Chapter 6 The Mark of Destiny

The night refused to let me sleep.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as moonlight spilled through the window, painting silver lines across the room. My thoughts twisted and tangled until they were just noise too loud to ignore, too strange to understand.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him Donald his golden eyes, his calm voice, the way the world seemed to bend around him.

And that pull… it hadn’t gone away. It had only grown stronger.

I pressed a pillow over my head, trying to smother the warmth rising in my chest. “Go away,” I whispered into the fabric, though I wasn’t sure who I was talking to him or whatever was happening inside me.

When I finally sat up, the clock on the wall said 3:12 a.m. The forest outside was quiet, except for the steady rhythm of crickets.

Then I saw it.

A faint shimmer on my wrist.

At first, I thought it was just the moonlight reflecting off my skin. But when I turned my arm, the light didn’t fade it followed, soft and pulsing like a heartbeat.

My breath caught.

The mark was shaped like a crescent moon the same one Donald’s touch had burned into me that first night in the forest. But now, it glowed softly, like silver fire beneath my skin.

“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no…”

I rubbed at it, but the mark didn’t fade. Instead, it grew brighter, casting a faint glow across my room.

The air seemed to hum.

It wasn’t painful but it wasn’t comfortable either. It felt… alive. Like it was breathing with me.

“Get out of my head,” I muttered, pacing the room. “You’re not real. This isn’t real.”

But the mark pulsed again, as if answering me.

A whisper echoed faintly in my mind not words, just a feeling. A warmth that said you’re not alone.

And somehow, I knew. He could feel it too.

By sunrise, the mark had dimmed to a faint silver trace. But I couldn’t stop staring at it.

Every time my fingers brushed the skin, I felt a strange current run through me a soft hum, like the earth itself was alive under my fingertips.

When I stepped outside, the forest looked different. Brighter. The colors sharper, the scents stronger the world almost too vivid.

I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. For a moment, I could swear I felt every rustle of wind, every heartbeat around me.

Then, from somewhere deep in the woods, a familiar voice reached me.

“Clara.”

Donald.

I froze. “No. Not again.”

But my feet moved before I made the decision.

By the time I reached the edge of the clearing, he was already there standing tall, his expression careful, his golden eyes searching mine.

“You felt it,” he said quietly.

I hesitated. “The… mark?”

He nodded. “The bond mark. It means your wolf has begun to stir.”

I crossed my arms. “I don’t have a wolf, Donald.”

His gaze softened. “Then what do you think that is?”

He gestured gently toward my wrist.

I looked down. The mark glowed again, brighter this time, as if it responded to his presence.

The light reflected in his eyes, and something inside me shifted like a key turning in a lock I hadn’t known existed.

“This can’t be happening,” I whispered.

Donald stepped closer, slow enough not to startle me. “The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes, Clara. That mark isn’t a curse. It’s a promise.”

“A promise of what?”

“Of who you are.”

I shook my head. “I know who I am. I’m human.”

He smiled faintly, almost sadly. “Then why does the forest listen when you breathe?”

“What?”

He looked around us. “Can you feel it? The way the air shifts when you’re here? The way the light follows you?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but then I noticed the breeze that had been whispering through the trees slowed, soft and steady, circling around me like it recognized me. The leaves shimmered in the sunlight, dancing even though the air was still.

A shiver ran down my spine. “What’s happening?”

“Your wolf’s energy is awakening,” Donald said gently. “It’s been asleep for years maybe your whole life. The mark is her way of saying she’s ready.”

“My wolf,” I repeated faintly, the words feeling foreign on my tongue.

“She’s part of you,” he said. “She always has been.”

I pressed a trembling hand over the mark. “And if I don’t want her?”

His voice softened. “You can’t erase what’s written in your soul, Clara. You can only learn to understand it.”

The mark pulsed again once, twice and I gasped as a flash of images flooded my mind:

A moonlit lake.

A silver-furred wolf with eyes like mine.

And a voice whispering my name.

When I blinked, the vision was gone.

I staggered, dizzy. Donald caught me before I fell. His touch steadied me, and the mark glowed brighter where his hand brushed mine.

“You saw her,” he said quietly.

“I, I don’t know what I saw.”

“Your wolf,” he murmured. “She’s strong. And she’s been waiting a long time.”

I shook my head, overwhelmed. “Why me, Donald? Why would I have this… this power? I’m not one of you.”

He looked at me for a long time before answering. “Because your bloodline isn’t what you think it is.”

Something cold ran through me. “What do you mean?”

“Your grandmother,” he said slowly, “was one of us. A healer of the Black Moon Pack. The last of her kind.”

I stared at him, speechless. “That’s impossible. She was just… my grandmother. She made tea, told stories, took care of me.”

“And saved lives,” he said. “Her power ran deep but she hid it to protect you. She must have known the day would come when your mark would appear.”

I backed away, shaking my head. “No. No, she would’ve told me!”

“She couldn’t,” he said softly. “The less you knew, the longer you stayed safe.”

The forest seemed to close around me, the truth pressing heavy in the air.

I looked down at my wrist again. The crescent mark shimmered softly, calm now, as if it knew I finally saw it for what it was a sign.

A calling.

A destiny I didn’t understand yet.

Donald’s voice broke through my thoughts. “You don’t have to face this alone.”

I met his eyes golden, steady, sure. “But I already am.”

He smiled faintly. “Not anymore.”

The mark pulsed once, warm against my skin, and for the first time, I didn’t flinch.

Because deep down, I knew.

Something had begun something that couldn’t be undone.

And whether I was ready or not, my life would never be the same again.