Lyra POV
Years slipped by like the river itself quiet on the surface, always moving beneath. By the time I was thirteen, Riverbend had become home in the way a cage might become familiar. It was safe, predictable. Every sunrise brought the same rhythm: chores, lessons, training for those with ranked blood, and silence for the omegas.
That's what they called me now omega. The bottom of the pack. The servant, the unseen. But I didn't mind omegas were invisible, and invisibility was freedom. No one looked too closely at an omega's eyes. No one asked where she'd come from. No one imagined she might once have been the daughter of an Alpha whose name was now spoken only in whispers.
Luna Aeryn tried to teach me simple tasks cleaning, cooking, healing herbs. But at night, when the house slept, I taught myself other things. How to move without sound. How to scent the air for danger before it arrived. How to climb to the highest point of the packse roof and watch the moon until my heart steadied again.
I wasn't training to serve. I was training to survive.
Elias grew with me. He was taller now, always smirking, always pushing boundaries. He'd sneak me pieces of dried meat from the warriors' stores, or drag me to the training grounds after dark.
"Just a few swings," he whispered, tossing me a wooden blade.
"I'll get caught," I muttered.
But I always took it. The first time I lifted that sword, it felt strange in my hands heavy, awkward, unbalanced. But the second time, it didn't. The third time, it felt right.
"Where'd you learn to move like that?" Elias asked once, breathing hard after I disarmed him for the first time.
I shrugged. "I just… know."
And I did. It was like my body remembered something my mind had forgotten drills, stances, precision. My father's voice, my brother's laughter.
One evening, as we trained beneath a silver moon, the pack's messenger returned from a northern summit. The Riverbend wolves gathered in the courtyard to hear the news. I stood at the edge, half-hidden behind the stable wall.
The messenger bowed before Alpha Rowan. "The territories are changing, my lord. A new Alpha is rising in Ironclaw. Kaelan Draven, son of Alaric Draven."
I froze. The name struck something deep in my memory. Draven. I'd heard it before in Father's office, spoken with respect. The Dravens had once been Silverfang's allies.
"What of the wars?" Rowan asked.
"Kaelan has united the fractured northern packs. He's young, but they say he fights like his blood is forged from silver itself. Some say the goddess has blessed him."
A murmur swept through the crowd. Young Alphas rarely gained respect so quickly. But I wasn't listening to their awe. My heart had started to thrum again, that same strange rhythm I hadn't felt in months. My breath hitched. There it was the second heartbeat. Stronger now. Closer. Kaelan Draven.
I whispered the name under my breath, and something in my soul stirred like the sound of chains tightening or a door unlocking. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't want to.
But deep down, I knew that name would one day matter more than my own.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, listening to the quiet hum of the packhouse. The river outside whispered softly; the crickets sang. But all I could hear was that heartbeat not mine, but the one tethered to it.
Somewhere far away, I could almost feel him Kaelan breathing under the same moonlight. And though I didn't yet know his face, part of me already hated him.
Because fate only takes from me what I cannot afford to lose. And whatever bond tied us together, it would demand payment one day.
By the time I turned sixteen, the world beyond Riverbend no longer felt distant. Whispers from the borders spoke of shifting alliances, rogue uprisings, and a northern Alpha whose name had become legend before he'd even reached full maturity.
Kaelan Draven. The name came and went in conversations like the echo of thunder before a storm. To most, it was a story.
To me, it was a sound I could feel in my bones. Sometimes, when I was alone in the woods, I'd hear my pulse steady… then double. Two beats. Two lives. One rhythm. I tried to ignore it. I tried harder than I'd ever tried at anything. But the harder I resisted it, the stronger it became like the moon pulling at the tide. And I hated it.
Whatever invisible string connected me to that stranger was a threat a reminder that my fate wasn't truly mine.
Riverbend's packhouse had grown colder with time. Alpha Rowan had changed not outwardly, but in the small, heavy ways that drew tension through the air. He used to greet his wolves with warmth; now his eyes were sharper, his tone more demanding.
Luna Aeryn still smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes anymore. I'd hear the warriors whisper sometimes, their voices low:
"He's grown paranoid since the Draven boy started expanding."
"Riverbend stands neutral for now, but who knows for how long…"
War. The word slid through the hallways like a scent of blood no one wanted to name.
Elias, now a warrior apprentice, trained from sunrise until dusk. His body was built of muscle and defiance, but even he noticed the shift.
"The old man's losing sleep," he said one evening, tossing a knife into the target with a satisfying thud. "Something's coming, Lila. I can feel it."
I didn't answer. Because I could feel it too. Only mine wasn't fear of war. It was something older. Deeper.
The faint tug of a promise the moon itself had written into my veins.
The first sign came during a pack meeting that autumn. Riverbend's main hall was crowded warriors, healers, omegas all standing beneath the banners that marked loyalty and rank. I stood in the back as usual, a shadow among many.
Alpha Rowan's voice was steady but strained. "We have received word that Alpha Kaelan of Ironclaw is moving south. He's taking control of rogue territories and absorbing broken packs."
A ripple of unease spread through the room.
"He claims he's building unity," Rowan continued, his eyes cold. "But make no mistake power never gathers without blood."
A warrior stepped forward. "Do you mean to stand against him, my lord?"
Rowan hesitated just for a breath before answering. "Riverbend stands with no one. We are peace keepers. We do not interfere."
But his hand clenched at his side. And that was when I saw it the look in his eyes. Not neutrality. Not caution. Fear.
For the first time, I realized Riverbend wasn't as safe as I thought. If Kaelan Draven was truly expanding, it was only a matter of time before his shadow fell across even this quiet southern pack.