Chapter 1 – The mark awakens
The moon always looked different in Evergreen Ridge.
It sat lower than it should, glowing too bright—too knowing—as if it watched every step Rina Hale took on her walk home from her late shift at the café. But tonight… something felt worse. The moon seemed sharper, close enough to touch, close enough to whisper her name.
Rina tightened her coat around her shoulders. The wind pushed the mist across the road in thin white ribbons, and for once the usually noisy town felt smothered in silence.
No passing cars.
No barking dogs.
Not even the hum of distant voices.
Only her footsteps. Echoing. Alone.
She hated this road.
It snaked past the forest—the same forest everyone avoided after sunset. The same forest where people whispered about wolves. Strange wolves. Wolves with eyes that glowed like embers. Wolves that didn’t fear humans. Wolves that weren’t really… wolves.
Rina never believed any of it.
Until tonight.
Halfway home, she felt it.
A pressure.
A weight.
The unmistakable sensation of being watched.
She stopped and turned.
Nothing.
Just fog… trees… and the moon staring back at her like a silent warning.
“Get a grip,” she muttered, forcing herself to keep walking.
But then she heard it.
A low, steady growl.
Her blood turned cold. She spun around—and froze.
Two golden eyes glowed from the shadows between the trees. Bright. Unnatural. Alive with fire.
Rina stumbled back, breath shattering in her chest.
The creature stepped forward, its enormous frame cutting through the mist. A wolf—bigger than any she had ever seen. Its shoulders bulged with muscle, its fur thick and dark, rippling like metal under the moonlight.
It shouldn’t be real.
It shouldn’t be here.
It shouldn’t be looking at her like that.
The wolf growled again, deeper this time. The ground trembled beneath her shoes. Then—
It stopped.
Its head tilted.
Its eyes lowered.
Down… to her wrist.
Heart racing, Rina lifted her hand—
—and gasped.
Her skin was glowing.
A faint silver light pulsed beneath her wrist, shaping itself into a tiny crescent mark. She rubbed at it desperately, but the mark only brightened… like it was waking up.
Like something inside her was waking up.
“No…” she whispered. “What is this?”
The wolf inhaled sharply. Recognition flashed in its eyes. It lowered its head—not to attack, but almost as if… bowing.
Rina backed up until her spine hit the cold metal railing of the bridge. She couldn’t blink. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t even scream.
The wolf took one slow step toward her.
Then—
Something moved behind it.
A shadow.
Human.
Watching her.
Rina’s pulse stumbled. Someone else was in the forest… someone who had been there long before she noticed.
The wolf growled again—this time not at her, but at the approaching figure.
The shape stepped closer. Moonlight slid over sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, and eyes the color of liquid silver.
Cold.
Focused.
Fixed entirely on her.
Her voice shook. “Who… who are you?”
He didn’t answer her question.
Only spoke one sentence—soft, calm, almost regretful.
“You shouldn’t have walked alone tonight.”
The wolf snarled.
The air tightened.
Rina’s heart hammered against her ribs.
And as the silver-eyed boy stepped fully into the moonlight, she realized with a sick jolt that he wasn’t there to save her.
He was there because of her.
