TRAPPED IN HIS TERRITORY

PROLOGUE

They always said curiosity was dangerous. That sometimes, the things you search for are better left hidden. I never believed that. Not until the day I stepped into Halestone,the town that felt like it had been waiting for me long before I arrived.

At first, everything looked ordinary. Old buildings. Quiet streets. People who smiled too tightly and closed their doors a little too fast. It should’ve been forgettable. Just another place you pass through without leaving a mark. But there was something different about this town. Something wrong.

I didn’t notice it right away. Not until I felt eyes on me,watching, tracking, claiming.

And then I saw him.

He stood across the square, his presence so sharp and still it made the world around him blur. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. But the moment our eyes met, something inside me shifted. My skin prickled. My breath caught. It wasn’t fear exactly. It was something stranger. He looked at me like I wasn’t just a girl who happened to wander in... but a possession he’d been waiting to take back.

I should’ve turned away. Should’ve ignored the chill crawling down my spine. But I didn’t. I looked back. And I swear he smiled,not out of warmth or charm, but out of certainty. Like he knew something I didn’t. Like he already owned the ending of a story I hadn’t even started reading.

That night, I dreamt of wolves and locked doors. Of footsteps that echoed too close behind me. And of his voice, low and quiet, whispering a promise I hadn’t asked to hear.