Chapter 1 The Forest Stirred When I Returned

Evelyn's POV

The forest shouldn't have known my name.

Yet the moment my boots crossed the rusted boundary marker of Silver pine territory, the wind shifted-sharp, sudden, deliberate. Leaves hissed across the ground like whispers cut too close to the ear, and the hairs along my arms lifted as if I had stepped into someone else's breath.

Welcome home, Evelyn.

I stopped walking.

That was impossible. Forests didn't speak. They didn't remember girls who ran away with nothing but grief and guilt stitched into their ribs.

And yet... my chest tightened, the same way it used to when I was a child hiding beneath the elder oak, listening to secrets I never understood.

I swallowed and forced myself forward.

Silverpine hadn't changed. Not really. The same towering trees. The same winding path that led deeper into pack land. But I had. I could feel it in the way the ground resisted my steps, as though testing whether I still belonged.

I hadn't planned to come back like this-alone, unannounced, dragging twenty years of buried history behind me like a carcass. But the letter had been brief. Urgent.

You need to return. Things are changing.

No signature. None was needed.

Only one person would dare summon me back here.

Leo.

My pulse stumbled at the thought of his name. I hadn't spoken it aloud in years, and hadn't allowed myself to imagine what he looked like now. The boy who once promised me the forest would always protect us had grown into something else entirely.

An Alpha.

I reached the edge of the clearing just as voices cut through the air.

Angry ones.

I froze, instinct screaming.

"-trespassing, and you know it," a male voice snarled.

Another laughed, low and mocking. "Your borders are weak. Just like your Alpha."

The words sent ice through my veins.

I crept closer, heart pounding, until the clearing opened before me-and so did the truth.

Three wolves stood at the treeline opposite two Silverpine warriors. They weren't trying to hide their scents. They wanted to be seen.

Blackridge.

My stomach dropped.

The largest of them stepped forward, his posture arrogant, his grin sharp. "Tell Leo we're getting tired of waiting."

One of our warriors bristled. "You step one paw further and-"

"And what?" the Blackridge wolf interrupted. "You'll bleed on land that already belongs to us?"

I should have turned back. I should have run.

Instead, something hot and furious coiled in my chest.

Before I realized what I was doing, I stepped out of the trees.

"Get away from them."

Every head snapped in my direction.

The warriors stared at me in shock. The Blackridge wolves inhaled sharply-and then smiled.

"Well," the largest said slowly, eyes raking over me, "this is unexpected."

I lifted my chin, though my knees trembled. "You're on Silverpine land."

"And you are?" he asked, amusement dripping from his voice.

For a heartbeat, I didn't know how to answer. I wasn't packed. I wasn't a warrior. I wasn't anything here anymore.

But the forest answered for me.

The wind surged, sudden and violent. Branches groaned. The ground beneath our feet shuddered.

The Blackridge wolf's smile faltered.

"I said," I repeated, my voice steadier than I felt, "get away from them."

"What trick is this?" he growled, stepping back as the earth cracked beneath him.

I stared at my hands.

They were glowing.

Faintly-green and alive, veins of light pulsing beneath my skin like roots finding water.

Panic exploded through me. No. No, this isn't happening.

I hadn't meant to do anything. I hadn't called for power. I didn't even know I had any.

But the forest didn't care about my fear.

The ground erupted.

Roots burst upward, thick and ancient, wrapping around the Blackridge wolves' legs, their arms, their throats. They howled, struggling as the forest held them fast-not crushing, not killing.

Restraining.

The Silverpine warriors stumbled back in horror.

"What in the Moon's name-" one of them whispered.

I couldn't breathe. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might split me open.

Stop, I begged silently. Please-stop.

The roots obeyed.

They stilled, tightening just enough to keep the wolves trapped.

The Blackridge Alpha's emissary stared at me now, fear finally bleeding through his bravado. "What are you?"

"I don't know," I whispered.

Then the pressure vanished.

The roots sank back into the earth as if they had never existed. The wolves collapsed, gasping. Without another word, they shifted and fled, vanishing into the trees with terror sharp in their scent.

Silence crashed down over the clearing.

The Silverpine warriors turned to me slowly.

One dropped to his knee.

"My Luna?" he said uncertainly.

The word hit me like a blow.

"I'm not-" I started, but my voice failed.

A new presence rolled across the clearing then-dominant, controlled, unmistakable.

Alpha.

I didn't need to turn around to know who stood behind me.

The forest had gone very still.

"Evelyn."

My name, spoken low and disbelieving.

I turned.

Leo stood at the edge of the clearing, taller than I remembered, broader, power etched into every line of him. His eyes-those same storm-gray eyes-were locked on me as if I were a ghost clawing my way out of his past.

And beneath his shock... fear.

Not for himself.

For me.

"What did you just do?" he asked quietly.

I opened my mouth to answer-

-and the ground trembled again, harder this time.

Somewhere deep in the forest, something ancient stirred.

And I knew, with bone-deep certainty, that whatever had awakened inside me was only just beginning.