Darkness didn't come like a curtain. It came like a wave — sudden and smothering, crashing over my senses until there was nothing left but cold silence. No light. No pain. Just the distant echo of my heartbeat, each thud slower than the last.
I wasn't dead.
But I wasn't the same either.
When I woke, the forest was no longer familiar. Everything looked sharper, like I was seeing through new eyes — eyes that caught every shift of moonlight, every rustle in the leaves. Even the silence felt alive, humming beneath my skin.
I lay there for a long time, curled on my side, my body aching like I'd been set on fire and left to cool. My shoulder throbbed, but the pain wasn't normal. It pulsed — in time with my heartbeat — and something inside the wound tingled, alive and restless.
And then I remembered.
The bite.
Him.
I sat up quickly, too quickly. The world spun, the trees bending like they were breathing. I clutched my head, squeezing my eyes shut.
"You shouldn't move yet."
His voice. Low, rough — and far too calm for someone who had just attacked me.
I turned sharply. He stood a few feet away, watching me with those same molten silver eyes, arms crossed over his chest. The moonlight bathed him in a glow that made him look almost otherworldly — or maybe he was.
"What the hell did you do to me?" I demanded, backing away until I hit the base of a tree.
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took a slow step forward, like approaching a cornered animal. "I didn't mean to bite you."
"That supposed to make me feel better?"
"No," he said softly. "Just honest."
His presence filled the clearing. Not just his size — though he was tall, muscular, built like something carved from shadow and stone — but the energy around him. It wrapped around the trees, the wind, even the moonlight, bending the world around his existence.
I stood, swaying slightly. "Who are you?"
He hesitated. "My name is Kael."
"Kael," I repeated, tasting the word like it might burn. "Why did you bite me?"
His gaze flicked to my shoulder, then back to my face. "Because something in me recognized something in you. I didn't expect it. I wasn't prepared."
"That's not an answer," I snapped. "What did you do to me?"
He walked forward, slow, deliberate. I didn't move this time. I was scared, yes — but also angry. Confused. And beneath all that, something else had begun to stir. Something deeper. Hungrier.
"You've been marked," he said, stopping just in front of me. "It's not just a bite. It's a bond."
My breath caught. "A bond?"
He nodded once. "Between you and me. Between you and… what I am."
"What are you?" I asked, the words barely a whisper.
Kael looked at me then, really looked — like he was weighing something. Trust, maybe. Or time.
"I'm a shifter," he said at last. "An Alpha. My blood… it chose you."
I laughed, but it came out hollow. "That sounds insane."
"Does it?" he asked quietly. "You walked into a cursed forest, on the night of the full moon, and met a man who can move faster than sight and bite like a beast. And you're still trying to explain it with logic?"
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
"You felt it, didn't you?" he continued. "The pull. The way your body changed. The way the forest feels now."
He was right. Everything did feel different. The forest buzzed with life I hadn't noticed before. I could hear things I shouldn't — the flap of an owl's wings above, the soft heartbeat of something small scurrying beneath the underbrush. My own senses pulsed like a drumbeat, loud and unnatural.
"What happens now?" I asked, voice small.
Kael's expression softened. He looked almost sad. "Now… you change. Slowly, at first. But the mark will grow. Your instincts will sharpen. The human part of you will fight it, but it won't win."
"No," I said quickly, stepping back. "I don't want this. I didn't ask for this."
He didn't argue. He just nodded, gaze dropping to the ground. "No one ever does."
Silence stretched between us like a chasm. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling suddenly exposed. Vulnerable. And watched.
"How long do I have?" I asked finally.
Kael looked up again. "Before the change takes hold? A few days. A week, maybe. Depends on how strong your blood is."
"What if I leave? Go home, forget this ever happened?"
"You can try," he said. "But the bond will follow you. The mark isn't just a scar. It's a tether. You'll feel it — in your dreams, in your body. In me."
"In you?"
His jaw tightened. "That's what it means to be marked by an Alpha. You're connected to me now. Whether you like it or not."
I turned away from him, heart pounding. I wanted to scream. To cry. To wake up and find this was just a nightmare.
But the throb in my shoulder was real. The way the shadows curled around
Kael like they knew him — that was real too.
He bit me.
He marked me.
And now… I was his.