The woods whispered of things long forgotten. Mael leaned against a tree, gasping for breath, his hands still trembling from what he'd done. Blood clung to his claws, and the beast within still snarled beneath his skin, restless. He could feel it—something inside him had shifted. Not just a loss of control... but an awakening.
Selona stood a few steps away, watching him in silence. Her eyes, glowing faintly in the mist, held no judgment—only concern. Without a word, she tore a strip from her cloak and gently wrapped his bleeding forearm. Mael winced, ashamed. "I lost control," he muttered. "It wasn't me out there... it was something else."
"No," Selona said quietly, "it was you. Just not the you you've met yet." She glanced into the woods as if expecting something to emerge. "Whatever's inside you… it's responding to the blood moon. And it's only just begun."
The forest deepened around them. Each step forward pressed them into silence thick as fog, where strange voices seemed to flicker through the trees. Mael didn't know if he was hearing whispers... or if his mind, touched by the curse, had started to listen to something no human was meant to hear.
Then, without warning, Selona froze. "Mael," she whispered. "Look."
On a stone slab wrapped in vines stood a cloaked figure in silver. It didn't move. It didn't speak. But Mael knew it. The same figure from his visions. His breath caught in his chest. The figure tilted its head slowly, and then—not aloud, but in Mael's mind—a voice rang out:
"The blood moon has awakened you… but what you are becoming is older than wolves."
Pain bloomed in his chest like fire. Mael dropped to one knee, clutching his ribs. "Who are you?!" he shouted through clenched teeth, but the figure was already dissolving into mist, vanishing as soundlessly as it had come.
Mael turned to Selona, his voice shaking. "You saw that, right? It spoke to me… like it knew me. Like it's waiting for something."
Selona knelt beside him, her hand glowing faintly as it touched his back. Warmth surged through his spine—a calm, healing presence. "You're not just cursed," she said. "You're connected to something ancient. And it's waking up faster than we thought."
He stared at her, startled. "That glow… you have powers?"
Selona hesitated. Then she opened her palm, revealing a soft silver shimmer—faint, but unmistakably magical. "I've had power for years, Mael. But yours… it's different. Wild. Untamed. Whatever's inside you… it's not just werewolf blood. It's something else. Something older. And maybe... far more dangerous."
She met his eyes, steady and serious. "I've trained to control my strength. You haven't even discovered yours. But even now... I can feel it. You're stronger than me. And when your full power awakens, the world will either
fear you—or follow you."