Chapter 3 : The Wolf in the Smoke
The morning light bled through the curtains like liquid gold, soft but uninvited. Aria blinked against it, her heartbeat still pounding from dreams that refused to fade. She could still smell pine and smoke. Still hear the echo of a growl that was both terrifying and strangely familiar.
When she sat up, her sheets were tangled around her legs, streaked faintly with dirt — and the faintest smear of blood. Her mind refused to process it at first. Had she dreamed it all? The forest, those golden eyes, the crushing weight of being watched?
She rose and crossed to the mirror. Her reflection stared back — pale, dishevelled, eyes shadowed and strange. Her irises seemed darker than usual, almost luminous in the light. When she brushed her hair aside, she froze. A faint mark — crescent-shaped — glowed just beneath her collarbone.
Her breath caught.
It faded as quickly as it came.
“Get it together, Aria,” she whispered to her reflection, gripping the sink until her knuckles turned white. “It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare.”
But even as she spoke, the words felt like lies. The air carried a scent — faint, wild, almost… wolfish.
Outside, the forest loomed as if it had moved closer overnight.
She left her small cottage just as the sun began to sink into amber haze, deciding that work — anything normal — would help her shake off the strange fog. She worked at the small library in town, cataloguing books no one borrowed and listening to the quiet hum of ordinary life. But today, the silence was wrong. Too heavy. Too expectant.
Around dusk, she caught a glimpse of movement in the glass.
A man.
Tall. Still as stone. Watching from across the street.
Her breath stilled.
Even before she turned, she knew it was him.
Kael.
He stood at the edge of the road, dressed in black that seemed to swallow the light, his eyes catching faint gold even from a distance. He didn’t move, didn’t speak — just watched her, as though he couldn’t decide whether to step closer or vanish.
Something in her chest tightened painfully.
She looked away first. When she glanced back, he was gone.
By the time she locked up the library and started the walk home, the sun had bled out entirely. The road wound through the trees, and she cursed herself for not bringing her phone. The deeper she went, the heavier the air felt — thick with mist and something older.
Then came the growl.
Low. Not human.
Aria froze, her pulse hammering. The sound came again — closer this time, hungry and wrong. She backed up, scanning the shadows. Her mind screamed to run, but her legs wouldn’t obey.
Something lunged from the darkness — a shape too fast to see, all claws and teeth. She screamed and threw her arm up — but before the strike landed, a blur of motion intercepted it.
A man.
No — a wolf.
Kael hit the creature with a snarl that shook the ground. His movements were savage, precise — each strike deliberate, deadly. Within moments the rogue beast lay broken, its form flickering between man and wolf before dissolving into ash.
The forest fell silent again.
Kael turned to her, chest heaving, eyes no longer human. Gold burned in them like fire trapped in ice. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, unable to breathe. “What was that?”
He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze lingered on her neck — on the spot where the crescent mark had appeared. His expression shifted, darkened.
“That thing,” he said finally, voice rough, “was drawn to your scent.”
“My scent?” she whispered.
He took a slow step closer. The air trembled between them, alive with something she couldn’t name.
“There’s something in your blood,” he murmured, his voice lowering to something almost reverent. “Something that calls to them… and to me.”
She stumbled back, shaking her head. “You’re— you’re insane. I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
But when she turned to run, he was suddenly there again — too close, his presence overwhelming. His hand brushed her wrist — not in restraint, but in warning.
“Don’t go into the woods again,” he said softly. “They’re hunting tonight. And they’re not after me.”
The way he said it made her blood turn cold.
Then he was gone — swallowed by the mist as if he’d never been there at all.
Aria stood trembling, the mark beneath her skin burning faintly again. Her vision blurred, flashes of light and blood flickering behind her eyes.
Voices. Screams. The sound of a woman crying her name.
And then — just before she collapsed — she saw them.
A ring of wolves, silver-eyed and spectral, standing at the forest’s edge and watching her.
One of them stepped forward — her mother’s face flickered where its muzzle should’ve been.
“When the blood moon calls…” the voice whispered in her head, “…remember who you are.”
Darkness swallowed her before she could scream.
