Chapter 8 - Birthright

𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞

I rose on my own and let him guide me to the waiting car I now recognized as his.

As the vehicle moved, I shrunk into myself, letting my mind drift to another place, away from the reality that I sat in the same car as a man who looked like he could freeze the world twice over.

I let the cold leather swallow me, sinking into the seat like I could disappear inside it. The coat he'd draped over my shoulders was warm—far too warm—but I didn't push it off. I couldn't. My body had gone limp. My thoughts, louder than the world outside, began to scream.

I'd held on this long for one reason and one person. My mother.

It had been three years since the truth splintered my world.

Years after the police gave up, filing the "incident" as "unresolved," because the suspect could not be found.

I'd seen her face, shattered like porcelain. I'd heard the whispers of the man who destroyed her—of what he did. And I'd felt the fire that ignited inside me that day. A fire that refused to extinguish.

He was the reason I worked so hard, burying myself in school, in training, in anything that would give me the skills, the money, the connections to dig deeper than any cop ever could. I became my own weapon.

And now?

Now I'd never get the chance to make the bastard who ruined everything pay. The one who I inherited this cursed face from.

I didn't even know his name.

Just flashes. A description. A shadow that haunted the stories told in murmurs. A ghost with a toothpick in his mouth and a cruel little smile.

A man with golden eyes just like mine.

I clenched my bleeding hand tighter, as if the pain could anchor me—but it only made the ache in my chest worse.

The car began to slow before stopping smoothly.

That was quick...

I blinked, disoriented. We were still in the city, but the street was darker here. Quieter. Like the buildings were holding their breath.

I looked up tentatively to see what was holding us up. I caught sight of another car parked across from ours.

A familiar, sleek midnight blue monster on wheels. My pulse stuttered, then hammered.

I'd seen it before at the auction house. In the corner of the lot. Parked away from the others like it didn't want to be noticed, but I'd noticed. Something about it had unsettled me even then.

The door opened, a boot hitting the pavement as a man stepped out. My eyes trailed upward, my mind registering the new presence until my gaze snagged on his face.

The world shattered into fragments, my stomach lurching.

My skin flushed hot, every nerve ending lighting up like fire alarms had gone off inside me. The coat suddenly felt too heavy. Too tight. Something clamped down on my throat.

No, it couldn't be... it couldn't...

Still, I didn't need to blink or second-guess.

The toothpick dangled from his mouth, twitching slightly as he chewed. That lazy, lopsided smirk curved one corner of his lips, casual like he didn't already haunt my nightmares. His golden eyes flicked to our car like he already knew exactly where I was sitting.

Then the final blow.

His curly hair, dark as night—but streaked through with bronze, catching the light in a way that made it unmistakable.

My hair.

My eyes.

My face.

It was like looking in a mirror, the similarities haunting in their devastating accuracy.

I knew him because I'd hunted him.

I knew him—

Because he was my...

And somehow, in this fucked-up, otherworldly realm where nothing made sense, he was real.

Here, in a world I didn't even know existed, he stood, existing and smirking.

And I—

I was splintering and I dug my nails into the coat's fabric, breath catching, vision tunneling. My body refused to move, but my mind spun violently out of control, faster and faster, like a carousel with rusted brakes.

It can't be him.

But it was.

Every inch of him screamed the truth.

The face I inherited like a curse. The hair that had marked me. The eyes I'd never been able to explain away, the ones my mother used to kiss and call "sunset gold" while the rest of the world recoiled.

I pressed my forehead against the cold glass of the window. My heart was beating so hard it hurt. My fingers were shaking. My breathing grew shallow, rapid, wrong.

I didn't know if I was crying or hyperventilating. My ears were ringing. The cold air outside was nothing compared to the chaos erupting inside me.

I clawed at the door handle—but I froze because I heard it.

A voice. Not from outside or beside me. This was inside me.

 "Selene."

I blinked. My pulse thudded.

 "Open yourself to me."

My heart lurched. No, no, no—hallucinating was one thing, but hearing voices? Inside?

I let out a strangled laugh. Of course I was losing my mind.

 "You're not broken. Just bruised. Your soul is still yours. But if you keep this pain to yourself... you will destroy us both."

My teeth clenched. "What... what the hell are you?" I whispered hoarsely, barely able to get the words past my throat. "Why are you in my head?"

 "I am your wolf," the voice said gently. "Even hybrids have one. You are not alone, Selene."

I shook my head violently. "I don't— I can't—"

 "Your heart is fractured. Your soul has been trampled. I feel every cut, every bruise. Let me share the burden. Let me shoulder it with you."

"Stop it—stop—" My voice cracked. I clutched at my temples, shaking.

 "Remember your name, my dear."

My lips parted. "...Selene."

 "And mine is Kaia," the voice breathed. "And I have waited so long for you to hear me."

"Shut up—shut up—shut up—" I panicked even as her warmth enveloped me. The cold crept closer, gripping my heart in painful hands. Anger bubbled up.

But even as I said it, something inside me was altered.

My skin crawled.

The hair on my arms stood straight up.

The world outside blurred, but the reflection on the window sharpened.

And in it... I didn't see me because something else stared back. My eyes glowing red not in flashes like in the past three years. No, eyes stayed and stared back at me, pupils stretched, wild, while my teeth lengthened to fangs. Claws beginning to emerge from shaking fingers, my fingernails ripping out from the cuticles.

A shape that wasn't quite human anymore—shoulders rising, bones twitching like they didn't know where they belonged.

My mouth opened but no sound came out.

Kaia whispered again.

 "This is your birthright. Not a curse."

And I—

I snapped.

Pain ripped through my limbs. My bones screamed. The world tilted, and I screamed as I felt myself, my very body, start to come undone and remake itself.

The shift had begun and the girl who'd once thought she was human—was gone.