Lyra.
The night was unnervingly silent, but the full moon burned crimson, casting a dangerous glow across the forest floor.
Branches clawed at my arms, thorns tore through my clothes, and yet, I ran, each step driven by a mix of fear and something I couldn't name.
My pack… had turned against me.
"You are weak. You will never be one of us," they spat, eyes gleaming with contempt. I could hear the sneers echoing behind me, the sound of boots crushing leaves, a mocking rhythm I couldn't escape.
Fear didn't grip me fully yet. Instead, a strange heat began to rise in my chest a primal pulse, a warning, a promise. Something stirred deep inside me, whispering that I wasn't as powerless as they believed.
And then, out of the shadows, he appeared. Tall. Dark. Impossible.
The Alpha.
The one who had rejected me, the one whose glance alone had once made my knees tremble, stood there like a predator, golden eyes cutting through the darkness.
"You belong to me," he said, voice low, dangerous, commanding and somehow… intimate.
I wanted to run, but my legs refused. My blood screamed in response, a wild heat coursing through me, tingling at my fingertips and spine. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath, the wind curling like fingers around me.
A guttural growl came from behind a warning, or a challenge? My eyes darted through the shadows, searching for the source.
Another Alpha? Something far worse?
"I warned them about you," he said softly, almost a whisper, yet it cut through the night like steel.
"They don't understand what they've done."
I swallowed hard, heart pounding.
"What… what are you?" My voice was barely more than a breath, yet it carried a defiance I hadn't known I could summon.
His lips curved slightly, a dangerous, unreadable smile.
"Something you'll learn… soon enough."
Then a shadow moved near me a flicker, a shape that didn't belong. I felt the pulse of the forest sync with my own heartbeat, the leaves rustling like whispers of secrets I wasn't ready to hear.
And just like that, I realized: I couldn't run. And maybe… I didn't want to.