The Pack (Completed Series)

Chapter 2 - Aria

My breath hitched.

The symbol on the card burned into my mind like a brand. Crescent moon. Paw print. I didn't know how I knew—but I knew. This wasn't some fraternity prank or a piece of cryptic campus mail. This was a warning. A message.

And it meant they'd found me.

The ones from the dreams.

The ones with blood in their eyes and teeth too sharp for any human mouth.

I dropped the card like it had scalded me, my heart hammering in my chest. Every instinct screamed run.

I stumbled backward, shaking. This didn't make sense. It couldn't be real—how could it be real? I'd spent my whole life convincing myself that the dreams were nothing more than trauma-fueled hallucinations. Nightmares leftover from a life I couldn't remember.

But the mark on that envelope... it was exactly the one I'd seen in my dreams. Worn on the skin of the wolves who circled me in the fire. The ones who howled when I screamed. The ones who looked at me like I wasn't a person... but a possession.

Property.

Breed stock.

My legs moved before my mind could catch up. I grabbed my coat, my wallet, my keys—threw my laptop in my backpack, then froze.

I'd planned on finishing my pre-med track early. Maybe going to grad school. Finally building a life that was mine. Safe. Logical. Controlled.

But there was no safety anymore.

The moment I'd opened that envelope, my illusion of a normal life shattered.

I yanked open my dorm window. Third floor. I didn't hesitate. I slipped out onto the fire escape, rain soaking through my sweatshirt in seconds. Cold wind slapped my cheeks as I gripped the rusted metal rail and began climbing down, bare feet slick against the steps. My breath came in sharp, ragged bursts.

I had to disappear.

I didn't know how they found me—after all these years, after I'd buried myself so deep—but they had.

And I knew what they wanted.

I didn't know their names. Only flashes of faces in the dark. Feral. Hungry. Bred for domination. I remembered one in particular—amber eyes and a voice that dripped like venom:

"When she comes of age, she'll return. She'll bear the bloodline forward. She is ours."

I hit the alley pavement and bolted into the night.

I didn't stop until I was half a mile from campus, chest heaving, shoes forgotten, soaked to the bone. The rain blurred the edges of the streetlights, and my vision pulsed with adrenaline.

I found a gas station. Lit, empty. I ducked into the bathroom and locked the door. My reflection in the cracked mirror startled me—wild eyes, wet hair clinging to my cheeks, a streak of dirt on my neck like a smear of ash.

I looked like the girl from the fire again. The one with no past.

No.

This time, I wasn't waiting to be taken.

This time, I would run until my feet bled—until my lungs gave out—because I knew what came next if they caught me.

They didn't want my love.

They wanted my womb.

To breed power. To bind my blood to theirs. To create something monstrous.

I shoved my hair back, palms flat on the sink.

And in that moment, something in me shifted.

Not just fear.

Rage.

A growl—not imagined, not dreamt, but low and real—vibrated in my throat. I swallowed it down fast, shaking. My skin felt hot, like it didn't quite fit. Like something beneath it wanted to break free.

But I couldn't afford to break. Not now.

I had to disappear.

I turned from the mirror, face set with new steel.

If they wanted to hunt me...

They'd better be ready to bleed.