Chapter 7 Echoes of the Past

The ruins were quiet, but the silence pressed against me like a living thing. My hands rested on my knees, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from scanning every shadow, every fragment of stone, every twisted root that might conceal movement.

Then I sensed it. A presence. Strong, unyielding… and terrifyingly familiar.

I froze. My instincts screamed at me, yet something deeper—something primal—kept me from running. It wasn’t anyone I recognized from the city. Yet it carried a weight I hadn’t felt since that night. The night Silverfang burned, the night my family and pack had vanished in blood and fire.

And then he stepped forward.

The light through the broken treetops caught his face, and my stomach dropped. My breath hitched, and my knees trembled. Memories I had tried to bury surged forward in a violent tide. The laughter of my pack, the warmth of home, the chaos, the screams… all of it came rushing back.

His eyes met mine, calm yet piercing, and I finally remembered.

Kael. Alpha Kael.

The name clawed at my throat, a bitter taste of rage and disbelief. The Alpha who had destroyed my pack. The one responsible for every scar, every loss, every unanswered question about why we had been punished so cruelly. I had hated him for years, swore I would never forgive him, never forget.

Now he stood before me, and the past collided violently with the present.

I wanted to scream, to demand answers, to throw myself at him, but my body refused to obey. Fear, fury, and disbelief wrapped around me in a suffocating grip. I could hardly process that this man—the cause of everything I had lost—was here, in the very place that held my memories, my grief, my anger.

“Kael…” I breathed, my voice barely a whisper. “Why… why us? What did we ever do?”

He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained steady, almost unreadable, yet something in the way he looked at me stirred an old, bitter ache deep within. The ruins around us seemed to vibrate with the weight of history, as if the stones themselves remembered what had happened here.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said finally, his voice low, carrying authority and an edge that made my chest tighten. “This place… it’s not for the living to wander so freely.”

My hands clenched into fists. I wanted to hate him. I did hate him. Yet beneath the rage, beneath the fear, something else stirred—an uneasy, reluctant curiosity. Why had he returned now? Why here?

And worse, I sensed it: Hunter Guild’s presence creeping closer, like shadows inching along the edge of my awareness. This confrontation would not wait.

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stand, my pulse hammering. Kael’s aura pressed down on me, familiar and suffocating, reminding me of every loss I had suffered. My heart screamed that I should run—but the ruins, the memories, the unfinished story of Silverfang… they wouldn’t let me.

Not yet.

And as our eyes locked, I realized: this was far from over.

The sharp sound of footsteps echoed through the ruins, slicing through the fragile calm I had been clinging to. My heart lurched. Hunter Guild. They had followed me here, even to this cursed place.

Before I could react, a heavy weight grabbed my arm. Strong, unyielding, and impossibly fast. Kael. He didn’t say a word. His presence alone silenced every thought except survival.

“Move!” he barked, and I obeyed, my fear almost paralyzing me as he pulled me behind a fallen pillar. From that vantage, I could see them—several members of the Guild moving with deadly precision, their weapons drawn, eyes cold.

Kael’s movements were fluid, precise. Each strike, each dodge, a testament to strength and experience I could barely comprehend. My chest pounded as I watched him dispatch them one by one, a storm of power and fury I had never wanted to witness up close again.

When the last hunter fell, silence returned. Only the wind whispered through the broken trees, carrying the metallic tang of blood. I gasped, leaning against Kael’s chest, trying to calm my racing heart.

He released my arm but didn’t step away. His gaze pierced mine, commanding, unwavering. “Elara,” he said, low and steady, “you cannot keep running. Stop hiding. It’s time to move.”

I stared at him, disbelief clawing at me. “Move… where?” My voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Bloodmoon,” he said, naming the pack he now led. “Stay with us. With me. You’ll be safe there. No one will hunt you again.”

The words hit me like ice. Safe? With him? My hands trembled, anger and pain coiling in my chest. I clenched my fists so tightly my nails dug into my palms.

Kael. The same Kael who had destroyed Silverfang Pack. The one who had taken my home, my family. The one who had killed so many of my people… my father.

Safe. How could I be safe with the man who had caused everything I had lost?

“No,” I spat, my voice shaking with rage and grief. “I… I can’t… I’ll never go with you!” My eyes burned with unshed tears. “Do you have any idea what you did? My pack… my father… you slaughtered them all!”

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t turn away. His expression softened—not entirely, but enough to show something other than authority. “I did what I had to,” he said, the words carrying weight and cold truth. “I didn’t expect you to survive this long. But hiding won’t change the past, Elara. And it won’t save you from the ones still hunting you.”

I shook my head violently, the pain and hatred twisting in my stomach. “I hate you… I hate you for everything!”

Kael stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him. “Then use it,” he said quietly, almost a challenge. “Use that fire. But not here, not like this. You belong somewhere stronger, not lost among ruins and ghosts.”

I wanted to turn away, to run, to scream. But somewhere deep inside, beneath the fury, a tiny ember of… uncertainty flickered. Could I trust him? Could I survive with him? Could I ever forgive—or at least face—the man who had shattered my world?

I had sworn it. Sworn that one day I would make him pay for what he had done. The fury that had lain dormant for years surged through me now, raw and unrelenting. Every memory of Silverfang—the fire, the screams, my father’s last moments—pounded in my chest. I could never belong to Bloodmoon. Never. I was better off moving from place to place, a shadow drifting through the world, than becoming part of the pack that had destroyed my home.

“You don’t understand!” I spat, my voice shaking with anger. “I’ll never stay with you. Never!”

Kael’s eyes softened ever so slightly, but there was no hint of surrender. He stepped closer, his presence still overpowering, and his voice carried that same commanding edge. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time, Elara. Longer than you can imagine. You’ve been running, hiding… but there’s more to you than you know. More than even you realize.”

I froze, my fists tightening. “What… what are you talking about?”

He didn’t answer immediately, letting the words hang between us like a knife’s edge. “There are truths about your past. About who you are… and about me. Secrets you weren’t meant to uncover on your own. But you will. And soon.”

I swallowed hard, my anger clashing with the knot of fear and curiosity tightening in my stomach. He spoke as if he held the key to a world I had never seen—a world tied to the blood, fire, and loss that had marked my life forever.

“I don’t care about your secrets,” I hissed, shaking my head. “I care about one thing: you killed my pack. My family. My father. And you expect me to follow you?”

Kael’s gaze didn’t waver. “I don’t expect anything… yet. But hiding will not keep you safe, Elara. And there are things you need to understand, about the world, about yourself… about us.”

I wanted to turn away, to flee as I had done so many times before. My instinct screamed at me to run—but that ember of uncertainty, however small, refused to die. And I realized that whatever Kael held back… it might change everything I thought I knew.

But my rage burned brighter than curiosity. I would not forgive him. I would not trust him. And I would not forget. Not ever.