The rain came without warning.
A cold, endless drizzle that fell from the gray morning sky, soaking the ruins where Selena Draven lived her half-life. The ancient chapel — once holy, now hollow — stood at the edge of the forest like a forgotten ghost. Vines clung to its cracked walls, and shattered glass littered the floor like pieces of broken stars.
Selena moved quietly through the silence, wrapping a cloak around her shoulders. The wound at her side throbbed beneath the fabric, pulsing with a rhythm that wasn't hers. She could feel it again — that strange heartbeat echoing faintly in her veins, answering to the call of another.
She sank down beside the cold hearth, her eyes catching the faint reflection of herself in a pool of rainwater. Pale skin. Red eyes dulled by exhaustion. A face that didn't belong to either world.
"Monster," she whispered to her reflection. "They're right."
But even as she said it, she didn't believe it. She wasn't a monster — just a mistake born of love that shouldn't have been.
Her thoughts drifted to her mother — a vampire noble who had vanished before Selena was born — and the human father who had died protecting her. Their story had been erased from the records of both kingdoms. Only whispers remained… of a child cursed by moonlight and blood.
Now, it seemed the curse was awakening.
A sharp crack broke her thoughts — a branch snapping outside the chapel. Selena's eyes flashed red instantly. She rose, her movements fluid and silent, every sense alert. The air shifted. She smelled wet fur, iron, and something else… him.
The scent of Luca Varyn.
She crept to the broken doorway, her breath shallow, scanning the trees. The forest was still, but her pulse quickened. The wound on her side burned brighter, and in her mind, she felt a flicker — not of her own thought, but his, pain,regret.
A flash of silver eyes in darkness.
Selena stumbled back, clutching her chest. "No," she whispered. "That's not possible."
The bond between them — it was growing. Stronger than instinct, stronger than blood. Something sacred, ancient, forbidden.
That night, when the rain stopped, she ventured deeper into the forest. She needed to hunt. Needed to silence the hunger clawing inside her. But when she found a wounded deer near the stream, she froze. The scent of its blood made her ache, yet something held her back — the echo of another's heartbeat again.
Luca's.
Every time she tried to feed, the rhythm pulsed in her ears, steady, defiant. She pressed her hands to her head. "Get out of my mind!" she hissed, her voice cracking through the night.
Somewhere far from her, in the werewolf fortress, Luca jolted awake from restless sleep. His heart raced, his breath short. He didn't know why — only that he had heard her voice, like a whisper on the wind.
"Selena…"
He rose from his bed and stared out at the forest from his balcony. The moon hung low, veiled behind thin clouds. A strange pull tugged at him — a longing, a warning, and a promise all at once.
Back in the ruins, Selena knelt by the stream, her reflection distorted by ripples. "This can't be real," she murmured. "A vampire and a wolf — bound by blood?"
Then, for the first time, she felt not fear, but curiosity.
"Maybe," she said softly, "the fates made a mistake."
Yet even as she spoke, the air seemed to answer her — a low, distant howl carrying through the trees. It wasn't just any howl. It was his.
And against her will, Selena's lips curved into a small, broken smile.
The hunt had ended — but their story had just begun.