Evelyn Moore – First Day Back
The fog always came heavier in September.
It clung to the trees like secrets and rolled across the football field like breath from something waiting in the woods. I watched it from my locker, the school hallway behind me already filling with the familiar noise of post-summer exhaustion and gossip.
And then he walked in.
Tall, broad-shouldered, hood pulled halfway over dark, messy hair. He looked like someone who didn't want to be noticed, which is probably why everyone noticed him.
"New boy," whispered Talia beside me. "Straight out of a gothic romance. Look at that jawline. Brooding confirmed."
I smiled, pretending not to stare, but something in me twisted when his eyes flicked toward mine. Just a second. A spark of gold—like sun on amber. Then gone.
Mr. Lewis, our homeroom teacher, introduced him as Lucian Blackthorn. He was from "up north," wherever that meant, and apparently had transferred late.
He didn't say much. Just nodded and sat in the farthest seat from everyone else.
But here's the thing: the seat he chose had been empty since last year. No one ever sat there. Not after what happened in the woods.
They said it was a bear. But no one really believed that.
And now someone was sitting in that exact chair.
Lucian didn't speak to anyone the entire day. But I noticed things. The way he flinched when someone touched his shoulder. The way he seemed to always know where people were walking, as if hearing every heartbeat. The way he tensed when someone dropped a metal water bottle — like it physically hurt him.
After last period, I passed him near the bike racks. He wasn't riding a bike, just standing, staring at the tree line beyond the school fence.
He turned his head slowly when I walked by. "You shouldn't go near the woods," he said.
I stopped. "Excuse me?"
He didn't look at me. "Just… don't."
I tried to laugh it off. "You planning to bite me or something?"
That got his attention. His jaw tightened. He turned to me fully, and this time, his eyes were definitely golden. Not brown. Not hazel. Gold.
And they were glowing.
Only for a second.
Then he looked away again. "Some things bite back."
I walked home faster that day, every rustle behind me making my skin prickle.
Lucian Blackthorn – The Moon Pulls Harder Here
I told myself I'd stay invisible.
New town. New school. Same monster.
But the second I stepped inside that building, I smelled her. Wildflowers. Summer rain. Something I hadn't let myself feel in years — interest. Curiosity. Hunger.
Evelyn Moore.
She watched me like she knew I wasn't normal — not fully. I could hear her heartbeat skip when I passed her. Not fear. Something else. And that scared me more than anything.
I'd come to this town because it was remote, quiet. Far from the full moon massacre I'd barely survived last spring. I wasn't supposed to talk to anyone. I wasn't supposed to care.
But I saw her watching me in class. The way her fingers nervously tugged at the strap of her bag. The way her pencil tapped every time she was thinking too hard. The way her scent carried across the room like a dare.
The chair I took had dust on it. No one had sat there in months. Good. Less scent. Less distraction.
Then she passed me by the bike racks, and I felt it again — the moon's pull. Stronger this time.
I warned her.
I never should've spoken to her, but I saw her glance at the forest. And the forest… it's not safe. Not when the moon is rising.
Her joke about biting me almost made me smile.
Almost.
But when I looked at her — when our eyes met — I forgot to control it.
Just for a moment, the wolf looked through me. And she saw it.
She saw it.
I smelled her fear when she left.
But I also smelled something else.
Curiosity.
And that's the most dangerous scent of all.