Chapter 3 Not Fully Wolf

FREYA

I woke up to a world that felt too loud and too bright all at once, every sound sharpened somehow, my own breathing too clear, too close, like my ears had been tuned to something new overnight.

The room came into focus slowly. It was massive, far bigger than anywhere I’d ever slept, with high stone ceilings and dark wood furniture polished to a shine, heavy curtains pulled shut against whatever time of day waited outside. Silk sheets, black and deep red, piled around me, soft enough that I almost didn’t notice the other thing that was wrong.

I wasn’t in pain, there was no silver-burn along my wrists, no ache in my ribs where I’d hit the ground so hard the night before. Nothing. I felt strong, in a way that made no sense for someone who should have been half-dead in a forest only hours ago.

I was still turning that over in my mind when the door burst open, and a man crossed the room so fast I barely saw him move. I grabbed the nearest thing within reach, a small blade resting on the side table, and held it out with a hand that wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Who are you?”

“Please calm down, my lady,” he said, hands lifting slowly, “you were found in the fores—”

“I said who are you?”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, careful and steady. “I’m here to treat you, my lady.”

The air in the room shifted before he even finished speaking, colder now, heavier, and I understood why the moment he stepped through the door behind him.

He moved like the room already belonged to him, two guards falling in a step behind, but I barely noticed them, because I couldn’t look away from him. He was tall, pale in a way that looked carved rather than sick, had white hair, almost silver under the low light. And his eyes were red. It was the same red I remembered from the forest, right before everything had gone dark.

The knife slipped from my hand without my permission. I pointed at him instead, my voice dropping to barely a whisper. “You. You were there. In the forest, weren’t you?”

He crossed the distance before I even finished the sentence, and I stumbled trying to back away, my legs unsteady beneath me. His hand caught my arm before I could fall, and for one long moment we simply stared at each other, close enough that I could see myself reflected in his eyes.

Then I slapped him. I bounced back onto the bed from the force of my own swing, my palm stinging. “How dare you touch me?”

The guards surged forward at that, and I braced myself for whatever came next, but he lifted one hand and they stopped instantly, like puppets on a string.

He didn’t look angry. If anything, he looked almost amused, crouching down slightly so we were closer to eye level. “You really don’t know who I am, peanut?”

“Who — who are you?”

He straightened, and something about the way he carried himself made the whole room feel smaller around him. “Let me introduce myself properly. I am Kieran Nightfall, King of the Vampire Clan.” His eyes didn’t leave mine. “And what you just did could cost you your life.”

I stared at him, my heart hammering hard enough that I was sure he could hear it too. “Why am I here?” My voice cracked despite everything in me fighting to hold steady. “Why do I feel like this? What did you do to me?”

He didn’t answer right away, and that silence frightened me more than anything he could have said out loud.

Then I felt it, a sharp sting at the side of my neck, small but unmistakable, and my hand flew up to touch it before I even decided to move. Two small marks, already closing, the skin around them tender in a way that told me they hadn’t been there long at all.

My chest tightened. A dozen thoughts crashed into each other too fast for me to hold onto a single one of them.

“Did — did you bite me?”

He looked at me for a long moment before he answered, his voice quiet, final, and completely unapologetic.

“I did what I had to do to save your life.”