POV Daría
"I want someone to investigate which wolf howled near the border a few minutes ago. I don't want guesses."
I felt the weight of those words like claws digging into my back.
They were talking about me.
My chest tightened like a cage of nerves. They would search for witnesses, follow tracks, ask questions. Neris wouldn't let this go easily, and with every second that passed, the chances of everything being exposed increased. I'd put myself out there, left a trail of mistakes in the forest, and there was nothing I could do to erase the past.
But then the wind changed.
The faint scent of smoke that had lingered in the forest suddenly thickened, impossible to ignore. It wasn't a lone ember. It wasn't a campfire. It was alive. Enormous.
How did I not see it before?
The glow of the fire lit up the horizon. From above, the pack's city reflected the blazing red in its glass and metal facades. The modern structures looked like they were burning from within. The very technology that kept us safe, our facade to the human world, now bore witness to chaos.
Wolves ran, disoriented. Some shouted names, others called for help through communicators, and a few simply fled. I saw a mother lift her daughter with trembling arms, her eyes wide with fear. The automatic alarm system had activated, and the emergency lights blinked in an aggressive red. Others were calling the fire department—as if that could stop a fire driven by something ancient and hungry.
I... didn't move.
The fire mesmerized me. The heat struck my face, and still, I stood frozen. Like my thoughts had dissolved into the smoke. I could hear the screaming, the alarms, the buzzing of rescue drones flying over danger zones. It all sounded distant—like it was underwater.
Until I felt a hand.
"Daria!" It was Aram. His face was smudged with soot, sweat beading on his forehead, but his eyes—they were an anchor.
"We have to go. It's coming fast."
I didn't respond. I couldn't. My body refused to react, my feet rooted to the ground. Some part of me believed I deserved to burn.
"For the Moon's sake…" Aram muttered. And without waiting for permission, as if I weighed nothing, he threw me over his shoulder. His ankle had healed, his wolf doing its job. As he ran, all I could do was stare at the fire—those tongues of light disappearing into the trees that once were my refuge.
My body swayed with his desperate, steady pace. From that height, I could only watch the fire grow smaller in the distance, but the guilt… the guilt didn't shrink with it.
When we reached home, my brother opened the door. His eyes went straight to Aram's pale, strained face. The sweat, the soot, the desperation—they all spoke for him.
His expression paled when he saw us. The moment Aram lowered me, my brother caught me in his arms, and just like that, it all felt too real.
"She's in shock," Aram said, voice low. "Stay with her. Don't leave her alone."
But my brother looked at him—hesitated for just a second—and shook his head firmly.
"You brought her. You stay with her. But I'm not staying." With one last glance at me, he turned and ran after him.
He left me alone.
The house fell into silence.
Hours passed. I don't remember how many. Smoke crept through the cracks, and the sky had turned into a blend of charcoal and ash.
I was no longer in shock—just pacing the living room like a caged animal. Guilt. Guilt for not foreseeing it. Guilt for everything. I walked in circles, chewing my thumbnail, waiting for them to return. Waiting for anything.
When the door finally opened, Connor came in first. Soot covered even his teeth, his clothes torn, his eyes exhausted. Behind him were Aram and my brother. The three of them looked like they were carrying the weight of the whole forest. Covered in ash, eyes red from smoke, and all of them reeking of burned woods.
I saw them and, without thinking, blurted out:
"Finally!" I said in a voice that didn't sound like mine. "I thought you were going to stay there until you became part of the menu."
Connor let out a low chuckle.
Silence followed—immediate and heavy.
He looked at me… and smirked.
"Miss one of your terrible jokes? Never."
The air moved again.
They had managed to stop the disaster—at least for now. Relief had just begun to settle into the room when another blow hit like thunder.
The door slammed open.
Neris entered without permission, like her presence could pierce through walls.
She stood in front of me, eyes sharp as blades.
"Where were you?" she snapped. "We handled the humans. We just watched them leave the border. If you hadn't gone off alone to 'track them,' if we hadn't been busy looking for you, the fire wouldn't have spread like that."
I didn't answer. Silence was my only defense.
Neris scanned me from head to toe. Her voice dropped into a darker tone.
"Or did you start the fire?"
The accusation hung in the air like a thick cloud. Then her voice rose again with authority:
"Where were you all that time?"
And even though the evidence that could incriminate me—my encounter with the humans, the howl meant to distract them, my almost silvery-gray wolf form—had all vanished in the fire… doubt remained. At least for her.
But just as Neris prepared to go on, Aram stepped forward. The tension in his jaw and the firmness in his stride said it all.
"Don't accuse her without proof," he said. "Daria was in shock. You have no idea what she went through."
Connor moved beside him. His tone was calmer, but just as firm.
"You're crossing a line, Neris. This isn't the time to point fingers. We have enough to deal with saving what's left of the forest."
The weight of their words stopped her. She went quiet for a moment, gauging whether it was worth continuing.
My brother was there too, standing with them. He didn't say a word. Not because he doubted me—he just hadn't had the chance to speak. Aram had stepped in. And with that, there was nothing more to add.
Neris exhaled sharply and turned on her heel, leaving without looking back.
But I knew she wasn't done. Not for her. Her suspicion would burn like embers under bark that looked cold on the outside.
And I… I'd have to be ready for when she tried to fan them into flame again.
The door slammed shut behind her. The silence that followed was thicker than smoke.
Kael didn't say anything at first. He just stood there, staring at the door like he could still see through it. Then he turned to us, his gaze fixed on me. It wasn't anger in his eyes.
It was something else. Something deeper. Something that hurt more.
"I'm going upstairs," he said at last, without raising his voice. "But tomorrow... I want an explanation."
And he left. Step by step. Without looking back.
When his door closed upstairs, it felt like the air returned to the room—but only for a moment.
The hours that followed weren't restful. No one slept. The three of us stayed in the living room, tension slicing the air like knives. We talked. We argued. We replayed every word, every decision. What to say. What not to say.
Connor came up with plausible versions. Aram shot them down with cold logic. I, at times, just listened, exhaustion soaking into my bones, but my nerves too sharp to even blink without guilt.
It wasn't just about protecting me. It was about protecting them too.
"So we say we heard a strange howl," Connor summed up, rubbing his irritated eyes. "One that sounded like a rogue. You went out without telling anyone, Daria. And we followed you. Period."
"If Kael focuses on why you went out alone, it won't matter," Aram said, staring at the floor. "He knows what your mother risked for you. He won't let it go."
I nodded without much energy.
"I'll say it was instinct. That I didn't think. That I thought I could avoid a bigger conflict."
And finally, after chewing over version after version, after too many glances filled with "what ifs," we heard the creaking of wooden steps on the staircase.
Kael was coming down.
Dawn had already begun to wash the house in pale, gray light. Outside, the shadows were unraveling in the thick smoke still hanging in the air. Kael walked into the room with a mug in hand. He stopped in front of us. He didn't look like he had slept either.
"What happened last night?"
It wasn't a casual question. It was a verdict.
We stood up—almost at the same time. But Aram was the first to speak.
"Daria wasn't okay. The situation overwhelmed her. She left because she thought it was the right thing. We followed her."
"We heard a howl near the border," Connor added. "We thought it could be a rogue. We didn't know if there were more humans around."
Kael looked at me. I nodded. I said nothing else. There were too many truths to fit into a sentence—and none of them would help now.
Kael let out a long sigh. He walked to the window and looked out at the sky that had just begun to...