Elarose frowned. "My blood doesn't sing. Blood doesn't sing."
Laughter echoed from the woods, but it didn't sound musical anymore. It sounded hungry. "Oh, but yours does. It's been singing for twenty-two years, waiting for this moment. Waiting for you to be ready."
"Ready for what?"
The figure began moving again, circling her like a wolf stalking its prey. "Ready to become what you were always meant to be. Ready to claim your birthright."
Elarose's heart began to race. Something was wrong here. Very wrong. The moon that had felt so welcoming before now seemed cold and distant. The warmth in her chest turned to ice.
"I want to go back inside," she said, taking another step toward the orphanage.
"No." The word cracked like a whip. "You can't go back. Not after you've answered the call. Not after you've tasted freedom."
The figure stepped into the moonlight, and Elarose saw its face for the first time. It looked human, but something was terribly off about it. The eyes were too bright, the smile too wide, the teeth too sharp.
"What are you?" she whispered.
"I'm the one who's going to show you the truth about yourself." The figure raised one hand, and Elarose saw long claws where fingernails should be. "I'm the one who's going to set you free."
Terror flooded through her body. She turned and ran toward the orphanage, but her feet felt heavy, like she was running through thick mud. Behind her, she could hear laughter and the sound of something large crashing through the woods.
The orphanage door seemed impossibly far away. No matter how fast she ran, it never got any closer. Her lungs burned, and her legs felt like they might give out at any moment.
"You can't escape your destiny, Elarose!" the voice called from behind her. "You can't escape what you are!"
She glanced over her shoulder and saw the figure chasing her, but it wasn't running like a human anymore. It moved on all fours, faster than anything should be able to move, its eyes glowing like twin stars in the darkness.
Elarose's foot caught on a root, and she tumbled to the ground hard. Pain shot through her knee and elbow, but she forced herself to keep moving. She crawled toward a cluster of trees, hoping to hide until morning.
"There's nowhere to run," the creature said, its voice coming from all around her now. "Nowhere to hide. The moon sees everything tonight."
She pressed herself against the trunk of an old oak tree, trying to make herself invisible. Her whole body shook with fear, and tears streamed down her face. This couldn't be happening. Things like this didn't happen to girls from orphanages. This had to be a nightmare.
"Found you."
The creature appeared in front of her so suddenly that she didn't have time to scream. Up close, she could see that it had once been human, but something had twisted it into something else. Its face was a mixture of man and beast, with fur sprouting from its cheeks and neck.
"Please," she whispered. "I don't know what you want from me."
"I want you to stop pretending to be something you're not." The creature crouched down in front of her, bringing its face close to hers. "I want you to embrace the monster inside you."
"I'm not a monster."
"Aren't you?" The creature tilted its head. "Then why does the moon call to you? Why do locks open at your touch? Why does your blood sing songs that only we can hear?"
Elarose didn't have an answer. She didn't understand any of what was happening to her.
The creature reached out with one clawed hand and touched the scar on her wrist. The moment its skin made contact with hers, pain exploded through her entire body. It felt like fire racing through her veins, like her bones were trying to break themselves and reform into new shapes.
"Yes," the creature whispered. "I can feel it now. The power sleeping in your blood. The legacy your mother tried so hard to hide."
"My mother?" Elarose gasped through the pain. "What do you know about my mother?"
"I know she was like us. I know she ran from what she was, tried to live like a human. And I know she failed." The creature's grip on her wrist tightened. "Just like you will fail."
The pain grew worse, spreading from her wrist up her arm and into her chest. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of her from the inside. She screamed, but no sound came out.
"Let her go."
The new voice cut through her agony like a blade. The creature's head snapped up, its glowing eyes searching the darkness.
"Show yourself," it snarled.
"As you wish."
A figure stepped out from behind another tree, and Elarose's breath caught in her throat. This was a man—definitely human—but unlike any man she had ever seen. He was tall and broad, with long black hair that fell over his forehead and eyes like molten silver. Even in the moonlight, she could see the sharp lines of his face and the way he moved with deadly grace.
"Draven," the creature hissed, releasing Elarose's wrist. "I should have known you'd come."
The man—Draven—stepped closer, and Elarose could see that his clothes were dark and expensive-looking. But what caught her attention were his eyes. They seemed to glow with their own inner light, and when he looked at her, she felt that strange warmth return to her chest.
"You're trespassing, Marcus," Draven said, his voice low and dangerous. "This territory belongs to my pack."
"Your pack?" The creature—Marcus—laughed. "You mean the same pack that's been cursed for a thousand years? The same pack that grows weaker with every passing moon?"
Draven's jaw tightened. "Leave. Now. Before I do something we'll both regret."
"I'm not going anywhere. Not when the prize is so close." Marcus turned back to Elarose, his claws extending. "She's the key, isn't she? The one who can break your precious curse."
"She's under my protection."
"Your protection?" Marcus circled around Elarose, keeping his eyes on Draven. "She doesn't even know what she is. How can you protect someone who doesn't understand the danger she's in?"
Draven took another step forward, and Elarose could see something changing in his face. His features were becoming sharper, more animal-like. "Last warning, Marcus."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" Marcus grinned, showing far too many teeth. "We both know you can't. The curse won't let you."
Something passed between the two men that Elarose didn't understand. Some kind of history or shared knowledge that made the air around them crackle with tension.
"Maybe I can't kill you," Draven said softly. "But I can make you wish I had."
He moved faster than should have been possible, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. His hand closed around Marcus's throat, lifting the creature off the ground with impossible strength.
"You forget," Draven said, his voice now carrying an inhuman growl. "I may be cursed, but I'm still an Alpha."
Marcus clawed at Draven's arm, but the man didn't even flinch. Instead, he threw Marcus backward into a tree so hard that the trunk cracked from the impact.
"Stay away from her," Draven snarled. "Stay away from my pack. And stay out of my territory."
Marcus struggled to his feet, blood running from a cut on his forehead. "This isn't over, Draven. The girl belongs to forces older than your pack. Older than your curse."
"Get out of my sight."
Marcus looked at Elarose one more time, his eyes filled with something that might have been pity. "When you're ready to learn the truth about what you are, child, you know where to find me."
He melted back into the shadows as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving only the sound of his laughter echoing through the trees.
Elarose sat on the ground, her whole body shaking with shock and fear. Nothing that had just happened made any sense. Creatures with claws and glowing eyes, men who moved like predators, talk of curses and packs and destinies—it all felt like something from a nightmare.
"Are you hurt?"
She looked up to find Draven kneeling beside her, his face human again but his eyes still that impossible silver color. Up close, she could see a long scar running across his chest, visible through his partially unbuttoned shirt.
"I don't understand," she whispered. "What was that thing? What did it want with me?"
Draven studied her face for a long moment. "How much do you know about your parents, Elarose?"
The fact that he knew her name should have surprised her, but after everything else that had happened tonight, it barely registered. "Nothing. The nuns said my mother left me at the orphanage when I was a baby. They never told me anything else."
"Your mother was trying to protect you."
"From what?"
Draven stood up and offered her his hand. "From the world you were born into. From the world that's been calling to you your entire life."
Elarose stared at his outstretched hand. Something told her that if she took it, everything would change. There would be no going back to her small, miserable life at the orphanage. No returning to the safety of not knowing what she was or where she came from.
But then she thought about Sister Margaret's cruel words, about the years of abuse and loneliness, about the feeling that she had never belonged anywhere. Maybe change wasn't such a terrible thing.
She reached out and took his hand.
The moment their skin touched, that warmth in her chest exploded into something much stronger. It was like touching a live wire, like being struck by lightning. Images flashed through her mind—running through forests under the full moon, voices raised in howls that echoed across valleys, eyes that glowed with inner fire.
"What's happening to me?" she gasped.
Draven helped her to her feet, but he didn't let go of her hand. "You're remembering what you've always been, Elarose. What your mother tried to hide from you."
"I don't understand."
"You will." He began leading her deeper into the woods, away from the orphanage. "But first, you need to see who you really are."
The moon continued to shine, brighter than ever. And as they walked, Elarose felt something stirring in her blood—something wild and powerful and utterly inhuman.
Behind them, the orphanage grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared entirely behind the trees. Whatever happened next, she knew she could never go back to that life. The girl who had cowered in cellars and accepted punishment for crimes she didn't commit was gone forever.
Something new was taking her place. Something that made the moonlight sing in her veins and her heart race with possibilities she had never dared to imagine.