Chapter 75: The First Sign

Words : 1354 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 75: The First Sign Caleb POV I threw my pencil across the room and watched it rattle against the wall. The drawing stared back at me from my desk - another sketch of the same woman’s face I’d been feverishly drawing for three weeks. Silver hair flowing like moonlight, eyes that seemed to hold secrets, a smile that made my chest ache with love I couldn’t understand. Who was she? And why did I keep thinking about her every single night? "Caleb?" Aiden’s voice came through my bedroom door. "You missed the morning meeting again." I rubbed my eyes, realizing I’d been drawing since before sunrise. Again. "Come in." Aiden entered and stopped short when he saw my desk. Paper after paper covered every surface, all showing the same mysterious woman from different angles, in different poses, but always with that same ethereal beauty that haunted my thoughts. "You’re still having those dreams," Aiden said quietly. "Every night," I admitted, annoyed. "She feels so real, Aiden. Like I should know her. Like she’s important somehow." Aiden picked up one of the sketches - the one where I’d drawn her laughing, her head thrown back in pure joy. His expression grew troubled. "Have you shown these to anyone else?" he asked carefully. "No. Why would I? They’re just drawings of someone from my imagination." I stood up and started pacing. "But that’s what’s driving me crazy. She doesn’t feel imaginary. When I dream about her, I can smell her hair, hear her voice, feel her hand in mine." "What does she say in the dreams?" Aiden asked. I stopped pacing, trying to remember. "That’s the strange part. I can never quite make out her words. It’s like listening to someone talk underwater. But the feeling is always the same - like she’s trying to tell me something important, something I need to remember." Aiden set the drawing down carefully. "Caleb, I think you should talk to Elder Iris about this." "Why? They’re just dreams." "Are they?" Aiden’s voice was soft but serious. "You’ve been different since the ritual three weeks ago. Distant. Like part of you is missing." I wanted to fight, but I couldn’t. Ever since I’d woken up after the Great Gathering ceremony, something had felt wrong. Not physically wrong - my memories were intact, my magic was strong, my place in the pack was safe. But emotionally, I felt hollow. Like I was going through the motions of life without actually feeling alive. "I keep expecting something," I said slowly. "Or someone. I’ll walk into a room and be unhappy that it’s empty, even though I don’t know who I was hoping to see." Aiden nodded sadly. "That’s why you need to talk to Elder Iris. She might be able to help you understand what’s missing." Before I could reply, a commotion erupted outside. Shouts and running footsteps rang through the pack grounds. We rushed to the window and saw wolves gathered around someone lying on the ground. "It’s Lily," Aiden said, his face going pale. We ran outside and pushed through the crowd. Lily lay motionless, blood trickling from a wound on the back of her head. Elder Iris knelt beside her, checking her pulse with shaking hands. "What happened?" I asked, kneeling down. The moment I got close to Lily, something strange happened. The constant ache in my chest - the one I’d been carrying for weeks - suddenly lessened. Like a puzzle piece sliding into place. "Someone attacked her," Luna said, tears running down her face. "She was helping the wolves who collapsed, and then someone hit her from behind." I found myself reaching out to touch Lily’s face, pulled by an instinct I didn’t understand. Her skin was warm and soft, and touching her sent a shock of recognition through me. "I know you," I whispered, so softly only she could hear. Her eyelids moved. For a moment, her eyes opened and met mine. In that instant, images flashed through my mind like lightning - Lily and me dancing under the moon, Lily curled up beside me reading a book, Lily’s face glowing with happiness as she told me she was pregnant. The pictures were so vivid, so real, that I gasped and pulled my hand back. Lily’s eyes closed again, and the link broke. "Did you see that?" I asked Aiden frantically. "Did you see what just happened?" "See what?" Aiden looked confused. "You touched her face and she opened her eyes for a second." But I had seen so much more. The woman from my dreams - she was Lily. Lily with longer hair, Lily shining with some kind of inner light, Lily looking at me with love so deep it took my breath away. "We need to get her to the healing center," Elder Iris said, but her eyes were fixed on me with a look I couldn’t read. As we carried Lily inside, I couldn’t stop thinking about those flashes of memory. They felt more real than my actual memories. But how was that possible? I barely knew Lily. She was just another pack member, wasn’t she? Elder Iris pulled me away while the pack healer examined Lily. "You remembered something, didn’t you?" she asked softly. "I don’t know what I remembered," I said honestly. "But when I touched her, I saw... us. Together. Happy. Like we were..." I struggled for the word. "Mates?" Elder Iris suggested softly. The word hit me like a physical blow. "That’s impossible. I would remember if Lily was my mate." Elder Iris’s old eyes filled with sadness. "What if your memories were taken from you? What if someone made you forget the most important person in your life?" I stared at her in shock. "Who would do that? And why?" "That’s what we need to figure out," Elder Iris said. "But first, I need you to understand something important. The rite three weeks ago - it didn’t just save our pack from the Great Gathering. It broke mate bonds that were already formed." My heart stopped. "You’re saying Lily and I were actually mates?" "I’m saying you need to look at your sketches again," Elder Iris said. "Really look at them." I ran back to my room and grabbed the drawings. Looking at them now, with the chance of truth in my mind, I saw details I’d missed before. The woman in my sketches wasn’t just beautiful - she was sparkling with silver light. And on her wrist, barely visible in some of the pictures, was a mark. Three crescent moons linked. The Triple Moon Mark. Lily had been the Triple Moon carrier. "She was my mate," I breathed, the truth hitting me like a wave. "She sacrificed our bond to save everyone else." No wonder I felt hollow. No wonder I kept expecting someone who wasn’t there. Half of my soul was missing, and I’d been too confused to realize it. I rushed back to the treatment center, my sketches clutched in my hands. I had to tell Lily that I was starting to remember. I had to apologize for forgetting her, for not trying harder to hold onto what we had. But when I burst through the door, the healing bed was empty. "Where is she?" I asked. The pack healer looked confused. "She was here just a minute ago. I stepped out to get supplies, and when I came back..." "She’s gone," Elder Iris said grimly, appearing behind me. "Someone took her while we were distracted." My world tilted. I was just starting to remember the woman I loved, and now she’d been kidnapped. "Who would take her?" I asked desperately. Elder Iris met my eyes, and I saw fear there that chilled me to the bone. "The same person who stole your memories in the first place," she said. "And if we don’t find her soon, they’re going to finish what they started three weeks ago." "What do you mean?" Elder Iris’s voice was barely a whisper. "They’re going to kill her, Caleb. And when they do, you’ll forget her completely. Forever."

Chapter 75: The First Sign

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