Caged Human Luna — He Stole My Freedom To Hide His Curse Chapter 12

Caged Human Luna — He Stole My Freedom To Hide His Curse Chapter 12 “Not My Wolf”

Elaine.

The mud sprayed high around us as our horses tore down the rocky mountain path. The rain had turned into a blinding sheet of water, slapping against my face, but I barely felt it. Every second we rode closer to the Crystal Waters border, the phantom pack link in my mind grew louder.

“Hold on, Elaine!” Fenris shouted over the roar of the wind, his black horse pulling slightly ahead of mine. His jaw was set, his eyes glowing faintly blue in the darkness. “We’re almost at the tree line!”

I tried to nod, but a sharp, blinding spike of pain shot through my brain. I gasped, dropping the reins. My hands flew to my head as the psychic agony of the pack hit me with full force. A wolf at the border had just been struck down-I felt the exact moment his life cut out, a cold void opening in my mind.

“Ah!” I choked out.

My balance slipped. I tumbled sideways off the horse, rolling into the thick ferns, my breath completely stolen by the impact.

“Elaine!” Fenris screamed, throwing himself off his horse before it even came to a full stop.

The pain in my head exploded outward, radiating into my bones. Cole was pacing frantically inside my chest, pushing against my ribcage. My bones cracked, snapping and reforming as the shift took over. It wasn’t the smooth, powerful transition I had felt before. It was violent. It felt like my soul was being ripped in two.

“Let her through, Elaine! Don’t fight it!” Fenris was suddenly there, his large hands anchoring my shoulders, keeping me from thrashing against the rocks.

But I wasn’t just shifting. As the darkness pulled me under, the sound of the storm faded.

Suddenly, I was standing in a vast forest made of gray mist.

“Elaine.”

The voice echoed from everywhere. I spun around, my hair whipping across my face. A massive black wolf stepped out of the haze. Her eyes weren’t gold like mine were a deep. sorrowful blue.

– “Cole?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “What is this? The pack is dying. We have to go back.

The beast’s form began to shift, the lines blurring until a girl stood in her place. She looked young, maybe eighteen, with long white hair and features that felt terrifyingly familiar.

“My name isn’t Cole,” she said softly, her silver eyes filling with unshed tears. “My name is Lira. I am Fenris’s sister.”

The ground beneath me felt like it was sinking. “No. That’s impossible. Ethan killed you. You died years ago.

“My body died,” Lira said, taking a step toward me. “But my spirit was trapped in the neutral zone where my blood was spilled. I was a ghost, waiting for someone strong enough to survive Ethan’s curse and tear him down.”

She stopped right in front of me, reaching out a pale hand. I could feel the same spark I felt whenever I used my wolf power.

“When Ethan took you years ago, he thought he was breaking a human girl,” Lira whispered. “But your strong willpower to survive created a bridge. My spirit anchored to your broken body. I gave you my strength, Elaine. I gave you the wolf form because your human heart wanted to fight back.”

A hollow realization sank deep into my chest.

“So… it was a lie?” My voice cracked, the pain breaking through my mask. “I don’t have a wolf? Am I not an Alpha? I’m just… a human girl acting as a shell for your revenge?”

“You are the only one who could handle my power,” Lira roared. “But yes. The anger you feel, the urge to destroy Ethan-that is my soul screaming inside yours.”

“Elaine! Wake up!”

Fenris’s voice shattered the mist. The gray forest dissolved, and the freezing rain slammed back into my face with brutal force.

I gasped, my chest heaving as I sat up in the mud. The shift had stopped halfway; my hands were covered in fur and tipped with sharp claws, but I was still mostly human. I was covered in a cold sweat, shaking violently.

Fenris was kneeling over me, his face pale, his hands cupping my face. “You stopped breathing. Your aura went completely dark. What happened?”

I looked at him and saw the same eyes as the girl in the mist. My throat tightened so much I could barely swallow.

I pushed his hands away, scrambling backward into the wet dirt until my back hit the tr

tree.

“Elaine?” Fenris’s voice softened, hurt flickering across his features. He reached out again stopped. “Talk to me. You’re safe.”

“I’m not safe,” I choked out, a hot tear sliding down my cheek. “I’m à fraud, Fenris. Even than I thought.”

“Stop saying that,” he growled, stepping closer. “You are a wolf.”

“I’m not a wolf!” I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat. “The wolf inside me… her isn’t Cole. It’s Lira, Fenris. It’s your sister.”

Fenris froze, his breath catching in his throat. The glowing blue light in his eyes vanished, replaced by his furrowed brows.

“What did you say?” he gritted, his tone intense.

“She spoke to me,” I sobbed, letting my shoulders slump, hiding my face in my clawed hand “She’s been inside my head this whole time. The mate bond, the alpha strength, all of it… It just her soul recognizing you. I’m just a human vessel, Fenris. You don’t love me. You love th ghost of your sister living inside my chest.”

The silence between us grew heavier than the storm. I waited for him to look at me with horror.

Slowly, Fenris walked over and knelt right in front of me. He reached out, grabbed my wrists and firmly pulled my hands away from my face.

His hands were hot against my freezing skin. He forced me to look at him. His jaw was trembling, and a single tear tracked down his nose, but his gaze was fiercely steady.

“Listen to me,” Fenris whispered, “My sister was gentle and hated violence. She would have never driven a silver bolt into a bounty hunter’s leg. She would have never smiled while throwing me into the dirt.”

He leaned in closer, his forehead resting gently against mine, his breath warm on my lips.

“Lira might have given you the spark, Elaine, but you built the fire. The woman who looked me in the eye and demanded I suppress my wolf wasn’t a ghost. That was the woman I fell in love with. The woman I want to rule beside, is the human girl who refused to die in a cage.”

He gripped my shoulders tighter. “I don’t care if you have a wolf, or ten wolves, or no wolf at all. I choose you. Always you.”

The hollow void inside my chest instantly filled with a blinding, golden heat. But before I could

even open my mouth to answer, the pack link in my head shattered.

I gasped, clutching my heart as a terrifying emptiness washed over me. I looked up at Fenris my eyes wide with panic.

“Fenris,” I whispered, the air freezing in my throat. “It’s gone. The link… my wolf… I can’t feel Cole anymore. They’ve done something to the pack. They’re draining them.”

I forced myself to my feet, pushing through the thick mud as we finally breached the ridge overlooking the Crystal Waters valley. But the sight below made my heart completely drop.

Hundreds of my pack members were pinned inside a perimeter of silver-inscribed stakes, th faces pale as the energy lines hummed, actively siphoning their life force into the earth.

“You brought this upon us, human!” an injured pack warrior screamed from inside the cage, coughing up blood, pressing his face against the searing silver light. “If you hadn’t rejected the throne, the shield would have never fallen!”

Before Fenris could draw his sword, A high-ranking emissary stepped forward, holding a scro

“Greetings, Elaine of Crystal Waters,” the emissary’s voice echoed. “Our Alpha, Kael, offers an immediate cessation of the drain and peace for your people. There is only one condition.”

He pointed a gloved finger directly at my chest.

“Walk into the cage, surrender your soul, and the pack lives. If you take one step backward, the turn to ash.”

A humourless laugh escaped from my lips before I could stop myself.

Surrender?” I yelled down at him, my voice dripping with lethal contempt. “Are you out of you mind? What gave you the absolute audacity to stand on my land and think I would ever willingly walk into a cage for a parasite like Kael?”