TWO
The words tore out of before I could soften them.
"No."
Maelis stopped mid step.
The cavern seed to inhale with her, the soft glow along the roots dimming just slightly as she turned back to .
For the first ti since I had t her, surprise crossed her face and she didn’t look pleased.
At all.
"No?" she echoed quietly. "You were ready to leave monts ago."
"I was," I said, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it. "I thought I was. But I can’t. Not like this."
She watched carefully, saying nothing, giving the space to speak or break.
I pressed a hand to my stomach, feeling the pressure against on my tummy.
"If I don’t unlock my wolf," I continued, swallowing hard, "I won’t be able to give birth to my son."
Maelis’s brow furrowed.
I laughed weakly. "I know what you’re thinking. You think it’s fear talking. But it isn’t."
I drew in a slow breath, every mory clawing its way up.
"My last pregnancy..." My voice cracked, but I forced myself to go on. "I lost the baby. I was only a few months along. They told it was sudden. Unavoidable."
I shook my head. "That was a lie. My body couldn’t handle it. I nearly died."
Maelis’s expression softened, but I couldn’t look at her.
"I bled for days," I whispered. "I couldn’t shift. Couldn’t heal. My pelvis... it wasn’t built for it. A wolf’s body changes for birth. Mine never did."
My throat tightened painfully.
"This child isn’t just a baby," I said. "He’s a pup. And my body won’t be able to push him out like this.". Maelis stepped closer, the glow at her fingertips gathering into a trembling white knot.
Silence pressed in around us, heavy and suffocating.
"I can’t leave if I can’t give birth to him," I finished quietly. "What’s the point of escape if my child dies along the way?"
Maelis exhaled slowly.
"You are the only one who can unlock your wolf," she said at last. "No one else can do it for you."
I looked up sharply. "Then you understand why I can’t run."
Her gaze hardened, just slightly.
"And do you understand what you’re choosing instead?" she asked.
She stepped closer, her voice low but unyielding.
"Would you rather go back to your father? Let him use you until there is nothing left? Until your power is drained and you are discarded?"
My chest tightened.
"Is that what you want?" she pressed.
I said nothing.
The truth lodged too painfully in my ribs to be spoken aloud.
Maelis’s voice softened again, but the words cut deeper.
"And even if you survive," she said, "even if you give birth... he will take your son."
My head snapped up.
"He will raise him as his own," she continued. "He will mold him. Train him. Feed him lies until your child becos the very thing you are running from."
My breath ca shallow and fast.
"He will be used," she said gently. "And one day, he will be corrupted."
I turned away, my vision blurring. The cavern walls swam as I stared into the glowing pools, my reflection fractured and unfamiliar.
I couldn’t speak.
Every future she described felt like a blade pressing closer to my throat.
Maelis rested a hand on my shoulder.
"You don’t have to decide alone," she said quietly. "But you must believe when I say this: only you can unlock your wolf."
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I had spent my entire life running from that truth.
From power.
From responsibility.
From the fear that if I opened myself fully, I would lose control and beco sothing unrecognizable.
But motherhood didn’t allow for half choices.
Slowly, painfully, I nodded.
"Alright," I whispered. "We try."
Maelis’s grip tightened, just briefly.
"Co," she said.
She led deeper into the cavern, past tunnels that narrowed and twisted, past doors reinforced with iron and stone. The air grew colder, heavier, buzzing faintly against my skin.
We stopped before a wall that looked solid at first glance. No handle. No seam.
Maelis raised her hand.
Power rippled outward.
I felt it like pressure in my ears, like the mont before a storm breaks. Symbols flared across the stone, ancient and sharp, glowing white-blue as she murmured words I couldn’t understand.
The wall shuddered.
Then split.
The chamber beyond was dark.
Moonlight poured in through narrow cracks in the ceiling, slicing the room into pale ribbons of silver.
In the center stood a high stone pedestal.
And atop it, a chest.
Large. Old. Reinforced with gold and sigils carved so deeply they looked wounded into the tal.
Before I could take another step, I felt it.
Heat.
A pulse that matched my heartbeat exactly.
The ruby glowed from within the chest, crimson light bleeding through the seams like sothing alive and waiting.
My stomach clenched violently.
"That’s..." My voice faltered.
"The red stone," Maelis confird quietly.
Fear and awe tangled inside as I stared at it, my body reacting before my mind could catch up. The erald at my throat ward in response, humming faintly against my skin.
"They were never ant to be separated," Maelis said. "Creation stones recognize each other."
I took an unsteady step forward.
The light intensified.
My baby kicked hard, a sharp, urgent movent that stole my breath.
I pressed a hand to my belly instinctively.
"I feel it," I whispered.
Maelis nodded. "That is why we must be careful."
I stopped just short of the pedestal, my legs trembling.
"If I unlock my wolf..." I swallowed. "I don’t know what I’ll beco."
Maelis t my gaze steadily.
"You will beco what you choose," she said. "Power doesn’t decide that. People do."
The ruby pulsed again, brighter now, casting jagged shadows across the chamber walls.
I stared at it, at the future it represented, at the impossible choice narrowing to a single point.
For the first ti since I had arrived in this world, I wasn’t running.
I was standing my ground.
And whatever happened next would change everything.
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