Chapter 2 The Hunter and the Howl

Selene ran.

The forest warped around her like a dream unraveling branches curling toward her as if to shield her, pools of water glowing with soft, eerie light. Time itself stuttered, pulsing in fragments. Behind her, the man didn't walk. He glided, smoke over silver, his presence bending the world around him.

She didn't look back. Her bare feet carried her beyond the known path, deeper into the old world where forgotten ruins slept beneath moss and moonlight.

And there, crumbling but proud, stood the ancient citadel.

Within its heart, she found him.

A man no, a beast chained in silver that hissed and smoked against his skin. Muscles tense, breath ragged, he growled as she approached. His golden eyes-feral, defiant-locked onto hers. Something shifted. Recognition. Not fear... not hatred... but memory.

"I know you," he rasped, voice thick with pain.

The shadows stirred.

Valrick arrived, silent as frostbite.

His eyes glinted crimson as he took in the scene: the chained wolf, the wide-eyed girl, the moon blazing above.

"You are the key," he said, voice velvet and venom. "The vessel. The link between blood and moon."

Selene staggered back.

Kael roared-a sound that shook stone-and shattered his chains.

But Valrick only smiled, dissolving into mist.

"You'll come to me willingly," he whispered, voice trailing like smoke, "when the hunger begins."

The wind howled.

Kael turned to her, chest rising, golden eyes blazing.

"You need to know what you are."