Chapter 2 The Stranger's Eyes

It had rained the night after Aria found the body, and now Black Hollow smelled of wet leaves, rust, and secrets. The town moved quietly in the wake of the discovery-windows stayed shut, gossip buzzed in hushed voices, and the woods were declared off-limits. But no tape or warning could block out the memory of what Aria had seen. Or what had seen her.

She couldn't shake the image of the wolf. Not its size or its silence. Not those gold-burning eyes that had pierced her down to her bones.

Her sleep was fractured now-filled with dreams she couldn't remember, feelings that weren't hers, and a presence hovering just outside the corners of her mind. Her mother noticed. She always did.

"You're pale," her mother said over breakfast. "You're not sick, are you?"

"I'm fine," Aria murmured, though the eggs on her plate went untouched. Her mother's eyes narrowed. The same sea-glass green as Aria's, but with none of her distance.

"You found a body in the woods, Aria. That's not nothing."

"I know what I saw."

Her mother set down her mug with a too-sharp clink. "That's not what I meant."

But Aria was already walking out the door.

---

The school day dragged. Whispers followed her like shadows-classmates curious, half-afraid, and full of questions she didn't want to answer. Everyone wanted to talk about the ranger who died. No one talked about the wolf.

She skipped lunch, slipped through the east hallway doors, and made for the forest's edge. The police had posted signs, but no patrol. The mist had returned, curling low around tree trunks like it was alive.

She didn't go far. Just enough to be surrounded. To feel the wild again.

And that's when she saw him.

He was sitting on a fallen log just beyond the creek, half-hidden in the shadow of an elm. The moment her gaze landed on him, he looked up.

Time bent.

He was older than her, maybe nineteen. Tall. Dark-haired. Dressed in black like he belonged to the forest. But it was his eyes that stopped her heart-amber and glowing, not just with color, but with something else. Something ancient.

The wolf's eyes.

They stared at each other for a beat too long.

Then he stood.

"Are you following me?" Aria asked, voice sharper than she intended.

He smiled, not quite kindly. "You're the one who came back to the woods."

"I didn't think anyone else was dumb enough to be out here."

"I could say the same." He stepped over the log and walked closer, boots silent on the moss. "You're Aria Hale."

Her spine stiffened. "Do I know you?"

"No," he said, then added, "But I know you."

She didn't like that. "That supposed to be clever?"

"No," he said again, more gently this time. "Just true."

His voice was like smoke-low, soft, but with an edge of warning. Everything about him radiated calm control, but beneath it was tension. A held breath.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Luca. Luca Blackthorn."

Blackthorn. The name echoed in her mind, though she didn't know why. "Are you from here?"

"Just moved back."

"Convenient."

His head tilted. "Why?"

"You show up the day after a man's murdered?"

He smiled again. "Suspicious of everyone, or just me?"

"Just the ones who creep around foggy woods and know my name."

Luca chuckled. "Fair."

She studied him. There was something about the way he stood-like he was listening to sounds she couldn't hear. And something else. Familiarity. Like she'd seen him before... but only in a dream.

He took a slow breath, then said, "You saw it, didn't you?"

Aria's throat dried. "Saw what?"

"The wolf."

There it was. The words fell like thunder.

"How do you-?"

"I was there. Not far. I saw you."

"You saw me? Then you saw it?"

"Yes."

She stepped back, heart racing. "And you're not freaked out?"

"I've seen worse."

That sent chills down her spine. "Who are you really?"

He hesitated, then stepped forward. Close enough that she could see a faint scar beneath his left eye. "Someone who can help you. Someone who knows what you are."

"I'm not-what?"

Luca's eyes softened. "You've felt it, haven't you? In your dreams. In your bones. Something is waking up."

She shook her head. "You don't know me."

"I know enough."

He reached into his jacket and pulled something out. A pendant. Silver, shaped like a crescent moon with a tiny ruby in the center. It glinted even in the mist.

"I think this belongs to you."

Aria stared at it. Her hand moved without thinking, but the moment her fingers touched it, something flared in her chest. A pulse. The heat. Her vision blurred for a moment, and a forest not her own flashed behind her eyes-lit by moonlight, full of howls.

She dropped the pendant like it burned her.

"What was that?" she whispered.

"Your memory," Luca said quietly. "Or maybe your blood."

She backed away. "You're insane."

He didn't move. Just watched her with those golden eyes.

"You're not crazy," he said. "You're just not human."

The wind picked up then, carrying the distant sound of a howl. Low. Long. Mourning.

Aria turned and ran.

---

She didn't stop until she reached the edge of town, lungs burning, heart hammering. She didn't believe him. She couldn't.

But the dreams said otherwise.

That night, the visions came again-clearer than ever.

A forest bathed in silver light.

A man, bound in chains of moonlight, crying her name.

And the wolf... always the wolf... standing watch.

Luca.

When she woke, the pendant was on her windowsill.

Waiting.

Calling.

She didn't remember bringing it home.

And deep inside her, something stirred.

Something hungry.

Something wild.

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