ARIA POV
The voice inside me whispered again: Soon.
I pressed my hands against the cage bars, ignoring the pain shooting through my broken arm. "What are you?" I whispered back. "What's happening to me?"
No answer. Just a feeling like something huge was stretching, waking up after a very long sleep.
The cage stopped moving.
Around me, twenty other people huddled together, crying softly. I recognized most of them—the miller's wife, two teenage boys from the farm next door, old man Chen who always gave me extra apples at the market.
"Why did they stop?" someone whispered.
Through the bars, I saw wolves gathering around a huge bonfire they'd built in the center of our burning town. They were laughing, drinking from stolen bottles, celebrating their hunt.
But one wolf stood apart from the others. He was bigger than the rest, with black fur and scars crossing his face. He wore pieces of armor—actual metal plates strapped to his chest and shoulders. The other wolves seemed afraid of him.
He turned and looked directly at our cage.
My blood went cold.
He started walking toward us, and every step made the ground shake a little. When he reached the cage, he grabbed the bars and pulled. The lock snapped like a twig.
"Listen up, meat," he growled, his yellow eyes scanning all of us. "You're going to the city. To the Grand Auction House. If you behave, you might get sold to a good master. If you fight..." He smiled, showing all his teeth. "Well, we have three more days of travel. Plenty of time to break the tough ones."
"Please," Mrs. Chen sobbed, holding her baby. "Please, my child is only six months old. She needs medicine, she needs—"
The black wolf grabbed the baby right out of her arms.
Mrs. Chen screamed. We all screamed.
He held the baby up, studying her like she was a piece of fruit. "Hmm. Too young to sell. Babies are useless until they're at least five."
"No!" Mrs. Chen reached through the bars. "Give her back! Please!"
The wolf looked bored. "Should I just kill it now? Save us the trouble of feeding it?"
Something snapped inside me. That voice—the one that said soon—suddenly roared: NOW.
Heat burst through my body. My skin felt like it was on fire. The broken bone in my arm screamed, but I didn't care.
I stood up, even though I could barely see through my tears and rage.
"Give her the baby back," I heard myself say. My voice sounded strange. Deeper. Stronger.
The black wolf turned to me slowly. "What did you just say, little girl?" "I said give her the baby back." My hands were shaking, but I kept my eyes on his. "Or I'll make you."
The other people gasped. You don't threaten a beastman. That's how you die.
The wolf threw his head back and laughed. "You? You'll make me?" He shoved his face against the bars, so close I could smell his rotten breath. "Tell me, little human—how exactly will you do that?"
The heat inside me grew hotter. My skin started glowing—actually shining, like there was light under my skin trying to get out.
The wolf's laughter died. He stepped back, his nostrils flared. "What are you?"
I didn't know. I didn't understand what was happening to me. But I knew one thing: I wasn't powerless anymore.
"Last chance," I said. "Give her back her child."
For just a second, I saw fear flash in his bright eyes.
Then a new voice cut through the air. "Blackclaw! What's taking so long?"
Another wolf approached—this one gray with a missing ear. He saw me glowing and his eyes went big. "By the Moon Goddess... is that—"
"Shut up!" Blackclaw snarled. He shoved the baby back through the bars into Mrs. Chen's arms, then grabbed me instead. His claws dug into my shoulders as he yanked me out of the cage.
"This one's special," he said to the gray wolf. "We're taking her to Lord Draevon personally. He'll pay triple for a Forgotten One."
"A Forgotten One?" The gray wolf's voice was filled with awe and fear. "But they're all dead. The purge killed them all three hundred years ago."
"Does she look dead to you?" Blackclaw shook me hard. The glow under my skin flickered and died. Suddenly I was just tired, weak, my broken arm screaming. "Get the box locked again. We leave now. And if anyone says a word about this, I'll rip their neck out."
The gray wolf nodded quickly and ran off.
Blackclaw dragged me away from the others. I tried to fight, but I had no strength left. Whatever that power was, it had burned through me and left nothing behind.
He threw me into a tiny cage—one meant for just one person. As he locked it, he leaned close and whispered, "You just made yourself very valuable, little Forgotten. Lord Draevon has been hunting your kind for years. He'll be very interested to meet you."
"Who's Lord Draevon?" I managed to ask.
Blackclaw's smile was pure evil. "The Wolf Alpha. The most powerful dog in the kingdom. And the one who's been killing every Forgotten One he can find." He tapped the bars. "Sweet dreams, little light. Enjoy them while you can."
He walked away, leaving me alone in the darkness.
I hugged my broken arm to my chest and tried not to cry. Everything hurt. Grandmother was dead. Garrett might be dead. My village was ashes. And now these monsters knew what I was—something I didn't even understand myself.
That voice inside me was quiet now. Sleeping again. But I could still feel it there, waiting.
What am I? I thought desperately. What's happening to me?
And then I heard it. Soft footsteps. Someone approaching my cage in the darkness.
I looked up and saw a person wearing a hooded cloak. They moved quietly, like a ghost. When they reached my cage, they pulled back their hood just enough for me to see their face in the firelight.
It was a woman. No—not a woman. A fox beastman, with red fur and sharp features. But her eyes were kind.
"Don't speak," she whispered. "Just listen. My name is Yuki. I serve Lord Draevon, but I don't agree with what he's doing." She pressed something through the bars—a small bottle filled with green liquid. "Drink this. It will help your arm heal and hide your smell. The wolves won't be able to smell what you really are."
"Why are you helping me?" I whispered back.
Her eyes were sad. "Because I had a kid once. A half-breed. The wolves killed her for being different." She closed my fingers around the vial. "You remind me of her. Brave and foolish."
"Wait—" I started to say, but she was already gone, melting back into the darkness like she'd never been there.
I looked down at the vial in my hand. It could be poison. It could be a trick.
But my arm was broken, I was going to meet a dog who killed Forgotten Ones, and I had nothing left to lose.
I uncorked the vial and drank.
The liquid tastes like mint and honey. Warmth spread through my body, different from the burning power I'd felt before. This was gentle, soothing. I felt my broken bone shift and start to knit back together.
And then I heard the screaming.
Not human screaming. Animal screaming.
The dogs around the bonfire were running, panicking. Something was attacking them from the forest—something fast and dangerous.
I pressed against the bars, trying to see.
A person moved through the chaos. Human-shaped but incredibly fast. It killed three dogs before they even knew what hit them.
The figure stopped in the firelight for just a second, and my heart nearly stopped.
It was Garrett.
But he looked different. Wrong. His eyes glowed silver-white. His hands had claws—actual claws, like a beastman's. And when he opened his mouth to roar, I saw teeth.
My human brother had fangs.
"Garrett?" I whispered.
His sparkling eyes found me across the distance. For one second, recognition flashed in them.
Then Blackclaw hit him from behind with a club. Garrett went down hard.
"Got you, half-breed scum!" Blackclaw laughed. "Thought you could sneak into my camp?"
He grabbed Garrett by the hair and dragged him toward another box. Even unconscious, Garrett's hands still had those claws.
My mind was spinning. Half-breed. That's what the fox woman called her daughter. That's what Blackclaw just called Garrett.
My brother was half beastman.
Which meant...
I looked down at my hands, remembering the glow, the power, the heat.
What are we?
And somewhere in the darkness, I could have sworn I heard Grandmother's words one last time: "Old blood, child. Blood that remembers what the world has forgotten."