Chapter 1 - Marked by the moon and flame

Chapter 1 – The Things No One Talks About

POV: Rain Miya

Durban always smelled like secrets after the rain. The scent of wet asphalt and sea salt drifted in through the cracked lecture hall window, and I found myself staring out at the storm clouds instead of listening to Dr. Jacobs rant about postcolonial literature. Ughhh!!!

I knew he'd call on me, he always did when I zoned out, but I couldn't help it. There was something in the air today. Something that made my skin prickle and my stomach twist.

I wasn't crazy. Not exactly, but ever since I was little child, I could feel things that no one else could. Like the time I screamed at a tourist on the beach because I swore he didn't have a shadow, that was a whole other thing, or the night I heard something howling from the trees behind our house, long before the city had spread that far.

Things no one wants to talk about. Creatures or spirits that live just slightly out of sync with the rest of us mundane people.

"Miss Miya," Dr. Jacobs snapped. "Would you like to contribute something relevant, or shall I mark you absent?"

"Sorry, sir," I muttered, sitting straighter. How embarrassing!!! "Uh… Chinua Achebe deconstructs colonial power through storytelling." What was I even saying? My goodness!!!

A few snickers here and there. A raised eyebrow from Dr. Jacobs. But he let it go.

When the lecture ended, I packed up my backpack slowly, giving the rest of the class time to clear out. I hated the noise of too many people in close spaces, it made everything louder in my head. Thoughts, feelings, heartbeats. Especially lately.

I stepped out into the corridor, the wet tiles reflecting a grey light. That's when I saw him.

Tall, handsome, and I will go as far as saying delicious looking, and he moved like a storm held in a man's body, controlled, but always on the edge of unleashing.

His skin was a light in complexion, sun-brushed gold, like the desert sand at dusk, smooth and striking against the dark fall of his long, locked hair. Each lock was thick, well-kept, and swept past his shoulders like the mane of a warrior-king, but it was his eyes that stilled even the boldest of hearts, storm-grey in colour, yet burning with the quiet fire of a born leader, as if lightning had been trapped inside them.

His face was so smooth, carved with effortless grace. No unnecessarily harsh angles, just the strong, regal lines of a man who never needed to raise his voice to command a room. Full, beautiful lips softened his intensity, but only just they hinted at tenderness, a promise of sweetness hidden beneath all that power. His teeth, My word, I have never seen anything so perfect.

And then there was his body… sculpted like a Zulu gladiator, each muscle earned [From religious gym sessions I assume], not gifted. Broad shoulders. A chest that could break a charge. Veins that ran like rivers over forearms hardened by training. He didn't just look like protection. He was protection.

He didn't need to announce himself. He simply existed, and the world responded.

A dark hoodie clinging to his body like it had been sewn there. He stood with his back to me, staring out the window down the hall. I don't know why I noticed him, he hadn't been in class, but something about the air shifted the moment I did.

Like I was no longer alone in my skin.

His head turned slightly. Just enough for me to catch the faintest glimpse of a jawline, a sliver of gold in his eye, and the ghost of a smile.

And then gone. The corridor flickered with the lights above, and he was no longer there.

I blinked hard. Nope. Not doing this again.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked away fast, my pulse thudding in my throat.

But deep down, I already knew.

Something had changed.

And it had just found me.

Chapter 2 – Eyes Like Fire

POV: Rain Miya

The campus bookstore was always quiet, which is exactly why I liked it, the serene space was always something I craved. The fluorescent lights buzzed softly above me, and the scent of old paper settled my nerves better than any herbal tea could.

As usual, I tucked myself into the corner behind the fiction shelves and pulled out my laptop. I should've been working on my assignment, but instead I opened a fresh document and typed one line:

I think I saw something that wasn't human today.

I stared at the words for a long time, not knowing how to proceed. Then I hit delete.

It wasn't the first time I'd felt something strange. Just… not like that. Not so direct. Whoever or whatever that guy was, he had seen me. Not in the way guys at parties or campus cafes usually did. This was very different. As if he already knew me. As if he'd been waiting for me to notice him.

And that eyes,

Golden. Sharp.

Not quite normal.

I reached into my hoodie pocket for my earbuds to listen to some music and accidentally brushed my hand on my pendant. A warm pulse ticked against my fingers.

My father gave it to me six years ago when I turned fifteen. A black stone shaped like a cute crescent moon, hanging on a well-crafted leather cord. He said it was "to keep me safe," but he wouldn't explain from what. Mom had rolled her eyes [God's rest her soul.], but I never took it off.

Now it felt… warm. Almost alive. Almost like it was responding to something.

I closed my eyes and leaned back, letting the silence fill my chest. That's when I felt it again.

A presence.

Not close, but not far.

Watching.

I opened my eyes fast, heart thudding fast.

The bookstore door creaked open.

A tall figure stepped inside.

Same dark hoodie. Same quiet, powerful stillness as before.

He didn't look at me. Not directly. But I could feel the pull like gravity, like a thread I couldn't un-feel, and before he disappeared I heard one word, it's sound low, possessive and primal, and raw. "MINE!"

I ducked my head quickly and fumbled with my laptop. My hands were shaking, from how freaked out I was. What the hell was happening to me?

Before I could make sense of anything, my phone buzzed.

[Dad]: Get home early tonight. Lock up before dark. Love you.

Weird. He has never texted me like that before.

Another buzz. WTF!!!

[Unknown Number]: You're not safe. Get out.

My breath was literally caught on my throat.

I looked up.

The guy was gone. Again.

And I was starting to think I wasn't imagining any of it.

Chapter 3 – The Pull

(POV: Mvula Zulu)

I saw her before she saw me.

Rain Miya.

Even her name felt like a prophecy. Rain was the kind of beauty that didn't ask for attention, it claimed it.

Her skin, light and luminous, it held a soft golden undertone to it, like honey warmed by sunlight. Her shoulder-length curls framed her face with effortless grace, each coil wild and free just like her spirit, but it was her eyes that truly stopped time: one brown, the other a rare blue-grey, stormy and unreadable. Together, they told a story no one could quite understand a girl touched by fate and the Gods themselves, seen by the ancestors, and marked by the universe.

Her face was smooth, sculpted like a love poem written in the dark with soft cheeks, a delicate nose, and full, rosy lips that looked as if they were always on the verge of a secret. She didn't smile often, but when she did, the world leaned in.

And her body… her body was art. Curved in all the right places, hips that swayed like rhythm, a waist so tiny and tummy so flat it drew the eye like a soft whisper, and a presence that could silence chaos. She carried herself like a goddess disguised in mortal flesh grounded, magnetic, alluring and utterly unforgettable.

Rain wasn't just beautiful. She was the calm before a storm, and the storm itself.

She was sitting in that lecture hall like she didn't belong there. Not because she wasn't smart, no, she had that sharp, watchful look in her eye, but because her soul vibrated on a different frequency. One that called to mine like a drumbeat in the dark.

When I walked past the window, I wasn't planning to stop. I never planned anything around her. That's the problem with fate, it doesn't ask for permission, it just does.

But the moment I felt her aura brush mine, I froze. I sensed something I never expected.

Not human.

Not entirely.

My wolf surged to the surface, clawing against my ribs, begging to get closer. To see more. To get more of her scent. To mark her.

And yet… she didn't recognize me. Not yet.

As difficult as it was, I forced myself to pull back. One glimpse, just enough. Let her feel the change in the air. Let the fire settle in her bones before I lit the whole damn forest.

When I slipped into the bookstore later, it wasn't to scare her. It was to make sure.

To breathe in her scent.

To confirm what I had already figured out.

Witch.

Wolf.

Unawakened.

And mine.

The stone around her neck pulsed when I came near. I recognized it, an old protection charm, witch work. Maybe from her bloodline, maybe from her mother. Whoever gave it to her knew she'd be hunted once she came of age.

They were right.

She's not safe. Not anymore.

I've seen him. He's already watching her, the leech. I caught his scent near the student residences last night. Cloaked in glamour, trying to blend in, but you can't fake death. He reeks of hunger and obsession.

She has no idea the kind of power she's carrying, or what it means to be claimed by two monsters at once.

I stepped out of the store before I did something stupid. Like walk up to her. Like touch her. Like tell her the truth.

Not yet.

Not until she's ready.

Not until she chooses.

Chapter 4 – Shadows That Breathe

(POV: Rain Miya)

The bus ride home felt longer than usual. The windows were fogged from the rain and the air smelled like damp plastic and too much deodorant for my liking. I sat near the back, hoodie pulled tight, earbuds in, but I wasn't listening to music.

I was listening for him.

Or… whatever it is, he was.

I kept seeing that moment in the bookstore. The way the lights dimmed when he stepped in. The strange heaviness in my chest, like my heart was bracing for impact or something strange to happen.

I couldn't explain it, but my instincts screamed that he had been there for me. To do what? I don't know, only God knows.

And worse, it feels like someone else had been there too.

I hadn't told anyone about the text. Not even my best friend, Thandi. She'd just think I was being paranoid again, and maybe I was, or maybe she's just too focused on her new beau to make time for my strange "feelings of unease" or "delusions."

But the warning hadn't felt like a prank. I don't have that many people around me to play such tricks, and anyone who knows me, knows I don't have time for such.

It actually felt… urgent.

When I got off at the stop near our cul-de-sac in Glenwood, the street was quiet as usual. Just the swish of passing cars on wet tar and the occasional hum of a generator kicking in.

I walked fast. My boots splashed through puddles as I crossed under the jacaranda trees, the last blossoms sticking to my boot heels like bruised petals.

That's when I heard it…

The Footsteps.

Too light for a normal man. Too slow for someone just walking.

I stopped. Turned around. Nothing but streetlights and mist. My God, this place… One would swear they were living in a fictional place like Mystic Falls.

But I could feel it again,

That sense that the air behind me was watching.

I tightened my grip on my keys, slipped one between my fingers like a blade.

"Don't be stupid, Rain," I muttered. "There's no one there."

Still, I didn't put my earbuds back in. I didn't check my phone. I just walked, eyes scanning, heart pounding louder than my footsteps.

By the time I reached our front gate, I was practically running. I slammed it shut behind me and rushed into the house.

Finally inside. Locked. Breathed a sigh of relief.

Only when I leaned against the door, with my chest heaving, did I realize…

The pendant around my neck was hot.

Not warm. Not comforting.

Burning. This would be a great time to note that, it has never done this before. As far as I know, at least

I yanked it out from under my hoodie. The crescent moon was glowing faintly, flickering like a dying fire.

"What the hell is happening to me?" I whispered.

Then my phone buzzed. I jumped so hard I almost dropped it.

[Unknown Number]: He's not the only one watching you.

I didn't sleep that night. The fact that my dad was not home made things so much worse. Why do old people date by the way?

I take my sleep very seriously, because I just function better with sufficient sleep.

I couldn't sleep because deep down, I knew something was circling me.

Something strange.

Something that seemed hungry.

And I was just beginning to wake up to that truth.

Chapter 5 – The Sweetest Pulse

(POV: Vampire Admirer)

She doesn't know what she is yet.

That's the most intoxicating part. Living her whole life feeling like a mouse, when in actual fact she is a whole force.

Rain Miya walks through the world like it belongs to her. Not with arrogance, no. With innocence. That soft, unguarded light that only those untouched by death still carry.

And light like that...

It calls to creatures like me.

I watched her step off the bus tonight, her big curly hair clinging to her cheek, eyes scanning the shadows like her soul remembered what her mind had forgotten.

She felt me. I smiled, knowing I have that effect on her.

She didn't see me. I was very careful not to startle her.

But she felt me.

She always does.

It's not time yet. I know that for sure.

She has to awaken.

The blood of witches and wolves runs thick in her veins, braided tighter than even SHE realizes. If I touch her now, the magic will rebel.

But when the mark settles, when her fated mate claims her, that's when she'll crack open.

And I'll be there.

Because love is not about timing. It's about hunger. And I have waited lifetimes to taste power like hers wrapped in her skin like silk.

She doesn't know me yet, but she will.

I remember the night I saw her, three years ago, passing through a market in Durban CBD. She was only eighteen, carrying a box of incense for her father, but even then, I smelled her blood from across the crowd.

Moon-blessed.

Sun-forged.

Shadow-touched.

They don't make creatures like her anymore. Not since the wars ended. Not since the witches sealed the old gates.

But someone broke the seal when she was born.

And I won't let those mutts ruin her.

The Alpha thinks he's noble, noble and protective and cursed by fate. I can smell the guilt on him. He'll try to keep his distance from her, he'll try to "honour" the bond.

He doesn't understand the gift he's been handed by the moon Goddess.

But I do.

I will take her gently, or I will take her by blood.

Either way…

Rain Miya will be mine.

Chapter 6 – No More Waiting

(POV: Mvula Zulu)

The vampire was getting bold or maybe too brave.

I could smell his scent all over her street, clinging to the rain-washed streets and walls, threaded into the jacaranda blossoms like a sickness.

He wasn't hiding anymore. He was inviting me, or should I say he was challenging me?

I stood on the ridge overlooking Glenwood, watching her house from the tree line. My wolf paced just beneath my skin, ears pinned, breath heavy. He didn't want to wait anymore.

Neither did I.

But there were rules.

Old ones.

Ones that even monsters like us respected and feared.

If I marked her before she accepts me, or the bond or before she is awakened, it could kill her or break her, or worse, awaken her wrong and risk her going dark. Witches burned when rushed. Wolves broke. And Rain Miya was both.

But the vampire didn't care about that. He'd take her raw, unformed, vulnerable. He'd drink her dry and wear her magic like a crown, like some sick trophy from his centuries of expeditions.

No. Not on my watch.

I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. I could still feel her from the bookstore, her energy, wild and pulsing and hungry for something she didn't understand.

She was ready. She just didn't know it.

I opened my eyes.

No more watching from the shadows like some sick secret.

No more waiting for signs.

It was time.

Time to make contact.

Time to protect what was mine.

The vampire could try to take her.

Let him, I'll be waiting.

He'd find out why I was born of the Alpha of Alphas.

Why the packs still whispered the name Zulu in fear and awe.

And why fate had brought Rain to me.

I shifted just enough for my senses to sharpen, for my presence to ripple through the trees.

Tonight, Rain Miya would see me again.

This time, up close.

This time, properly.

Chapter 7 – When the Storm Speaks

(POV: Rain Miya)

The thunder rolled in like an ancient African drum, shaking the walls of my small room as I lay tangled in the sheets. Outside, the rain hammered the windows with relentless fury, drumming a rhythm that seemed to match the pounding in my chest.

Sleep pulled me under before I could fight it, and that's when the dream came.

I was standing alone in a vast forest, the trees towering and dark, their leaves whispering secrets I couldn't quite catch. The moon hung low and blood-red, bathing everything in a sinister glow.

Then I saw them.

Two figures, one cloaked in power and shadows, eyes like molten gold, the other pale as death, with eyes cold and dark as the void.

They reached for me at the same time.

A voice echoed in my mind, deep and commanding, yet tinged with desperation.

"Choose, Rain. The wolf or the night. The fire or the blood."

I tried to step back, but the forest floor shifted beneath my feet, roots twisting like serpents, holding me fast.

"Who are you?" I whispered, panic clawing up my throat.

The golden-eyed figure smiled softly. "I am Mvula Zulu. Your protector. Your fate."

The pale figure's eyes burned with a hunger that chilled my soul. "I am what will consume you if you turn away."

Lightning split the sky, illuminating their faces in terrifying clarity. The wolf's fierce devotion, the vampire's cold obsession.

The dream shattered like glass as I gasped awake, heart racing, sweat slick on my skin.

Outside, the storm was breaking.

And inside me, something had shifted and changed forever.

Chapter 8 – The One Who Knows My Name

(POV: Rain Miya)

I barely slept after the dream. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them, the wolf and the vampire. One bathed in heat and storm-light. The other cloaked in a cold hunger that made my skin crawl.

But it wasn't the fear that kept me awake.

It was the name.

Mvula.

My name.

But not mine.

The way he'd said it… like it belonged to both of us. Like it had always belonged to both of us. That has always been the thing about dreams, they relay unspoken messages and affirmed feelings you have no business knowing about.

By morning, the rain had stopped, but the clouds hadn't. Durban skies were still bruised and heavy, mirroring the weight in my chest. The weight of feeling like something was going to happen.

I walked to campus like a sleepwalker, barely aware of the city around me. The dream had felt too real. Too deliberate. And somewhere, deep in my bones, I knew it wasn't just a dream.

Did I dream about the guy with storm-grey eyes because I thought he was hot? Did I see the other pale figure because my mind created the thing I fear the most? All I know is, someone or something, had shown it to me.

And then I saw him.

Standing beneath the awning outside the library, dressed in black, hood down, dark locks slicked back from the rain.

Him.

The cute guy from the corridor. The bookstore.

From the dream.

His eyes met mine across the courtyard and the world didn't stop.

It trembled beneath my feet.

Like everything in it recognised what was happening except for me.

I should've run. Screamed. Fainted. Anything, but instead, I walked straight to him, my feet moving before my brain could catch up.

When I stopped just a few steps away, he tilted his head, studying me. His eyes weren't golden now more like deep amber, burning softly, like coals that hadn't gone cold.

"I know you," I said, barely louder than a breath. It was lame, I know.

His voice was rich, calm, steady. "Yes."

"You were in my dream. How did you do that?" My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag as if it could anchor me at this very moment. "You said your name was Mvula."

He gave the faintest, most hottest smile. "It still is."

Something twisted in my stomach. "That's… my name. In Zulu. Rain."

"I know." He stepped forward, slowly, like approaching a wild creature. "That's how I knew it was you."

I blinked. "What do you mean by, that's how you knew it was me?"

"There's a prophecy," he said, voice low. "About a storm-born girl whose blood would carry both light and dark. Wolf and witch. She would be Rain in name and in power."

He looked at me like I was both a miracle and a tragedy.

"And when the storm wakes… so does everything else." Call me a perv for noticing just how perfectly handsome he is, even when he's talking about something this insane.

Chapter 9 – Something in My Blood

(POV: Rain Miya)

"No," I said, stepping back. "No, you've got the wrong girl bro."

Mvula didn't flinch. He just watched me, eyes unreadable. Calm, like a storm waiting to be summoned.

"You feel it, don't you bro?" he said softly with a slight smile only I could tell was mocking my initial mistake of calling him bro. "Don't lie to yourself." he continued.

My throat tightened. "I've had weird dreams before. It doesn't mean I'm part of some… prophecy or whatever."

"But you've always known, haven't you?" he asked. "That there's something different about you. Something watching. Waiting."

He wasn't wrong.

I've felt it since I was a kid, like the world around me was too thin in some places. Like I could feel emotions hanging in the air, see shadows where nothing should be. I used to tell my dad. He told me it was just a wild imagination. "You're a dreamer, Rain," he'd say. "That's all."

But this didn't feel like dreaming anymore. This felt like waking up.

I stared at Mvula. His presence stirred something feral in me. It wasn't just attraction, it was gravity. Like we were moons locked in orbit, doomed to crash.

"Why are you telling me this?" I whispered.

"Because you need to be ready. You're changing. The mark is already inside you. And you're not safe."

He stepped closer, and I felt heat rise off him in waves, thunder under his skin.

"I don't even know you," I breathed.

"But your soul does."

I shook my head. "No. I'm not this, this thing you say I am. I'm not a witch. Or a werewolf. I'm just a girl in college trying to pass her exams and survive midterms."

I reached out instinctively, pressing my hand to his chest to push him back and the world exploded.

A crackling surge of light burst from my palm. Mvula gasped, but didn't move. A sharp wind slammed through the courtyard, sending leaves and dust flying. Somewhere, a car alarm screamed.

I yanked my hand back like I'd touched fire.

"What was that?!" I shouted, panicked. "What the hell was that?!"

His voice was low and hoarse. "You touched me… and it began."

I couldn't breathe.

I turned and ran, my heart hammering, blood roaring in my ears. I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I had to get away.

From him. From this. From myself.

Behind me, I thought I heard him call my name.

But maybe it was just the wind.

Chapter 10 – The One Truth I Feared

(POV: Xander Miya)

The kettle clicked off, but I didn't move.

I stood by the window, watching the clouds darken over Durban's skyline. There was a storm coming, not just the summer kind. The kind that pulls your soul taut. The kind you feel in your teeth.

The scent of wet earth hadn't even reached the air yet, but I knew it was here.

She's waking up.

I gripped the edge of the sink, my knuckles whitening and my claws protruding. The kitchen clock ticked louder than usual. Even the hum of the fridge seemed to pulse with unease.

I hadn't felt that pull in years. Not since I turned my back on the Clear-water Pack. Not since I left my Beta Sizwe to take the reins. Not since I chose love over blood and broke every sacred vow our kind held.

Rain.

I should have known it would be her. I did know. I've just spent the last twenty one years of pretending I didn't.

My daughter wasn't normal. She never was, but I'd wrapped her in every protection I could, mundane and magical. I buried the truth so deep even she couldn't dig it out. I made deals with ancestors and bound her name to winds I hoped would never turn back around. My gorgeous wife knew this and she understood that none of it could be controlled by any human or any other worldly creature, because it was willed by the ancestors and the creator himself.

And still… it's unravelling.

A knock at the back door.

I didn't have to look. I could already smell the wood-smoke and pine.

Sizwe.

I opened the door.

He looked older, more Alpha than ever. Grey in his beard. Shoulders heavy. But his eyes were the same. Sharp. Watching and always alert.

"It's time old friend" he said simply.

I didn't speak.

"She met him."

I looked past him, to the churning sky. "I told you not to let the boy near her."

He shrugged, stepping inside. "He followed instinct. Just like we did, once."

"She's not ready," I snapped. "She doesn't even know what she is."

"And whose fault is that, Xander?"

I turned away. The truth tasted like ash in my mouth.

"She's your daughter, yes. But she's also the One Named in Storms. The name you gave her? Rain? That wasn't coincidence. You felt the prophecy too. You just didn't want it to be her."

I clenched my jaw.

He wasn't wrong.

"She's still just a kid," I muttered.

"No. She's not. Not anymore. He marked her with his eyes before he even touched her. The bloodline awakens now, witch and wolf both. That combination doesn't come without a price."

"I won't lose her Sizwe."

"Then tell her the truth."

I met his gaze. "She'll never forgive me."

"She might not. But if you don't… she won't survive what's coming."

Sizwe's words hung in the air like thunder that hadn't yet cracked.

Outside, lightning split the sky without thunder. Without rain.

Not yet.

Chapter 11 – Bound by the Storm

(POV: Mvula Zulu)

The second she touched me, I saw stars, not the kind in the sky, but the kind that live in bloodlines, hearts and bones. A constellation older than time itself, burned beneath her skin. And when she ran, I felt the loss like something tearing through my chest.

Rain.

I hadn't chased her. Not right away. I wanted to. Goddess knows I wanted to.

But I could feel it, the walls of fate shifting into place. This wasn't just instinct anymore. This was prophecy. And if I stepped wrong, it wouldn't just be my heart that shattered.

It would be the entire balance between packs, lines, and legacies.

I stood on the roof of an old parking garage in Glenwood, the ocean wind slapping my skin, the city below humming with mortal life, unaware that the supernatural order was cracking beneath their feet.

"She's lightning," I muttered, staring at the storm gathering far inland. "And I'm the ground she's trying not to touch."

I wasn't alone.

"He'll kill you," a familiar voice said behind me.

I didn't turn. I didn't need to.

Anele. My cousin. My Beta. My shadow.

"Xander Miya's not the Alpha anymore," I replied coolly. "He gave up that right."

"That doesn't mean he gave up the power. You know what he did before he ran. Before he vanished into the human world. They say he made pacts with witches. That his blood runs with ancient magic. The kind we stopped fearing because we thought it died out."

"He's her father," I said simply. "Which makes this even more complicated."

Anele scoffed. "Complicated? You're talking about the man who was once a legend among us. The man who built the pack up to its glory without fear. The one who walked away from everything, including the pack, including your father, to be with a woman our kind hunted for centuries."

I turned to face him. "And yet here we are. Me, falling for his daughter."

Anele raised a brow. "Falling?"

I didn't answer.

The truth was too loud to deny now. There was no denial or looking back.

My wolf had scented her. My soul had answered hers.

And when she touched me, the storm inside both of us had surged like it had been waiting centuries to meet itself.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the talisman my father had given me,a smooth piece of black river stone etched with ancestral runes. It pulsed faintly now.

"She's near," I whispered.

"She's running from you."

"She's running from the truth."

A beat of silence passed between us.

Then, Anele stepped forward. "If you track her… it's not just Rain you'll face. It's the weight of every lie her father ever told. The secrets he buried, heck the weight of this secret is the reason why his wife died. The ones he was willing to burn the world for."

I nodded. "Then I'll bring a match."

Lightning lit the sky again, but this time, I could feel her in it.

Not just her fear.

Her power.

Her awakening.

And something else…

Someone watching her.

The vampire.

I didn't know his name yet, but I could taste his obsession on the wind. Sour. Old. Possessive.

He wanted her. But he wouldn't have her.

Not while I still breathed.

"Prepare the pack," I told Anele, turning toward the edge of the roof. "We may have to fight on two fronts. One with fangs. One with fire."

"And if the fire is her?"

I smiled grimly. "Then I'll burn with her."

Chapter 12 – Shaken

(POV: Rain Miya)

I didn't remember running. Found myself on the beach, the cemetery and now running home.

Only the sound of my heartbeat, wild and uneven, echoing in my ears like a war drum. My legs had moved on their own, tearing through the streets of Umbilo and up the road of our quiet block of houses like the devil himself was on my heels.

But the truth was worse.

I wasn't running from something.

I was running from someone.

From him.

Mvula.

I locked the door behind me and slid down to the floor, hugging my knees. The room pulsed with a static charge, the air tight and heavy, like the aftermath of a wild storm. Every surface hummed. The ceiling light flickered even though I hadn't touched the switch.

I could still feel it, his touch.

The way my fingers had brushed his skin.

The way something electric had snapped awake inside me like it had just remembered who I was before I even knew myself. What the actual fuck!!!

I pressed my hands over my ears. "No, no, no…"

I wasn't crazy. I wasn't dreaming. It happened.

Something had happened. Something real.

And now the world was breaking at the seams to let the truth in. Am I even ready for the truth? What was the truth?

The wind outside picked up. I could hear it. It still baffles me that people can't hear the wind. I listen and I hear it without fail. It whispered my name through the window pane like a warning.

Rain… Nah bro, I must be losing it.

I stood quickly and backed away from the sound. My fingers trembled as I reached for the kitchen counter for balance. The kettle was cold. The stove untouched.

But the lights were still flickering. My skin still buzzing.

And my shadow on the tiled floor wasn't moving in sync with me anymore. What the fuck is actually going on?

I blinked. It blinked slower.

"Nope." I stepped away.

That's when the power went out.

Complete silence.

No fridge humming. No traffic noises outside. Just the sound of wind and breath.

And then, a knock at the door.

Three soft taps.

I froze.

A second passed.

Another.

Then three more.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Too calm.

Too slow.

I should've ignored it. Should've backed into my room and climbed out the window or something. Does that even make sense? Leaving the house, to run from something that is outside?

But something pulled me towards the door, like a thread around my heart, tugging with invisible fingers.

I reached the peephole.

And stared.

No one.

Empty veranda.

I exhaled. "I'm losing it…"

Then I blinked.

And he was there.

Tall. Pale. Not handsome in the way humans understand it, but in the way predators are: graceful, deliberate, terrifyingly still. I hated how beautiful he was.

Luke stood across the hallway like a sin dressed in silk, every inch of him calm, calculated, and cruelly perfect. His pale skin caught the light like marble, but it wasn't warmth it reflected, it was coldness, the kind that lingers in places where life has long since left.

His neatly cut hair, not a strand out of place, gave him an air of control that made my skin crawl, but it was his eyes, those piercing emerald eyes that unsettled me the most. They didn't just look at me; they reached into my, searching, coaxing, commanding. Seductive and ancient, like he'd lived a hundred lifetimes and knew just how to make people bend to his will.

His face is flawless, smooth and unchanging, like time couldn't touch him. His lips are thin, a haunting shade of rose that belonged more to a painting than a man, and though he is lean, almost slender, there is a menace in the way he moves, quiet, purposeful, like a shadow that chose to wear a body.

Luke didn't just walk into a room, he unsettled it.

Eyes like cold wine and bruised twilight.

He didn't smile.

Didn't speak.

Just… tilted his head slightly, as if trying to listen through the wood of the door.

And then,

My nose started bleeding.

I gasped and stumbled back, hand flying to my face as warm blood dripped onto my shirt.

When I looked again, he was gone.

The hallway was empty.

My shadow had returned to normal.

The fridge clicked back on.

And the storm outside passed like it had never come.

But I knew better now.

I wasn't safe.

Not from this world. Not from the next.

And not from the eyes that had watched me through the door like I was something precious.

Something that belonged to him.

Chapter 13 – The Old Blood Wakes

(POV: Xander Miya)

He woke in a cold sweat.

Before his eyes even opened, he knew.

The veil had thinned.

He sat upright in bed, heart hammering in his chest like it used to in the old days, before the witchcraft, before the war, before Rain.

The room was quiet. Still.

But he wasn't alone anymore.

Not truly.

Something had stirred the old blood in his veins, shaken it awake like an ancient drum echoing from deep inside the earth.

And it was calling to him.

Xander swung his legs over the bed, bare feet on wooden floorboards, grounding himself.

"Not yet," he muttered.

But the lie tasted like iron.

It was time.

He hadn't felt this kind of power shift in years, not since the night Rain was born and he'd turned his back on the Clear-water Pack.

That night still haunted him: thunder cracking over the cliffs, the sacred fire extinguished mid-ritual, the sound of the midwives gasping as they laid the child in his arms.

The girl with power in her scream and prophecy in her eyes.

Rain.

His daughter. His curse. His miracle.

And now, something had touched her.

No, someone.

He closed his eyes and reached, silently, through the ancestral current. His bloodline pulsed beneath his skin, roots twisting through time and bone.

There.

A flicker in the dark. A predator. Cold. Ancient.

Xander hissed through clenched teeth. "Vampire."

But not just any.

Him.

The Watcher, the Whisperer, the one they thought dead in the old blood wars. The one who'd once made a pact with the dying moon to drink the souls of Alpha heirs.

Xander stood, grabbing the small wooden box from his closet's hidden panel. Inside: a black stone dagger, a lock of silver hair tied in twine, and a faded photo of a younger Sizwe Zulu holding a newborn wrapped in red cloth.

He picked up the dagger.

"Forgive me, my love," he whispered to the air, as though his witch wife could still hear him. "But I can't let her walk into this alone."

A knock rattled the door downstairs.

Once. Twice.

He didn't flinch.

The third knock sounded like a growl.

He moved slowly, calmly, like the Alpha he used to be. The Alpha he'll always be at heart.

When he opened the door, a figure stepped out of the shadows of the night.

Broad shoulders. Moonlight on skin. A presence like thunder before a storm.

Mvula Zulu.

"Uncle," the boy said, voice low and strained. "We have a problem."

Xander tightened his grip on the dagger.

"No," he corrected. "We have a war."

Chapter 14 – Bloodlines

(POV: Mixed – Xander, Mvula, then Rain)

Xander's hands were steady, but inside him, the storm raged.

He hadn't seen Mvula since the boy was still growing into his bones, just a pup with too much pride and too little restraint. He was now 22 and was every bit his father's son: a man, a leader, and a ticking fuse.

And he'd come to claim something that could burn everything to the ground.

"Does your father know you're here son?" Xander asked, leaning against the kitchen counter, dagger hidden beneath a dish towel. "Or did you come alone?"

Mvula didn't flinch. "He told me to stay away. So I didn't tell him."

Of course. Sizwe Zulu, always calculating, always choosing peace until it became weakness.

"She's not ready," Xander warned. "You know what your presence will awaken in her."

"I didn't touch her," Mvula said quickly, jaw clenched. "But the vampire did. I felt it. And she felt it, too."

Xander narrowed his eyes. "So that's your excuse for breaking the blood pact between your parents and I? You wanted to beat a vampire to a girl who doesn't even know what she is?"

Mvula looked away. "It's not just about what she is. It's who."

Xander's throat tightened. There it was. The damn prophecy. The reason he'd run. The reason he'd kept Rain hidden even from herself.

"She doesn't know about any of it, not about the wolves, or the witches, or the prophecy that says she'll choose the restoration of all that was lost in the old wars or the end of the old world," Xander said. "And she doesn't know her name is written in both blood and ash."

"She will," Mvula replied. "Because she needs to, before he gets to her first." He paused… "Uncle you left the pack and everything behind, no visits because you feared we would meet sooner. It stops now! Her life will always be in danger as long as she is in the dark with everything?

Silence dropped between them like a blade.

And then,

A small gasp from the hallway was heard.

They both turned just as Rain stepped into view, hand over her nose, blood trickling between her fingers.

Her wide eyes moved from Mvula to Xander and back again.

"I knew it," she whispered, voice shaking. "You're both hiding something from me."

She looked pale, dizzy. The scent of iron hung heavy in the air, her blood. But something else hummed underneath it. A pulse of raw, ancestral energy neither man could ignore.

"Rain what is happening with your nose?" Xander stepped forward, "You shouldn't be…"

"What am I?" she asked, taking a step back. "Why does he keep following me? Why do I wake up crying after dreams that feel like memories? Why does my blood feel like it's not even mine anymore?"

Mvula took a slow breath, eyes on her like a storm waiting to break.

"Because it's not just your blood," he said softly. "It's mine, too, come let me have a look at your nose." Mvula said, as he approached her.

Rain blinked.

And then the lights flickered.

A gust of wind slammed against the windows, though no doors were open.

Xander stepped between them, protective instinct surging.

"She needs time," he growled at Mvula.

Rain wiped the blood from her face, her fingers trembling.

"No," she said, eyes glowing faintly. "I need the truth dad."

Chapter 15 – Bloodlines and Bonds

(POV: Rain, with interjections from Xander and Mvula)

Rain sat on the couch, legs tucked beneath her, a blood-stained tissue clutched in her hand. The air felt different now. Thicker and heavy. Like the very oxygen in the room carried secrets waiting to be confessed.

She stared at her father. No, the man who raised her, who'd just been accused of keeping her entire existence a lie.

"You lied to me," she whispered, her voice trembling.

Xander didn't defend himself. He simply pulled the brown leather chair closer and sat across from her, his face tight with a grief that had been caged for too long.

"I didn't lie, Rain," he said. "I did what any father would've done, I protected you. There's a difference."

Mvula paced behind them, his steps restless. The energy rolling off him made the lights flicker again. He didn't even notice.

"She has a right to know," he snapped. "She's mine, uncle X. She deserves the truth."

Rain's eyes snapped to Mvula. "Stop saying that. I'm not yours damn it!"

"You are," he growled, gaze darkening. "You've always been mine. The moment we were born, the moment I scented you, and the moment you touched me, I knew without a shadow of doubt, it was you. My wolf knew. And whether you accept it or not, your blood called to me long before we even met."

"Enough," Xander snapped. "You'll scare her off before she even understands what she is."

Rain's voice cracked. "What am I?"

Xander sighed, shoulders slumping like a man dragging centuries behind him.

"Your mother was a witch," he began. "Not just any witch, she was descended from the Kwezi line, the most powerful coven in the southern hemisphere. Earth magic bound to their ancestry. Lunar-born. She was... powerful and cursed to a life of loneliness. When she met me, I was Alpha of the Clear-water Pack. Part-wolf, part-human. We weren't supposed to be together, but she was my true mate, and we fell hard. Hard enough that I walked away from my title."

"Why did you walk away?" Rain whispered.

"Because the Elders saw your conception as a threat. A child born of witch and wolf... That's power they couldn't control. The prophecy said such a child would 'break the bloodlines or bind them forever.' They feared you would either destroy the packs or rule them and so did the coven."

Rain's breath caught.

"So you ran?" she said bitterly.

"I had no choice," Xander murmured. "Sizwe, Mvula's father, my Beta and best friend, took over the pack. I thought we'd be safe here, in the human world."

"But you weren't," Mvula cut in, stepping closer. His eyes were glowing now. "Because I could feel her. Even from miles away. Her soul... my mate's soul... was calling to me. There are so many events in your life Rain that affected me and I never realized until I was older, that I was feeling what you were feeling. The loss of your grandmother, the loss of your mother… "

Rain backed into the couch cushions, heart hammering.

"I didn't choose you though." she snapped.

"You don't get to choose a mate," he growled. "It's written in the marrow of your bones. The moon Goddess decides. The blood remembers. Even when the mind forgets."

"Mvula," Xander warned. "Pull back."

But Mvula ignored him. He knelt in front of Rain, slowly, reverently. His voice lowered, growling and tender all at once.

"When you touched me that day in the hall... you felt it. That surge? That heat in your chest? That was the bond snapping into place. You can run. Deny it. Fight it. But I'll feel every second of your pain like it's my own. Because you are MINE, Rain Miya. In this life and the next."

Rain's pulse thundered. Her fingers trembled.

"You're both insane," she whispered. "This is insane."

Xander reached into a drawer and pulled out an intricately carved wooden box. He opened it slowly.

Inside lay a ring. Silver. Carved with symbols she'd seen before… in her dreams.

"This was your mother's," he said softly. "She bound it with a protection spell the day she knew she was pregnant. That same night, she had a vision of a boy with storm-grey eyes and the same name as her child. Mvula. Rain."

Rain blinked at the ring. At Mvula.

The storm outside began to howl.

"Your name means Rain," she whispered, lazily smiling at him.

He nodded. "And the prophecy said: "When Rain meets Rain, the blood shall speak."

The room fell into silence.

And then the front door flew open,

Rain's nose started bleeding again. Mvula rushed to the bathroom to get her some tissue paper.

And from the shadows beyond the porch, something hissed.

Not wind.

Not wolf.

But vampire.

Chapter 16 – The Hunger Beneath the Skin

(POV: Luke Maynard – The Vampire)

Rain.

Even her name tasted like poetry on his tongue.

Luke stood in the shadows of the porch, one foot inside the threshold, the other in the veil between worlds. His lips curled, exposing the tips of elongated fangs, not in hunger, not yet, but in something different. Something feral. Possessive.

She had bled again. He could scent it in the air, copper and magic, both sharp and soft. Her blood was unlike anything he had ever tasted. Not that he had tasted it yet. No. No. That moment would be super special and sacred.

It was the power in her bloodline that first drew him in. Half-witch, half-wolf. A walking contradiction. The perfect weapon wrapped in softness. The last of a forbidden legacy, but it wasn't just the magic.

It was her.

Rain Miya.

He had watched her long before she knew who, or what she was. He'd followed her aura as it pulsed through the threads of the spirit realm like a siren song. His obsession began as curiosity. Grew into fascination. Then it bloomed into a need.

And now?

Now it was rage.

Because he had found her first. Luke had been watching. Waiting. She belonged to no one.

Yet the moment that mangy dog, that overgrown wolf-child Mvula, laid eyes on her, something ancient and ugly had awakened in Luke. The mate bond.

He'd tasted its pull in another lifetime.

He remembered how it had once twisted love into slavery. Bonded souls turned to shackles. It wasn't devotion, not really, it was biological tyranny dressed up in moonlight. He had killed his last mate to escape it a hundred plus years ago.

And now the bond threatened to take Rain from him.

Not again.

Never again.

Luke leaned his head against the door-frame, letting the old wood cool his skin. Inside, he could hear them. Her voice. Shaky. Afraid. Mvula's voice, low and full of that disgusting possessive growl. "Mine. Mate."

She is not yours, Luke thought. She is not his. Not the wolves'. Not the witches'.

She is MINE.

He had touched her dreams, danced through her subconscious on moonless nights. Left gifts, small, strange coincidences, white roses on windowsills, dreams of black water and floating candles, songs on the wind only she could hear.

She had felt him. She just didn't know it yet.

Luke stepped back into the mist, pulling the shadows around his shoulders like a cloak. His hunger was rising fast. Not just for blood but for closeness. For skin against skin. For her heartbeat tangled with his in an amazing symphony.

Let the wolves claim the moon.

Let the witches guard their spells.

Let Xander Miya pretend he could protect her, ugh!!!

But none of them knew what Luke was, not really.

None of them knew what he was willing to become for her.

He would not let Rain Miya go.

Not to Mvula.

Not to fate.

Not to the gods or the moon Goddess herself.

He would tear the moon from the sky before he let her go, and that was his vow.

And when the blood moon rose,

She would come to him.

Willing or not.

Chapter 17 – When the Storm Spoke Her Name

(POV: Luke Maynard – Flashback)

It had started with a storm.

A real one, violent and loud, with thunder that shook the bones of the earth and rain that tasted like the shift between worlds.

Luke had been passing through Durban in the dead of night, the sea restless beneath a bruised sky. He wasn't hunting. Not then. He had fed two nights prior, a clean kill, blood still warm on his memory.

No, that night he was chasing silence.

Instead, he found her.

Or rather, the storm led him to her.

She had stepped out of a small art studio in Glenwood, backpack slung low, a hoodie barely shielding her from the rain. She moved like a dream stumbling into reality. Head down. Earphones in. Lips silently mouthing lyrics he couldn't hear.

He had meant to look away.

But then she laughed.

Just a short exhale, caught between breath and joy as a gust of wind lifted her hoodie and soaked her hair. She didn't run. She just tilted her head back and let the rain hit her like a blessing.

That's when Luke stopped walking.

And time, the cruel master he had outrun for decades, stopped with him.

Her aura crackled against the air like lightning in slow motion. Not gold, not silver, blue. Cerulean. Laced with threads of violet and smoke. Ancient power. Untamed. Sleeping.

A hybrid.

But not like any he'd encountered before. Not a diluted mutt of clans and covens. No, this was something rare. Dangerous. Forbidden.

Rain Miya.

He didn't know her name then. But he would.

The second time he saw her, it was by accident or so he thought. She was sketching on a napkin at a beach café, barefoot in the sand, her eyes fixed on the horizon like it owed her something. The wind whispered secrets in her curls.

And her scent… gods!!! He had been chasing this scent for a while now, he gotten a whiff of it, it was about 10 years ago near a cemetery. He was convinced that he had crossed paths with her previously, but never go to see her or get her trail.

The scent is jasmine and fresh earth. Blood that buzzed just below the surface like a song only he could hear.

He had stepped closer then, just a few paces. Hidden behind a bougainvillea hedge, his breath caught in the hollow of his throat. She had looked up, eyes locking with nothing, but her pupils dilated.

She felt him.

Even without seeing him, she felt the pull. A thread tugging between two souls. Unnamed. Unclaimed, and knowing that she sensed him, brought him some pleasure.

He vanished before she could blink, leaving only a chill in the air.

But from that moment on, he was hooked.

He began to visit her dreams, at first with caution. Then with hunger. He followed the spiral of her aura through crowds, watching as people moved around her, unaware of the tempest she carried inside. Even unaware of herself. Her aura was like moldavite to creatures like him, like a moth attracted to light.

He knew he should leave.

He knew.

But obsession is a kind of hunger too and it controls you. One that no amount of blood can satisfy.

And when he finally learned her name, Rain, he laughed until he wept.

Because the universe was both poetic and cruel like that.

It gave him someone who carried the storm inside her,

and paired her with a wolf, yuck!!!

Chapter 18 – The Pulse Between Us

(POV: Mvula Zulu)

He had to move fast.

Luke was circling again.

Mvula felt it in the bones of the earth, in the tremble of leaves and the way the air refused to settle. The vampire's scent, always too strong, clung to the wind like rot beneath perfume, and Rain… she had begun to slip through his fingers.

Mine.

The word was no longer a thought or feeling, it had become a rhythm beneath his skin, a second heartbeat, louder with every breath he took, and every minute he spent away from her, was torture.

She hadn't returned his calls. Avoided his gaze since the last encounter. Since the surge.

She was afraid.

Of him.

Of herself.

Of the bond blooming between them like a flame that promised to devour.

He paced the edge of the forest outside her neighbourhood, fingers twitching with the need to shift. To hunt. To protect.

But most of all, to mark and to claim her.

He didn't need the pack's permission.

Not for this.

Not when destiny had already spoken her name into his blood. Mvula and Mvula. Rain and Rain. Twin echoes of a prophecy even the Elders refused to decipher.

"She will unite bloodlines once divided," his father once whispered, drunk on vintage wine and old wounds. "But only if she survives the storm."

Mvula clenched his jaw.

She wouldn't survive anything if Luke touched her again.

Later that night, he found her near the old lighthouse on the bluff, where the sea met sky in a jagged kiss of mist and cliff.

She didn't flinch when she saw him this time. Just stood still, arms folded, hair wild from the sea breeze.

"You followed me again," she said, voice flat but eyes burning.

"No," he said. "I was called."

She looked away. "You always speak in riddles, saying things like that. Like I'm some… spell. A prophecy."

"You are."

He stepped forward. "And you're mine, Rain."

She blinked, then laughed. "You don't even know me BRO."

Mvula laughed and took a more serious look at her. "I feel you," he growled, chest tight. "In my bones. In my breath. When you cry, my throat closes. When you bleed, I taste it in my mouth. I've waited for you," Mvula took her hands gently, his thumbs brushing her knuckles like he was memorizing them. He looked into her mismatched eyes, golden brown and blue-grey, and saw the storm she was hiding behind them.

"Rain," he began softly, "I know the bond feels like it chose us before we had a say. I know how terrifying that can be, feeling like your heart is being pulled by something beyond your control. But I need you to hear me now, not as your mate… as Mvula."

He took a breath, grounding himself.

"Yes, the bond may have brought us together. It may have been the spark. But what I feel for you? That's mine. I chose it. Every day, I keep choosing it. You are not just my fated mate, you are the rhythm in my chest, the calm in my chaos, the fire that reminds me I'm alive."

He cupped her cheek then, brushing his thumb under her eye.

"I don't love you because I have to. I love you because you're you, because I see your strength when you think you're falling apart. I hear your silence louder than any storm. I feel your soul like it was always written next to mine in the stars… and not because of the bond, but because you are my heart."

His voice softened even more.

"If the bond broke today, I'd still stay. I'd still wake up every morning and reach for you. I'd still fight for you. Because fate may have started our story, but I promise you, Rain, I'm the one writing it with you now."

She backed up, alarm sparking in her posture. "Don't talk like that." She said hoping the heat that is creeping up her face was evident.

"I can't help it."

Rain's eyes shimmered, the gold in one catching the light, the stormy blue-grey in the other dark with emotion. For a moment, her lips trembled, then steadied as she exhaled shakily.

"You don't know how much I needed to hear that," she whispered, her voice low and raw. "All this time… I've been afraid that none of this was real. That what we feel, what I feel, it wasn't ours. Just strings pulled by fate. A story written before we could even breathe."

She stepped closer, pressing her palm flat over his heart.

"But when you say you'd choose me… when you say you see me, not just the bond, not just the Luna or the power or the prophecy… but ME, I believe you."

Tears welled in her eyes but didn't fall. She wasn't breaking, she was softening.

"I've spent so much of my life being told who I'm supposed to be. What I'm supposed to become, but with you…" she touched his cheek, voice barely above a whisper, "I feel like Rain. Just Rain. And that's the version of me that you love."

She paused, a gentle smile pulling at her lips.

"I don't want to run from the bond anymore. I don't want to fight what already feels like home. So if this is fate… then fate did one thing right."

She leaned in, resting her forehead against his.

"I choose you too, Mvula. Now and always."

His hand reached out before his thoughts caught up, thumb brushing her cheek, tracing the curve of her jaw. She didn't pull away. Not immediately.

The air trembled.

A silver thread of light sparked between them, just beneath her skin. His wolf surged forward, teeth bared, not to harm, but to claim.

Mvula leaned in, voice lower than a whisper: "Let me protect you. Let me mark you. Before it's too late."

Rain's breath hitched.

For a moment, just a heartbeat, she leaned closer, eyes searching his. Then,

"No." She said.

The energy snapped.

A crackling burn sizzled up both their arms, and she yanked herself back with a startled cry.

"No," she said again, firmer now. "I don't know what this is. Or what you think I am, but I'm not ready. I don't want to belong to anyone like that."

Mvula's hands curled into fists, fighting the ache in his chest.

The mark wouldn't take unless she accepted it.

And she hadn't.

Not yet.

But the bloodsucker wasn't waiting.

And Mvula couldn't either.

Still, he stepped back into the shadows, swallowing his hunger, his wolf pacing in his skin.

"I'll always be near if you need me," he said.

Rain didn't answer.

But she didn't run either.

Chapter 19 – Rage and Rain

(POV: Rain Miya)

The beach still clung to her skin, the salt, the wind, the memory of Mvula's voice. "You're not alone in this." He had said it like it was true, and for once, something inside her dared to believe it.

Back home, Rain shut her bedroom door softly behind her. The house was quiet, except for the hum of the fridge and the occasional creak of the wind pressing against the windows. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a second before she typed: "Wolf mark on a mate, mythology"

Then,

"Alpha bond symbols"

Then finally,

"The meaning of a black spiral mark on the chest."

The results were strange, scattered all over different lore. Threads of old legends, whispers of soul-tethers and animal spirits. One article mentioned that in rare unions, the wolf's essence leaves a mark, its name encoded in energy. A claim that Alpha wolves only bore that mark for someone fated… or someone lost.

She read until her eyes ached.

And then, in the corner of one obscure page: "Rage – the name given to a wolf who has tasted death and returned for love."

Her breath caught.

Rage. What are the chances that, that is Mvula's wolf?

She let the name settle in her mind, heavier than expected. There was something about it… familiar. Not the name itself, but what it stirred. Like the echo of a story she'd once been told but was too young to remember. She pressed her palm against her chest, just over where her own mark had appeared days ago. It still tingled under her skin like a heartbeat that didn't belong to her.

The name had echoed in her skull the moment Mvula had touched her cheek. Not his name. Something deeper. Wilder. As if the air itself had growled it into her lungs.

And now she couldn't stop thinking about it.

About him.

About the way the ground had pulsed when he stepped closer, like the earth recognized him. Like she did.

Rain closed the laptop, rubbing her arms. Her skin still remembered the charge of their near-mark. The power. The ache.

She wasn't ready. She had said that.

But gods help her, she was curious.

That night, she dreamed of snow.

She stood barefoot in a forest, wearing furs that didn't belong to this time. Her hair was longer. Her face older. Beside her, a massive black wolf with eyes like molten gold sat still, watching something in the dark.

"I'll follow you anywhere," she whispered to the beast.

The wolf blinked, and suddenly became a man.

Mvula.

But older. Scarred. Wearing armour made of leather and steel.

"We've done this before," he said, voice soft as ash. "Lifetime after lifetime, you run, I chase."

When she reached for him, the dream shattered. And that's when the grief crept in again, soft as a whisper, sharp as glass.

Memory: Her Mother's Death

She was eleven. It was a Saturday morning.

The kind where sunlight made everything golden and the kettle always sang before anyone was ready. Her mother had been humming something, low and rhythmic, as she mixed herbs into a small clay bowl. Rain had been watching from the doorway, arms tucked behind her back.

That was the last time she saw her alive.

Her mother's death cracked something open. Not just in Rain, but in the world itself. Nothing had felt real after that. Not school. Not friendships. Not even her own skin. The other kids didn't understand the way she flinched at sudden wind or cried when she smelled dried lavender. They didn't know that her mother once told her: "There's magic in our blood, but it comes with a price."

Rain had been paying ever since.

Her aunt tried to explain it away, "grief can make you see things." But Rain had seen things. Whispers in candlelight. Shadows that looked like animals. Dreams that carried voices not her own.

Now, with the name "Rage" echoing in her thoughts and the spiral mark still warming her skin, she knew it wasn't grief. It had never been.

It was her blood remembering.

Rain found him two days later.

Near the edge of the campus grounds, by the rusted fence where the trees pressed in and the city forgot to care. He was waiting, she could feel it before she even saw him. For a second, she considered turning back, pretending none of this was happening. Pretending she wasn't part of something ancient, mysterious and low- key terrifying.

His head lifted as she approached, eyes narrowing.

"Rain."

Her name in his mouth was like a spell, and she felt it unravel something in her spine.

"I want to see him," she said.

Mvula frowned. "Who would you like to see?"

"Your wolf." Her voice didn't waver. "Rage."

He went still.

No one can know or call a wolf's name without an invitation. No one except a mate who has accepted. He already knew she was his, his MATE, his love, but it still shocked him. He hadn't thought it to be possible for an unmarked mate to know her mate's wolf. He also knew for a fact that Rage hadn't communicated with her wolf, because she has no wolf yet.

"I dreamed of him," she added, more softly, like she had already read his train of thought.

That changed everything.

He stepped forward, brows drawn, the bond tugging at his throat. "You're not afraid?"

"I think I should be. But I'm not. Look Mvula, I know I look weak and timid, but please don't look at me as something fragile that needs constant protection, OK? I can take it from everyone else, but not from you or my dad!!!"

His eyes darkened, gold threading into the black. "I know you're not weak or broken or need constant protection Rain, and I am sorry that my response made you feel that way. It's just… He's not tame."

"Neither am I, and I must say, it should really suck being you. Having an unruly wolf and an unruly mate on top of that!" Mvula looked at her… "That was a joke, in case you were wondering." she immediately added and they both burst out laughing.

A breath. Then another.

He led her into the woods.

When Mvula took off all his clothes before he shifted, that very moment was both awkward and beautiful to Rain. The confidence he had in the nude was something she could never relate to. The shift itself, it wasn't violent, it was beautiful. Like watching shadow become muscle, breath become thunder. Where the man stood, now loomed a massive wolf, black as night with eyes burning like fire trapped in amber.

Rain's heart stilled, before she turned around. She felt him shift, not in way where bones cracks and muscles snap, but in the way the energy around her shifted, she felt in her chest and in her soul.

"Rage," she whispered.

The wolf stepped forward, slow, deliberate, as if scenting her soul.

Then, bowed his head.

She reached out a trembling hand and touched his fur.

Warm. Alive. Buzzing with power.

Rage nosed her shoulder, then huffed as if to say finally.

Rain laughed, shaky and breathless. "You've been waiting for long, haven't you?"

The wolf's answer was a growl, not of anger, but of deep recognition.

A few minutes later, Mvula shifted back without a warning, standing before her naked and wild-eyed, she didn't step away. She looked at his well-build body. All muscles and gorgeousness. She couldn't believe her eyes, not only had she never seen a naked man before, but also because she had never seen the perfection that stood before her ever in her entire life.

She stepped into him… A bit shocked at the size of him, as she wondered if that was only huge in her eyes, being so inexperienced and stuff.

He also stepped closer, caressed her face with his thumb, and then went on kiss her, when his hands cupped her face and her lips met his, it wasn't sparks.

It was lightning. Crashing. Consuming. Unstoppable.

Rain kissed him like she remembered it from another life.

And when they broke apart, gasping, forehead to forehead, she whispered:

"I think I'm ready now." "Ready for what my moon drop?" He asked with a warm smile.

"To be with you silly." She said as she playfully smacked his naked shoulder. Her cheeks were suddenly hot from how much she was blushing.

Deep down, they both knew… the vampire was still there, closer than ever, but nothing in this world would take away from the beautiful moment they were both sharing.

Chapter 20 – Burn and Bloom

POV: Luke Maynard

The world stopped.

He felt it before he saw it.

A ripple in the air. A pull. A heat that didn't belong to him but should have.

Luke froze mid-step, the silence around him shattering in his mind as the unmistakable echo of the mate bond surged through the ether like a knife dragging through silk. And then he saw it, through the twisted threads of his vampire senses, their mouths pressed together. Mvula's hands gripping his Rain as though she belonged there.

A snarl twisted his lips.

The fury came in a flood, hot, poisonous, and immediate.

He clenched his jaw so hard his fangs pierced the inside of his cheek. Blood flooded his mouth, but he didn't care. The coppery taste only grounded him in the storm of hatred that was rising inside him.

How dare he.

How dare she.

Rain was never meant for love. Not real love. Not the kind that made you soft. She was meant to be a symbol. A key. A weapon. His salvation. And now… she was slipping through his fingers, because of a mongrel Alpha with storm-grey eyes and too much power.

He had studied her for months. Mapped her patterns. Watched the way her energy flared when she was alone. He had seen the fragility in her and marked it as his to use, to twist, to shape, to own. She had been a prize, a golden coin thrown by fate into a burning pit he'd long decided to escape. Her bond to Mvula was an inconvenience. But this?

This kiss?

This was war.

Luke's eyes gleamed emerald, glowing faintly in the shadows as a tremor of bitter possessiveness coursed through him. His fingers twitched at his sides.

"I needed her," he hissed aloud, to no one in particular. "Not for love. Not for heart. But for what she carries. For what she means."

He paced the dark room like a caged animal.

"She doesn't even know. She has no idea what she's worth… what I could become with her blood in my veins."

What he was feeling, it wasn't romance. It was hunger. It was legacy. It was greed dressed in obsession and painted with the illusion of destiny.

And now, Mvula had stolen that from him.

The light flickered.

Luke's face stilled, his expression smoothing into something cold and calculative, but the rage beneath boiled like molten lead. He would not beg anyone. He would not whimper in the shadows.

He would take her back.

Even if he had to rip her from Mvula's arms and drain the light out of her himself, without any remorse.

Somewhere in the depths of his manor, Luke shattered a crystal tumbler against the wall, the whiskey inside barely registering as a stain on his rage.

He couldn't breathe, he was suffocating in his anger.

His hand clenched the edge of the black marble bar, veins bulging beneath pale skin. His pupils blew wide, black swallowing the emerald. Not because of hunger.

Because of her.

Rain.

He felt it like a blade had been plunged into his chest, the sudden surge of heat, the chemical flood of a soul recognizing its twin.

He wasn't touching her.

But someone was.

The wolf.

The bond between Luke and Rain was artificial. A twisted consequence of magic, longing, and obsession, but it was strong enough to echo her emotions back to him when they were most intense, and this?

This was intimate, special if you will.

"You kissed him," Luke whispered, voice raw.

A high-pitched ringing started in his ears.

He grabbed a mirror. His reflection flickered, distorted.

Not quite human. Not quite sane.

"You kissed him, and you felt safe."

The fury boiled in his veins like poison, ancient and primal. He slammed his hand against the glass, cracking it top to bottom.

"You were mine the moment I saw you. The bond answered me first. Me!"

Breathing hard, Luke blinked, and his eyes were blood-red now.

"She thinks she's in love with a wolf, a wolf?" His voice trembled on the edge of a laugh. "We'll see how much she loves him when he's dead." He continued and started to laugh maniacally.

He vanished in a blur of smoke and fury, the air where he stood now cold, eerie and screaming with intent.

Chapter 21

POV: Rain Miya

The kiss lingered.

Not just on her lips but deep in her chest, where the bond hummed like a warm river curling around her ribs. Rain sat with Mvula beneath a slanted tree, the golden afternoon sun dripping through the leaves like honey.

It should've been awkward.

It wasn't though. Not to souls who kept choosing one another in every single lifetime.

"You're different today," Mvula said, eyes half-lidded, the glow in them soft but alert.

Rain tucked her knees under her chin, smiling. "Why, because I kissed you?"

He chuckled low. "No, but because you meant it."

"I think I'm starting to believe you," she whispered, she then turned to look at him, serious now. "About all of it. The vampires. The wolves. The witches. Me. What are the chances that I am part of such a complicated world? I guess it does help me in understanding why I felt so different and misunderstood." A sad smile spreading across her face.

Mvula shifted closer, resting an arm behind her. "There's still more you don't know."

"Then tell me."

His eyes flickered gold. "Rain… if I tell you everything, you won't be able to un-know it. It'll follow you. They will follow you, and as much as I know you're not weak, my entire life's purpose is to love and protect you and it is that love that still wants to keep some of your innocence."

"I've already been followed. And chased. And kissed by a wolf in the woods. What's a little more truth?"

Mvula smiled, but his heart was beating hard. He could feel Rage pacing just beneath his skin.

"She's brave," Rage whispered.

"She's ours," Mvula answered back silently.

Rain reached for his hand. "Can I ask you something strange?"

"Yes. Strange is our new normal."

She hesitated. "Is Rage… always with you? Even when you're like this?"

"He never leaves, even when I wish he could" Mvula said mockingly. "He sees you even now."

That made her blush. "So technically… he saw the kiss too?"

Mvula's grin turned wolfish. "He loved it and he approved."

She bit her lip. "Would he let me… see him again?"

Mvula's breath caught. It gave him so much joy to know, she trusts him and his wolf, that she felt safe, protected and connected to Rage. Then: "He'd be honoured." He responded while spreading his arms wide and bowing down to her. They both laughed.

Beneath the tree, as Mvula shifted one more time, Rain watched Rage emerge with a reverence she didn't fully understand yet.

She pressed her forehead to his snout, closed her eyes and she whispered, "Thank you for waiting for me, thank you for your patience and making me feel safe." She laid her head on him as she caressed his fur and enjoying the warm and comfort it gave her.

In the distance, the wind shifted.

A cold pulse whispered through the air.

Rain shivered, but she didn't let go of Rage.

Rain's Reflection – Evening Before Meeting the Pack

Rain sat at her desk, the soft hum of her laptop screen still lingering in her ears though it was shut. Her fingers traced the edge of a notebook filled with scribbles, drawings, and questions. Most of it was research on wolves, on prophecy, on ancestral markings. But in one corner of the page, she'd written his name, Mvula Zulu, followed by the details she'd quietly collected in their late-night conversations, in the in-between moments when he let his guard down.

Mvula Zulu. Age 22.

A third-year architectural student with ink-smudged fingers and a sketchbook always within arm's reach. He spoke about buildings like they were alive, bones made of stone, hearts beating in stairwells. He once told her that he wanted to design places that made people feel safe, because he never really had that growing up.

Son of Sizwe and Lindiwe Zulu.

His father, an architect too, built the new Clear-water community hall after the fire. Rain had seen photos, sharp, clean lines softened by warm timber and thoughtful curves. That same precision lived in Mvula's posture, his quiet strength, but he didn't speak about his father often. There was a bit of distance there, respect, but also a history.

His mother, Dr. Lindiwe Zulu, was known across provinces. A homeopathic doctor who treated ailments with the same care she used to raise her children. Rain imagined their house always smelled like herbs and eucalyptus, and that Mvula probably grew up learning the difference between lavender and sage before he could even spell "Alpha."

Siblings: Aluncedo (15) and Langa (12).

He adored them, Rain could tell by the way his voice changed when he spoke about his little brother's love of bugs, or how Aluncedo could already run faster than some of the older pack boys. Mvula said they grounded him. Reminded him of who he was outside the title he was expected to inherit. Alpha. Leader. Protector.

But to Rain, he was more than that.

He was the boy who saw her when no one else could. Who stood still in the chaos and offered her his silence like a safe place to breathe.

She looked down at his name again, circled twice in black ink.

Mvula Zulu.

She wasn't sure she'd ever fully know all of him, but what she knew so far, she liked very much, and tomorrow, she'd meet the people who shaped him. Maybe then she'd understand the rest.

Chapter 22

The Zulu Family Home – The Day Before Rain's Visit

The smell of umngqusho [samp] drifted through the house, earthy and comforting. Mvula sat at the kitchen counter, absently peeling a naartjie, his mind still caught on Rain's face from the night before, how she'd tilted her head when he confirmed to her the name of his wolf. Rage, she'd repeated, like it was a prayer instead of a warning.

"So, is she coming tomorrow?"

Aluncedo's voice cut through the moment. His fifteen-year-old sister was leaning on the door-frame, arms crossed, a grin playing on her face like she already knew the answer.

He looked up. "Yeah. She's coming."

"About time," she said, flipping her braids back. "Mom's been acting like she's preparing for a royal visit, and I mean… she kinda is, right?"

She winked. "Alpha's girlfriend."

Mvula groaned. "Don't call her that. It's not official."

"But you like her."

Aluncedo's grin widened.

Before he could answer, Langa popped out from under the table, he had been lying on the floor building something with off-cuts of wood and glue.

"Does she have powers?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Like… can she see through walls? Does she run really fast? Or can she talk to ghosts?"

Mvula laughed. "No, Langa. She studies philosophy. She talks to people about ghosts."

"So… brain powers."

Langa looked impressed. "That's even cooler."

Aluncedo rolled her eyes and plopped into a seat beside Mvula. "Is she nervous? About meeting all of us, I mean?"

He thought for a second, then nodded. "A little. She doesn't say it, but… yeah."

"Well, we're not that scary," Aluncedo said. "Except Mom when she does that thing where she stares into your soul."

Langa giggled. "And Dad when he pretends not to be impressed."

They all laughed together. For a moment, the room was light. Easy.

Mvula looked at his siblings, his chaos twins, as he called them in his head, and felt something ease in his chest. They were ready to meet her, and somehow, he knew Rain would be okay. She'd hold her own. She always did.

"She's different," he said quietly.

"Not like anyone I've ever met."

Aluncedo softened. "Good. You deserve different."

Langa pipped up again. "Can I show her my tree-house plans? Maybe she can help me design a secret escape tunnel."

Mvula smiled. "If you ask nicely."

Langa beamed. "I'm gonna ask very nicely."

And just like that, the future started to feel real.

Mvula's Reflection – Morning of the Family Visit

Mvula stood on the edge of the training field, his hands dusted with soil from the early drills. Rage stirred quietly beneath his skin, calm for once. The sky was pale, the wind soft. Still, something felt different.

She's coming.

He wiped his hands, but his thoughts stayed tangled in her. Rain Miya. The name tasted like something special, something right, like it was whispered into the marrow of his bones long before he met her.

She was 21, a philosophy student with ink-stained wrists and a mind that never stopped questioning. Not just the world, but him, too. She didn't take things at face value. She made him earn every answer. And he liked that. It kept him honest. It made him real.

He remembered when she told him why she hadn't pursued architectural studies.

"The world has enough designers, Mvula," she'd said. "But not enough people asking why we keep building things the same way, even when they keep breaking us."

It silenced him. It shifted something in him.

She saw patterns differently. Not in lines and sketches, but in people, in power, in history. She questioned legacy the way he questioned leadership. That's why she scared him sometimes, and maybe why he couldn't stay away.

Her mother, Sisanda Miya, had been his mother's closest friend. He knew the name before he ever knew Rain. A homeopathic healer with hands that smelled like mint and tea tree, Sisanda had delivered half the Clear-water Pack's cubs, patched up injuries with poultices and honey, prayed over burn wounds until they stopped blistering. When she died, when Rain was just eleven, the mourning stretched across most provinces.

He hadn't known Rain back then, but he'd seen a photo in his mother's memory box. A little girl in a pale blue dress, clutching her mother's scarf like it was the last thread connecting her to the earth. She had Xander Miya's high cheekbones, but Sisanda's eyes, deep, soft, relentless.

Xander, her father, had never remarried. A pharmacist who spoke sparingly but listened like a well, bottomless, patient. Mvula respected him. He could feel that quiet grief still tucked in the corners of the man's smile, but he also saw the pride when Xander looked at Rain, like he knew she was the best thing he'd ever made.

Rain lived in a house full of books and echoes. An only child. A careful thinker. She loved art, not the kind people hang in galleries, but the kind that lives in ruins, in memory, in rituals, in forgotten languages. She said her real dream was to design spaces that healed people, but she didn't trust the world to give her the freedom to do that, so instead, she chose to study the mind.

Sometimes, Mvula wondered if her soul had always been older than her body.

She'd asked to meet Rage the other night. He hadn't expected it. He didn't think anyone would want to meet that part of him, but she didn't flinch. She just stood there, arms open, saying nothing, like she already knew.

Tomorrow, he would introduce her to his family. To the Pack, but today, in this moment, he knew the truth in his gut:

She wasn't his to introduce.

She was his to follow.

Chapter 23

The next morning

The sun hovered low over the horizon, painting the sky in streaks of burnt orange and lavender. Xander sat on the wooden porch, a half-finished mug of tea resting beside him. The breeze ruffled his greying curls, and he didn't look up as Rain approached, but he knew it was her.

She sat next to him in silence for a moment, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her sleeve.

"I spoke to Mvula," she began, voice steady but gentle. "We've been talking a lot lately. About the prophecy. About… us." She continued with a shy smile adorning her face.

Xander's jaw flexed. Still, he said nothing.

"I have decided I want to be with him," she said. "Not just because of fate, or the mark, or what the ancestors say, but because I choose him."

That definitely got his attention.

He turned to her slowly, eyes searching hers. There was no rebellion in her face, no uncertainty, only a calmness that mirrored her mother's when she had made up her mind about something important.

Rain smiled faintly. "He invited me to meet his family. His pack. He says they are not perfect, but they are loyal. Fierce. Real."

Xander let out a long breath, part relief, part resignation. He looked away, blinking hard against the sunset, his eyes trying to swallow the unshed tears that glazed his eyes.

"I always knew this day would come," he said quietly. "The day when you'd stop running to me after every nightmare… and start running toward something or someone that is yours."

Rain rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm not running away from you, Dad."

He chuckled softly, though his voice cracked. "I know, baby, but it still feels like something's changing. Like the world's rearranging itself, and I'm just trying to catch up."

There was a beat of silence before he added, "You're so much like your mother. Brave in ways that terrify me."

Rain wrapped her arm around his. "I got that from both of you."

He smiled at that. "If Mvula ever hurts you…"

"I'll turn into a storm," she said, grinning. "You won't need to lift a finger."

Xander laughed, and for the first time in days, the tightness in his chest eased. "Then go, Rain. Meet his people. See who he is when you're not looking. But don't lose yourself in all this prophecy business. You're not just chosen, you're still you. That matters more to me sweetheart."

Rain nodded, eyes misty. "Thanks, Dad."

He kissed the top of her head. "You'll always be my little girl. Even when you're standing next to an Alpha."