I didn't sleep.
I lay on the bed fully dressed, staring at the ceiling as sounds from the forest bled through the walls of the pack house. Footsteps moved outside fast, controlled, circling. Voices rose and fell in low tones, clipped and urgent. Every creak of the house made my muscles tighten.
I counted my breaths.
In.
Out.
It didn't help.
The forest felt too close, pressing against the windows, brushing the edges of the house like fingers testing a locked door. Whatever had come wasn't gone. I could feel that much with terrifying clarity.
Kael's certainty echoed in my head.
Survive tonight.
The words didn't sound like comfort anymore.
Sometime after midnight, the sounds shifted. The tension didn't disappear, but it changed shape like a storm moving farther away while still threatening rain. The growls faded. The movement slowed. Eventually, silence crept back in, cautious and incomplete.
I stayed awake long after the house settled.
When dawn finally came, it arrived pale and hesitant, filtering weakly through the narrow window. My body felt heavy, drained by fear and lack of rest, but my mind was sharp.
Too sharp.
I left the room quietly, careful not to draw attention. The hallway was empty, but signs of the night remained mud tracked across the floor, a faint metallic scent in the air that made my stomach churn.
Blood.
Not enough to scream massacre. Just enough to suggest violence had been carefully controlled.
Downstairs, the pack gathered in tense clusters. Conversations stopped when I entered. Again. Every time, it was the same voices lowering, eyes sliding away, expressions tightening like shutters pulled closed.
Kael stood near the long table, shoulders squared, posture rigid. He looked… different.
Not injured.
Just harder.
His eyes found mine instantly.
"You shouldn't be up yet," he said.
"You shouldn't be pretending nothing happened," I replied.
A few heads turned sharply.
Kael's jaw tightened, but he didn't argue. Instead, he gestured toward the door.
"Walk with me."
Outside, the air was crisp, damp with morning dew. The forest looked deceptively peaceful sunlight filtering through the trees, birds calling softly like nothing had disturbed them.
I didn't believe it for a second.
We walked in silence for several minutes. I waited for him to speak.
He didn't.
"So," I said finally, "did we survive?"
"Yes."
"And did everyone else?"
A pause.
"Everyone inside the boundary."
That answer landed like a stone.
"What does that mean?"
Kael stopped walking. I nearly collided with his back.
"It means," he said carefully, "that you were right to be afraid."
I crossed my arms. "That's still not an explanation."
"No," he agreed. "But that's all I can give you right now."
I laughed softly, though there was no humor in it. "You keep saying that like it makes it acceptable."
"It makes it necessary."
"For who?" I demanded. "You? Or me?"
His gaze dropped to the ground briefly before returning to mine. "Both."
That was the first crack.
Not in his control but in his certainty.
Later that morning, I went into town.
I needed perspective. Human voices. Normal reactions. Proof that I wasn't imagining the unease crawling under my skin.
Crescent Valley looked like the same,shops opening, people greeting each other, the faint hum of routine. But beneath it, something was wrong.
A man stood outside the grocery store staring at the forest road, his face pale.
"Did you hear it last night?" a woman whispered to her friend near the café.
"No," the other replied quickly. "And I don't want to."
That response chilled me more than fear would have.
People weren't confused.
They were avoiding it.
I stopped by the small local clinic under the excuse of visiting an old neighbor. Inside, the nurse looked exhausted, dark circles shadowing her eyes.
"Busy night?" I asked casually.
She hesitated. "We had… some injuries."
"From what?"
She smiled too tightly. "Hiking accidents."
At night.
In winter.
I nodded like I believed her.
Outside, I followed the forest road instead of turning back toward the pack house. I didn't go far just far enough to see where the trees grew denser, where the ground looked disturbed.
Broken branches littered the path. Deep gouges marked the soil, far wider than any animal tracks I recognized. Something had moved through here fast and angry.
I crouched, brushing my fingers over one mark.
A shiver ran through me.
I wasn't alone.
I stood slowly.
"Hello?" I called.
No answer.
But the air shifted.
The sensation returned that focused awareness, sharpness and intent. My pulse spiked. Every instinct screamed at me to run.
I turned and froze.
Across the clearing stood a wolf.
No.
Not just a wolf.
It was massive, its fur dark and thick, eyes burning gold as they locked onto mine. It didn't growl. Didn't advance.
I just watched it.
Time stretched.
I couldn't breathe.
Then, without warning, it stepped back into the trees and vanished.
My knees buckled.
When I made it back to the pack house, Kael was waiting.
His relief was instant and quickly masked.
"You shouldn't have gone alone," he said.
"You shouldn't lie so badly," I snapped.
His eyes narrowed. "What did you see?"
"A wolf," I said. "One that wasn't afraid of me."
Silence.
Then, very carefully, "Did it touch you?"
"No."
His shoulders loosened slightly.
That scared me more than anger would have.
"Kael," I said quietly, "people are getting hurt. The town knows something's wrong. And whatever is out there, whatever you're guarding against, it's watching me."
He didn't deny it.
"I don't want to be protected like a secret," I continued. "I want to be trusted."
"You don't know what you're asking," he said.
"Then tell me."
His voice dropped. "If I do, there's no turning back."
I met his gaze. "I think we passed that point last night."
For a long moment, he didn't move.
Then he said, "Come with me."
He led me toward the edge of the forest not deep inside, but close enough that the air changed. The sounds dulled. The world felt… older.
"There are laws here," he said. "Older than the town. Older than the people."
"And you enforce them?"
"I uphold them."
"For what cost?"
He looked at me then, really looked.
"For survival."
I swallowed. "And me?"
His answer was immediate.
"You are the risk."
The words hurt more than I expected.
"And also," he added quietly, "the reason we're still standing."
That night, alone in my room again, I stared at the ceiling and finally admitted the truth to myself.
This wasn't about monsters.
It wasn't even about the forest.
It was about me.
Whatever Crescent Valley remembered, whatever had returned with me it wasn't finished.
And neither was I.