Fire! Fire!!”

The packhouse had been buzzing with activity in preparation for Selene’s birthday; she was the Alpha’s first daughter.

“There’s a fire on the east end!” voices repeated.

Heavy footsteps trailed the corridors. Aela’s hand stopped midair, holding her lipstick. “What’s going on?”

“Stay here,” said Liam, her older brother, throwing his jacket on her bed and dashing out.

It was also her birthday, but she barely felt any excitement; instead, she was uneasy. Everyone expected her to find her mate soon.

The corridor seemed quiet now; she could hear no footsteps, and just then, smoke crept underneath her door, filling the air with a putrid smell. It. It seemed to stab her insides the more she inhaled.

Aela choked as the smoke enveloped her room. She cried out as her hand made contact with the door handle; it burned, and there was a prickly sensation that lingered strangely. She kicked the door repeatedly as she screamed for help. She was always told to be careful. She once had a habit of breaking the door down whenever her brother locked her in when they were younger, but now the door was unbreakable. Strange.

She could barely see or breathe as smoke clouded the entire room, then she heard footsteps right outside her door.

“Somebody help me. I’m in here.”

“Aela?” a weirdly familiar voice quipped.

She dropped to her knees, her vision now hazy and her throat much tighter than before. Moments later, Aela could feel her body being dragged.

“We’re not going to make it.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“We should just kill her now and stop everything.”

She blinked repeatedly, and pain lingered in her lungs, but she could take in air just fine now. Her head was heavy; it lolled to the side when she tried to observe who was moving her.

A figure wore a black jacket with an orange leaf embroidery at the edge, similar to what Liam usually wore. The second figure was slender and clad in a purple robe, a woman.

Boom!

The dining area went up in flames, and howls filled the air. The whole pack would be on alert now.

“That’s the signal.”

“What are you doing?” muttered Aela

The two figures let go of her, and she watched them hurriedly pull up their masks before turning to face her. The woman in a purple robe unsheathed a dagger; her companion stared at her, shuffling his feet uneasily.

Aela tried shiftin into her wolf, but her body burned from the inside. “What did you do to me?” A painful gasp escaped her lips.

“You’ll be fine. We just don’t want you shifting right now. Not yet.”

“We need to go,” the other figure whispered, “Now!”

Aela focused and tried to bring out her wolf, the pain spread throughout her body. She let out a loud cry pushing harder, forcing the woman to slam the butt of her dagger to Aela’s head.

“This is not the plan,” the man said, pulling the slender woman away. “I’m leaving with or without you.”

He spun in the opposite direction, walking away, and she drove her blade through him. Aela watched in horror, wondering why they would turn against each other. The man’s body fell beside her, blood pooling. His mask had slipped down, revealing his identity.

“No. No. Liam?” Aela cried in horror, “Liam! Liam!!”

“Run,” groaned Liam, “I’ll find you again.”

The woman bound Aela’s hands and continued to drag her across the plain behind the packhouse. Aela was unable to feel her connection with the pack; it was blocked somehow. She couldn’t explain why her limbs felt like jelly or why she couldn’t shift. Her eyes went to Liam’s unmoving body, and a wave of rage washed over her. Her vision went red, and she morphed into her wolf faster than she had ever done before.

The woman’s eyes widened. “Impossible. This shouldn’t be happening.” She waved her hands in a weird pattern, and runes glowing green in the dark appeared above her. “You can’t kill me.”

Aela lunged at her, meeting a barrier. She tried again, and the woman was in a green dome. A voice came through her link.

Aela, where are you?

Liam?

Are you okay?

Aela observed Liam’s body again. What game was this strange woman playing? How was she playing with her thoughts? She growled, then snapped her jaws at the green dome. It started to crack. She kept attacking till it broke to pieces. She could almost taste victory when the woman suddenly thrust her hand into her wolf through the chest. Aela froze; she could feel the woman’s icy-cold fingers fiddling with her heart like a toy. The pain was excruciating.

“Enough games. I’m taking you with me,” she inched closer to Aela’s nuzzle, “Behave.”

The thought of going down without a fight irked Aela

Aela. Answer me. Where are you?

She whined sadly. How dare she? How dare she invade her mind and speak to her in Liam’s voice? She locked eyes with the woman and howled loudly. Warmth gradually turning into heat radiated from her chest before spreading. She looked at Liam’s body for the third time, reminding herself what was real. The woman pulled her hand out of Aela’s chest, cursing. The skin on her hand sizzled, and the smell of burnt flesh wafted.

The woman took a few steps back, muttering to herself, and green runes appeared again. Aela swiped at her face, her claws scratching and pulling her mask away, then lunged, hoping to reach her faster than she could put her barriers up again; only this time, a black hole appeared beneath the woman’s feet, and she sank into it. Aela could see the smirk on her face as she escaped; the woman’s identity, a shock.

Aela crashed to the ground. The woman and the hole were gone, but lodged in her teeth was the woman’s finger. She spat it out and retracted back into her human form. She was dizzy and exhausted.

Aela, for God's sake, where the hell are you?

Liam? Is that you?

She could hear some of the pack now through the link; everyone in their own way was assisting to put out fires and evacuate others that were trapped. Liam’s body was gone, she was alone in the field, and she crawled to where she was certain Liam’s body had been. The ground wasn’t even bloodstained.

It's not real.

Aela fell on her back, and the sky was spinning. Or was she the one spinning? A scent caught her attention, chocolate and pine; it was intoxicating; her wolf threatened to surface. Someone approached her, the scent got stronger and brown eyes hovered above hers.

“Mate,” whispered Aela.

His hands cupped her face gently. She couldn’t seem to focus on his face, but his eyes were locked on hers. She felt seen. “I’m sorry.”

Her eyes finally closed.

The next morning, Aela woke up on the stone-cold floor of the dungeons, sunlight peeked in through the rectangular hole in the wall. Aela scrambled to her feet, still clutching the finger she had bitten off the woman. The Gamma of the pack, Theo, stood outside her cell, eyes narrowed at her.

“Why would you destroy your home? Endanger others?” he asked

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Starting fires and blowing up places, those aren't wrong?”

“I was in my room when the fire started, and I was kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped? But you’re right in front of me.”

“I got away.”

“You got away.” He tilted his head and turned to walk away. “Right. Good for you. Well, we have evidence of your crimes. Just because you’re related to the Alpha doesn’t make you exempt from punishment. People could have died.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Alpha will decide what to do with you.” Theo looked distant for a few seconds; he was definitely mindlinking someone. A frown was on his face when he spoke again as he opened her cell. “You’ll be escorted to your room. Stay there until you're called upon.”

Aela stood in her room; it was untouched, as if nothing had happened. Liam’s jacket from the previous night was still on her bed; nothing was burned, and the corridors were clean. The east end of the packhouse was partially damaged, and the dining area was covered in broken wood and rubble. She was sure that her end was on fire, and the smoke had come into her room the night before. Nothing made sense.

She took a deep breath, rotating the finger in her hand, a lump forming in her throat as she stared at the crescent tattoo on the severed finger, identical to the one on her index finger. She closed her eyes, recalling the moment she saw the woman’s face, the eerie feeling like she was looking into a mirror. How could she have seen herself?

Liam barged into her room. “Aela, what the hell?”