CHAPTER 1 : (The forest that chose me )
The forest never scared Elena it was more like her safe place .
People did.
The Crescent Moon Pack’s territory stretched endlessly beneath the moonlight, but even the twisting branches and distant howls felt safer than the crowded pack house where eyes watched her like she was something out of place… something wrong.
She hugged her thin shawl tighter around her as she walked, the cool evening air brushing her cheeks. The healers had sent her to collect moonleaf, muttering something about how “an omega girl is finally good for something.” Elena didn’t argue. She never argued. Arguing required a voice, and she had learned long ago that no one truly heard her.
She bent down to pluck the glowing leaves when
Snap.
The sound cut through the quiet like a blade.
Elena’s head shot up.
That wasn’t the soft crack of a small animal.
That was heavier. Closer. Dangerous.
She straightened slowly, hands trembling slightly as she scanned the dark woods. Shadows shifted between the trees, but the moonlight caught movement two figures one tall, rigid, unmistakably powerful.
Her breath caught.
Damien Blackthorn.
The Alpha Heir.
The wolf everyone feared.
Even from a distance, she felt his presence like pressure against her chest. His voice carried low through the clearing, sharp and commanding.
“You crossed my borders again,” Damien said, tone dangerously calm.
The second figure a rogue, panting, clothes torn lifted his hands as if in surrender.
“I came with a warning.”
“A warning?” Damien stepped closer, expression unreadable. “You expect me to believe you walked into my territory for my benefit?”
“You don’t understand,” the rogue rasped. “There’s a prophecy. A girl. Born under the blood moon. She’ll change the fate of the Alpha line your line.”
Elena’s heart skipped.
A prophecy?
Damien’s jaw tightened. “You’re wasting my time.”
“No,” the rogue whispered. “They’re hunting her. She’s here, Damien. She’s.....”
Before he could finish, something shifted fast. Too fast for Elena’s eyes to follow. The rogue lunged, desperate, wild.
Damien moved quicker.
A struggle.
A blur.
A choked gasp.
Then… silence.
Elena clamped a hand over her mouth, fighting the instinct to gasp as her entire body froze against the tree. She didn’t see details only shadows, movement, danger—but that was enough.
She needed to leave.
Quietly.
Now.
She stepped back
Her heel snapped a twig.
Elena’s blood went cold.
Damien’s head snapped toward her hiding place with the accuracy of a predator sensing prey. His eyes glinted under the moonlight—sharp, silver, inhumanly aware.
Elena turned and ran.
Branches whipped at her face as she sprinted through the trees, breathing ragged, heart pounding so loudly she was sure he could hear it. She had never run so fast, had never felt fear clawing so high up her throat.
She didn’t make it far.
A hand closed around her wrist—firm, unyielding—stopping her as if she weighed nothing.
“Elena.”
His voice wrapped around her name like a command she couldn’t disobey.
She twisted, breathless. Damien stood inches away, his expression unreadable, his grip warm and frighteningly steady. The forest around them seemed to bow to him, shadows bending like they knew who he truly was.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked quietly.
Elena swallowed hard. “I ..I was collecting moonleaf for the healers. I didn’t mean to… see anything.”
Damien’s grip tightened just enough to make her still.
“Look at me.”
She forced her eyes to meet his. It felt like staring into a storm.
“How much did you see?” he asked, voice low and too calm.
“N-nothing. I swear.”
“Lies don’t suit you.”
Her stomach twisted. She tried to pull back, but his hand held her firmly in place.
“Damien… please. I won’t say anything. I didn’t even understand what happened.”
“That’s the problem,” he murmured. “You saw something you were never meant to see.”
His thumb brushed her wrist barely a touch.
A spark erupted.
Not a simple spark.
A burst of searing heat shot through her arm, racing up to her chest. Silver light crackled beneath her skin like lightning trapped inside her veins.
Elena gasped, stumbling forward.
Damien’s eyes widened not in anger, but in shock.
“No. No, this isn’t this can’t be”
The air pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A faint glowing symbol—ancient, foreign, unmistakably powerful—flared on her wrist.
Elena stared in horror. “What—what’s happening to me?”
Damien backed away as if the sight burned him.
“This is impossible.”
The forest seemed to go silent, as if every living thing held its breath.
Elena clutched her wrist.
“What is this? Damien, what did you do?”
His chest rose and fell, each breath sharper than the last.
“It wasn’t me.”
“Then what—”
Damien stared at her like she had become something impossible.
Something dangerous.
Something he feared.
“Elena…” His voice was rough, shaken. “That mark—”
But he never finished the sentence.
Because the earth beneath them trembled.
A distant howl tore through the forest—long, eerie, nothing like the normal calls of their pack.
Damien’s head snapped toward the sound, eyes narrowing.
Elena whispered, “What… what is that?”
Damien turned back to her, expression darkening with a fear she had never seen on his face before.
“That,” he said quietly, “is coming for you.”
Elena’s breath caught—but before she could ask anything more, the glowing mark on her wrist pulsed again, brighter this time—blindingly so—
And the world went white.
