THE RISE OF AN OMEGA-Chapter 50: The entities bait

Kira’s POV

"No" His voice was piercing, decisive.

I turned completely to face him, my heart racing. "Ryker—"

"No, Kira," he repeated, moving nearer, his gaze piercing into my own. "We aren’t engaging in this discussion." You are not giving up on yourself.

I gritted my teeth, anger bubbling within me. "This is not only about me, Ryker. If I allow this thing to control me, it will be more terrible than dying. "I won’t simply perish—it will use me to end everything."

He seized my arms, his hold strong yet not uncomfortable. "Then, we find an alternative method. Together."

I wanted to trust him. I hoped there was an escape from this that wouldn’t result in my death. Yet beneath the surface, a part of me recognized the reality.

This being had waited for this moment for centuries. It had strategized, it had tracked, it had devoured. There was no simple escape from this situation.

And the most dreadful part?

I sensed its gaze upon me.

Waitìng.

As soon as I make a mistake, it will cost me everything.

The heaviness of it all lingered in my chest, stifling, unmovable. The elders had issued their caution, but it was my choice on how to act upon it.

Ryker’s hold became a bit firmer as if he could feel the battle within my thoughts. "We’ll work this out," he repeated, his tone gentler now. "I won’t allow you to face this by yourself, Kira."

I locked eyes with him, an indistinct something sparkling in his gaze.

I nodded once, yet internally, I was uncertain.

Because inwardly, I was aware of the truth.

I doubted whether I had an option.

*****

I paced to and fro my living room reliving the Moonkeeper’s battle I had seen. I wondered how many moonkeepers this entity had consumed that made it so strong. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The elders had said that this entity wanted to become me, which means it wanted to be the moonkeeper.

But why?

It had a lot of power, so why choose to be the moonkeeper?

Something wasn’t adding up, there has to be a story behind all this.

As I paced around, my stomach growled; I was hungry; my inner wolf was hungry.

I wanted to eat good food. I hadn’t eaten one in a while, so I decided to go hunting for meat in the nearby forest.

When I got to the front of the forest, I had an eerie sensation; a very cold air blew on my skin. I wanted to go back, but my stomach wouldn’t let me. It rumbled again, and this time it came with a very sharp pain, so I entered the forest to hunt my prey, hoping that I found one in time.

As I searched through, I noticed a movement. I bent down making sure I was shielded by some grasses so as not to alert my prey.

I moved closer to get a better view of the animal, but I was disappointed to find a human-like figure standing with his back to me.

I heaved a disappointed sigh.

I turned to take my leave.

"Is anyone there?" The stranger in the forest asked, his baritone voice sounded a little bit scared. I stopped walking. Clenched my fist and gritted my teeth.

I didn’t plan on talking to this person; I only came for my meeting.

I stood in silence for a moment, contemplating whether to respond to the stranger.

Then his voice came again; this time, it was shaky.

I suppose he is just a human boy who came to hunt in the wrong place.

If I left him there, he might get eaten by a werewolf or another animal in the forest.

There was no way I would be happy with myself if I allowed something like that to happen. I turned back and walked up to him.

He still wasn’t facing me yet.

"Hey"

He froze.

"You don’t have to be scared. I won’t hurt you."

He turned around slowly. I was almost blinded by his beauty; yes, I said beauty because that’s the only word I could use to describe how fine he was. I staggered a bit because I wasn’t expecting to see someone like him.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Uhm, yeah sure, definitely, I am alright." I lied

I wasn’t alright at all; his handsomeness had destabilised me; he had a neck-length black sleek hair. His eyes were sea blue, and then he had a very neatly carved V-shaped face. Making him have this mature but yet babyish look.

I know I said carved, but that was because his face looked too perfect; he looked like a perfectly carved human robot.

"Are you alright?" I asked

"Uhm, yeah I am alright, I came to see if I could get some Bush meat"

"Oh I see, this forest can be very dangerous for humans"

"You sound like you aren’t human," he said, smiling.

"I am; it’s just that I live around here, and I Am quite familiar with these places."

"Okay, I was about to leave," he said, turning back to where he had been facing before.

To my greatest surprise, he was holding about three Bush meat.

How was a bare human able to do something like that, how was he able to catch three Bush meat of that size all on his own?

I was forced to ask him how he did that, and then he said he had been training since he was little on how to hunt, so hunting wasn’t a big deal for him.

Interesting.

Who would have thought that a man as handsome and fragile-looking as this would be able to catch such meat? We said our goodbyes, and as I was about to leave, my stomach rumbled.

I stooped feeling ashamed.

"You came to hunt too?"

I nodded.

"Oh, okay, you can have one of mine", he offered.

"No, no I am good, I will hunt mine"

My stomach betrayed my voice by rumbling again.

A smile appeared at the corner of his lips "I don’t think you are in the right shape to hunt; just take it. Don’t worry if you are worried about paying me back, then there will be no need for that."

"Stil-"

"I insist!" He interrupted

He came closer, dropped one of them in front of me, and left.

I watched him vanish into the forest’s shadows, his movement was strangely graceful. There was something about him that unsettled me, and it wasn’t solely his striking looks. A person shouldn’t have been able to hunt in that manner, especially not with just their bare hands.

How he handled those bush meats, the relaxed stance he had—it seemed... unusual.

I looked down at the meat he had abandoned. The smell of blood blended with the moist ground, causing my stomach to tighten once more, more painfully this time. I was too famished to doubt my fortune. Falling to my knees, I extended my hand toward it.

As soon as my fingers touched the skin, an unusual feeling surged within me. It was not usual. It was more than just hunger. It was something different.

The atmosphere grew denser as if the entire forest were closing in. A far-off ringing echoed in my ears, and all at once, the heaviness of the meat in my hands seemed unsettling—too burdensome, too thick, too abnormal. My wolf awakened inside me, restless, growling softly in my thoughts.

Then, the aroma shifted.

The metallic taste of blood warped into something foul, something decaying.

My breath caught as I flinched, gazing in shock. What was once fresh meat had turned into something horrifying—charred, decomposed, as though it had been decomposing for days. Maggots wriggled through the ripped tissue, their small, squirming forms inducing nausea in me.

I hurriedly backed away, my heart racing.

What on earth was this?

A chilly breeze swept through the trees, and for the first time, I understood how eerily silent the forest had grown. No swaying leaves, no remote bird songs—only quiet. Dense, oppressive stillness.

And afterwards...

A soft voice.

Low. Wicked. Directly beside my ear.

"Kira..."

I became paralyzed, every strand of hair on my body stood. My heart raced while I turned my head quickly, searching through the shadows. There was absolutely nothing. Nobody.

However, I sensed it.

An existence. A shadow hovering just out of my view. Observing. Awaiting.

I struggled to my feet, gasping for air, and stumbled backwards. My instincts urged me to flee, to transform, to take action to unleash the moonkeeper ability, but my body felt heavy as if invisible forces were clutching my arms and pulling me down.

Suddenly, a branch broke behind me.

I whirled around, anticipating the sight of Ryker, Marcus—someone.

However, at the tree line, partly concealed in shadows, was he.

The stranger.

His ocean-blue eyes shone oddly in the moonlight, and this time, his gentle smile had disappeared.

Rather, he was grinning.

And not the type of grin that conveyed warmth or humour.

No—this was something entirely different.

Something hungry.

There’s a problem.

I gulped nervously, my heartbeat roaring in my ears.

Who—what—was he?

Why did it seem to me that I had just entered a Trap?