His Forbidden Human

Maya had three rules for night walks. Don't go past the old mill. Don't use headphones. And always tell someone where you're going. She'd broken all three tonight. In her defense — and she was fully aware this wasn't actually a defense — she'd needed air. The kind of air you can only get when the town is asleep and it's just you and the dark and the sound of your own footsteps. She'd been doing it since she was sixteen. Nothing had ever happened. Until now, obviously. She was running. She didn't remember deciding to run, which was maybe the scariest part. Her body had just... started. Like it knew something her brain was still catching up to. The trees were too close together. Had they always been this close? She was sure the path was wider than this. She was sure — Something moved to her left. Fast. Low to the ground. Gone before she could look directly at it. Deer, she told herself. Fox. Normal forest animal doing normal forest things at midnight. Then she heard the breathing. Not hers. She hit something and bounced backwards, fully expecting to hit the ground. Instead two hands caught her. She looked up and her first thought — embarrassingly — was that he was tall. Her second thought was that no one had eyes that color naturally. "You need to stop running," he said. "Excuse me?" She was out of breath and a little hysterical and this stranger was giving her instructions? "It's tracking movement. If you stop—" He looked past her. His expression didn't change exactly, but something shifted behind his eyes. "How long have you been out here?" "I don't — what does that have to do with—" "How long." "An hour? Maybe more, I don't know, my phone died—" He swore quietly. Then he did something strange. He stepped around her, putting himself between her and the dark space between the trees, and just stood there. Waiting. Maya stood very still. The forest went quiet. And then, slowly, whatever had been following her — stopped. "What just happened?" she whispered. He didn't answer right away. When he did, he didn't look at her. "You're going to need to come with me." "I'm not going anywhere with a stranger in the woods at—" "My name is Ethan." Still not looking at her. "And I know that doesn't actually make this less weird." Despite everything — the running, the fear, the golden eyes she was already half-convinced she'd imagined — Maya almost laughed. Almost. "Fine," she said. "But I'm keeping my keys between my fingers the whole time." For the first time, he looked at her. Something flickered in his expression. Not quite a smile. "Fair enough." She followed him deeper into the dark, telling herself it was the logical choice. There was something out there. He had made it stop. Logic. That's all this was. She was almost convinced.