Calyn's POV
I wake to the sound of footsteps outside my door.
My body tenses instantly. After a week in the Grey Enclave, I still can't shake the feeling that this safety is temporary. That any moment, someone will burst through that door and drag me back to the pit.
The footsteps pass by. Keep going. Fade away.
I release a breath I didn't know I was holding.
It's early morning—I can tell by the pale light seeping under the door. I've been here seven days now, and every single morning starts the same way: panic, followed by the slow realization that I'm still alive.
Still free.
Still waiting for Rhea and Rowan to tell me what makes me "special."
But they haven't said a word about it since that first night. Instead, Rhea's been bringing me food three times a day, making sure I eat every bite. My body is slowly recovering—the wounds on my hands are healing, and I can walk without my legs shaking now.
I should be grateful. I should feel safe.
But I don't.
Because something's wrong. I can feel it in my bones.
There's a soft knock on the door. "Calyn? May I come in?"
It's Rhea. I sit up. "Yes."
She enters carrying another tray of food—eggs, bread, fruit. But her face is serious today. Worried.
"Eat quickly," she says, setting the tray down. "We need to talk."
My stomach tightens. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong exactly. But..." She hesitates. "Rowan received word this morning. Your brother knows you're alive."
The room tilts. "What?"
"The guards who attacked you in the forest—one of them survived. He reported back to Matthias that you escaped the pit and were taken by unknown wolves." Rhea sits beside me. "Your brother is searching for you."
Terror floods through me. "He'll find me. He'll find this place and—"
"He won't," Rhea says firmly. "The Grey Enclave has stayed hidden for fifty years. We know how to disappear. But Calyn, there's something else you need to understand. We can't hide you forever. Eventually, you're going to have to face what you are."
There it is again. That phrase. What you are.
"I'm an omega," I say, but even as the words leave my mouth, they feel wrong. "That's what Matthias made me."
"No." Rhea's eyes are intense. "That's what he told you. What he wanted you to believe. But you were never meant to be an omega, Calyn. Your father knew it. That's why he protected you so carefully."
My heart pounds. "What are you talking about?"
Before Rhea can answer, the door bursts open.
Rowan strides in, his face dark with anger. "We have a problem."
"What happened?" Rhea stands immediately.
"Three packs sent representatives this morning. They're at our borders demanding to meet with Calyn." His silver eyes lock on mine. "Word's gotten out about you. About what you can do."
"But I haven't done anything!" I protest. "I've been in this room for a week!"
"You did something the night I found you," Rowan says. "When those guards surrounded you, when you thought you were about to die—you released a pulse of energy. Every wolf within a hundred yards felt it."
I stare at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do." He moves closer. "Think back. Right before I arrived. What did you feel?"
I close my eyes, trying to remember. The fear. The exhaustion. The absolute certainty that I was going to die.
And then... something else.
A surge of heat that exploded from my chest. A desperate, wild need to survive. For just a second, I'd felt connected to everything around me—the trees, the earth, the wolves attacking me.
And I'd felt powerful.
"I felt... strange," I admit quietly. "Like something inside me woke up."
"It did," Rhea says gently. "Your true nature. The one your father kept suppressed to protect you."
"Suppressed?" My eyes snap open. "My father did something to me?"
"He had to." Rhea takes my hand. "Calyn, you're not an omega. You never were. You're a Catalyst."
The word means nothing to me. "What's a Catalyst?"
"A wolf with the ability to amplify the power of everyone around them," Rowan explains. "When you're near other wolves, you make them stronger. Faster. More powerful. It's an extremely rare gift—there's only been one other documented case in the last three hundred years."
I shake my head. "That's impossible. If I had some kind of power, I would've known. I would've felt it."
"You couldn't feel it because your father had it bound when you were a baby," Rhea says. "He went to a powerful witch and had your abilities locked away. He did it to protect you."
"Protect me from what?"
Rowan and Rhea exchange a look.
"From people like the ones at our borders right now," Rowan says harshly. "If the packs had known what you were as a child, they would've fought over you. Tried to take you. Use you as a weapon. Your father bound your powers so you could grow up normal. Safe."
My mind is reeling. "But... when did the binding break?"
"We think it happened in the pit," Rhea says softly. "Extreme trauma can sometimes shatter magical bindings. You were buried alive for three days, fighting for survival. That kind of desperation, that need to live—it broke through your father's protection."
I feel like I'm drowning. "So all this time, I've had this... this power inside me? And I never knew?"
"Your father planned to tell you when you turned twenty-five," Rhea explains. "He was going to have the binding removed safely, gradually, so you could learn to control your abilities. But he died when you were eighteen. Matthias never knew about the binding or what you really were."
"That's why he could reclassify you as an omega," Rowan adds. "The binding masked your true nature. Your wolf couldn't protest because it couldn't access its real strength."
I stand up, pacing the small room. This is too much. Too impossible.
"Why didn't you tell me this a week ago?" I demand.
"Because you weren't ready," Rhea says. "You'd just crawled out of a grave, Calyn. You needed time to heal. To feel safe. We wanted to wait until—"
"Until other packs found out and came looking for me?" I interrupt angrily.
"We didn't expect word to spread this fast," Rowan admits. "But that pulse of energy you released—it was felt by wolves from three different territories. They've been investigating. Asking questions. And now they know a Catalyst has emerged."
"What do they want?"
"To use you," Rowan says bluntly. "A Catalyst can turn a weak pack into a powerful one. If you stand beside their warriors in battle, you make them nearly unstoppable. Every Alpha in the region is going to want to control you."
Fear claws at my throat. "I won't be used. Not again. I'd rather go back to the pit than—"
"You're not going back to the pit," Rowan interrupts, his voice hard. "And you're not going to be used. But you need to understand what you're facing. These packs aren't going to take no for an answer."
"Then what do I do?"
Rhea stands and takes both my hands. "You learn to control your power. You train. You become strong enough that no one can force you to do anything."
"How long will that take?"
"Months. Maybe years." Rhea's face is sympathetic. "Catalyst abilities are complex. You'll need to learn how to turn them on and off, how to control the range, how to—"
A loud crash echoes from somewhere outside.
All three of us freeze.
Rowan's head snaps toward the door. "They breached the border."
"That's impossible," Rhea breathes. "The wards should've held them—"
Another crash. Closer this time.
Then shouting. The sound of fighting.
Rowan moves to the door. "Stay here. Both of you." His body ripples and shifts—bones cracking, fur sprouting. In seconds, the man is gone and the massive black wolf from the forest stands in his place.
He bounds out the door.
Rhea grabs my arm. "We need to get you deeper into the Enclave. Somewhere they can't—"
The wall explodes.
I scream as stone and dust fly everywhere. Through the hole in the wall, I see wolves pouring in—at least a dozen of them, all massive, all snarling.
And leading them is a face I recognize.
Senna Darkthorn. My former best friend.
She shifts into human form, smiling at me like we're meeting for tea. "Hello, Calyn. Miss me?"
My blood turns to ice.
Senna was the one who testified against me at my trial. The one who told Matthias I was "mentally unstable and dangerous." The one who helped convince him to throw me in the pit.
"What are you doing here?" I manage to ask.
"Isn't it obvious?" Senna walks through the hole in the wall, casual and confident. "I'm here to collect what's mine."
"I'm not yours. I'm not anyone's!"
She laughs. "Oh, Calyn. You still don't get it, do you?" She moves closer, and her eyes gleam with something cruel. "I've known what you were since we were fifteen. Remember that training accident? When you 'accidentally' made me stronger during a fight?"
My heart stops.
"That wasn't an accident," Senna continues. "That was your power leaking out. I figured it out that day. And I've been waiting ever since for you to fully emerge." She smiles. "Why do you think I testified against you? Why do you think I helped Matthias throw you in that pit?"
"You... you wanted me buried?"
"I wanted you broken," she corrects. "Desperate. Alone. Because that's when you'd need a savior. That's when you'd be willing to do anything for protection." She holds out her hand. "Come with me now, and I'll give you everything. Safety. Power. A real pack. All you have to do is strengthen my wolves. Make me unstoppable."
"Never," I spit.
Senna's smile vanishes. "Wrong answer."
She signals to her wolves. They surge forward.
Rhea shifts and lunges at them, but there are too many. They overwhelm her in seconds.
One of them grabs me, claws digging into my arms. I scream and fight, but I'm still too weak. Still too—
And then it happens.
That heat in my chest explodes again, but this time it's bigger. Stronger. It pours out of me like a tidal wave.
Every wolf in the room—friend and enemy alike—suddenly staggers. Their eyes glow brighter. Their movements become faster, more powerful.
But something else happens too.
The wolves holding me suddenly let go, falling to their knees. They're gasping, like they can't breathe.
Senna's eyes widen. "What are you doing?"
I don't know. I have no idea what's happening.
The energy keeps pouring out of me, and now the enemy wolves are screaming. Not in pain—in fear.
Because they can feel it too.
I'm not just making them stronger.
I'm draining them.
Senna backs away. "Retreat! Everyone retreat!"
Her wolves scramble through the hole in the wall, fleeing like their lives depend on it.
Senna stares at me with something like terror. "You're not just a Catalyst. You're something else. Something more."
Then she's gone, shifting and running with her pack.
The energy fades. I collapse to my knees, gasping.
Rhea shifts back to human form, staring at me with wide eyes.
Rowan appears in the doorway, also human again, covered in cuts and blood from fighting. He looks at me, then at the unconscious enemy wolves on the floor.
"What did you do?" he asks quietly.
"I don't know," I whisper. My hands are shaking. "I don't know."
Rhea moves closer, and I can see the shock on her face. "Catalysts amplify power. They don't drain it. Calyn, this isn't possible unless..."
"Unless what?" I demand.
She looks at Rowan. "Unless her father didn't just bind her Catalyst abilities. What if he bound something else too? Something darker?"
"What are you saying?" My voice is barely a whisper.
Rowan's silver eyes meet mine, and for the first time, I see real fear in them.
"I'm saying your father might have had more to hide than we thought."