Moonbound Hearts

First Encounter

The first crash came from the edge of the forest.

Branches snapping. Leaves thrashing. Heavy footfalls moving fast.

I froze in the middle of my room, listening. My body screamed at me to run, but where? I was already locked inside.

A second sound followed; lower, more primal. A growl.

Not a dog. Not a coyote. Something bigger.

Then, a flash of movement at the treeline.

I pressed against the glass, heart pounding. I couldn’t see clearly through the fog, but I caught the suggestion of two shapes—one dark, massive, moving on four legs. The other…

Kael.

I didn’t know how I knew it was him. I just did. His movements were fluid, almost inhumanly fast, as he positioned himself between the creature and my yard.

The wolf—or whatever it was—snarled, teeth glinting under the moonlight. My breath caught as I realized it was huge. Bigger than any natural wolf should be.

And Kael didn’t back down.

I stumbled away from the window, my stomach twisting.

The phone buzzed again.

Unknown Number:

Don’t open the door. No matter what you hear.

My hands shook as I gripped the device.

From outside, the growls deepened, and the night exploded into chaos—thuds, snarls, the violent rustle of bodies crashing through underbrush. I clamped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t block out the raw, guttural sounds of a fight that no human should survive.

Then, silence.

A single, sharp howl rose into the sky. Not threatening. Victorious.

And for a fleeting second, I swore I felt it—like something inside me answered.

I didn’t sleep again that night.

When dawn finally broke, streaking pale gold across the mountains, the world outside looked deceptively peaceful. But at the edge of the forest, I spotted it—

A single, muddy bootprint.

Larger than mine.

Kael’s.

By the time the sun climbed fully over the mountains, the illusion of safety had returned to Silverpine.

Cars hummed along the narrow road into town. Kids waited for buses with steaming cups of chocolate. Birds sang as if they hadn’t gone dead silent just hours before.

I stood on the porch, backpack slung over my shoulder, staring at that single muddy bootprint at the edge of the yard. The morning dew had softened its edges, but I could still see it clearly.

He was here.

No one else could have left it. And whatever he’d fought last night hadn’t left so much as a trace.

Mason’s Jeep rumbled to life behind me. He leaned out the window, his hair sticking up in every direction. “You coming or what? You look like you’re waiting for Bigfoot to show up.”

I hesitated, glancing once more at the trees before forcing myself to move. “Yeah. Coming.”

He eyed me suspiciously as I climbed in. “You didn’t sleep again, did you?”

“Not really.”

“You’ve got to stop obsessing over those wolf stories. I think the paranoia’s getting to you.”

I wanted to tell him that paranoia wasn’t the same as watching a boy fight a monster in your backyard. But I bit my tongue. He wouldn’t believe me.

By third period, I felt like a zombie. I shuffled into English class, my hair damp from the cold and my hoodie pulled tight against my face like armor.

Kael was already there.

He sat in the back, head tilted slightly toward the window, golden eyes catching the light in a way that made me shiver. He looked perfectly composed. Untouched. Like he hadn’t spent the night battling something with claws and fangs.

I slid into my seat, and for a moment, I let myself watch him.

He glanced my way. His lips curved, just slightly. Almost a smirk.

I looked down fast.

At the end of class, as the other students filed out, I felt him behind me before I saw him. The air seemed to change, charged with some invisible energy.

“You didn’t sleep,” he said quietly. Not a question.

“No,” I admitted, twisting my notebook in my hands.

“Good,” he said. “You listened.”

I turned, frowning. “Listened to what?”

His eyes flickered to the window, where the forest loomed in the distance. “To me.”

I hesitated, every nerve on edge. “What was out there last night?”

For the first time, something cracked in his calm facade. His jaw tightened. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do,” I whispered.

He stepped closer, close enough that I could smell that same woodsmoke and pine scent from before. My heart raced for reasons that had nothing to do with fear.

“You need to stay out of the woods, Lila,” he said, his voice low and steady. “And you need to trust me when I say that some things aren’t meant for you to see.”

The bell rang, breaking the moment. Kael walked out without looking back, leaving me rooted to the spot, my pulse pounding in my ears.

I didn’t understand him.

I didn’t understand any of this.

But I couldn’t deny the truth coiling in my gut:

Kael Donovan wasn’t normal.

And whatever haunted the woods of Silverpine, it was only getting closer.

That evening, I walked home alone. Mason was still working, and the clouds were rolling in thick and fast, the sky bruising with the promise of an early storm.

Halfway down the road, I caught movement in the corner of my eye.

A shape in the trees.

Not Kael.

This one was lower to the ground, its glowing eyes amber instead of gold.

The air went cold around me.

For the first time, I felt hunted.

The moment I saw those amber eyes gleaming from the trees, my blood ran cold.

They were lower to the ground than Kael’s had been—closer to an animal’s. Predatory. Unblinking.

My breath hitched, fogging the chilled air in front of me. I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

The shape in the shadows crouched, as if preparing to spring. Branches shivered under its weight.

I fumbled for my phone in my pocket with trembling fingers, my eyes never leaving the treeline. My mind screamed at me to run, but something deeper—older—told me that running would make it worse.

Then, a low growl rolled out of the forest.

Not the kind of sound a normal wolf made. This one vibrated with rage, with hunger. It was the kind of sound that felt personal.

The first step it took forward broke me out of my paralysis. I stumbled backward onto the gravel road, the rough stones scraping my palms.