The Human Among Wolves Chapter 120

Aurora

The air in the cabin felt different now—thicker somehow, full of things unsaid. Zayn still had Kael pressed against the wall, his chest rising and falling in uneven bursts. The look in his eyes wasn’t just anger anymore; it was something older. Something like disbelief curdled into fear.

Kael didn’t fight back. He just stood there, breathing steady, gaze fixed on the space over Zayn’s shoulder like he was remembering something far away.

“Let go,” Kael said quietly.

Zayn didn’t move.

“I said—”

“I said,” Kael cut in, his voice low but sharp enough to slice the air, “let go before you do something you’ll regret.”

Zayn’s jaw flexed. He hesitated, then shoved off him, hard enough to make Kael stumble a step but not fall. He turned away, running a hand through his hair, pacing in tight, restless lines.

“Start talking,” he muttered. “You throw something like that at me—you don’t get to stop halfway.”

Kael exhaled slowly, dragging a hand down his face. “It’s not my story to tell.”

Zayn turned on him, his voice cracking like thunder. “It sure as hell isn’t yours to hide, either.”

Kael looked at him for a long time. Then, finally, he spoke.

“When I was little—three, maybe—my father took me to your kingdom. Fenris and Velmoria were still… pretending to be allies back then. The kings traded favors. Promised loyalty they didn’t mean.” He paused, gaze distant, voice soft. “Your father was one of the first men I ever remember fearing.”

Zayn said nothing.

Kael went on, slower this time. “We stayed in the palace for a week. My father met with him almost every night in that cursed study of his. I’d wake up to their voices—low, angry. Talking about things I didn’t understand. Bloodlines. Experiments. Legacy.”

He swallowed, the muscle in his throat working. “One night, I woke up. My father wasn’t in the guest chambers. I went looking. Found him in the west wing—alone. Or I thought he was alone. Then I heard a sound.” His eyes unfocused slightly, the words coming slower now, quieter. “A woman. Screaming. Not from pain. From rage. I’d never heard something like that from a human throat. My father found me listening, dragged me away before I could see her, but I remember what he said later. That your father was keeping something he couldn’t destroy.”

Zayn frowned. “Something?”

Kael looked at him. “Your mother.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Zayn blinked once, slow. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Kael’s mouth twisted into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I know exactly what I’m saying.”

“I told you—she died when she birthed me,” Zayn said, the words too sharp, too quick.

Kael’s laugh was quiet and bitter, not mocking, just tired. “That’s what he wanted everyone to believe.”

I stood frozen, watching them like the walls might collapse if I breathed too loud. “Kael…” I said softly, but he didn’t look at me. His gaze stayed locked on Zayn’s.

“Years later, when I was still living in Fenris, I overheard the Dominion guards talking. One said the queen had escaped again. The other said not to worry—she’d been caught before sunrise.” Kael said “That was ten years after her supposed death.”

Zayn froze.

My stomach twisted. The fire popped, too loud in the silence.

Kael’s voice softened, just a fraction. “I’m not saying she’s alive now. But your father buried her somewhere no one would find her. And he made damn sure no one ever spoke her name again.”

Zayn’s grip fell away completely. He stepped back, breathing hard, eyes glassy like he wasn’t really seeing either of us anymore. “You’re lying,” he said, but his voice broke halfway through the word.

Kael didn’t answer.

“I said—” Zayn started, but the sound died in his throat. He turned suddenly, shoving past the chair, past me, toward the door. His boots thudded heavy against the floorboards.

“Zayn, don’t—” I started, but he was already wrenching the door open. The cold night air slammed into the cabin, thick with mist.

Kael caught my wrist before I could follow. “Let him go,” he said quietly.

“Kael, it’s not safe out there—”

“He won’t listen right now. He needs to break something before he can think again.”

The door slammed behind Zayn, and the sound of it echoed like thunder in the still cabin.

I turned back to Kael, heart pounding. “You shouldn’t have told him like that.”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “There’s no good way to tell someone their father’s a monster.”

The air around us felt wrong. Heavy. The faint hum beneath the floor hadn’t stopped; it was deeper now, slower, like a heartbeat. I thought I imagined the faint sound of scratching beneath the floorboards, slow and deliberate, like claws dragging through earth.

Kael looked toward the door. “If he doesn’t come back in five minutes, we go after him.”

I nodded, even though my throat had gone dry.

Five minutes passed.

Maybe six.

Kael stood by the window, shoulders tight, his hand resting on the hilt of his knife. His eyes tracked the treeline like he could will Zayn to step out of the fog and back into view.

He didn’t.

The night pressed against the glass—heavy and cold, the mist thick enough to swallow the moonlight. Every now and then, something shifted outside. Not close, but not far enough, either. The sound of it scraped against my nerves until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’m going,” I said quietly.

Kael turned, his expression hard. “No, you’re not.”

“He’s been out there too long.”

“He’s not stupid enough to—”

“You don’t know what people do when they’re angry,” I snapped, sharper than I meant to. “Especially when they’re hurt.”

That landed. Kael’s mouth tightened.

“He’s not thinking straight,” I went on, softer now. “And if he sees you, he won’t calm down. You know that.”

Kael exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over his face. “You shouldn’t go alone.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, already moving toward the table where Zayn’s dagger lay. I slid it from its sheath, the metal catching what little light the lantern offered. “I’ll just find him, make sure he’s breathing, and drag him back before something else does.”

“Aurora—”

“I’m not asking.”

He watched me for a long moment, jaw clenched, eyes shadowed. Then he stepped closer, voice low. “You have no idea what’s still out there.”

“Neither do you.”

That shut him up.

I slipped the dagger into my belt, pulling my jacket tighter around me. The air inside the cabin already felt colder, like it was leaking something from below. The hum had faded to a faint, uneven pulse—almost like a heartbeat losing its rhythm.

“Keep the door locked,” I said. “If I’m not back in ten minutes—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

I met his gaze. “I'll be fine.”

For a moment, we just stood there—silence stretching between us, full of everything neither of us wanted to say. Then Kael nodded once, curt. “Stay close to the path. And Aurora…”

I paused in the doorway. “Yeah?”

“If you hear anything that sounds like him,” he said quietly, “and you can’t see him—don’t answer.”

I didn’t ask why.

The night swallowed me the second I stepped outside.

Cold air hit my skin like a blade. The mist was thicker than it had looked from the window—rolling low across the ground, curling around my boots with every step. The trees loomed close on either side, black shapes shifting in and out of sight.

I gripped the dagger tighter.

The path wasn’t much of a path anymore, just a strip of dirt barely visible between roots and stone. The only sound was my own breathing—uneven, too loud in the stillness.

“Zayn,” I called, keeping my voice low. It felt wrong to raise it here. The forest swallowed sound too easily. “Come on, this isn’t funny.”

Nothing.

Just fog.

A branch cracked somewhere to my left, sharp and sudden. I froze, turning toward the sound. My heart jumped so hard it hurt.

“Zayn?”

The mist shifted—slow, deliberate.

For a heartbeat, I thought I saw a figure. Broad shoulders, head lowered, standing half-hidden behind a tree. My breath caught.

“Zayn?”

No answer.

I took a cautious step forward, the dagger angled low in my hand. The figure didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

And then, as the fog thinned for a split second, I saw the eyes.

Not his.

Too wide. Too still.

I stumbled back, heart slamming in my chest, but the mist closed in again— swallowing the shape whole like it had never been there.

The forest went silent.

“Okay,” I whispered to myself, voice trembling despite my best effort. “That’s fine. Totally fine.”

I turned, meaning to head back toward the cabin—but the path behind me was gone. Just mist and trees and more dark.

Something brushed against my sleeve. Light. Cold.

I spun, dagger raised—

Nothing.

Just the fog.

And somewhere deep in it, faint but clear enough to make my blood freeze, a voice whispered my name.

“...Aurora…”

Not loud. Not angry. Just wrong.

I gritted my teeth, shaking my head. “Not listening,” I muttered, forcing myself to keep walking. “Not real.”

But the voice came again—closer this time, soft enough to curl behind my ear.

“Don’t leave me.”

My stomach turned.

That wasn’t Zayn.