Chapter 15 #3
“Ready?” Kieran’s hand finds mine and squeezes.
I nod because I can’t speak. Can’t trust my voice not to break.
We step through together.
It’s like suddenly being submerged under water. I hate portals, but Kieran’s fingers are tightly intertwined with mine as he murmurs, “Close your eyes and keep walking.”
I do, and when I open my eyes a minute later, I’m standing in familiar territory. The Silver Stone Pack, with its scent of pine and damp earth, and the familiar chill in the air that seeps into your bones even in summer. I let out a nostalgic sigh that ends up feeling like a punch to the gut.
It’s late, the moon high and bright overhead, casting everything in shades of silver and shadow. The houses are dark, most shifters already asleep for the night. But I can feel eyes on us. Can sense the pack stirring, aware of our presence.
I don’t wait for the others. My feet carry me forward automatically, muscle memory taking over. Down the dirt path I’ve walked a thousand times. Past familiar houses and landmarks that bring back memories I’d rather forget.
Then, I’m standing in front of the wooden house where I grew up.
The door is unlocked.
That’s the first thing that is wrong. My father always locked the door at night. Always.
Maybe Lucian’s scouts left it unlocked.
“Daciana, wait.” Kieran’s hand comes to rest on my shoulder, gentle but firm.
I shrug it off and push the door open.
The smell hits me immediately, making my stomach turn. Stale air, like the house has been closed up for days or weeks. And underneath that, it’s worse: the sickeningly sweet, cloying stench of rotting food.
It’s wrong. Everything is wrong.
I step into the kitchen and freeze.
The table still has plates on it. Six of them, one for each member of my family. Food, congealed and moldy. Flies buzzing lazily around the mess. One chair is pushed back at an odd angle, as if the person in it stood up violently mid-meal. As if someone left and never came back.
My hand flies to my mouth.
“Daciana.” Kieran is beside me now, his presence solid but unable to ground me against what I’m seeing.
I force myself to move, stepping around the table and into the living room.
Everything inside me goes cold.
A lamp lies shattered on the floor, fragments glittering in the moonlight that streams in through the window.
The rug is bunched up against the wall like it was kicked or dragged aside during a struggle.
Deep, vicious claw marks score the wooden floorboards—gouges that could only come from a shifted wolf fighting for their life.
I stumble backward, right into Kieran’s chest. His arms come around me immediately, holding me upright as my legs threaten to give out.
“We’ll find them,” he murmurs against my hair, his voice steady. “I promise you, we’ll find them.”
But I can hear the hollowness in his tone. The doubt.
Outside, the soldiers are spreading out, knocking on doors. Voices rise in question as they wake sleeping pack members.
“I need to check their rooms,” I whisper.
Kieran’s arms tighten around me for a moment before he releases me. “I’m coming with you.”
The stairs creak under my weight as I climb them. Each step feels impossible, like I’m moving through deep mud. Kieran follows close behind, a silent shadow.
The first door used to be mine. I push it open, and my heart sinks.
Storage. My childhood bedroom has been converted into a storage room.
Boxes are stacked haphazardly against the walls, old clothes spilling out of them. Broken furniture. Tools. Random household items gathering dust. Not a single thing of mine remains. Not one photograph, not one piece of clothing, not one memento from all my years of living here.
It’s as if I never existed.
The pain is sharp and sudden, but I force it down. Bury it. Not now. Not when my brothers might need me.
I move to the next room, which belongs to Darius and Mikhail. The boys who used to follow me everywhere with wide, trusting eyes.
The door creaks open.
The beds are unmade, sheets tangled and hanging half off the mattresses, suggesting my little brothers were pulled out of them in their sleep. Clothes are scattered everywhere.
My heart stops when I see the deep scratch marks on the wooden floor. Long, vicious gouges like something was dragged across them. Or someone.
“No.” The word barely makes it past my lips.
I move to the third bedroom on trembling legs. Marcus and Stefan’s room, my other brothers.
Their beds are made, sheets undisturbed. They must have been downstairs, having breakfast. All of them were here when it happened. Whatever “it” was.
I turn and nearly run into Kieran. His hands reach for me, but I push past him, my feet carrying me down the stairs and out the front door.
“Daciana!” Kieran’s voice follows me, sharp with concern. “What are you doing?”
I don’t stop to answer. Can’t stop. I’m already running for the tree line, for the forest that always felt more like home than any building ever could.
At the edge of the woods, I stop, plant my feet in the soft earth, and tilt my head back.
My two sharp howls slice through the night air, echoing through the trees—a call I haven’t made since I was hauled off to the capital.
For a moment, there’s nothing but silence and my own heart hammering against my ribs.
Then, the forest comes alive.
Wild wolves emerge from the shadows between the trees. Dozens of them, their eyes glowing amber and gold in the moonlight. Wolves I’ve known since I was a child. They approach slowly, heads lowered in submission. In recognition of what I have always been to them.
“Where are they?” My voice cracks. “Where is my family?”
The wolves look at each other, silent communication passing between them. Then, two of them turn and start walking deeper into the forest.
I follow without hesitation.
“Daciana! Stop!” Kieran’s commanding voice comes from behind me.
But I can’t stop. The wolves are moving faster now, breaking into a lope.
I shift mid-stride, my clothes disappearing as my body changes.
Four legs hit the ground, and I’m running, following the wild wolves deeper into territory I know like the back of my hand.
I don’t care that it’s nighttime and that the woods are dangerous.
I don’t care about the shadow beasts that lurk in here. My mate can handle them.
I feel Kieran shift behind me, his massive, silver wolf so much larger than mine. When he catches up to me, I glance back and see that the soldiers are following at a distance.
We run for what feels like hours but is probably only minutes. Past boundary markers, past hunting grounds, into a part of the forest where the trees grow thick and the shadows never quite lift.
The wolves stop at a clearing.
I shift back to human form, and Kieran does the same, immediately moving to block me from whatever lies ahead. But I shove past him.
“No. I need to see.”
At first, I don’t understand what I’m looking at. The ground has been disturbed, dirt piled in rough, uneven mounds. Fresh dirt, dark and rich.
Then, the smell hits me. The unmistakable stench of death.
And underneath that, something else. Something that makes my wolf whine inside my head. A strange, oily, unnatural stench that clings to everything.
One of Lucian’s guards is already moving forward. He drops to his knees and starts digging with his bare hands. The earth comes away easily. Too easily.
And then, I see it.
A hand. Pale, lifeless. My mother’s hand, her silver wedding ring gleaming in the moonlight.
“No.” I stumble forward, falling to my knees. “No, no, no!”
The guard keeps digging. More is revealed with each handful of dirt.
My mother’s face. Eyes open and staring. My father beside her, his throat torn open, dried blood crusted black.
And then—oh, gods—
Darius.
Mikhail.
Kieran’s hands suddenly cover my eyes and yank me back against his chest. “Don’t look,” he says.
But it’s too late. I’ve seen them. Seen what was done to them.
A sound rips from my throat—not quite human, not quite wolf. Broken and raw. My whole body shakes with sobs I can’t control.
“They used dark magic.” Leon’s voice cuts through the roaring in my ears. “Necromancy. This was ritual. They were trying to do something with the bodies.”
I can’t breathe. Can’t think.
Most of my family is dead. Murdered with dark magic and dumped in a shallow grave.
“Who?” The word comes out as a snarl through my tears. “Who did this?”
“We will find out.” Kieran’s arms are iron bands around me, the only things keeping me from flying apart. “I swear to you, Daciana, we will find who did this. And they will pay.”
This isn’t how it was supposed to go. They weren’t perfect parents or siblings. They didn’t love me like they should have. But they were still my family.
And someone took them from me before I could figure out what that meant.