Alethea
I squeeze my eyes shut, I refuse to let the tears fall.
I don’t want them to see me cry.
They’ve taken everything from me-but they won’t take my dignity.
If burning on this stake is the price I have to pay for freedom, so be it.
Let it burn. I’d rather be ashes than a prisoner.
I keep my eyes closed. I don’t want to see the crowd that’s gathered, not the cruel eyes waiting to watch me suffer.
But deep inside me, I know something has to change.
Suddenly, I hear a shout.
“Get her down!”
A voice from the crowd.
Smoke fills my lungs.
It chokes me, stings my nose, and makes my chest tighten.
And that’s when I realized…
The stake is on fire.
Just like I imagined.
But I didn’t do anything, did I?
My eyes snap open, and all around me, people are running in chaos.
Their faces are full of fear and confusion.
Someone rushes to untie me.
I cough hard, my lungs burning from the smoke.
“Get her away from here!”
“She has to stay alive for the ritual!”
Their words barely register.
I’ve stopped fighting.
I don’t scream. I don’t thrash.
Because in the middle of the madness, a voice whispers in my mind:
“Stay calm. Watch.”
And I do.
I sit quietly, coughing through the smoke, watching them run like scared animals.
They’re trying to put out the flames-but the fire only grows stronger.
It moves faster, hotter, and wilder.
And that’s when I know…
This fire is mine.
Somehow, I started it.
My power, my gift, answered my pain, my fear.
And now, I realize I can use it.
If I had remembered this sooner, maybe I wouldn’t be tied to a stake.
But it’s not too late.
A slow, twisted smile creeps onto my face as I watch them scramble.
For the first time, they fear me.
Then I finally look around and see where I am.
We’re deep in a misty forest. Not far from where I sit, wrapped in the smoky air of the dying fire, I see it.
A temple.
It stands tall, ancient, and weathered by time.
Thick tree branches twist around it like claws. Their gnarled trunks seem to hold the temple in a tight, unshakable grip.
The building is made of rough-hewn stone, dark and cracked as if it has witnessed centuries of secrets and bloodshed.
Just before the temple, there’s a wooden altar. Its surface is carved with symbols-wolves, moons, and stars all entangled in a design so detailed it feels alive.
I close my eyes, and like a bolt of lightning, a vision flashes before them vivid, it knocks the breath from my chest.
Alpha Craig.
He stands before the altar, his face lit by the flames dancing around the temple.
He raises a dagger with a high blade and gleams under the firelight like something sacred and deadly.
Then, without hesitation, he slashes my palm.
I watch, frozen in the vision, as my blood spills onto the altar.
And in that moment, the altar glows. Not just a soft shimmer but a blinding, pulsing light that explodes outward like a heartbeat made of fire.
Suddenly, Alpha Craig throws his head back and growls a deep, guttural sound that shakes the air.
Something dark floods into him. Something from me.
It feels like part of my very soul, ripped away and forced into him.
A transfer. A theft.
My eyes fly open, my chest rising and falling in panic.
Oh, Goddess.
Now I understand.
He doesn’t just want my blood.
He wants my power.
He plans to take all of it.
And he’ll stop at nothing.
My mind races as I remember the flames still burning not far from me.
I want it all to stop.
I want it all to end.
Just then, I see him.
He walks forward slowly, with a calm grace that only someone sure of his power can carry.
There’s a dark aura swirling around him, thick like smoke, almost alive.
I never noticed it back when he visited the Redwood Pack.
Back then, he looked afraid-especially when the rogues attacked.
But now…
Now, he stands tall. Strong. Commanding.
Exactly how an Alpha should look-at least, on the outside.
With every step he takes, the ground almost seems to shift beneath him.
A heavy force, a presence, moves with him.
He doesn’t just walk-he owns the space around him.
As he gets closer, every pack member rises to their feet.
One by one, they lower their heads in deep, fearful bows.
That’s when it hits me.
He’s not respected.
He’s feared.
I scan the faces around me.
These people aren’t the usual strong, proud wolves I’m used to.
They look smaller… weaker.
Their eyes don’t shine with loyalty-they burn with desperation.
Like they’re all clinging to the hope that he can break the curse hanging over them.
But what they don’t realize is…
He is the curse.
“He’s made them believe he’s their savior,” Xena whispers gently in my head.
“But he’s the one who bound them in chains to begin with.”
I swallow hard as the pieces of my dream, the vision, and this moment crash together in my mind.
I have to stop him.
I can’t let this continue.
My wrists are bound with silver-coated chains.
Each movement burns, but I push the pain aside.
I’m yanked forward like an animal being led to slaughter.
My feet drag against the forest floor, and still, I walk because I must.
I know what he wants now.
He wants my blood.
He wants to strip me of my strength, leave me hollow, and offer what’s left of me to a stronger Someone he can control.
Someone who will wield my stolen power like a weapon.
I shake my head, heart racing at the madness of it all.
How can one man become so drunk on power?
He steps in front of me and grabs my arm roughly, pulling me up to stand.
I let my body go slack.
I pretend I’ve given up, that I’ve accepted my fate.
That sick, twisted smile spreads across his face like he’s already won.
I stare past him, my eyes fixed on nothing.
Let him think I’m broken.
Let him believe I’m finished.
Because the moment he lowers his guard…
I’ll show him just how wrong he is.
Suddenly, Alpha Craig pulls out a dagger.
The blade gleams under the firelight, and before I can react, he drags the sharp edge across my arm.
But he moves too slowly.
In a flash-faster than I ever thought possible twist.
The shackles fall from my wrists like they were never really locked.
I grab his hand before he can finish the cut.
He looks at me in shock, but it’s too late.
I wrench the dagger from his grip. My body moves on instinct, faster than thought.
Craig stumbles back, off-balance.
In that split second, I drive the blade into his palm, forcing his blood to spill onto the altar before mine can ever touch it.
The moment his blood hits the carved, everything changes.
His body locks up.
A scream rips from his throat, loud and raw.
It echoes through the ancient temple as the glowing runes carved into the altar begin to pulse wildly like they’re alive.
The magic…
It’s rejecting him.
Dark veins spread across his skin like poison.
He drops to his knees, gasping, clawing at his own chest as if he can rip the pain out.
His eyes roll back, and I watch in stunned silence.
That could’ve been me.
If I hadn’t moved… if I hadn’t listened to the voice inside me…
That would’ve been my fate.
And then a thunderclap splits the sky.
Suddenly, one by one, the pack members begin to shift.
Bones crack, muscles twist and expand, fur explodes across their skin as they drop to all fours.
It’s happening.
They’re shifting into their wolves.
The clearing is filled with howls that echo through the forest, loud and powerful.
The sound rumbles deep into the earth, shaking the ground beneath my feet.
I realize the truth-
Craig had cursed them.
He’d bound them, kept them from ever becoming their true selves.
And now… with his blood on the altar… the curse is broken.
I stand frozen, watching the pack in their wolf form, majestic and wild, circling around me.
One by one, they tilt their heads back and howl-not in pain or fear, but in freedom.
The sound pierces the sky.
I feel it in my chest like it’s calling something deep within me.
But just when I think the worst is over, something shifts in the air-
A chill crawls down my spine.
Something darker is coming.
Another danger still waits in the shadows.