Chapter 2 The Edge of the Map

The drive took six hours, most of which were spent in a silence that felt heavy but not entirely unpleasant. As the skyscrapers gave way to rolling hills and then to dense, dark walls of pine, Ivy watched the signal bars on her phone drop until they vanished completely. The cabin wasn't the cozy, polished place Ivy had pictured. It was gray wood and stone, tucked into a pocket of land where the sun struggled to hit the ground. It smelled like cedar and dust. "It needs some work," Liam admitted, hopping out of the SUV and stretching his back.

"But the air is good, right? Smells like actual oxygen." Sloane was already pulling cleaning supplies out of the trunk. "Ivy, why don't you go stretch your legs? We'll handle the heavy lifting for an hour. Just don't wander too far-the property lines aren't marked very well." Ivy didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed her sketchbook, shoved her hands into her hoodie pockets, and started walking toward the tree line. The silence here was different from the silence in her bedroom. It wasn't empty; it was full of rustles, the snap of dry twigs, and the distant, lonely call of a bird. The air was colder, too-sharp enough to make her lungs sting. She walked for about twenty minutes, following a narrow deer trail that wound deeper into the brush. The further she went, the more she felt that strange prickle on the back of her neck. It was like the feeling of being watched in a crowded mall, but there was no one here. She stopped in a small clearing where a fallen log was covered in thick, vibrant green moss. She sat down, intending to draw, but her hand stayed still. Something felt... off. The woods ahead of her looked deeper than they should. The shadows between the trunks were a shade too dark, and the wind seemed to die down completely as she looked toward a massive rock formation a few hundred yards away. High above on that ridge, Silas crouched. He wasn't supposed to be this close to the human boundary. His father-the Alpha-had been clear: The humans are expanding. Stay hidden. Stay in the shadows of the Old Way. But Silas was tired of the Old Way. He was tired of the damp caves and the endless rules. He had spent the last week sneaking into the outskirts of the nearest town, watching people through windows. He liked the way they laughed, the way they moved without the constant weight of "the pack" on their shoulders. He felt the itch in his skin-the need to change. He had been in his human skin for too long today, and his bones felt tight. He didn't see the girl at first. He was too focused on the release. He stepped behind a thicket of hemlocks and let his breath out. It wasn't like the movies Ivy had seen; there was no screaming. It was a fluid, sickeningly fast crackle of bone and a rush of heat. In seconds, the boy with the messy dark hair and the restless eyes was gone. In his place stood a wolf the size of a small horse, his fur the color of charcoal and midnight. He shook himself, his yellow eyes scanning the forest floor. And that's when he saw her. Ivy was standing near the mossy log, her sketchbook forgotten on the ground. Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes wide. She wasn't screaming. She wasn't running. She was just... staring. Silas froze. His heart hammered against his ribs-a frantic, wild rhythm. She saw. Every instinct told him to snarl, to flash his teeth and send her sprinting back to her parents. Instead, he found himself tilting his head, watching her with a curiosity that felt dangerously human. Ivy took a step forward. Her hand reached out, trembling, as if she were trying to touch a dream. Silas panicked. With a powerful shove of his hind legs, he turned and vanished into the darkness of the deep woods, leaving nothing behind but the scent of pine and the sound of a girl catching her breath. How was that for their first "meeting"?