The alpha lost daughter

The Stranger in the Tree

She lay in her childhood bedroom, staring at the ceiling while shadows from the old oak tree danced across the walls. The rescue center. The forest. The birds taking flight all at once. It played on a loop inside her head like a song she could not forget.

Something had been out there.

By two in the morning, she gave up on sleep entirely. She pulled on her boots, grabbed her jacket, and slipped out the back door without making a sound. Her parents slept soundly in the room down the hall.

The forest welcomed her like an old friend. Moonlight filtered through the redwood canopy, casting silver patches across the trail. Rowan walked without thinking, her feet finding the path on their own.

She had hiked these trails a thousand times.

Tonight felt different.

The silence pressed against her ears. Even the usual nighttime sounds, the hoot of an owl, the rustle of small animals, seemed muffled and distant.

Something was watching her.

She stopped walking. The forest went completely still. Not the peaceful stillness of a quiet night. This was the stillness of a predator pausing before it strikes.

Rowan turned slowly.

A figure stood among the trees about twenty feet away. Just a shape. Tall and broad. Completely motionless.

Her heart slammed against her ribs.

"Who's there?"

No answer.