Elena's POV
The forest smelled of iron and decay. Elena Carter tightened her grip on the hiking pole, her boots sinking into the rain-softened earth as she scanned the underbrush for movement. The storm had rolled in faster than predicted, turning the sky into a roiling tapestry of charcoal and indigo. Lightning split the clouds, illuminating the jagged silhouette of the Appalachian foothills. Her team had left hours ago, heeding the sanctuary's evacuation orders, but Elena had stayed. There was still one injured fox to find a juvenile with a mangled leg, its tracking collar pinging weakly from these woods.
Always one more she thought, swiping rainwater from her eyes. Her colleagues called it recklessness. Her ex-boyfriend had called it a martyr complex. But Elena knew the truth: the world was full of broken things and if she didn't stop to mend them, who would?
A whimper cut through the drumbeat of rain.
She froze, flashlight beam darting between the pines. The sound came again raw, guttural, alive. Abandoning the trail, she pushed through a thicket of blackberry brambles, thorns snagging her sleeves.
There slumped against a lightning-scarred oak lay a wolf.
Not just a wolf.
It was massive, its silver-tipped fur matted with blood and mud. Three parallel gashes split its flank, the wounds blackened at the edges as if burned. Golden eyes locked onto hers, glowing faintly in the storm's gloom. Elena's breath hitched. Wolves hadn't roamed these mountains in over a century.
"Easy" she murmured, crouching slowly. The creature's ribs heaved, its muzzle twitching in a silent snarl. But as she reached for her medkit, its gaze shifted sharp, calculating, human. A chill skittered down her spine.
This isn't possible
Thunder boomed overhead. The wolf shuddered, a low whine escaping its throat. Without thinking Elena shrugged off her rain-soaked jacket and draped it over the beast. "You're coming with me" she whispered, sliding her arms beneath its massive frame. It didn't resist though its weight nearly buckled her knees.
The drive back to her cabin blurred into a nightmare of swerving tires and pounding rain. The wolf lay motionless in the backseat, its breath shallow. By the time Elena hauled it inside, her hands were shaking, her clothes plastered to her skin.
She worked by firelight, cleaning the wounds with practiced hands. The gashes were unlike anything she'd seen not claw marks but something older, as if the skin had been torn by a blade forged in shadow. When her fingers brushed a shard of obsidian lodged in the wolf's shoulder it seared her palm like dry ice. She recoiled, hissing.
The wolf's eyes flew open.
For a heartbeat they stared at each other. Then it lunged.
M
Elena fell back but the wolf didn't attack. It stood over her, trembling, its muzzle inches from her face. Hot breath fogged the air between them, carrying the scent of pine and blood. Slowly it nudged her singed hand with its nose an apology? before collapsing by the hearth.
Dawn crept in gray and quiet. Elena woke stiff-necked in her armchair, the wolf's gaze heavy on her. Its wounds had vanished. Not scarred gone.
"What are you" she whispered.
The wolf rose, its movements fluid, unnervingly graceful. It padded to the door then glanced back, golden eyes piercing.
Follow
Outside the storm had washed the world clean. Sunlight glinted off the shard of obsidian Elena had dropped in the night now pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
Somewhere in the forest a howl rose. Not mournful but furious. A challenge.
The wolf's hackles lifted. It bared its teeth in a silent snarl then vanished into the trees.
Elena stared at the empty tree line, her palm throbbing where the shard had burned her. A mark glowed there now a twisting vine etched in blue light.
She had no way of knowing it matched the one on Kieran Blackthorn's chest.