Chapter 42
Kayla took a cautious step back and asked, "Why have you been looking for me?"
"The moment you were born, the high mistress received a signal. A wolf more powerful than her had entered this world. The powerful blood destined to shape the next Moon Lord. Something that had not occurred in five hundred years.
Do you know what the High Mistress stands to lose if we let you live and shape the next Moon Lord?"
"She sent me to find you. I checked all the packs in the capital and beyond."
He bowed, slowly lifting his gaze as he stretched out his hand. "I come in peace. But for that peace to last between us, you must cooperate and come with me."
"My mistress will not kill you. She needs only one thing from you, that is all. And if we do not stop it, altars will fall. The shifters' world will be shaken!"
Kayla stood frozen, her mind reeling. What did he mean by the Moon Lord? Could someone truly give birth to one?
The question echoed in her thoughts, unanswered. After a brief silence, she spoke quietly, "I'm sorry. I can't come with you."
The stranger’s face remained calm, but his eyes sharpened. "I suggest you reconsider," he said.
"I’ve spent twenty-three years tracking you down. Do you really think I’ll let you escape now?"
Kayla turned to flee, but her heart sank at the sight before her. The entire border was surrounded.
Silent figures emerged from the shadows, slowly closing in on her from every direction. They didn’t leave a single gap she could slip through.
"You see now?" the stranger said. "There’s no escape."
Kayla glanced down at her stomach, feeling the weight of everything she was carrying. Alpha Zayron’s pup. Her bloodline and her mission.
Kayla turned back toward the approaching wolves. Then, in a blink, she lunged for the nearest tree, grabbed a low branch, and pulled herself up.
The wolves froze. For a moment, they simply stared, clearly expecting her to climb down and surrender.
One of them, bigger than the rest, raised an axe and passed it to another wolf that stood close to the tree.
"If I count to ten and she hasn't come down, cut the tree down," the stranger ordered.
But before he could begin, Kayla leapt to the next tree. Then another. And another. Moving fast, agile, like the wind between branches.
When she was far enough, she jumped down and bolted, her feet pounding the earth.
She raced back across the border. As soon as she crossed, the wolves behind her halted. They didn’t follow. They couldn’t.
Kayla gasped for breath, her chest heaving as her hands remained on her knees. She never imagined the day would come when the training Zayron gave her last year would save her life.
Without looking back, Kayla pressed on. The wolves halted as Kayla leapt across the final line of the border.
"She crossed," one of them growled, baring his teeth. "We can't follow."
Another slammed his fist into the trunk of a tree. "The treaty forbids it. She's in neutral territory."
The leader snarled, eyes narrowing as he stared after the swift blur that vanished into the dense trees. "How did she do that? No one escapes our ring."
"She's not just anyone," the youngest muttered. "She's the one with the first blood. The curse came with many abilities."
Kayla didn’t look back. Her heart thundered against her ribs as the trees swallowed her again.
Her legs burned, her breaths came shallow, and her abdomen pulsed with pain. She clutched her stomach briefly, a soft moan escaping her lips.
Her baby kicked, a reminder that she wasn’t alone in this fight.
"Just hold on," she whispered to her unborn child. "We’re almost there."
The woods ahead thickened. Twilight smeared itself across the sky, and fog began to roll through the underbrush. The silence grew strange.
As Kayla continued heading towards the Cliff of Orpheus, she heard a low growl from above.
Before she could react, a shadow dropped from the trees. A new wolf, sleek, fast, wearing a black cloak over his armor, landed before her.
As she tried to veer off, two more emerged from the trees to her left and right.
"You’ve been running all day," the first one said as he began to walk towards her.
Kayla kept her breathing steady. She turned slowly, eyes scanning for escape. But they knew this forest well.
"Hey, calm down. We are just a bunch of hungry wolves. We need to drink your blood," the leader of the group said.
As soon as Kayla heard that, she didn't try to run again and one of them caught her.
Kayla twisted in his grip, but his fingers locked around her wrist. He pulled her close, his breath ragged.
"Blood!" he whispered. His nostrils flared. Then, without hesitation, he licked the blood still crusted around the cut just beneath her palm.
The he-wolf let out a sound, almost like pleasure, almost like agony. Then his grip on Kayla slackened.
"W-What is this?" he gasped. His body began to shake. His eyes rolled back. He staggered, clawing at his own throat.
"Raeven!" one of his men shouted.
"Don't touch her! Stay away from her!" the dying wolf said. With a final convulsion, the wolf's dead body crashed to the ground.
The other wolves stared at him. Then at Kayla.
"What... what did you do to him?" one of them whispered.
"Nothing," Kayla responded with a casual shrug. She stood tall despite the pain shooting through her belly.
She held up her bloodied wrist. "You want my blood? Drink it," she muttered.
Kayla took one step forward. The wolves didn’t charge. They ran instead. Vanished into the shadows of the forest, as if something greater had begun to chase them.
Kayla didn’t stop her mission. She continued until the sky turned the color of dying embers.
The woods parted up ahead. Trees thinned, replaced by wind and jagged stone.
She stepped out into a clearing and stood at the edge of a cliff. The Cliff of Orpheus.
Before her, a sheer wall of ancient stone rose into the clouds. Cracks split across the face like veins, and thorny vines coiled around ledges where even birds feared to land.
Kayla staggered to her knees. The pain in her abdomen flared again. She bit down on her lip, her breath shaky.
She looked up again. Far above, where the last orange rays of sun kissed the sky, stood a lone structure.
A crooked tower of gray stone. The home of the Alchemist of Lythos.
They said the alchemist was cursed. That the earth rejected her, so she chose to live between realms, between the living and the dead, between magic and time.
"I made it," Kayla breathed. But her journey was far from over.
She rose, hand on her belly. Then she began to climb.