The silver wolf came with an instruction tagged "Choose wisely."
And then it was gone.
Isolde woke with a scream caught in her throat and sweat pouring down her back. A nightmare she wanted to wake up from at all cost.
The dream had pierced her skin like a living thing with pointed nails—remains of silver fur, snarling shadows, and eyes that bled moonlight. Somewhere in the midst of the confusion and chaos, someone had whispered her name.
Not once! Not twice!!
Over and over again.
Isolde! Isolde!! Isolde!!!
As she woke up, she was trying to catch her breath, her vision were still hazy. She sat up on her small bed in the omega quarters, the room was lit by the lame moonlight filtering through the her shattered window. She trembled as she pressed her hand into the blankets, trying to support and help herself to reality.
It wasn't the first nightmare she'd had since the Blood Moon Ceremony. It was like a recurring experience.
However this one was different.
Her internal organs ached. This was so targeted.
Her skin itching her beneath the neckline of her shirt. She adjusted, trying to get her mind relaxed, but paused when she got glimpse of something in the mirror across the room.
She saw it. Yes something was indeed on her shoulder.
She rose to her feet and approached the broken mirror, her heart beating fast as she started to unbuttoned her shirt.
There—printed on her skin just very close to her shoulder, to be precise; below the curve of her collarbone—was a 'mark.'
A mark!?
It wasn't a scar neither was it a bruise. It was alive and new, more like a fresh mark.
A glowing curved shape of ancient runes, similar to a crescent moon, the lines blended with tiny shapes like branches of a tree-tree roots. It even looked like veins.
The mark radiated silver under the moonlight.
She touched it and flinched.
An intense flash of her dream struck her vision again—fangs, blood, and the silver-eyed wolf.
Isolde moved back from the mirror, hitting the wall behind her and sobbing.
"No," she whispered. "No, no, no…"
Later that morning, Brinna found Isolde pacing in the woods behind the pack training field,looking so restless and unkempt.
"Okay," Brinna said, not bothering to exchange pleasantries with Isolde."You look like you had a fight with a wolf and it dragged you halfway to the Bone Dens and back."
"Spill it." Brinna said to Isolde.
Isolde hesitated but later she yielded and yanked her shirt aside and showed Brinna the mark.
Brinna's eyes widened with surprise.
"That's…" She swallowed what she wanted to say. "That's not normal, Isolde." She finally said it.
"You think?" Isolde asked her looking straight into her eyes.
Brinna ignored the sarcasm. "You need to tell Kael! Or maybe the elders! Or maybe anyone. That thing on your skin? It looks like the old glyphs from the records."
Isolde blinked and asked. "What records?"
Brinna lowered her voice and whispered in Isode ears. "The ones we the omegas are not supposed to know about, hidden behind the prayer vault." I saw them once, when I followed Elder Varian into the lower tunnels.
"You followed Elder Varian?"
Brinna smiled mockingly. "You can call curiosity my fatal flaw."
Isolde sighed and said. "Even if it is something old or sacred… what does it mean?"
"I don't know," Brinna said, "but maybe Kael will." You know Kael is more vast in all of this
That night, Isolde sneaked out to the northern lookout tower where Kael often ran solo night patrols. The crescent moon was high in the sky, shining very strong and casting long shadows across the treetops.
She found him seated on the railing, watching the horizon awaiting her arrival.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Kael said without turning because he could smell it all over her.
"Worse," she said, voice low. "A wolf. In my dreams. The one with silver eyes."
Kael turned then, his expression sharpening. "What?" he wasn't expecting to hear this.
"And I have… this." She pulled her shirt aside.
Kael was across the floor. He reached out—then paused, hand in the air just few inches from her shoulder.
"May I?" he asked for permission.
She nodded in a affirmation, giving him permission.
His fingers were warm as they brushed the glowing mark. He traced it slowly, carefully.
"I've seen this," he spoke out. "Not in person, though, it's in the Luna Temple. Painted on the walls. It's called the Veil Sigil."
All what Kael said were sounding strange and this left Isolde puzzled. Then Isolde asked?
"What does it mean?"
He looked her in the eye and said:
"It means you're marked by the Moonveil. A force from before the Elders. Before even the old packs."
Isolde's stomach twisted with pain. "What does it want from me?"
Kael shook his head in a weak manner and said. "I don't know. But no one carries that mark without a reason. It chooses who it wants and only those who can cross beyond the seen and unseen,far and near."
She took a step back feeling forced against her wish and said "I don't want to be anything. I didn't ask for this."
"Neither did I," Kael said quietly, trying to calm her. "But fate doesn't ask, fate bestows upon us what it desires"
She stared towards the forest and spoke out loud with tears rolling from her eyes. "The dream sounded like a warning because the wolf said… *'Betrayal is closer than you think.'*"
Kael stiffened with curiousity and asked Isolde. "From who?"
"I don't know. But I felt the fear in its voice. Like it was desperate to make me understand." Isolde said.
Some nights later, the mark burned again.
This time, it woke her with blood on her tongue and a scream in her ears. Isolde ran out of her quarters looking so alarmed.
She rushed to the temple ruins, drawn by her instinct alone. Brinna tried to follow her, but Isolde moved too fast, way to fast for Brinna to catch up—her legs carrying her like the forest welcoming her home.
Everywhere was bathed in moonlight when she arrived.
Kael was already there. He was expecting her.
"I felt it," he said before she could speak.
Together, they entered deep into the hidden chamber beneath the cracked altar not allowed unless everyone was available. The air was thick with dust and magic smelling of ancient and enchanted aura. The stone walls resounding of forgotten history, records all crying to be remembered.
There, carved into the wall, was the mark she had on her.
Exact? Yes.
Identical? Yes.
Ancient? Yes.
And beneath the mark was a bold inscription saying:"She who bears the Veil Mark walks between the pack and the prophecy. Her rise heralds the fall."
Isolde moved back with fright and asked Kael. "Fall of what?"
Kael didn't answer verbally
But his facial expressions said everything.
Later, after they left the desolate place and the night smiled upon them. Kael left her at the stream and headed back for his night duty while Isolde stood at the edge of the river, staring into the reflection of her glowing shoulder and started talking to herself; saying:
"Betrayal was coming. That much was clear.
But from who? The Elders? The triplets? Even Kael?
Or… was it her?
Was she-Isolde the betrayal foretold?"
Her thoughts were interrupted by soft footsteps behind her.
It was Riven this time. The quietest of the triplets. The one who spoke only when he had to.
"You saw it, didn't you?" he asked her, not bothering to specify.
She nodded in affirmation.
"The wolf?" Riven asked?
Another nod by Isolde.
Riven sighed and came close to her.
He said;
"I saw him once too. Years ago. Same dream. Same warning."
Isolde couldn't believe her ears because she was shocked. She asked; "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Because I thought it was a curse. I still do." Riven replied with a downcasted face.
She turned to face him seeking clarity and said. "What do you mean?"
But Riven didn't answer.
Instead, he whispered, "Keep your secrets close, Isolde. Someone is watching."
After that, he disappeared into the trees.
The next morning, Elder Varian summoned Isolde to a private meeting to ask some questions.
"You are developing rapidly," the old woman said, with dagger eyes pointed towards Isolde. "The moon left its fingerprints on you. This is no blessing as people think but—it is a burden. And a danger to get you prepared."
"I didn't ask for it." Isolde retorted back.
"No one does." Elder Varian gave an evil smile.
Isolde hesitated. "What if I want to understand it?" she asked with keen eyes.
"Then be ready to pay the price." Elder Varian spoke almost immediately and backed her.
Isolde didn't flinch. "What price?" she asked?
Elder Varian faced her, smiled softly and said;
"The truth."