Alina ran down the winding wooden rails that cut through the dense forest behind her home. The cool breeze brushed against her skin, and her heart pounded not from fear, but from freedom. It was twilight, her favorite time to run, that magical hour when the world shimmered between light and shadow.
But tonight, the darkness fell too fast. Alina slowed her steps, a feeling of fear enveloped her. She spun around, trying to find her way back then she heard it. A soft, deliberate crunch like someone stepping on dry leaves behind her.
Her body froze. Every instinct screamed for her to run, but she couldn't move.
When she finally turned, she was left in awe
Standing there, calm and unmoving was the man from her nightmares.
He looked exactly as he did in her dreams tall, hauntingly beautiful. His silver white hair glowed faintly under the moonlight, and his eyes those eerie, glowing eyes pierced through the dark.
Alina's lips parted, she was stunned by his beauty. He looks even more handsome in reality... she thought out loud before snapping herself back to her senses.
She shook her head quickly, then stepped back. "Who the hell are you?"
He didn't answer right away. He just stared at her like he was reading her soul.
Finally, his voice, deep and low, broke the silence.
"You shouldn't be here."
Alina narrowed her eyes and stepped closer. "You're not human, are you? You've been haunting my dreams almost every night. So what are you?"
The man stepped back, his jaw tightening. "You don't understand. I need to get you out of here."
He moved to reach for her, but she slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me," she snapped. "Why won't you answer me? Why are you acting like I'm the one intruding, when you're the one stalking my dreams?"
He looked at her then, not with anger, but with a strange, aching sadness. Before he could respond, another voice echoed through the trees.
"Alina! Alina!" It was her mother, Marie her voice sounded so worriedly, coming closer with every shout.
"Mom! I'm over here!" Alina turned and waved.
Marie appeared moments later, holding up a flickering lamp that cast sharp shadows over her face. She looked shaken and furious.
"I told you to stop going near the woods at night!" Marie scolded. "Why won't you listen?"
"I was just about to leave, but this man..." Alina turned to gesture behind her.
But he was gone.
She blinked, stepping around in a circle.
"What... No! He was just here!"
"What man?" Marie asked, her voice suddenly trembling.
"The one from my dreams, the man I told you about! I swear he was just standing there!"
Marie's face went pale. She grabbed Alina's wrist and pulled her with surprising strength.
"We're leaving. Now."
"Ouch, Mom! You're hurting me!"
"How many times must I tell you, Alina?" Marie's voice cracked.
"Do you want to drive me crazy? I've warned you again and again stay away from the woods!"
Alina yanked her arm free. "Why are you always so controlling? I'm eighteen, Mom! I don't have friends, I'm not allowed to go out, and you refuse to tell me who my father is. Why are you doing this to me? What are you so afraid of?"
She turned and stormed off, her boots pounding the pavement, leaving Marie trembling behind her.
Marie wiped off the tears streaming down her face, but the tears kept coming. The words stung because they were true. She tried to protect her daughter but maybe she'd just been imprisoning her.
As she walked slowly down the quiet street, the past came flooding back...
-----
19 Years Earlier — Los Angeles
Marie had met Alina's father deep in the same woods that now haunted her daughter. He had appeared like a ghost in the trees, wild but beautiful. His name was Jade.
They fell in love too fast. Within six months, she was pregnant.
But there were things about Jade that didn't sit right. He never talked about his family. Never allowed her near certain parts of the woods. She was in love but afraid.
One night, while rubbing her pregnant belly, she sat beside him and finally asked, "Jade, when do I get to meet your family?"
He turned sharply to her. But she pushed on.
"I'm having your child. She'll need to know where she came from. I don't even know my own family. We both know am an orphan, I don't want her to grow up with the same emptiness."
She gave him that soft, pleading smile, the one he could never resist.
"If I tell you," he said after a pause, "you'll leave me."
"Don't say that. I'm not going anywhere," she whispered, reaching for his hand.
"Everyone has a past, Jade. Whatever it is, I can handle it."
But then he stood up, pacing the room.
"This isn't about a past. It's who I am."
Marie stood too, frightened now. "What are you talking about?"
He turned to her slowly.
"I'm not human."
She stared blankly at him. "Don't joke like that. You're scaring me."
"I'm serious." His voice was raw now. "I'm a wolf, Marie. Not a monster, But I was born into a pack, hunted by my own kind. They wanted me dead. I escaped the night I met you."
Marie was silent, the world tilting.
Suddenly, things made sense. his sharp senses, His sudden disappearances at night had always bothered her, but she told herself it was just work. Just a job.
But that night, Marie couldn't pretend anymore.
"So tell me the truth, Jade," she said, her voice trembling. "Every night, you sneak out of this house. Are you really working security or are you hiding something?"
Jade didn't answer immediately. He looked away, his jaw tight, shoulders stiff with tension. Then finally, he sighed.
"There was never a security job," he confessed. "I only said that to make you feel safe."
Marie blinked. "Then where do you go every night?"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"Sometimes... I have to change. I don't always stay like this. I shift back to what I truly am."
She frowned, confused. "What do you mean shift? Jade, what are you saying?"
"I'm not just a man, Marie. I never was. I'm a wolf. A being caught between two worlds. I was cursed or should i say born this way, I don't even know anymore."
Marie's hand flew to her swollen belly. She let out a soft laugh one that cracked with fear. "Please tell me you're joking. You're scaring your pregnant wife, Jade. This isn't funny."
"I wish I were joking," he said, his eyes filled with regret. "That's why I wanted you to terminate the pregnancy."
Her face fell. "What does our baby have to do with this?"
"She's my blood. She carries what I carry. The pack can sense bloodlines they'll know. And once they know, they'll come for her, For you. That's why I tried to stop this. I knew she'd never be safe."
Tears burned in Marie's eyes as she backed away. "You knew this and you still let me carry her? How can you protect us when you're always running?"
"If I don't run, we'll all be hunted," Jade snapped. "You don't understand the kind of monsters that exist beyond this town. I've seen them. I've fought them."
"And I'm supposed to stay here and raise a child in fear while you disappear into the woods every night like a ghost?"
"I made a promise to protect you both"
"But how?!" she cried. "How can I ever explain this to our child? That her father turns into a wolf under the moon? That her blood might get her killed?"
She laughed bitterly, shaking her head.
"This is insane."
Marie moved toward the door.
"If staying with you means endangering our daughter, then I can't do it. I won't."
"No Marie, please, Don't leave me. This is exactly what I feared."
She gripped the doorknob, her heart racing.
"Goodbye, Jade."
But then she heard it, a sound so raw, so animalistic, it froze her blood.
A deep growl. She turned slowly and gasped.
Jade was no longer human.
His body contorted with pain as it shifted. His muscles ripped and reformed beneath his skin. His eyes glowed silver, and claws burst from his fingertips. His jaw extended into a snout, A monstrous growl rumbled from deep within his chest.
"Don't you dare walk out that door," he snarled. "You're mine. Mine and mine alone."
The force of his voice sent tremors through the air. Marie stumbled backward, clutching her ears, her eyes wide with terror. She had married a monster. And now that monster stood between her and freedom.
She screamed and the world went black.
---
When she woke hours later, she was in bed, drenched in sweat, Jade was nowhere in sight. But everything had changed. She no longer looked at him the same.
The kind, gentle man she once loved was gone. In his place was something else, something ancient and wild.
she kept having nightmares every night. Fear lingered in every corner of her mind. And when Alina was born, she knew what she had to do.
She ran.
She took her baby and disappeared to a faraway village somewhere hidden and isolated. A place Jade had once told her he feared. It was near the same woods where they had first met, but she believed he would never dare return.
Marie raised Alina alone, doing everything she could to keep her safe. That meant locking her away from the world, keeping her from the woods, hiding the truth...But the past always finds a way back.