Page 20 of Wolf Proclaimed

"No," Gretel murmured, her hand flying to her mouth. "No, that wasn't supposed to happen..."

Beside her, Theon stepped forward, his face a mask of shock. "Mira, it's me, Theon," he pleaded, reaching out to her. "You must remember me, right?"

But she just shook her head, backing away from his outstretched hand, her eyes wide with fear.

Dmitri, who had been watching in stunned silence, stepped forward. "Mira, love," he said softly, his voice trembling. "It's Dmitri. Don't you recognize me?"

But there was only confusion in her eyes, a heartbreaking emptiness where once there had been love and recognition.

My mind spun, my heart screaming in denial. This wasn't supposed to be the cost. Gretel had said there would be no going back, but this... this was a fate worse than we could have ever imagined.

As the weight of our actions sank in, I found myself staring at Mira—my Mira—who looked back at us with fear and confusion. We had saved her life, yes. But in the process, we had stolen her past, memories, and very identity. We were left with a shell of the woman we all loved, stranded in a moment of unforeseen consequence that promised to change everything.

Mira slowly got to her feet, her body shaky, as if she were a newborn fawn learning to walk. The room remained silent; our voices seemingly swallowed by the thick air of disbelief. She moved toward the door, her movements uncertain but determined.

"Dmitri," I breathed, my voice barely audible. He was the nearest to her. "Stop her!”

But even as I spoke, Mira had reached the door, her hand quickly grabbing the wooden handle. She pulled it open, the cool night air rushing in to fill the room. The moonlight filtered in, illuminating her face—a blank canvas wiped clean of her past.

"No!" Gretel's cry echoed through the silence, jarring in its intensity. Mira rushed forward, twisting away from Dmitri’s grasp, and ran past the village gate into the darkness of the surrounding forest.

I was frozen in place, my mind struggling to comprehend the unfolding nightmare. I had faced numerous challenges as the alpha of my pack, but nothing compared to this. Losing Mira to her internal struggles would have been devastating but watching her run away without a flicker of recognition in her eyes— was a new level of pain.

The harsh reality of what we'd done filled in the empty silence of the room. The cure had come at a terrible price. The face of the woman I loved was now a mask of confusion. Her memories were stripped away, leaving an eerie emptiness behind.

Chapter Ten

Reflections of the Lost: The Unraveling

Mira

A shudder shook my frame as my human form receded, making way for the sleek coat of my wolf self. Pain shot through me, sharp and sudden, as my body twisted and shifted. A whine slipped past my throat, echoing ominously in the silence of the woods.

"Hold it together," I muttered, my voice ricocheting off the quiet trees around me. "You've been through this transformation countless times."

Once on all fours, I breathed in the earthy scent of the forest. Each note amplified to an almost overwhelming degree. The tantalizing aroma from fallen leaves, the tangy promise of impending rain, and the high-pitched flutters of birds deep in the canopy seemed familiar.

Despite the deluge of sensations, my mind was a void, a barren expanse where my memories should have been. "I should know this..." I whispered, fear creeping into my voice, "I should know myself."

Confusion roiled inside me, a storm threatening to sweep me away with its terrifying intensity. The emptiness filled me, reminding me of the harsh reality that I was a stranger to myself.

"Who am I?" The question slipped out, a desperate plea to the forest's silence.

Fear was a cold shackle around my heart, constricting with each step I took deeper into the woods: the unfamiliar sights and the sense of not belonging terrified me. "I don't understand. I don't remember."

The fear, mingled with my confusion, made my heart pound. Each beat was a stark reminder of the emptiness in my head, and each breath, a struggle against the panic threatening to overtake me.

"This can't be my life," I muttered, the words feeling foreign on my tongue. And yet, I had to move forward and push through the paralyzing fear.

Blinking back tears that stung my eyes, I forged on, each step a desperate search for any fragment of my lost self. "I have to find myself. I have to remember." But as I plunged further into the woods, into the deepening shadows of uncertainty, I was met with only silence.

Panting heavily, I raced deeper into the forest, the soft crunch of fallen leaves under my paws drumming a relentless rhythm in the eerie silence. My fur rustled as I sprinted, the wind whistling past, both chilly and biting, yet somehow liberating.

A flock of birds exploded from a nearby bush, startling me. Skidding to a halt, I watched them disappear into the treetops. "Wait," I pleaded softly, their sudden departure mirroring how my memories had slipped from my grasp. "Please, come back."

I gazed around the forest and spotted another flock perched calmly on a branch. "Tell me, who am I?" I asked them, my words just a series of low whines and whimpers. I yearned for them to answer and fill the void my amnesia had carved within me.

To my surprise, the birds didn't flee. They watched me with their tiny black eyes, heads tilted as if they were considering my request. But no answer came, only the whispering wind rustling the leaves around us.

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