Chapter One: The Howl Inside
1539 Words
The wind whispered through the trees like it knew something she didn’t.
Ariana stood at the edge of the woods behind the farmhouse, arms folded against the early autumn chill. Her breath curled in the air. It was happening again—that strange humming under her skin. Like her bones didn’t belong to her. Like her blood was waking up.
She turned 18 last week. And since then… things were different.
The headaches were worse. Her dreams were no longer dreams but vivid flashes of another life—flames, claws, a woman’s scream. She tried to brush it off as stress. Hallucinations. Too many supernatural movies. But when she woke up this morning, her nails had sliced through her bedsheet. Clean through.
She hadn’t told the Taylors—her adoptive parents. How could she?
They already walked on eggshells around her. They meant well, truly. But she always felt like a guest in someone else’s story. They'd found her in the woods, nearly feral, and raised her like their own. Still, no one could explain how she’d survived that night, alone, with blood on her dress and a scar across her chest shaped like a crescent moon.
The same scar that had started glowing in her dream last night.
A wolf howled in the distance.
Ariana stiffened. That sound—it did something to her. It didn’t scare her like it should have. It made her… ache. Not in fear. In longing.
“Hey!”
She flinched as someone called out behind her. It was Liam, the boy next door, jogging over with a wide smile and two hot cups of cocoa.
“You’re gonna freeze out here,” he said, holding one out. “Your mom said you’ve been acting weird.”
She forced a smile, taking the cup. “Thanks. And yeah, tell her it’s just... hormones or something.”
He laughed, then glanced at the forest. “You always come out here alone. Aren’t you scared?”
“I used to be,” she said. “Not anymore.”
That was true. She wasn’t afraid of the woods. If anything, she felt drawn to them. Like something in there knew her name before she even learned to say it herself.
That night, after dinner, she lay awake in her room, unable to sleep. The moon was full outside, casting pale light across her bedroom floor. The mark on her chest burned. Her body trembled—not with fever or fear—but anticipation.
Then came the scream.
Not hers.
Her adoptive mother.
And then the scent—raw, wild, metallic. Blood.
Ariana shot out of bed and ran downstairs. But what waited wasn’t a burglar or a robber. It was a wolf.
No—a man… with eyes like molten gold and a body cloaked in shadow. His presence filled the room like a storm.
Time stopped.
Their eyes met.
Everything inside her screamed: Run. Fight. Kiss. Kill. Mate.
But he only stared at her with something between confusion and disbelief.
“You…” he whispered.
Then everything went black
She woke to the sound of rain.
Soft and steady, it tapped against the window like the rhythm of a heartbeat—one that wasn’t her own.
Ariana blinked against the light streaming through the curtains. Her head throbbed. Her sheets were damp, and not just with sweat. She sat up, disoriented, the events of the night crashing down like a storm tide.
The man.
The wolf.
The golden eyes.
But now everything was normal. The house quiet. No blood. No chaos. No signs that anything had happened at all.
She swung her legs off the bed and hissed. Her feet were scratched, as if she’d been running barefoot through the woods. She checked her arms—same thing. Thin cuts and dirt under her nails. And her nightshirt was torn down one side.
What the hell?
A knock at the door made her jump.
“Ariana?” her foster father’s voice came through gently. “Everything okay?”
She paused. “Y-Yeah. Just overslept.”
There was silence. Then, “Alright. Breakfast’s ready when you are.”
When he walked away, she exhaled.
Something happened last night. She hadn’t dreamed it. That man—he had looked at her like she meant something. And for one impossible second, she felt like she knew him. Like her body recognized him even if her mind didn’t.
Her hand moved on its own, pressing against the mark on her chest. It was hot again. And pulsing.
Later that day, the wind shifted.
Ariana stood behind the school library, alone, trying to calm the hum beneath her skin. Her heartbeat wouldn’t slow. She could feel him again. Somewhere close.
And then—she saw him.
Across the football field.
Leaning against a black SUV, half-shadowed by a tree, stood a man dressed in a dark coat. He wasn’t watching the game. He was watching her.
Golden eyes.
Her breath caught.
Her feet moved before her brain could stop them. She stepped onto the field, students yelling and laughing around her, but it all became background noise.
He didn’t move. Just watched her with that same expression—like he was angry and stunned at once.
She stopped a few feet from him. “Who are you?”
His jaw clenched. “You don’t know?”
“No. But you were in my house. You looked at me like you knew me.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “I thought I did.”
“You need to explain what’s happening to me,” she demanded. “The dreams, the pain, the… changes.”
A long silence stretched between them.
“You’re waking up,” he said finally. “Your blood’s remembering what your mind forgot.”
Her heart raced. “What does that mean?”
“You’re not human, Ariana. You never were.”
What!!!! (Ariana's mind in a state of confusion)
Ariana's POV
"You’re not human, Ariana. You never were."
The words sliced through her like cold steel.
She stared at him, unable to form a single thought. The sounds of the world around her dulled, her breath coming fast. Her legs wanted to run—but her heart, traitorous and wild, beat toward him like a moth to flame.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
The man—no, the wolf—stepped closer. Ariana saw now just how tall he was. How the air around him seemed heavier. Wilder.
“My name is Kael,” he said. “I’m the Alpha of the Stormfang Pack.”
Alpha. The word rang in her chest like a drum. She didn’t know how, but it felt… familiar.
She shook her head. “I’ve lived here my whole life. I go to school. I have a family—”
“They’re not your blood,” Kael interrupted. “They took you in after… after your pack was attacked.”
She backed away a step. “My pack? No. That doesn’t make sense—my parents—”
“Your father was murdered,” Kael said quietly. “Your mother was taken.”
Silence.
It was like time cracked open inside her mind.
A flash of fire.
Claws ripping through her father’s chest.
A woman screaming her name.
Ariana gasped, stumbling as the memories slammed into her. She clutched her head, knees buckling.
Kael caught her before she fell.
“Easy,” he murmured, voice low and strange. “Your wolf is waking up. Your past is surfacing.”
She looked up at him, her breath ragged, her face inches from his. “You were there.”
He nodded slowly. “I was.”
Something in his expression twisted—guilt. Anguish.
“You were one of the wolves that destroyed my family.”
His jaw clenched. “No. I came to stop it. I was too late.”
She shoved away from him, heart thudding painfully. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”
Not the best choice of words.
But she did believe him. And that scared her more than anything.
“Why now?” she demanded. “Why show up eighteen years later?”
“Because your wolf called out,” Kael said, his voice raw. “And I felt it. We’re bound, Ariana. You’re my mate.”
The world spun again.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no—”
He reached for her, but she flinched away.
“I don’t even know what that means,” she said. “I don’t know who I am. And you expect me to believe I belong to you?”
Kael’s golden eyes darkened. “I don’t expect anything. But I can’t undo the bond. Neither can you.”
Ariana turned and ran, ignoring the ache in her chest, the voice in her head screaming Go back. She didn’t want to hear more.
But as she disappeared into the trees, her mark began to burn brighter than ever.
And Kael watched her go, jaw clenched, fists shaking.
“She doesn’t know,” he muttered to himself. “She doesn’t know what she truly is "
- Writer
