Chapter 2 THE WOLF INSIDE

The firelight splintered across the trees like jagged knives, illuminating nothing but shadows. Warriors and young wolves scattered, voices and growls overlapping, but I couldn't hear them.

I couldn't think. All I felt was the surge crawling inside me like molten steel, my muscles twitching, blood thrumming in ways I had never known.

Kelan held my wrist, but I barely felt him. My pulse pounded in sync with some ancient rhythm, deep in my bones. My senses tore open like floodgates.

I could hear the rustle of every leaf, the tiniest whisper of fur on the forest floor, and something else; a low, guttural breathing, coming from inside the darkness, just beyond the reach of the torchlight.

I stumbled back, dragging Kelan with me. "I-I can't..." My voice cracked. It sounded wrong, deeper than it should. Raspy and wild.

Kelan's grip tightened on my arm. "Ayla, focus! Stay with me!"

I couldn't. I just couldn't. My hands were shaking, my vision shifting unnaturally. The world seemed to stretch, to warp, as though the forest itself was bending toward me. Every shadow had eyes. Every branch, a claw. And then I smelled fresh blood. It was too much and everywhere.

I froze. My wolf or whatever was inside me, snarled. Not in sound, but in thought, in feeling. I could feel it's raw hunger, ancient and violent. It was mine, but it was not me.

I tried to push it down, to control it, but it laughed. A low, cruel vibration through my chest.

Kelan pulled me behind a fallen tree as a shadow moved past the edge of the firelight. A wolf-no, something else-slid silently across the clearing. Its eyes were silver, unnaturally bright. And it paused, looked for a second.

Recognition.

It knew me.

My breath caught in my throat. How could it know me? I've never seen it before. Yet somehow... it called me. Ayla.

My claws, my hands, shot out without permission. They dug into the tree bark, sinking like knives. My teeth itched. My jaw ached. The surge wanted to break free. Wanted to hunt. Wanted to kill.

"NO!" I screamed. Not aloud though, but in my head. The thought was lost, swallowed by the wolf inside me.

The silver-eyed creature leapt. It moved faster than any wolf should. Faster than light, or so it seemed. Its shadow tore across the clearing, and I couldn't stop staring. I wanted to. And then, impossibly, it disappeared. Just vanished into the forest like smoke.

Kelan's hand shook against mine. "Ayla! What the hell! What just happened?"

I shook my head violently, my hair whipping across my face. "I... I don't know. I don't know what..."

The ground trembled beneath my feet, again. Not the usual tremor of wolves shifting or even a rogue attack, this was different. Pulsing. Like the earth itself was alive and angry.

Kelan grabbed my shoulders. "We need to move. Now."

I followed him, stumbling through the underbrush. The forest had grown alive with sounds I shouldn't be able to hear: insects screaming, branches cracking, the snapping of twigs under heavy paws or claws.

And then I heard a low growl, right behind me.

I spun, but it was nothing. Only shadows. The firelight flickered. My heart was hammering.

And then I heard a loud scream. The kind that makes your bones shake. It came from the far side of the clearing; the opposite direction of the Alpha and his warriors. My wolf surged violently in response. It wanted to go.

That's the voice of a terrified human.

Kelan grabbed me again. "Don't. Stay back!"

I tried, but I couldn't resist the way my senses dragged me toward the sound. My legs moved faster than I should have been able. Faster than human legs. Every fiber of me screamed.

And then I saw a body.

The young wolf from training, the same one I had sparred with yesterday, lay on the ground, torn apart with his blood everywhere.

Not just wounds, deep slashes that looked precise and intentional. And above him, something crouched in the shadows, the same silver eyes gleaming, watching me.

The wind whispered through the trees: 'Run. Fight. Or join me.'

I stumbled, my vision spinning. My claws dug into the dirt. My jaw twitched. My teeth itched to tear.

Kelan's voice was frantic. "Ayla! Step back!"

I froze. Something was moving in my mind, not mine. It whispered things I didn't understand, made my blood vibrate with unnatural heat.

I realized with terror... I wanted it.

I wanted to let the creature inside me out. I wanted to hunt the strange looking creature. I wanted to know it.

It stepped into the firelight. I gasped when I saw its fur, it was slick, black with silver streaks, eyes glowing like molten metal. And it smiled, or at least, the curve of its muzzle suggested it.

And then it spoke.

Not aloud, but in my mind.

"Ayla... finally."

My pulse stopped. My wolf screamed.

But Kelan didn't hear it or sense the shift in the air, the way the world seemed to inhale before disaster.

He shouted my name then I felt his hand graze mine, desperation burning through his grip as he reached for me, as if will alone could pull me back.

But the creature was already moving.

Time slowed in that cruel way it does when there's no escape. I saw its shadow stretch across the ground, and felt the rush of air as it lunged.

My heart slammed once, so hard, and then... darkness swallowed everything.