Chapter 6 A Stranger's Touch

Elara's POV

The night clung to me as though the forest itself tried to weave me into its darkness. Branches scraped against my arms while I ran, desperate to put distance between myself and the whispers that had stalked me since leaving the gathering. Every step felt heavier, as if the soil beneath knew secrets it longed to drag me down into.

I told myself it was nothing. A trick of nerves. The echo of villagers' murmurs about the Alpha's curse gnawing at my sanity. Yet the sound persisted-low, deliberate footsteps shadowing mine.

I dared a glance back.

A shape broke free from the trees. Large. Predatory. Eyes like burning embers pierced the night. My throat tightened as fear froze my legs. The figure prowled closer, the scent of earth and iron flooding the air.

I stumbled back. My heel caught a root. I fell, the world tilting. Claws scraped against the dirt as the beast lunged.

A snarl split the silence. Not mine.

Another shadow collided with the attacker, tearing it away from me with brutal force. Bodies hit the ground, snarls and roars tangling with the cracking of bone. I scrambled against the trunk of an oak, heart hammering.

The fight ended as quickly as it began. One shadow rose. Tall. Broad. His breath was rough, his chest rising like a storm struggling to calm. Moonlight slipped across his face, cutting through the darkness to reveal him.

Kalen.

The Alpha.

His eyes burned a molten gold, wild yet strangely tethered as they locked onto me. For a heartbeat, I forgot to breathe. He stepped forward, hand outstretched, his palm open in an unspoken command for trust.

"Do not move," he said, voice low, gravel edged with warning.

I could not obey if I wanted to. His presence held me fast, the invisible weight of command pressing down on my chest. Every instinct screamed to run, but my body remained frozen under his gaze.

He crouched, closing the space between us. His fingers brushed mine as he helped me to my feet. Warmth jolted up my arm, sharp as lightning, yet it did not burn. It lingered. Pulled.

The world seemed to hush around us, the forest bending to the invisible tether sparking alive in that touch. My pulse no longer raced from fear, but from something far more dangerous.

"You should not be here," Kalen said, though the sharpness in his words faltered, as though he fought against them.

"I was only walking home," I whispered. My voice betrayed me, too soft, too shaken.

His hand still rested against mine. He should have let go, but he did not. The tether coiled tighter, drawing me closer, until I could see the faint scar cutting through his brow, the flecks of shadow in his golden irises.

"You are not safe alone. Not tonight. Not ever." His jaw tensed, and though his grip remained gentle, the words held a finality that sent a shiver through me.

"Why?" I asked, though I feared the answer.

His gaze dropped to my lips for a fleeting instant before dragging back to my eyes. His chest rose and fell as if he weighed a thousand thoughts, yet spoke only one.

"Because the darkness in these woods hungers for you."

He released my hand, finally, as though the tether had burned him too deeply. Yet even in the absence of touch, the bond hummed, undeniable.

I should have turned away. I should have forced myself back toward the village. But I remained. His presence was both warning and salvation, a contradiction I could not pull free from.

He stepped closer once more, shadows curling at his back like a cloak of night. His hand rose as if to brush a loose strand of hair from my face, but he stopped inches away, his fingers trembling. For a breath, his restraint slipped, revealing the storm beneath.

"Elara..." he murmured, my name tasting strange in his mouth, heavy with something unspoken.

The air between us tightened. The forest listened. The pull between us threatened to break whatever fragile walls still stood.

Before either of us could move, a howl split the night-long, piercing, hungry. Not his.

Kalen's eyes darkened instantly. His head snapped toward the trees. The sound echoed again, closer this time.

"They found us," he growled, his voice no longer man but beast.

I gasped, clutching the fabric of my skirt, as his form shifted in a blur of motion. The sound of bones cracking filled the clearing. Shadows swallowed him whole, and where Kalen stood, a massive wolf emerged, fur black as midnight, eyes blazing gold.

He turned that gaze on me, a silent promise etched in their depths: stay alive.

The trees shuddered as more shapes slithered through the dark, eyes gleaming, claws flashing.

And I realized with chilling certainty-this night was only the beginning.

Elara stands face to face with Kalen in full wolf form as unknown creatures close in, their fates now inescapably entwined.

Aria's breath came fast as she clutched the edge of the pew, her knuckles white against the polished wood. The echo of the black car's departure still lingered in her ears, low and menacing, as if it had imprinted itself into the stones of the chapel. The storm outside had not eased; rain lashed against the stained-glass windows, each drop like a warning.

Her father's footsteps approached, steady, unhurried. She turned and found him standing in the aisle, his face unreadable, though a flicker of unease passed through his eyes before it was gone.

"You saw them," he said quietly, not a question but a certainty.

Aria swallowed. "Who were they?"

Father Elias's jaw tightened. "Men who do not belong here. You must keep your distance."

"But they were looking for something," she pressed, the memory of the stranger's piercing gaze from the car flashing in her mind. "Or someone."

His silence said more than words could.

Aria's heart raced, dread and defiance intertwining. "You're hiding something."

The candles beside the altar guttered as if the storm outside had forced its way in. Father Elias stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Some truths, Aria, are heavier than sin. And if you chase them, they will consume you."

Yet in her chest, a spark flared-the same spark she felt when those storm-gray eyes found hers through the rain. She didn't know his name, but she knew one thing: this was only the beginning.