. I—I’m no one. I grew up in the border pack. I don’t even know who my parents were—”

“Exactly,” she cuts in. “And why do you think that is?”

The truth crashes into me with the force of a storm.

Someone hid me.

Someone didn’t want me to know who I was.

Or what I could become.

Sera rises again, tall and commanding despite her age. “Your powers were bound. Sealed. Suppressed for your safety. But the rejection… it shattered the binding. The pain, the trauma—it triggered the blood magic to rise.”

I can’t breathe. My chest tightens with everything I don’t understand.

“Why me?” I whisper. “Why would I be hidden? Why would anyone go to that much trouble for someone like me?”

Sera gives me a long, heavy look. “Because once, your family threatened everything the current regime stood for. The Nightshades were powerful, beloved, and dangerous. Their fall was no accident—it was orchestrated. And someone clearly wanted to make sure the last of the line never rose again.”

My mind reels.

Royal blood. A legacy. A lie so massive it rewrote my entire life.

I stagger back a step. “You expect me to believe that I’m some kind of… lost princess?”

“I expect nothing,” Sera says. “But the power in your veins believes it. And the forest does, too.”

The wind stirs around us like it agrees.

I press a hand to my shoulder. The mark pulses faintly beneath my skin—cool and steady, like a heartbeat.

“So what now?” I ask. “I’m just supposed to… what? March into the capital and demand to be recognized?”

“No,” she says with a dry smile. “You’re supposed to survive. Learn. Awaken fully. Only then will you be ready to take back what’s yours.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

She tilts her head. “Do you truly not want to? Or are you just afraid of what it means to no longer be powerless? No longer be invisible?”

I say nothing.

Because the truth is… I don’t want to be weak anymore.

Not after what he did to me. Not after how easily they threw me away.

“I can teach you,” Sera says. “But it won’t be easy. The bloodline you carry is rare—and dangerous. It draws things. Things that have long been sleeping.”

“Like what?”

She just looks up at the moon. “Like destiny.”

—

After Sera provided me with a dress that could be considered a potato bag from her satchel I quickly covered up and tried to gain my bearings.

We walk deeper into the woods, guided by flickering lights I’m not sure are natural. The forest around us shifts as we move—trees leaning in, shadows trailing us like memories. Almost like the branches want to touch me, the wind hold me, the stars light my way.

Finally, we reach a small glade surrounded by stones carved with ancient runes. A fire burns in the center, casting gold over everything.

“This place is protected,” Sera says. “No one from the packs can find it. Not unless I allow them.”

She gestures to a bed of moss near the fire.

“Rest. You’ll need it. Tomorrow, the real work begins.”

I sink down, muscles trembling, my heart still pounding from everything I’ve heard. Everything I’ve seen. I stare into the flames and feel their heat settle into my bones.

A name echoes in my mind—Nightshade.

It feels like an echo from another life.

But now it’s mine.

And I swear on the moon that no one will ever break me again.