Lyra
"What the hell?" I whispered to myself as I looked around the room, trying to make sense of what just happened. My eyes glazed towards the window and all I could see were night stars and reflection of the moon.
It was a dream… or was it?
I couldn't understand what I just saw, it looked so real. People I've never seen before, sorting me out and Darius coming here? What a fucking joke.
Anger suddenly consumed me at the thought of Darius. Flinging the covers to the side, I got out of the bed and walked out into the open space I had turned into a little community for me and my rogues.
"Going somewhere?"
I was quick to bring out my claws, my eyes glowing at the sound of the voice. But when I turned, I relaxed.
"It's me." Marcus said, raising his hands in surrender.
"Its the dead of the night, Marcus, what are you doing up?" I turned around and kept walking, the sounds of singing crickets interrupting my thoughts.
"I couldn't sleep, I thought it'd be best to take a short walk around the park. Somewhat like a security check."
I gave no reply to his response and kept walking, and even when I could no longer hear his footsteps behind me, I didn't turn to look at why he had stopped.
"Where are you going?" He asked, his voice a little louder than it should be.
"I'm going for a run." I simply answered,still without turning back.
"It's too dangerous, it's past midnight." He protested, and that was when I turned around.
"I didn't realise you had been the one protecting me all these while." The sarcasm in my tone was hard to miss and he lowered his gaze, realising he had crossed a line.
Without another word of exchange, my bones snapped into place and in seconds, I shifted.
The forest blurred around me as I ran, paws pounding the earth, lungs burning with the rush of cold night air, my chest tightening from the whole feeling of it. But it wasn't the run that had my chest tight, it was the damn dream.
I could not stop thinking about it.
"It wasn't just a dream", my wolf snapped in my head, her voice lazy but insistent, like she'd been waiting for me to admit it. If she's indeed me like they say, then she would be rolling her eyes.
I growled back at her. "Oh, shut up. Dreams don't mean anything. It was just my brain messing with me."
At this point, I think I was trying to convince myself more than her.
She snorted, unimpressed. "Messing with you? You think the way your heart raced, the way the air smelled in that dream was just an illusion? That wasn't imagination, that was a memory that hasn't happened yet. You're smarter than that Lyra."
I stumbled slightly, claws digging into the dirt as I caught myself. "That doesn't even make sense!"
"It doesn't have to, " she shot back. It didn't make sense when I wasn't let out for years, longer than every other wolf. It didn't make sense when you realised you were the last descendant of the Luna hale bloodline. You felt it. Don't lie to yourself."
I hated that she was right, hated it more than the fact that my legs couldn't outrun the images still flickering in my head.
My throat burned with thirst, so I slowed when I reached the lake, lowering my nuzzle to drink. The water was icy, freezing against my tongue, grounding me for just a moment.
Then I saw it.
The reflection of the moon shimmered on the surface, bright and full, but as the ripples calmed, the light twisted, stretched, and then it took shape.
My head jerked up, eyes wide. I blinked hard, then looked again.
The moon's glow wasn't just light anymore, it was the outline of a woman, her features matching the exact ones that have always appeared in my dreams since I shifted.
My pulse almost stopped and my wolf went silent. For once, the weight of the moment pressing on us both. I stared at the water like if I stare long enough the image would disappear.
"Tell me you see that too," I whispered, but she didn't answer. She didn't need to, the silence was enough.
I backed away from the lake, heart hammering. Maybe it wasn't just a dream. Maybe I was losing my mind.
"Remember who you are…. Fulfil your destiny." The woman's voice resounded in my head, distant as ripples ran through the waters. And when they stopped, the moon's reflection was back to its original look.
"I'm beginning to think this is more of a curse than a blessing." I said to myself.
Now feeling the weight of the exhaustion from running, I collapsed into the ground.
"Do you think we'd ever get the chance at another mate?" My wolf asked, and her question made me silent for a few seconds.
"We don't need a man, and we definitely don't need a mate in our lives"
"We can't be given such important information without a mate by our side," she tried to argue, but I wasn't having it.
"All men have ever done to us, no, me. All men have ever done to me is hurt me. The heartbreak and pain from the severed bond of the sole called mate I was supposed to have was what forced you out. So no, we don't need a man."
My throat tightened even though I wasn't saying the words out loud. It might have been all said in my head, but the pain was still the same.
It was quiet in my head and I was about drifting off to sleep from how calm and serene the environment felt. But it was quickly contaminated.
I had barely closed my eyes, given into the embrace of sleep when I felt a sharp searing pain in my hind limb, followed by a sharp howl of pain.