novelraw Born of Shadow:
Born of Shadow:
[POV: Aria]
For the first time in weeks, I found myself slipping away from the others. I skipped meals, ducked out of training early, and avoided shared spaces entirely.
I wasn’t trying to be rude—I just… couldn’t breathe with all those eyes on me.
Eyes that now seemed to watch me differently. The prophecy echoed in my mind with every step I took.
Two daughters born under the moon’s shadow. One to bring ruin. One to bring glory.
Had I always known something was wrong? Was that why I’d felt like a stranger in my own home, in my own skin, for so long?
The crescent mark on my cheek, the dormant wolf, the volatile shadows pulsing through my body…
My family didn’t just hate me. They feared me. And now, I did too.
What if they were right? What if I was the destroyer?
I leaned against the cold stone of the training wall just outside the western edge of the packhouse, arms crossed tightly over my chest. The wind whispered around me, but it didn’t offer comfort.
I didn’t know how long I’d been standing there when I heard his voice.
“You’ve been quiet.”
I turned. Cole.
He stood a few feet away, his expression unreadable, but not cold. He looked like he had the night I first saw him again—tentative, careful, but familiar. The memory of what we’d once shared softened my stance just enough to keep me from walking away.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I said.
He nodded. “I figured.”
Silence stretched between us.
“Come on,” he said at last, jerking his chin toward the trees. “I know a place. No one goes there. It’s quiet.”
I hesitated. Then nodded.
I didn’t want comfort. But I also didn’t want to be alone in the weight of this.
We walked in silence, footsteps soft on the path through the woods.
Cole led me to a small clearing ringed with moss and stone, the kind of place you’d miss if you weren’t looking for it. A crooked tree leaned toward the center like it had grown just to shield anyone sitting beneath it.
I lowered myself onto one of the stones. He sat beside me, not too close.
“I discovered this place while exploring the borders between our packs, actually. I used to come to a place like this one when I was younger,” he said, voice low. “Before the noise. Before the politics. When it was just me and my wolf, trying to figure things out.”
I gave him a tired glance. “Did you figure it out?”
He gave a soft laugh. “No. Not even close.”
For a while, we just listened to the forest. And then I spoke—barely above a whisper.
“There’s a prophecy,” I said. “A really old one.”
Cole stilled but didn’t interrupt.
“Two sisters, born under the moon’s shadow. One to bring ruin. The other, glory.” I swallowed, voice tight. “And they think I’m the ruin.”
His brows drew together.
“Dayana and my parents… they’ve known all along. I overheard them. That’s why they treated me like they did. Why they needed me to be weak. Why they wanted me gone.” My voice cracked. “Because I’m the threat to the whole bloodline. I’m the curse of the pack.”
Cole was quiet for a long time.
“You’re not,” he said finally, firmly. “You’re not a threat, Aria.”
“How do you know?” I looked at him, desperate. “I still could lose control of my powers. I wasn’t able to shift and meet my wolf for a very long time. I’ve lashed out. And now I find out I might’ve been meant to destroy everything—everyone—around me from the start.”
Tears blurred my vision, but I kept going.
“What if Hayden’s pack isn’t safe with me here? What if he isn’t?”
Cole reached over then, his hand brushing mine.
“You’re not cursed,” he said gently. “You’ve survived things most people couldn’t even name aloud. That doesn’t make you dangerous. That makes you a fighter.”
I didn’t speak.
He squeezed my hand. “I know you think you’re alone in this. But you’re not. You’ve never been.”
Something in his voice cracked, something real and raw, and I felt it. That old familiarity. The quiet safety I used to cling to when I had nothing else.
Cole had been the only soft thing in my life for so long.
And now, sitting here beside him again, I could almost fall back into that feeling. But something stopped me.