Chapter 2
1295 Words
The summer night felt too still.
Ember Dusk Hale lay awake in her bed, staring at the faint shimmer of moonlight cast across her ceiling. Tomorrow was technically her birthday — her real eighteenth — but her wolf hadn’t waited for the clock to strike midnight. Something inside her had begun clawing for release hours earlier, pacing and snarling behind her ribs like a caged star-beast.
Ember didn’t feel afraid.
She felt alive.
Downstairs, Aurora was probably already asleep, calm and composed and perfect as always — Dawn to Ember’s Dusk. Older by minutes, but always older in spirit. Aurora had a serenity Ember never could attain. Ember burned. That was her nature.
A faint pulse hit Ember’s sternum.
Again? she thought.
The heartbeat wasn’t hers.
It was deeper. Slower. Ancient.
Her breath hitched.
Vespera.
Her wolf’s presence pressed against her consciousness for the first time with true force — not flickers, not dreams, but a heavy, deliberate emergence. The room dimmed, the shadows thickening as if attracted to the growing presence behind her eyes.
A cool voice whispered in Ember’s mind:
“You called for me.”
Ember sat upright.
“I— I didn’t even know I was calling.”
“You did. Every time you doubted yourself.”
The voice was smooth. Feminine. Echoing with something lunar and terrifying.
Ember swallowed.
She’d always known she was different — even compared to Aurora. Aurora had always been the golden child, literally and figuratively. Ember had inherited the darker streaks of Crystal’s lineage: the unpredictable sparks of magic, the occasional visions, the affinity for twilight instead of daylight.
The pack called her Ember for a reason.
But this…
This was more than temperament.
The air grew colder.
The shadows in the corners of the room began curling inward, slowly stretching toward her like ink tendrils. Ember held her breath. Her heartbeat accelerated — hers this time.
She whispered, “Are you doing that?”
A soft chuckle echoed in her mind.
“You and I are bound. Your emotions feed me. Your strength strengthens me. And soon…”
A low, vibrating hum rippled through the air.
“…we will be one.”
Heat swept across Ember’s spine, rolling through her bones. Pain followed — quick, sharp, and sudden, like tiny lightning bolts fired through her joints.
She gasped and fell forward on her hands. Her fingertips burned hot enough she expected the wooden floor to scorch.
The shift was coming.
Too early.
Too fast.
“Ember?!”
The bedroom door swung open. Aurora rushed in, her long pale hair loose and glowing in the moonlight. Their mother, Crystal, close behind; their father, Dustin, already shifting his stance to stabilize the room.
All three froze when they saw her.
Bone cracked in Ember’s shoulder. Her back arched.
“Not yet,” Crystal whispered. “It’s too soon— the sun hasn’t set fully—”
Dustin grabbed Crystal’s arm. “No, look at her. She’s not losing control.”
Aurora knelt beside Ember, touching her forehead. “Your wolf is pushing through, isn’t she? Ember, can you hear me?”
Ember’s breath came in ragged, uneven gasps.
“I… hear… you…”
But behind her voice was another:
“Step aside, Dawn-born.”
Vespera’s voice layered beneath Ember’s, doubling it.
Aurora flinched.
Crystal stiffened. “She’s strong already.”
Dustin exhaled slowly. “More than strong.”
A sudden shudder rippled up Ember’s spine. The shadows in the room swirled faster, gathering behind her like a cloak of smoke.
Crystal froze. “Dustin… do you see that?”
“I do.” His jaw tightened. “It feels… celestial. But not like Bree.”
Aurora swallowed. “It feels like—”
A surge of darkness rolled outward from Ember’s chest, like a pulse of night itself, briefly extinguishing the lantern light.
All three Hale family members recoiled—
And then light burst from Ember’s eyes.
Not golden like Maverick.
Not silver like Bree.
A luminous shade of amethyst and white — twilight made alive.
Crystal gasped. “Dear Moon Goddess…”
Aurora grabbed Ember’s arm. “Em! Listen to me! You can ground it— don’t let it overwhelm you—”
Ember grit her teeth, eyes glowing brighter.
“I’m not overwhelmed,” she growled.
The shift slammed through her.
Her rib cage snapped. Her face elongated. Muscles tore and rewove themselves with violent precision. But she didn’t scream.
She welcomed the pain.
The shadows whipped around her, spiraling faster until the entire room felt like it was inside a storm of dusk.
Dustin stepped in front of Crystal and Aurora instinctively. “Brace yourselves— her wolf isn’t normal—”
The floorboards cracked under Ember's hands.
Her skin shimmered.
Her spine folded.
And then—
With one final, violent pulse of twilight energy…
Ember’s body broke apart into light and shadow—
and Vespera was born.
She stood nearly as tall as Maverick — maybe taller — her form slender but honed like a blade, the exact opposite of Aurora’s softer celestial glow. Vespera’s fur was obsidian overlaid with streaks of purple and silver that moved like constellations. Her eyes were twin stars: one violet, one white.
Celestial…
But wrapped in darkness.
A creature of twilight.
Crystal stepped forward slowly, awe-struck. “She’s… beautiful.”
Aurora whispered, “She looks like dusk evolving into night.”
Dustin didn’t speak.
He simply bowed his head.
Ember — Vespera — lifted her muzzle and inhaled deeply, her first breath shaking the entire room. The shadows recoiled instantly, snapping back to their corners. Moonlight lined her silhouette like a halo.
She stepped toward Aurora, lowering her massive head.
Aurora extended a trembling hand.
“You’re Vespera… aren’t you?”
The wolf nodded slowly.
Then pressed her forehead to Aurora’s.
Crystal choked softly. “She’s recognizing her sister.”
Dustin exhaled a breath he’d been holding. “She’s in control. She’s fully in control.”
Which was unheard of.
Most wolves lost themselves on the first shift — overwhelmed by instinct and sensation. But Vespera was calm, deliberate, ancient in her control.
Then Vespera turned toward Crystal and Dustin.
Her eyes softened.
She dipped her head.
Crystal stepped closer, laying a hand against the wolf’s cheek. “You carry dusk in your veins, little one… but you are ours.”
Vespera rumbled, leaning into the touch.
Then her gaze sharpened — pupils narrowing.
Everyone tensed.
“Ember?” Crystal whispered.
Vespera lifted her head, ears twitching as if listening to something distant.
Something no one else could hear.
Aurora felt it first — a pressure behind her ears, a whisper of unease. She grabbed Dustin’s arm. “Dad… something’s wrong.”
Vespera growled low, stepping between her family and the window. The hairs along her spine crackled with faint static, as though her body was reading energy in the air.
Crystal’s voice dropped. “Something’s coming.”
Dustin didn’t hesitate. He moved instantly into Alpha mode. “Aurora. Crystal. Behind me.”
Aurora grabbed Vespera’s fur. “What is it? Ember, talk to us—”
The wolf’s thoughts poured into all of them at once:
“Something wakes in the forest.”
Crystal inhaled sharply.
Aurora tightened her grip.
Dustin shifted partially, his eyes glowing gold. “Is it close?”
Vespera bared her fangs, the room dimming as shadows responded to her tension.
Then Ember’s voice broke through the wolf’s:
“Dad… Mom…
I can feel it.”
The twilight wind gusted through the cracks of the window, rattling the panes.
Vespera raised her head slowly.
And every lantern in the house flickered out.
A whispered warning echoed through their minds in Vespera’s voice, thick with prophecy:
“The curse awakens again.”
- Writer
