The past never knocked politely.
It came crashing in loud, sharp, unforgiving.
The scent of smoke hit her first.
Not the clean smoke of burning wood, but the bitter kind metal, blood, fur. The kind that clawed at the throat and refused to leave. Her feet sank into damp earth as screams tore through the night, familiar voices breaking apart like glass.
She was younger then. Smaller. Power unshaped and wild inside her ribs.
"Run!"
Her mother's voice.
Not fear command.
The rogue camp was already in chaos. Tents burned, wolves half-shifted and snarling, children crying as shadows moved too fast to track. The moon above was red, swollen, watching like a cruel witness.
She remembered clutching her mother's arm.
"I can help," she had said. She felt it then the pull of something ancient waking up in her blood.
Her mother had turned, eyes glowing silver even as blood soaked her side.
"No," she said fiercely. "You must survive."
Then the Alpha arrived.
Not their Alpha.
The council's enforcer.
His aura crushed the air, dominance rolling out like a wave. Wolves dropped to their knees. Some didn't get the chance. His gaze swept the camp and stopped on her.
Recognition flickered.
Interest.
Danger.
"Take the child," he ordered calmly.
Her mother shifted fully, roaring as she lunged
and fell.
The sound her body made when it hit the ground was soft.
Too soft.
That was when the scream tore out of her chest.
Power exploded.
The earth cracked. Fire surged where there should have been none. The Alpha staggered back, shock flashing across his face as flames curled around her like they knew her.
"She's "
She never heard the rest.
Hands grabbed her. Someone dragged her away as the camp burned behind them, her mother's scent fading into ash.
She jolted awake.
Her breath came fast, sharp, claws biting into the mattress as if it were an enemy. Moonlight spilled through the window, pale and quiet mocking the storm still raging in her chest.
Present.
Now.
Safe.
She pressed a hand over her heart, feeling it hammer like it was trying to escape.
So that's why the council knew her name.
So that's why they'd gone silent when it was spoken.
The Alpha enforcer from that night
He sat on the council now.
And he remembered her.
A knock sounded at the door.
Three slow taps.
She didn't jump this time.
"Come in," she said, voice steady despite everything.
The door opened, and he stepped inside eyes dark, expression unreadable, dominance coiled tight like a restrained blade.
"You felt it too," he said.
Not a question.
She met his gaze, fire flickering low in her eyes.
"Yes."
His jaw tightened.
"The past is catching up," he continued. "And when it does"
She stood.
" it won't be quiet," she finished.
Silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken truths.
Outside, the moon climbed higher.
And somewhere beyond the pack borders, something old stirred drawn by a power that had never truly gone to sleep.