I don't know how I fell asleep.
One moment, I was staring into his golden eyes, the next… darkness wrapped around me like fog—cool, damp, ancient.
But this wasn't sleep.
This was something else.
I wasn't laying on the ground anymore. I was standing in the center of a circle — surrounded by howling winds and silver fire. The forest was gone. Everything smelled like burnt ash, wolf blood, and betrayal.
Then…
A boy's scream.
It cut through the silence like a blade.
My heart skipped.
That voice…
Gray?
I turned — and the scene exploded into life.
A younger Gray in human form, maybe sixteen or seventeen, barely shifting, his body trembling as he fought against bones breaking, skin twisting, his form torn between man and beast. His golden eyes wide with fear and rage. Blood dripping from his mouth, not his own.
All around him stood armored werewolves—strong, powerful. One of them held a staff with a silver crest: the Alpha. His father?
Some women were singing and dancing while an elderly woman was chanting an ancient words, so that Gray can shift, in order to know if he will rule the pack well like is father the alpha. A woman was sobbing in the background, holding a bloody cloak of her husband who was mistakenly killed by Gray out of his fury and rage. Another wolf lay still in the grass.
Dead.
I couldn't breathe.
The Alpha stepped forward, voice booming like thunder:
"You were warned, Kael! You let the beast take over.
You lost control… and she paid the price."
"She"…?
Was it… Sophie?
No… not me. Someone else?
Gray young voice cracked, eyes wet. He wanted to say something my words failed him. He couldn't utter anything. After what felt like forever he only said—
"I didn't mean to… I didn't know! I tried to stop—"
"Intent does not undo blood spilled!" his father roared.
A mistake.
A tragic, terrible mistake.
The rage in his transformation. The blood.
My parents' death. The accident.
Was this what led to it all?
The Alpha turned to the pack.
"Kael is no longer one of us. He is cursed, cast from this land.
Let him wander the wilds until the moon forgets his name.
He shall not return unless the forest accepts him back…
unless the blood he wounded chooses mercy."
Suddenly, the staff was slammed into the ground.
Light erupted.
Silver vines crawled up Kael's limbs like chains — branding his skin, twisting into the markings I now saw on his wolf form.
He didn't scream.
He roared.
A howl of pain, of loss, of isolation.
And then… darkness took him.
I woke up gasping, covered in sweat.
The gray wolf—Kael—was watching me, silently, his muzzle resting near my blanket.
Kael… is that his name?
I looked into his eyes.
"I saw you," I whispered. "I saw what they did to you."
He didn't blink.
"I saw what you did."
His ears twitched. Shame & Pain.
"But I also saw the truth," I said softly. "You didn't mean to. You were scared. A boy forced into a beast."
My fingers reached out. Touched his fur.
And in that moment, I felt it again—that deep, low bond.
This wolf had bled. Been hated. Exiled.
And somehow, I was tied to that pain. To that past. To him.
Then the red-eyed crow returned.
This time, it perched.
On a stone marked with my grandmother's healing sigil.
And behind it…
A glowing grove.
Emerald leaves shimmered like stars, the air thick with magic.
The Miracle Leaf.
I turned to Kael.
"I think we're close."
He stared at me, unmoving.
But I saw something in his eyes.
Fear.
Hope.
Maybe even…
Love?
Then i fall asleep again.