Chapter 3 :Where Am I?
1148 Words
Selene’s POV
I gasped.
It felt too harsh as I felt a sharp pain in my throat. I coughed out loud.
A thick black substance came from my mouth.
It was in my mouth, my nose, my lungs.
I rolled onto my side, clawing at my throat, spitting out the grainy, bitter substance, my body heaving as I fought for air.
The world blurred, as I felt dizzy. It felt as if I was suffocating alive.
Shadows stretched, the trees above me bending like skeletal fingers. The air smelled like piss and mold.
I shivered.
Cold.
Why was I cold?
I glanced down at myself and froze.
My body is bare. Naked. But smooth, no scars.
I hugged myself, curling in, my fingers clutching at my own skin as if that would somehow cover me.
I didn’t understand.
I didn’t understand anything.
Panic clawed at my ribs, but I couldn’t name the feeling. Couldn’t name anything.
What… was this place?
The ground beneath me felt rough, uneven. My fingers sank into it—grainy, soft, damp. I rubbed the substance between my fingertips, staring at it, my brows furrowing.
It was dark. Strange. What was it?
My chest tightened.
Something was wrong.
I didn’t know what it was.
I didn’t know what I was.
A deep, shuddering breath left my lips. The air was cold, but it buzzed against my skin, like something unseen was pressing down on me.
I looked around, my gaze darting through the twisting shadows of the forest. It was vast, endless. Trees taller than I could comprehend, their branches shifting as if whispering secrets.
The silence was heavy. I heard nothing apart from my own breathing.
I should move.
I needed to move.
But my limbs trembled, my body aching in places I didn’t recognize.
And worst of all—
I didn’t know who I was.
The thought sent a sharp, cold panic through me.
My name.
What was my name?
I squeezed my eyes shut, grasping for something, anything—but there was nothing. Just a vast, terrifying emptiness.
The only thing I knew… was that I existed.
But beyond that?
Nothing.
My body trembled, my breath shallow. The cold air bit at my skin, but I barely felt it. Everything was new. Foreign to me. The sky above me stretched into endless darkness, and the trees stood like silent watchers, their branches shifting as though they whispered secrets.
I tried to move, but my muscles refused to cooperate. My legs were weak, my arms shaky. I pressed my palms into the strange, grainy substance beneath me.
My mind was blank, hollow.
There should have been something—memories, thoughts, recognition—but there was only a gaping void.
I didn’t know who I was.
I didn’t know what I was.
The realization sent a sharp tremor through me, but I couldn’t even name the feeling. My heart pounded against my ribs, my breath quickening, though I didn’t understand why.
I blinked up at the dark sky, the faint glow of the moon casting a pale silver hue over the world around me. It felt… distant. As though I didn’t belong beneath it.
I needed to move. To do something.
But before I could shift, before I could find the strength to push myself up—
The air changed.
A deep, shuddering silence pressed against me, heavier than before. The hum in the air turned sharp, like an unspoken warning curling around my bare skin.
I wasn’t alone.
My gaze snapped forward.
A shadow peeled away from the trees, massive, its form shifting between the shadow and darkness.
A wolf.
But not just any wolf.
It was huge, towering over me, its presence so overwhelming I felt it in my bones.
Crimson eyes burned through the darkness, locking onto me.
Something deep in my chest twisted, an unfamiliar sensation clawing at my ribs. I couldn’t name it—fear? Recognition? Something else?
I didn’t have time to process it.
My vision swayed.
My limbs refused to hold me.
The last thing I saw was those piercing red eyes, watching me, waiting.
And then—
Darkness.
Kieran’s POV
I had smelled the shift in the air before I saw her.
The forest was still, humming with something… unnatural. The scent was unlike anything I had encountered—raw, untouched, powerful, yet eerily blank, like an existence erased and rewritten.
So when I saw the girl, naked, trembling in the dirt, the glow of the moon making silver streaks shine in her long, tangled hair, I moved without thinking.
She swayed.
I shifted instantly, my body twisting back into my human form just in time to catch her before she hit the ground.
And that was my first mistake.
The moment our bare skin touched, something pulsed through me, sharp and electric. Not pain. Not heat. But something that coiled low in my stomach, something I had no name for.
I stiffened, my breath locking in my throat.
The girl, this strange, wild creature, was unconscious, but her body reacted. A tiny shudder ran down her spine, her fingers twitching against my chest.
I swallowed, hard.
My skin was burning when she touched me, but I didn’t move.
Didn’t drop her.
Didn’t let go.
Cassian’s voice shattered the moment.
“Hah! Look at you! Blushing like a damn virgin.”
I growled at my beta, but that only made him laugh harder.
He shifted instantly, switching from wolf to human just to mess with me. He was grinning—the bastard's arms crossed over his bare chest, clearly enjoying himself.
“Kieran Draven, the Phantom Alpha, was reduced to a flustered little boy because of one pretty naked girl.” Cassian mocked, tilting his head. “Tell me, does she make your heart race?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Shut up, Cassian.”
Another chuckled. “Oh, this is good." You’re actually embarrassed.”
I ignored him, adjusting my hold on the girl. She was light, barely more than air in my arms, but there was strength beneath the fragility—a coiled energy buried under her skin, waiting to wake.
She had no scent.
That was what unnerved me the most.
Every wolf, every creature, carried an essence—something to mark them as belonging to this world.
But her?
Nothing.
Cassian must have sensed it, too, because his smirk faded slightly, his eyes flicking over her form with something close to concern.
“Who the hell is she?” he muttered.
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
I only knew one thing.
I held her tighter, my fingers pressing into the curve of her waist, my gaze locking onto her sleeping face.
Something deep, primal, stirred in my chest.
A whisper. A warning. A claim.
My jaw clenched as the words left my lips, certain and unforgiving.
“Mine.”
- Writer
