006
1309 Words
The wind was off today, thicker, humming like a taut string.
I stood at the edge of the field, flanked by my beta and gamma, issuing orders as my warriors moved with disciplined urgency.
Rouges had breached one of the borderlines, wild, feral, and desperate. Not the usual kind that scavenge and vanish. They were searching for something, some were caught, some killed, the rest locked in silver-lined cells where I was all night, yet there was no real information, they knew nothing, all manipulated by spells. Something about this feels off.
Distraction, maybe.
There was work to do.
“Reinforce the east and southern borders. I want aerial scouts sweeping every two miles. No delay.” I ordered
“Yes, Alpha,” they responded in unison, shifting into motion.
An alarm sounded from the watchers at the fringe. They had picked up something old, not just old, but ancient. A Creeper, of all things. Creatures that hadn’t been seen in decades, maybe longer. Not violent, not always but dangerous in their silence. They didn’t move on their own. They were sent. Deployed to track, to scent, to hunt ancient creatures like themselves and only made themselves known when they had found them.
I moved swiftly, so did my warriors as I mind-linked commands, paws and boots thudding against the moss-laced ground as we approached the area where the signal had come through. Wolves split the forest to scan the perimeter. The scent was faint now, scattered by the wind, but they finally got there.
I stood just outside the western boundary in a thin place near the human realm where the veil ran dangerously thin. Where the air shouldn’t have been this charged.
My gamma Bjorn crouched beside the broken tree where the trail thinned. “Alpha,” he murmured. He passed through here not long ago. Maybe less than an hour. The trail curves toward the veil.”
Toward the human world. My jaws tensed.
Landon followed the direction of Bjorn’s trail and crouched near the broken stone where the magical barrier shimmered faintly overlooking an abandoned gas station.
“Alpha… This wasn’t rogue activity. It is a Creeper just like the signal said.”
My head snapped in the direction of the decay. “You’re sure?”
My beta nodded. “It was here. Moments ago. The energy hasn’t even settled.”
I crouched low, dragging two fingers across the earth. The feeling was familiar. Too familiar. “Then he’s tracking something in their realm.”
But even as he said it, my senses flickered, stirred by something deeper than instinct.
There was something else.
A trace buried beneath the Creeper’s foul scent, so faint it could have been missed by anyone not looking. But he knew it. Every part of him knew it.
That scent. Like storm-charged night air and jasmine left too long in the rain.
My wolf surged.
She was there.
My mate.
The bond hadn’t just stirred. It had cracked open.
I inhaled deeper, ignoring the noise of his warriors scanning the perimeter. This wasn’t just any scent. It wasn’t residual. It was recent. Fresh. She had been here, had passed through this space hours ago, maybe less.
I closed my eyes briefly. The thrum in his chest, in his blood, in the very marrow of his being, pulsed. After all these years. After watching every prophecy blur and twist. After telling myself I had none and deserved none.
She had crossed into my world. Or worse, the Creeper wasn’t tracking a creature.
It was tracking her.
My eyes snapped open, golden with rage and something ancient that refused to be tamed.
“Find the Creeper,” I growled at my warriors.
Then I turned to Landon. “Find the breach. Gather the Elders. And send word to the Seers.” I need to understand what is going on.
“Bjorn”
“Alpha”
“Find the human he is after”
—
As we rode back, the unease didn’t fade; rather it thickened. It clung to me, prickling across my skin like static.
My pulse spiked the moment I saw him.
A figure.
Standing still on the side of the road ahead.
A man.
Watching.
Staring.
My breath hitched. Kaia’s did too.
I gripped the handlebars tighter, forcing myself not to flinch as she revved the engine and sped up.
Kaia clung to me, tense, trembling.
“Who was that?” she whispered.
“No idea,” I muttered, heart pounding.
But I didn’t dare look back.
Was he the one in the photo?
The ride home stretched longer than it should have. The streets, usually familiar, felt… off. Skewed. Each turn felt wrong somehow, like someone had rearranged the neighborhood just slightly. Streetlamps buzzed louder than normal, and shadows clung to curbs like spilled ink.
When we finally pulled up in front of her house, Kaia didn’t budge. She just looked at me.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why you never grow up." Ever heard of personal space?”
“What’s that?” she smirked
When we got home, she strolled in like she owned the place. I sighed, locking the door behind us.
The kitchen was still warm. The faint smell of burnt toast lingered in the air. Kaia was glued to her phone, tapping out messages I didn’t care to read.
“I have a good plan,” she started, grinning.
“Nope!” I raised my hands in surrender, laughter in my voice. “C’mon. I’m starving.”
“You know what we need? Pizza. And I’m choosing the toppings this time.” She was already halfway to the fridge.
I shot her a look. “You’re terrible at ordering.”
“I’m adventurous,” she replied proudly, yanking the fridge open.
We placed our order, then settled into a quiet that only longtime friends could share. No awkwardness. Just soft background noises, the buzz of the fridge, the hum of the photo printer as I set it up.
Kaia hovered nearby, watching the images appear, still warm and vibrant from the ink. We laid them out on the counter to dry. Pizza arrived soon after.
We ate in the kitchen, teasing each other about fashion and dumb trends, throwing around harmless banter like a shield against the weirdness we’d just ridden through.
Eventually, Kaia left, promising to call me later with her “master plan.”
I wandered into the living room, drawn automatically to the photos. I began flipping through them, fingers tracing the damp edges. A faint chemical scent hung in the air.
Then I paused.
One photo.
Something in the background.
A blur.
I adjusted the angle, squinting. The more I stared, the clearer it became.
A figure.
The figure.
The man.
My heart quickened.
Lighting glitch? Smudge on the lens?
I tried to rationalize it. But my instincts screamed something else.
The discomfort bloomed fast. The edges of my vision felt off. A flicker in the periphery.
I exhaled sharply and began gathering the photos. I always put them away before Mom got home. Especially the ones from “forbidden places,” as she liked to call them.
That last photo curled under the heat of the printer, the glossy surface catching the kitchen light.
I stared at it again.
But it was gone.
No man.
No shadow.
Just me and Kaia, grinning like idiots in front of a haunted gas station.
“It’s just my eyes playing tricks on me,” I said out loud, mostly to fill the silence.
But as I climbed the stairs, the stillness clung to me thick and aware.
And now that I think about it…
Not many cars passed us on the ride back.
Hardly anyone was out.
It was a dead end.
- Writer
