part 2
1070 Words
Lena didn’t remember the walk home.
One moment she was standing in the clearing, heart racing, the echo of Kai’s voice still tangled in her ears—and the next she was pushing open the front door of her aunt’s house, breathless, hands shaking, pine needles caught in her hair.
“Lena?” her aunt called from the kitchen. “You’re late.”
“Sorry,” Lena said automatically. Her voice sounded wrong to her own ears, like it belonged to someone else. “Lost track of time.”
Her aunt gave her a look over the rim of her glasses. “In the forest again?”
Lena hesitated. Just a fraction of a second.
“Yes.”
A sigh. “I’ve told you—”
“I know,” Lena said quickly. “I’ll be more careful.”
She escaped upstairs before the lecture could really begin, closing her bedroom door behind her and leaning against it as if the house itself might tip over.
Her room was small but familiar—posters half-peeled from the walls, books stacked everywhere, a window that looked straight out toward the dark line of trees. The forest loomed in the distance, black against the night sky.
She crossed the room slowly and pressed her forehead to the glass.
Somewhere out there was a boy who could become a wolf.
I’ve seen you, he’d said.
When you’re sad.
Her chest tightened.
She slid down to the floor, hugging her knees, trying to make sense of something that refused to be explained. Fear came in waves now, belated and sharp. Wolves. Monsters. The way Kai had warned her to leave—before it gets dark.
And yet.
He hadn’t hurt her.
He’d looked at her like she was… familiar. Like she mattered.
That night, Lena dreamed of running.
She was barefoot, flying through the forest, the ground soft and forgiving beneath her feet. The air burned sweet and cold in her lungs. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t alone.
A silver shape ran beside her, close enough that she could feel its warmth. When she tried to look at it, the dream dissolved into amber eyes and shadow.
She woke just before dawn with her heart pounding.
She told herself she wouldn’t go back.
The forest was dangerous. Everyone knew that. People had gone missing over the years—hikers, hunters, drifters who wandered too far in and never wandered back out. The town chalked it up to accidents. Wildlife. Poor decisions.
But Lena knew better now.
Still, by late afternoon, she found herself pulling on her jacket.
“I’m going for a walk,” she called downstairs.
Her aunt hummed distractedly. “Dinner in an hour.”
Lena didn’t answer. She was already out the door.
The path felt different in daylight. Less threatening. Almost ordinary. Sunlight filtered through the trees in soft beams, illuminating moss and fallen leaves. Birds darted between branches, chirping like nothing in the world had ever gone wrong.
She reached the clearing slowly, half-expecting it to be empty.
It wasn’t.
Kai stood near the edge of the trees, shirtless now, his skin marked with faint scars that looked too old to belong to someone his age. He turned the moment she stepped into the light, eyes narrowing.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” he said.
“I know,” Lena replied. Her voice shook despite her best efforts. “But you told me not to follow you. You didn’t say I couldn’t come here.”
A pause.
“That’s not better.”
“Did you follow me home?” she asked suddenly.
Kai stiffened. “No.”
“You knew where I lived.”
“I’ve seen you,” he repeated. “From a distance.”
“That’s… still creepy.”
“I’m not human,” he said flatly. “I don’t live by human rules.”
She swallowed. “Then why do you care if I get home safe?”
For a long moment, he didn’t answer.
The forest seemed to lean closer, leaves rustling without wind.
“Because you don’t belong in this part of the woods,” Kai said finally. “And because if the pack sees you—”
“The pack?”
His jaw clenched. “You need to stop asking questions.”
“That’s hard when you turn into a wolf.”
A flicker of something like reluctant amusement crossed his face. “Fair.”
Lena took a step closer. Then another. He didn’t move away, but she noticed the tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers curled as if resisting an instinct.
“Are they like you?” she asked softly.
“Yes.”
“Can they change too?”
“Yes.”
“Do they know about me?”
“No.” He met her gaze sharply. “And they can’t.”
Fear slid cold into her veins. “Why?”
“Because humans are not welcome here.”
“What would they do?”
Kai didn’t answer right away.
“They would protect the forest,” he said instead.
Lena understood what he wasn’t saying.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Then why are you different?”
He looked at her like he’d been asking himself the same question.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I do know this—you can’t come back here. Not after today.”
A strange ache spread through her chest. “You’re sending me away.”
“I’m keeping you alive.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
His eyes softened, just a little. “Sometimes it is.”
The forest shifted then—a snap of a branch, a low rumble that wasn’t thunder.
Kai’s head snapped up.
“They’re close,” he said. “You have to go. Now.”
“Will I see you again?” Lena asked, the words familiar on her tongue.
Kai hesitated.
Then, very quietly, “If fate is cruel.”
Before she could ask what that meant, he stepped back into the shadows.
This time, she didn’t see him change.
She only heard the sound of paws striking earth, fast and powerful, disappearing into the trees.
Lena ran all the way home.
Behind her, unseen eyes watched the path she left behind.
And somewhere deep in the forest, a pack gathered—drawn by a scent that didn’t belong.
- Writer
