The Beta's Warning

Chapter Six – The First Hunt

The whisper clung to her mind like smoke. Run.

Vee told herself it was nothing, only her imagination running wild, a trick of exhaustion and fear. She tried to convince herself that stress was pulling her apart, that she was simply hearing echoes where there was silence. Yet when she woke that night, the window in her bedroom gaped wide as if something had forced it open. Cold air spilled into the room, and the chill was so sharp it felt intentional. Not natural. Not random. A warning. A promise.

Her arm burned as though fire had taken root beneath her skin. The silver light pulsing in faint waves made her stomach twist. It was brighter than before, more insistent, more alive.

“No,” she whispered to herself, clutching her arm as if her grip could hold the light in place. “Not again. Please, not again.”

The walls of her room felt too close. The air is too heavy. She needed space, needed air, needed something other than the suffocating pressure pressing in on her chest.

She pulled on her hoodie, shoved her feet into her sneakers, and crept down the staircase with deliberate care. The old wood betrayed her with every groan, but she pressed forward. The Carters slept soundly in their rooms, untouched by the strange energy that rattled through her veins. Even Ethan’s door stayed closed. She paused in front of it, her hand hovering near the frame. Should she knock? Should she tell him everything?

But what would she say? Hi, I think I’m being stalked by wolves, my arm is glowing, and I can’t stop hearing voices in my head.

He would think she was losing her mind. Maybe she was. The thought hurt worse than the burn in her skin.

No. She couldn’t drag Ethan into this. Not yet. She was alone in this fight.

The woods opened before her, a black mouth ready to swallow her whole. She stepped into it anyway.

Each stride felt heavier than the last, as though the earth itself wanted to drag her deeper into the dark. The trees closed in, their branches knitting together into a jagged ceiling. The shadows clung to her like damp cloth. The air grew thick with the smell of fur, sharp and musky, unmistakable.

She froze, breath clouding white in the cold night air.

Branches snapped ahead of her. Then again, behind her. The sound wasn’t random. Something tracked her.

Her stomach sank until it felt like stone.

A growl rippled through the darkness, low and heavy, brimming with hunger.

Yellow eyes opened in the shadows, one pair after another, glowing like lanterns. One. Two. Three. They blinked in unison, never leaving her.

Her pulse thundered so loud it drowned out the forest. “Not again,” she whispered, but her voice was too thin to hold back the night.

The wolves stepped closer, massive shapes emerging from the black. They were too large, too monstrous to be natural. Their fangs glistened with saliva that caught the moonlight in streaks of white. Each pawstep was deliberate, crunching leaves like a warning drum.

She staggered backward, but the wolves mirrored her perfectly, tightening their circle.

Then the nearest one lunged.

Vee screamed and threw herself to the side. The wolf’s claws ripped through her hoodie, tearing the fabric but sparing her skin. She scrambled upright, mud clinging to her hands, her chest rising and falling in ragged bursts.

“Help!” The word ripped from her throat. “Somebody please!”

Another wolf leapt, and she stumbled backward, her arms flailing in blind desperation. She hit the ground hard.

And then the night exploded.

Not with fire, but with light. Eyes blazed gold across the clearing, fierce and unyielding.

Rio.

He was half-shifted again, caught between man and beast. His chest heaved, his muscles straining beneath skin that seemed too tight, too raw. His eyes glared like molten metal, and his snarl split the night like a blade. He collided with the lunging wolf, throwing it so hard against a tree that the trunk shook.

Vee gasped, torn between horror and relief.

Two more wolves turned on her.

“No!” Her cry was ragged.

But a hand gripped her wrist and yanked her backward. Ted stood in front of her now, his posture steady, his eyes sharp with something beyond ordinary courage. “Stay down, Vee!” he barked. His stance was protective, his fists clenched and ready.

The clearing erupted into chaos. Wolves lunged at Rio with snapping jaws and tearing claws, but he moved like a storm. His claws sliced the air, his body blurring as if he carried speed from another world. Ted fought with uncanny strength for someone who was supposed to be normal. His fists struck with precision, each blow landing harder than seemed possible.

Still, one wolf slipped past, its gaze locked on Vee. It lunged, a blur of teeth and muscle.

Vee screamed and threw her arms up in instinct.

Her wounds blazed silver. The light erupted so fiercely that it blinded the beast mid-air. The wolf shrieked, recoiling as if it had been burned. It rolled across the dirt, whimpering, eyes wide with something that looked like fear.

Vee’s breath caught. She stared at her glowing arm, trembling violently. “What… what is happening to me?”

The fight slowed. The wolves growled but did not press forward. They circled the edges of the clearing, eyes wary now.

Then one of them spoke, and its voice was a hiss that chilled her bones.

“She is marked. Untouchable.”

With that, they melted into the night, shadows scattering until only the sound of Vee’s frantic heartbeat filled the clearing.

Rio staggered forward, his chest rising and falling in harsh bursts. Blood streaked his shoulder, his golden eyes dimming with exhaustion and something darker. His gaze landed on her arm, on the light fading beneath her skin, and his jaw tightened.

“You should not have come here,” he said, his voice rough as stone.

Her voice broke when she answered. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”

Ted stepped forward then, his presence gentler. He touched her elbow lightly and pressed something small into her hand. A charm. Cold against her palm, etched with markings she didn’t understand.

“Keep this,” he said quietly. “It will protect you. For now.”

Her eyes darted between them, desperation clawing at her throat. “Why are you both… what do you know about me?”

Neither offered her an answer. Silence stretched, heavier than the fight had been.

Her gaze dropped to the ground, to the place where one of the wolves had fallen. A dagger gleamed there, forgotten in the chaos. Silver. Real. Solid. She bent down and lifted it. The weight steadied her, anchored her.

Her first weapon. Her first piece of truth.

But no comfort.

Her knees buckled, her body too weak to hold her upright. Rio caught her before she hit the dirt. His hand was hot and rough, firm against her waist. His eyes burned into hers, fire and storm colliding.

“You are not supposed to exist,” he whispered.

The words echoed in her head like a curse.

The world spun, and darkness took her.