Chapter Seven

The clink of silverware against porcelain had never felt so loud. I sat stiffly at the dinner table, my eyes flicking between my adoptive parents, Lillian and Everett, and my brother, Jole, who was unusually quiet beside me. I couldn’t unhear it, my mother’s slip.

“You’ve always been dramatic. And now? All this nonsense about strange men and glowing eyes…”

The words echoed in my skull like a scream. Lillian had never been told about my eyes changing. Not after the hospital. Not after Amaya saw them. And definitely not before. I stabbed my fork into the pile of overcooked carrots on my plate, the tension in my jaw growing tighter. I look up and lock eyes with Lillian.

Lillian blinked, setting down her wine glass. And then she smiled at me. Lillian’s smile was too rehearsed, too strained. “Oh, Serelina smile for crying out loud! All you ever do is pout!” she semi shouted rolling her eyes.

My voice was sharper this time. “YOU GIVE ME NO REASON TO SMILE…” I said through gritted teeth. Then under my breath I added “All you have even done is lie to me.”

Everett cleared his throat and reached for his napkin, avoiding her gaze entirely. “It’s been a stressful few days. Maybe let’s not read too much into things, hmm?” It was as if he heard everything I said under my breath. Jole leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, studying everyone with a calculating look. He hadn’t said much all evening, but I could feel it, he was holding something back too.

My stomach twisted.

“Is there something I should know?” I asked, addressing the table. “Something about me? Because I’m getting the very distinct feeling that everyone knows more than I do.”

There was a pause, thick and uncomfortable. Then Lillian muttered under her breath, “She’s not ready.” My eyes snapped to her. “What did you just say?”

Lillian looked up, her face pale. “Nothing. I didn’t…”

“No,” I said, pushing my chair back with a screech. “No more of that. No more vague comments and brushing me off like I’m some fragile little thing. I’ve had enough secrets for one lifetime.”

I stood, chest heaving, the silver in me irises shimmering like quicksilver beneath the kitchen light. “Sit down,” Everett said, his voice low and stern in a way that made me recoil. “You don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“No,” I snapped. “I think I do.” Jole finally stood too, his expression conflicted. “Lina…wait…”

But I was already moving, storming out the back door and into the cool night air, my feet hitting the dirt path behind the house before my thoughts could catch up. Trees blurred past me as I ran, lungs burning, heart pounding like a war drum. I didn’t know where I was going… only that I needed to get away. From the lies. The pressure. The suffocating walls of that perfect family dinning room where nothing had ever really been true.

“Lina!” Jole’s voice called from behind me. I didn’t stop. He caught up with me halfway into the woods, grabbing my arm gently. “Please. Just stop. Let me explain.”

I yanked free. “Explain what? That my whole life’s been a lie?”

“No.” He stepped in front of me, breathing hard. “That you’re not crazy. That's what's happening to you, it’s real.”

My pulse thundered in my ears. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not sick,” he said. “You’re not broken. You’re… different.”

My laugh was bitter. “That’s not exactly news.”

“I found something,” Jole admitted. “A letter. Hidden in Dad’s desk with another picture and that old photo, back in the attic. In this new picture you were just a baby, but…” He hesitated. “You weren’t born into this family, Serelina. You were brought here. Hidden.”

I stared at him, cold washing through me like a wave. “What do you mean hidden?”

“There’s more,” he said. “I think you’re… not entirely human.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You’re changing, Lina. Your strength, your senses, your eyes. I think…” His voice cracked. “I think you’re a werewolf.”

The forest seemed to hold its breath around us. I took a step back, my legs trembling.

“Please,” Jole said. “I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure. But now…I am. And you deserve to know the truth.”

But I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. A wolf? Me? The air around me buzzed again, the same electric crackle I had felt earlier. I just thought this very same thing not hours before. My bones ached. My skin burned. Something inside me was howling. And this time? I heard it.

Jole’s POV

My lungs burned from the run, but it wasn’t exhaustion tightening my chest…it was dread. I spotted her up ahead, just beyond the tree line, I caught up to her as fast as I could, grabbing her arm gently and calling out to her. Moonlight filtered through the canopy above, painting silver streaks across her hair. She looked… shattered. I told her everything that I found besides the picture that she has already seen. Serelina backed away from me until she hit a tree behind her. She slid to the bottom of the tree and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was beyond repair right now. But I had to say something.

“Lina,” I said softly, approaching like one might a skittish animal. She didn’t look at me. I sank to the ground beside her, keeping just enough distance to not crowd her. The silence stretched long and tense, filled only by the night’s hum. “I didn’t mean for you to find out like that,” I finally said.

Serelina’s voice was flat. “But you knew, and didn't even try to tell me. You waited till we were here to tell me…”

I exhaled slowly. “I only knew for like a day… 2 days max. I…I found something in Dad’s office. Hidden in a locked drawer. A photo of you as a baby. You looked the same…same curls, same eyes. But your eyes…” I paused. “They were silver even then. Not like they are now…just faint, but definitely not normal.”

Serelina still didn’t move. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign.

“There was a letter with it like I said,” I continued. “No name. No return address. Just a warning. ‘Keep her hidden. Don’t let her awaken. They’re still searching.’” I swallowed hard. “I didn’t understand what it meant until today.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper. “You’re scaring me, Jole.”

“I know.” I looked at her then, trying to meet her eyes. “But I think you deserve the truth. Even if it sounds insane.” She finally turned her head, just slightly. My hands fidgeted in my lap. “You’re not sick, Lina. You’re not crazy. I… I really do believe you're a werewolf..” The word hung between us like a shot fired in the dark.

She blinked once. Then again. “I need to see the photo and letter. Do you have them?”

“No but I have a picture on my phone of the letter. Look I didn’t believe it either,” I said quickly. “But that photo… the letter… your eyes, the stuff you’ve been feeling… I’ve been watching it all happen. And hearing what you have told me has been going on these last few days has led me to do some research of my own. Which is how I found the letter and all that stuff… But Lina, you’re faster, stronger, your senses are sharper. That heat under your skin? The pull in your chest? It’s not random. It’s you waking up.” She stared at me, motionless.

My voice dropped to something soft. Protective. “They kept it from you. Our parents. They were supposed to. Whoever left you with them… they were trying to protect you.”

Serelina shook her head slowly. “That doesn’t make sense. That’s not real. Werewolves aren’t real.”

“Neither are glowing eyes and heartbeats that shake the floor, but here we are,” I said, offering a sad smile. “I think… I think you were always meant to be more. You were just never meant to know. Not yet.”

A shudder rippled through her, and I instinctively reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re not alone in this, Lina. Whatever it means, wherever it leads.. you’ve got me.”

She leaned into me, just slightly. “You’re not scared of me?”

I gave a breathy laugh. “Terrified. But that’s kind of the point of family, isn’t it?”

And in that moment, under the moonlight and the trees, my sister, Serelina Vale took her first true breath in days, not as a girl unraveling, but as something ancient, fierce, and still unknown. And Me? I vowed to be her anchor in whatever storm came next.

Lucian POV

The tether snapped taut. I staggered mid-stride, one hand bracing against a tree trunk as my breath hitched. It wasn’t pain… It was connection. A surge of awareness that hit like lightning through my spine, raw and electric.

She knew.

I didn’t know how I knew, but the moment Serelina accepted what she was, something ancient between us stirred awake. The tether didn’t just pull… it roared. My blood sang with it. Kael surged beneath his skin, snarling with joy and recognition.

“She remembers. Not with her mind, Kael growled, but her soul.”

I pressed a hand to my chest, my pulse racing. My vision blurred for a moment, silver washing over the world. The air smelled different… sharper, saturated with her scent on the wind. Wild, awakening, Mine.

“She’s close,” I murmured to myself. Not just close in distance. Closer to becoming. Kael pushed harder now, pacing beneath my skin. The bond between us wasn’t quiet anymore. It beat in rhythm with her heartbeat. Her wolf was stirring too.

“Serelina,” I whispered, tasting her name like a memory. I didn’t know why the fates had tethered me to her, or why she’d been hidden so long… but now that she was rising, nothing would keep me from finding her.

Not Ferren. Not Draven. Not even death.