Chapter 5 #2
"If I choose this… how will I know what I’m supposed to do?"
Kaelioth studied her. "You will not. Not yet.
The spirits do not speak in words, Eris.
They do not give easy answers." His voice was quieter now, but still unsettling.
"When the time comes, you will know. Because you will have no other choice.
" His next words were a whisper, but they thundered through her.
"Seraphina is more than memory. She lingers in the space between, waiting.
If you listen, truly listen, she will guide you. "
A shiver tore through Eris’s bones as something awakened. The air in the tent shifted. Warmth wrapped around her, like unseen hands resting on her shoulders. Her lips parted. She felt it. She felt her. Seraphina.
Kaelioth closed his eyes, as if he, too, could feel her presence.
For a moment, Eris was not alone. Then it was gone, and the world snapped back into focus.
The shaman’s voice softened, the edge of a smile forming.
"Break bread with us tonight, Eris. Sit among us." Though warm, his voice still carried a quiet weight. "Know the people your great-grandmother fought to protect."
She hesitated. The fire flickered, casting strange shadows across the tent walls. Her heart pounded. It was too much, too fast. Too inevitable.
She clenched her hands in her lap, nails pressing into her palms. Then the flames stilled, as if gorged on silence.
In that frozen blaze, she saw it: a future left unchanged.
Goznoth, burning at the edges. A kingdom fractured, rotting from within.
A vast and hollow throne room, its banners torn and forgotten.
And at its center stood Stephan. Alone. His shoulders bowed beneath a crown that had taken too much.
The warmth in his eyes was gone, buried beneath duty, sorrow, and war.
The man she loved, fading into the ruler he was never meant to be.
The echo of his voice, not calling for her, but for peace that would never come.
“I tried, Eris,” he whispered. “I tried to be what they needed.”
The scent of blood and war. The screams that had long faded but never left the stone. The spirits pressed against her, showing and warning. Her chest tightened, and the vision shifted.
The same throne room appeared, but rebuilt. Banners of hope replaced those of conquest. Stephan stood tall, no longer alone. The crown remained, still heavy, but it didn’t crush him. His eyes were warm again, focused on her rather than through her. She saw a world that could be healed.
Her throat burned. This was not fair. She had spent her life trying to belong, only to learn she never did. But this was her war. If she stayed and fought, she might not only save a kingdom. She might save him. Stephan. Her fingers curled into fists.
If she stayed, what would it cost her? Her future? Her freedom? Her life?
"I will stay," she said. Even if I vanish in the choosing.
The fire roared back to life as the tent shuddered, the force of unseen hands pressing against the air. Kaelioth’s gaze held hers, his voice steady as stone.
"Good."
The spirits had their answer. Eris’s fate was sealed. Kaelioth’s gaze slid toward Kareon.
"The Alpha will take you under his protection."
Kareon stiffened. He had fought wars, led men into slaughter, stood against the Obsidian Order with blood on his hands and death in his shadow.
None of it had ever made him hesitate. But this?
Her? Not because of what she was, but because of who she was.
Because she looked at him like she saw something beneath the armor, beneath the beast, and worse, it made him want to believe in it too. That was the real danger.
His voice was low when he finally spoke. "Fine."
Kaelioth arched a brow. "You look like a man who has just been sentenced to death."
Kareon exhaled sharply. "Not death. Just bad luck."
Eris folded her arms, tilting her head. "And I’m supposed to feel safe with him?"
Kareon smirked, sharp. "Trust me, princess. This is no dream for me either."
Eris’s gaze didn’t waver. "For once, we agree."
Kaelioth sighed. "Moon help me, the both of you."
The fire crackled and the wind stirred while the spirits watched. With a single choice, the path sealed beneath her feet.
Eris stepped into the night, the air sharp in her lungs. It was too much, too fast. Kaelioth’s words clung to her skin. She needed space. Distance.
Beyond the fire’s glow, Varis and Taric, Kareon’s most trusted men, stood waiting. Alert. They already knew. Kareon approached them, his steps controlled, while Eris drifted a few steps away, letting the moonlight wash over her. She closed her eyes briefly, unaware of the voices rising behind her.
“You’re really doing this?” Varis asked disbelieving.
Kareon didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
“You realize what this means,” Taric said, his tone graver. “Bringing a Firstblood into the pack won’t go unnoticed.”
Kareon’s voice was flat. “I’m counting on that.”
Varis exhaled sharply. “The pack’s already on edge. Rebellion’s stirring. This will only feed it.”
Kareon’s jaw tightened. “They’ll fall in line.”
“They’ll question you,” Taric added, his gaze narrowing. “Vatryk and his men won’t stand for this.”
“Vatryk is nothing to me.”
“Not yet,” Varis said.
A tense silence followed.
Taric stepped closer, voice tightening. “They won’t see this as strategy, Kareon. They’ll see it as you bending to Kaelioth, or worse”—his eyes flicked to Eris—“that she’s manipulating you.”
Kareon’s muscles coiled. “I am the Alpha.”
The words should have felt like certainty. Tonight, they felt like a challenge. He had faced war and death, but never had he gambled his leadership on a single decision. Still, he had already chosen.
“They’ll respect my decision,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. “End of discussion.”
Varis held his gaze a moment, then looked away. Taric exhaled slowly.
“Fine.”
They disappeared into the shadows. Kareon caught the mutter under Varis’s breath, noted the way Taric didn’t look back. The silence that followed pressed against him, heavy with decisions already made. He turned toward her.
Eris stood a few steps away, her face tilted toward the sky, bathed in silver light.
Something inside him stilled. The moon traced her skin, catching the glow in her eyes and the delicate angles of her face.
Her hair shimmered like starlight in shadow.
For the first time, Kareon forgot where he was.
He forgot the pack, the rebellion. The war.
“Why?” The question slipped out before he could stop it. She blinked, but didn’t turn. “Why did you accept the spirits’ path?” he asked again. “You could’ve refused. Lived your life of privilege. Stayed safe.”
She let out a bitter laugh. “And know that for every mother crying over her dead child, every family destroyed, every future shattered, I could have stopped it and chose not to?”
Kareon fell silent. She turned to him slowly, her eyes glistening with something just shy of tears.
She was breaking in front of him, and it split something open inside his chest. For the first time, Kareon didn’t know what to say.
A whisper of cold wind curled between them.
She shivered. His fingers twitched at his sides.
He shouldn’t care. Couldn’t afford to. But the sight of her, small beneath the weight of the night, standing so still, so alone, unraveled something he hadn’t known was still left in him.
Before he could stop himself, he moved. His fingers brushed her shoulders as he draped his jacket over her. He lingered a second too long. She blinked, startled. And in that moment, Kareon knew he had made a mistake. Whatever this was between them, it had already begun.
Then it shattered.
“Alpha!” Varis’s voice cut through the night, sharply.
Kareon exhaled, freed from something he wasn’t ready to name.
"The pack is waiting."
He hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then he turned to Eris.
"Come on. Let’s go."
She didn’t move at first, but after a breath, she stepped forward and fell into stride beside him.
The fire roared, casting waves of heat against the gathered Lycans.
Shadows stretched long over wary faces, lined with distrust and the quiet edge of defiance.
At the center stood Kareon, tall and unyielding.
A storm before the first strike of thunder.
Beside him stood Eris, graceful and steady.
A Firstblood among wolves, yet she didn’t cower.
A flicker of something stirred within her, not a voice or a thought, but a feeling.
One that was not her own. She turned slightly, her gaze landing on a warrior by the fire.
Doubt curled heavy in his chest. She inhaled sharply, and the sensation vanished as quickly as it came.
A trick of the mind. Nothing more. She brushed it off.
Kareon let them feel it: the weight of the unknown, the discomfort of change. Then he spoke.
"You wonder why she is here." His voice didn’t lash out; it cut slow and deliberate. “You think I’ve bent to Kaelioth’s will. That I’ve let a Firstblood sit at our fire.”
A scoff rose from the back, followed by a muttered curse.
He turned sharply, the fire casting long shadows behind him.
“You forget who I am.” Silence answered. "I have never bowed. Never allowed weakness. And I will not start now."
The weight of his words settled into their bones. Then he turned to her. Let the firelight carve her in gold, let them see the strength in her stillness.
"Eris Dragov stands here because the spirits have called her.
" His voice carried the weight of truth.
"Not as our enemy. But as something more.
" A hesitation followed. A breath caught between disbelief and possibility.
"She stands among us because she chose to.
And if she has the courage to walk this path, then we will have the strength to listen. "