The forest didn't look evilThat was the worst part.
The trees stood tall and still, silvered by moonlight, their branches draped in a pale mist that made them look almost gentle. Almost welcoming. Almost safe.
But Aurelia Vale knew better.
Every child born near Blackthorn grew up with the same warning whispered into their ears:
Never enter the Shadow Forest, Never!Not for love, not for magic, not for God.
The wolves would find you, or something worse.
Yet here she was.
Her boots sank into the soft moss as she stepped past the last human-marked tree, the air instantly sharpening around her like a held breath.
Aurelia exhaled slowly, steadying her heartbeat.
She could still turn back.
She could still pretend she hadn't seen the symbol.
That glowing mark that had appeared on her wrist three nights ago, the one that pulsed beneath her skin like it had a heartbeat of its own.
She lifted her hand.
The moonlight hit her wrist, and the mark flared faintly.
Moonfire.
A sign that never should've appeared on a human girl.
Aurelia swallowed hard.
"Just breathe…" she murmured to herself. "Just walk. Just… don't die."
A sound drifted through the forest.
Low. Deep. A growl, felt more than heard. It slid down her spine in a shiver, ancient and primal, vibrating through the ground beneath her.
She froze.
Wolves don't grow that deep.
Nothing human does either.
Another growl answered the first… from her left.
Then a third… behind her.
Then a fourth.
Her heart stopped.
One wolf was a nightmare.
Four was a death sentence.
The mist thickened as shadows shifted in the trees. Aurelia tightened her grip on the small dagger she carried. Pathetic weapon. But it was all she had.
Leaves rustled.
Something massive moved between the trunks, dark, powerful, silent as moonlight on water.
A voice, low, cold, and too smooth to be human slid through the fog.
"Human."
Aurelia turned sharply, her breath catching in her throat.
From the darkness, a pair of silver eyes opened.
Unblinking.
Predatory.
Intelligent.
Then another pair.
Amber. Burning.
Then violet glowing faintly like starlight.
And finally, midnight blue.
Four wolves stood in a half-circle around her.
Not ordinary wolves.
Taller than horses, muscles shifting like shadows under fur, eyes too human…
and too hungry.
Aurelia's pulse hammered.
Her dagger trembled in her hand.
One wolf stepped forward silver eyes locked on hers. He was the largest, the quietest, radiating a cold authority that made the air tighten around him.
The Alpha.
The cold prince.
Kael.
She didn't know his name yet, but he knew hers.
He inhaled.
Long. Slow.
Piercing.
His body went rigid.
The other brothers froze too, Draven with his wild amber stare, Lucian with his eerily calm violet gaze, and Rowan with eyes like midnight storms.
Aurelia felt it then, something pulling inside her chest, a tug like a thread made of heat and danger and fate.
Kael stepped closer.
The earth shook.
Aurelia stumbled back, breath shaking.
He lowered his head… breathed in again deeper this time, and a low, thunderous sound left him.
Not a growl.
A claim.
"She has the scent."
His voice wasn't human, not fully.
It vibrated through bone and air and fear.
Draven snarled, stepping beside him.
"Moonfire. Impossible."
Lucian's ears flattened, his body trembling with something that wasn't fear.
"Kael… she's not supposed to exist."
Rowan whispered, almost soft:
"What do we do with her?"
Kael moved before she could blink.
One moment he was ten feet away
the next he towered over her, his muzzle inches from her throat, hot breath ghosting over her skin.
Aurelia gasped, lifting her dagger between them with shaking hands.
"Stay back!"
Kael's silver eyes narrowed.
Then, with one swift motion, he struck the dagger aside with his paw. It clattered uselessly to the moss.
Aurelia froze, chest heaving.
Kael pressed his forehead to her collarbone, a single, dangerous breath and then another
as if he were memorizing her soul.
When he spoke, it was soft… and it shattered her world.
"She's ours."
The forest fell silent.
Aurelia's knees weakened.
Draven stepped in, his amber eyes blazing with a hunger he didn't bother to hide.
Lucian's breath hitched like he'd been struck.
Rowan looked terrified of himself.
And Aurelia, a human girl with a forbidden mark stood in the center of four princes destined by prophecy to destroy anyone they claimed.
Her voice trembled.
"Wh-what do you mean…
ours?"
Kael lifted his head, silver eyes burning straight into her.
"You were never supposed to enter this forest," he murmured.
"Now you will never leave it."