(Evelyn's POV )
Darkness.
It clung to Evelyn like a second skin—thick, suffocating, absolute. For a moment she wasn't sure if she was awake or trapped between dreams and pain.
Her eyelids fluttered.
And light stabbed her eyes.
She groaned, flinching at the faint, flickering glow of torches lining rough stone walls. The air was damp, metallic—like rust and old blood. A hidden chamber. Underground.
Her arms ached.
She tried to move them—
Clink.
Cold iron bit into her wrists.
Her heart lurched.
Chains.
Thick ones. Black iron cuffs around each wrist, bolted into stone carved with unfamiliar, jagged symbols. Her fingers tingled where the metal touched her, like it was draining… something.
Her breath quickened. "No, no, no—"
She tried again, pulling harder—and pain shot up her arms like she'd grabbed live electricity.
She gasped and collapsed forward, panting.
She wasn't just chained.
She was bound.
There was a difference.
Footsteps echoed from somewhere in the cavern. Slow. Heavy. Deliberate.
She stiffened, fighting the rising panic in her throat.
Voices drifted in first.
"She should be awake by now."
"It takes longer for bonded humans."
"Not when the bond was rejected."
"Then how is she still alive?"
Evelyn's blood ran cold.
Shadows moved in the corner of her vision—three wolves, half-shifted, watching her like a specimen instead of a person.
The leader from before stepped forward. His eyes glowed amber in the torchlight.
"Well, well," he murmured. "The little miracle wakes."
Evelyn's voice came out rough. "Where am I?"
"A safe place." His grin sharpened. "For us."
He crouched in front of her, tilting her chin up with one claw. She winced at the sting.
"For you? Not so much."
"I didn't do anything," she said, jaw trembling despite her effort to sound steady. "I just— I just walked into the woods—"
"You walked into fate."
His claws trailed down her cheek.
Evelyn jerked away. "Don't touch me!"
His grin widened. "I like when they fight."
Another wolf muttered, "Don't damage her. Our Alpha wants her whole."
The leader sighed dramatically and stood, pacing around her like a predator circling wounded prey.
"You know," he said softly, "there's a rumor about humans who form mate-bonds."
Evelyn flinched at the word. It still hurt. Even hearing it made her heart twist.
"They're rare. Impossible, some say."
He leaned close to her ear.
"But there's an even rarer rumor."
Her breath hitched.
"That when the Alpha rejects such a bond… the human doesn't die."
Evelyn's stomach dropped.
"That instead… something inside them wakes."
"Nothing is waking inside me," she whispered. "I'm just—human."
He laughed sharply. "Not anymore."
She shook her head, pulling desperately at the chains. The metal seared her skin, and she cried out. Her breath came in short, terrified gasps.
The wolves watched with sick fascination.
"She doesn't even know," one whispered.
"Know what?" she demanded, voice cracking. "Tell me!"
But the leader only smiled.
"You'll find out soon."
He nodded at one of the wolves behind her.
"Cut her."
Evelyn's heart stopped.
The wolf approached, claws extended—not fully shifted, but long enough to slice through skin. She pressed herself back against the stone, shaking her head.
"No—don't—please—"
The claw slashed across her arm.
Fire exploded through her nerves. Evelyn screamed, long and raw, as blood spilled down her skin.
The wolves watched.
Nothing happened.
No healing. No power. Just pain.
The lead wolf clicked his tongue. "Hmm. Maybe we need more."
"STOP!" Evelyn cried, tears streaming down her face. "Please—"
The second slash came faster. Deeper.
Her vision blurred. She bit back another scream, blood dripping onto the cold stone.
Still… nothing happened.
The wolves looked irritated now.
"Maybe the rumors were wrong."
"Or she's just weak."
"Pathetic."
Weak.
Pathetic.
Human.
Evelyn's hands curled into fists. Fury trembled through her bones. A heat built in her chest—not like the bond, not like pain.
Something older. Angrier. Alive.
The leader stepped closer again, grabbing her jaw. "Maybe Blackthorn rejected you because he saw how useless you—"
The heat surged suddenly—like a pulse of fire exploding inside her.
Evelyn gasped as shadows in the corners of the room shifted—moved—as though drawn toward her heartbeat.
Her vision flickered black for a half-second. A sound hummed in her ears—low, vibrating, ancient.
The wolf holding her froze.
"What—what is that?"
Another whispered, "Do you feel that? The temperature—"
The torches dimmed, darkness swallowing the light.
The air turned icy.
Evelyn's pulse thundered. Something inside her opened, stretching, awakening, like dark wings unfolding from her soul.
Her breath came out in a whisper she didn't recognize as her own.
"Don't touch me."
Shadows surged.
They snapped like living things — reaching, swarming, wrapping around the wolf's wrist.
He screamed.
Actual terror flashed in his glowing eyes as he tried to pull away—but the darkness held him. Smoke-like tendrils crawled up his arm, burning and freezing all at once.
"What IS she?!" one wolf shouted.
"She's human!" another snapped. "Humans don't do this!"
The shadows tightened—
The wolf dropped to his knees, whimpering.
Evelyn blinked, dazed, breath shaking. "I—I didn't—"
The leader stumbled back.
"Get her away from the chains. NOW!"
But before they could move, all the torches blew out at once.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Not empty darkness.
Her darkness.
It answered her heartbeat.
It obeyed her pain.
And for the first time since the rejection, Evelyn didn't feel weak.
She felt powerful.
Uncontrolled. Dangerous. Awake.