Chapter 11 - Kaia

🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡

I rose on my own and let him guide me to the waiting car I now recognised as his.

As the car moved, I shrunk into myself, letting my mind carry to another place, where I was seated in the same car as a man who looked like he could freeze the world twice over.

I let the cold leather swallow me, shrinking into the seat like I could vanish inside it. The coat he draped over my shoulders was warm; far too warm but I didn't push it off. I couldn't. My body had gone limp. My thoughts, louder than the world outside, began to scream.

I'd held on this long for one reason.

One person.

My mother.

It had been three years since the truth splintered my world.

Years after the police gave up, filing the "incident" as "unresolved," because the suspect could not be found.

I'd seen her face, shattered like porcelain. I'd heard the whispers of the man who destroyed her—of what he did. And I'd felt the fire that lit inside me that day. A fire that refused to go out.

He was the reason I worked so hard.

Why I buried myself in school, in training, in anything that would give me the skills, the money, the connections to dig deeper than any cop ever could. I became my own weapon.

And now?

Now I'd never get the chance to repay the bastard who ruined everything.

The man I inherited this cursed face from.

I didn't even know his name.

Just flashes. A description. A shadow that haunted the stories told in murmurs. A ghost with a toothpick in his mouth and a cruel little smile.

A man with golden eyes.

Just like mine.

I clenched my bleeding hand tighter, as if the pain could anchor me—but it only made the ache in my chest worse.

The car slowed.

Then stopped.

I blinked, disoriented. We were still in the city, but the street was darker here. Quieter. Like the buildings were holding their breath.

I looked up tentatively.

Another car had parked across from ours.

Black. Sleek. Familiar.

My pulse stuttered, then hammering..

That car.

I'd seen it before.

At the auction house.

In the corner of the lot. Parked away from the others like it didn't want to be noticed, but I'd noticed. Something about it had unsettled me even then.

The door opened.

A boot hit the pavement as a man stepped out.

And the world shattered into fragments.

My breath caught in my throat.

My skin flushed hot, every nerve ending lighting up like fire alarms had gone off inside me. The coat suddenly felt too heavy. Too tight. Something clamped down on my throat.

No.

It couldn't be.

But I didn't need to blink.

Didn't need to second guess.

The toothpick dangled from his mouth, twitching slightly as he chewed. That lazy, lopsided smirk curved one corner of his mouth, casual like he didn't already haunt my nightmares. His golden eyes flicked to our car like he already knew exactly where I was sitting.

Then the final blow.

Black hair.

Dark as night—but streaked through with bronze, catching the light in a way that made it unmistakable.

My hair.

My eyes.

My face.

I knew him.

I knew him because I'd seen fragments of him every time I looked in the mirror and hated what stared back.

I stared at it for years, watched Charlotte expose the fact that I had his image in my hone.

I knew him because I'd hunted him.

I knew him—

Because he was my...

And somehow, in this fucked up, otherworldly realm where nothing made sense, he was real.

Here, in a world I didn't even know existed… he stood.

Smirking. Breathing. Whole.

And I—

I was breaking.

I dug my nails into the coat's fabric, breath catching, vision tunneling. My body refused to move, but my mind spun violently out of control, faster and faster, like a merry-go-round with rusted brakes.

It can't be him.

But it was.

Every inch of him screamed the truth.

The face I inherited like a curse. The hair that had marked me. The eyes I'd never been able to explain away, the ones my mother used to kiss and call "sunset gold" while the rest of the world recoiled.

He was here.

And I was trapped in a car.

Paralyzed. Powerless.

I'll never be free.

I pressed my forehead against the cold glass of the window. My heart was beating so hard it hurt. My fingers were shaking. My breathing grew shallow, rapid, wrong.

I didn't know if I was crying or hyperventilating. My ears were ringing. The cold air outside was nothing compared to the chaos erupting inside me.

I have to get out.

I clawed at the door handle—

But froze.

Because then, I heard it.

A voice.

Inside me.

Not from outside. Not beside me.

Inside me.

> "Lilith."

I blinked. My pulse thudded.

> "Open yourself to me, child. Please."

My heart lurched. No, no, no— hallucinating was one thing, but hearing voices? Inside?

I let out a cackled.

Of course, I was losing my mind.

> "You're not broken. Just bruised. Your soul is still yours. But if you keep this pain to yourself… you will destroy us both."

My teeth clenched. "What… what the hell are you?" I whispered hoarsely, barely able to get the words past my throat. "Why are you in my head?"

> "I am your wolf," the voice said gently. "Even hybrids have one. You are not alone, Lilith."

I shook my head violently. "I don't— I can't—"

> "Your heart is fractured. Your soul has been trampled. I feel every cut, every bruise. Let me share the burden. Let me shoulder it with you."

"Stop it—stop—" My voice cracked. I clutched at my temples, shaking.

> "Remember your name, my dear."

My lips parted. "...Lilith."

> "And mine is Kaia," the voice breathed. "And I have waited so long for you to hear me."

"Shut up—shut up—shut up—" I panicked even as her warmth enveloped, the cold crept closer gripping my heart in cold, painful hands. Anger bubbled up.

But even as I said it, something inside me was altered.

My skin crawled.

The hair on my arms stood straight up.

The world outside blurred, but the reflection on the window sharpened.

And in it… I didn't see me.

Not the girl who was running. Not the daughter of a broken woman. Not the girl despised by her family for what was, what she represented, Not the girl in the coat.

No.

Something else stared back.

Eyes glowing red, not amber nor gold. Pupil stretched, wild.

Fangs.

Claws beginning to emerge from shaking fingers.

A shape that wasn't quite human anymore—shoulders rising, bones twitching like they didn't know where they belonged.

My mouth opened but no sound came out.

Kaia whispered again.

> "This is your birthright. Not a curse."

And I—

I snapped.

Pain ripped through my limbs. My bones screamed. The world tilted, and I screamed as I felt myself, my very body, start to come undone and remake itself.

The shift had begun.

And the girl who'd once thought she was human?

Was gone.