Chapter 10 Ten

Chapter 10

Ella’s POV

The thunder doesn’t stop. It rolls again and again, shaking the walls of the pack house like something alive.

Cole’s words keep echoing in my head.

The bodies are moving.

I grip the edge of the table to steady myself. My hands are still shaking from what happened minutes ago from the fire, the heat, the way Sam looked at me like I was something powerful and dangerous all at once.

Gemma moves first. “We need to see it for ourselves,” she says, her voice steady but low.

Sam nods. “Cole, get the warriors ready. We leave now.”

Cole hesitates, glancing at me. “Alpha, do you really think it’s safe to take her out there?”

Sam’s eyes flick toward me. “If what Gemma said is true, she might be the only one who can stop it.”

Gemma grabs her coat and tosses another one toward me. “Come on,” she says. “You’re not staying behind.”

The air outside is colder than before. The rain hasn’t started yet, but the clouds are thick, pressing down like they’re about to burst. The scent of death hangs faintly in the wind, heavy and sweet.

The ride to the border is silent. Sam drives, his hands tight on the wheel. Gemma sits in the passenger seat, scanning the road ahead. I sit in the back, staring out the window. Every tree looks like it’s watching us.

When we reach the border, the headlights catch movement not fast, but slow and uneven.

The bodies.

They’re really moving.

There are about ten of them, half-buried in the mud, their skin pale, eyes open and empty. They drag themselves toward the trees, one after another, like something is pulling them from the ground.

Cole and the warriors step out first, weapons drawn. The sound of steel scraping echoes through the clearing.

“Stay behind me,” Sam says, his tone firm.

I nod, though my heart feels like it’s about to rip out of my chest.

One of the bodies lifts its head. Its mouth opens, and a sound comes out not a growl, not a moan. It’s like a whisper stretched too thin.

A name.

My name.

“Ella…”

I step back fast, bumping into Sam. “It said my name,” I whisper.

Gemma’s eyes narrow. “They’re not random bodies. They’re drawn to you.”

“Why me?” I ask, my voice trembling. “Why always me?”

Gemma doesn’t answer. She raises her hand, muttering words I don’t understand. A faint glow surrounds her palm, and the nearest corpse freezes mid-movement.

But then, all the others turn their heads to every single one of them and face her.

Sam shoves me behind him. “Gemma!”

She doesn’t have time to respond. The ground splits open beneath her feet, and something black shoots out fast like smoke but solid enough to grab. It wraps around her leg and yanks her down.

“Gemma!” I scream.

Sam lunges forward, grabbing her arm. The black smoke tightens, pulling harder. I rush forward and grab her other hand, my fingers slipping against hers.

“Let go!” she gasps. “If it takes you too”

“No!” I shout. “I’m not letting you go!”

And then, without thinking, I reach deeper not with my hands, but with whatever that burning power inside me is.

It responds instantly.

Heat floods my veins. My vision blurs. The air around us shifts, and suddenly, the black smoke screams an actual scream, shrill and furious before bursting into light.

The force throws us all backward. I hit the ground hard, my ears ringing.

When I blink my eyes open, the smoke is gone. The bodies lie still again.

Gemma groans and sits up, clutching her chest. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Sam looks at me, his breathing rough. “What did you do?”

“I don’t know,” I whisper. “It just… happened.”

Gemma wipes blood from her lip. “It responded to her call. That thing was part of her father’s binding spell. She broke it.”

Cole stares at the bodies. “Then we’re safe?”

Gemma shakes her head. “No. That was just one.”

“One what?” Sam asks.

She meets his gaze. “One seal. There are seven.”

My blood runs cold.

Sam rubs his jaw, thinking. “Seven seals… and when they all break?”

“The world gets a visit from what her father truly was,” Gemma says softly. “And this time, he won’t need a body to destroy us.”

Silence falls again, heavy and suffocating.

I look down at my hands. The faint red glow still flickers beneath my skin before fading. My heart pounds fast, unevenly.

“I don’t want this,” I say quietly. “I don’t want any of it.”

Sam looks at me, his face softer now. “You might not have a choice.”

Gemma stands, brushing the dirt off her coat. “Then we better start preparing her before the next one wakes up.”

Sam nods slowly, but I see the worry in his eyes. He’s thinking the same thing I am: what if I can’t control this?

As we start walking back toward the trucks, a gust of cold wind rushes through the clearing, carrying whispers none of us can quite understand.

Gemma freezes mid-step.

“Did you hear that?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer. She’s staring at something on the ground, a symbol carved into the dirt, glowing faintly red.

It’s the same mark that burned on my father’s altar years ago.

Gemma kneels beside it, her voice low. “He’s marking territory. He knows you’re awake.”

My chest tightens. “You mean… he knows I’m alive?”

“No,” she says, looking up at me. “He knows you’re becoming him.”

The wind howls again. The symbol fades, sinki

ng into the soil.

And for the first time since this nightmare began, I’m not sure if the real enemy is out there… or inside me.