Teeth in the Dark
709 Words
Lila locked herself in the bedroom, her hands shaking so badly she fumbled the key twice before it turned. The cottage felt smaller in the dark, the air thick with the sound of snarls outside and the heavy thud of something striking the walls.
A crash split the silence.
Wood splintered.
She gasped and backed away from the door.
Then she heard it—Kael’s voice, not in words but in a deep, guttural growl that didn’t sound human at all.
Another crash. A window shattered somewhere in the house.
Lila clutched the edge of the dresser, heart pounding so hard it hurt. She wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn’t stop listening. Claws scraped across wood. Furniture toppled. The snarling turned into a violent chorus of teeth and rage.
And beneath it all, one sound stood out.
A howl she recognized.
Kael.
Minutes stretched like hours. Then, suddenly, there was silence.
Not the calm kind. The waiting kind.
Lila held her breath.
A slow, heavy step moved across the living room floor. Something dragged. Then stopped.
She stared at the bedroom door, terrified of what might be on the other side.
A soft scratch touched the wood.
Once.
Twice.
“Lila,” came Kael’s voice, rough and low. Human again.
Relief flooded her so fast her knees nearly gave out. She rushed forward and unlocked the door.
The sight made her freeze.
The living room was destroyed. The sofa overturned. Glass everywhere. Deep claw marks gouged into the walls. And in the center of it all stood Kael, naked, streaked with blood that wasn’t all his.
His chest rose and fell heavily. His eyes were still gold.
“They’re gone,” he said.
She stepped out slowly, looking around in shock. “Did you…?”
“Yes.”
Her gaze dropped to the dark stains on the floor. She swallowed hard. “Are they dead?”
He didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
A wave of dizziness hit her. She grabbed the wall to steady herself. “This isn’t real,” she whispered. “This can’t be real.”
Kael moved toward her carefully, like approaching a frightened animal. “I didn’t want you to see this.”
“But I did,” she said, her voice trembling. “I heard it. I heard you.”
His expression twisted with regret. “I tried to keep them away from you.”
“Why me?” she asked, tears burning her eyes. “Why are they after me?”
He hesitated. For the first time, he looked unsure.
“Because you’re not just human to us,” he said quietly.
Her breath caught. “What does that mean?”
Kael looked at her like he had no choice left but to tell the truth.
“It means,” he said, “you carry a scent we haven’t known for generations.”
She stared at him, confused and afraid. “A scent?”
He nodded. “The scent of a mate.”
The word hung in the ruined room between them.
Lila shook her head. “No. No, you don’t get to say something like that after this.”
“I didn’t choose it,” he said. “And neither did you.”
Her mind raced. Mate. Pack. Wolves. None of it fit into the world she understood, yet the evidence surrounded her in splintered wood and broken glass.
A distant howl echoed through the forest.
Kael’s head snapped toward the sound.
“There are more,” he said.
Panic flared in her chest. “More?”
“Yes. And now they know exactly where you are.”
She looked around the destroyed cottage—the only place that had ever felt like home.
“What do we do?” she whispered.
Kael met her eyes, his expression firm.
“We leave. Before the rest of the pack arrives.”
“And go where?”
“Somewhere they can’t track us.”
Lila’s gaze dropped to the blood on the floor, then back to him.
Everything in her life had just been torn apart in a single night.
And somehow, impossibly, the only person who could protect her was the one who had brought the danger to her door.
- Writer
