Aelyra accepted her new identity.
Not because she wanted to, but because there was no other choice left to her.
Tears blurred her vision as she ran, spilling down her cheeks and vanishing into the night air. Each breath burned like fire in her chest, and every heartbeat echoed with a quiet, aching grief for the life she never asked to inherit.
She was Aelyra.
She was Tereza now.
She was both, and neither.
Behind her, the forest thundered.
I need to find a safe place. Anywhere will be fine as long as I can escape this calamity. I need to hurry! Or I will be dead if they catch me.
Hungry, unclaimed wolves tore through the darkness like living storms. Their eyes gleamed with feral light. Their snarls vibrated through the ground, and their scents tangled together, desperation, hunger, rivalry, and a fevered longing sharpened by the Moon Goddess herself.
They were not running together.
They were racing against each other.
Bodies slammed into tree trunks. Claws slashed bark. Howls turned to snarls as they fought mid-chase, colliding and snapping at one another just to be the first to reach her. The mating hunt had stripped them of restraint. All that remained was instinct. And she was the prize.
Tereza did not see the territory markers when she crossed them.
Old stone pillars, etched with glowing runes, stood half-buried beneath moss and vines, wards carved by ancient packs, spells bound to blood oaths and forgotten kings. The air shimmered as she passed, bending invisibly around her like water around a falling leaf.
The barrier closed behind her.
Silently.
Seamlessly.
As if the forest itself had drawn a breath and sealed its lips.
She felt nothing, no warmth, no resistance, and no warning. All her attention was focused on survival. On putting distance between herself and the monsters chasing her. On not letting her legs collapse beneath her weight.
The sound of pursuit began to fade.
But she did not notice.
She ran until her lungs screamed, the world tilted, and her feet dragged through the undergrowth like they no longer belonged to her. Branches whipped her arms. Thorns tore at her cloak. The moonlight fractured between towering trees, and shadows grew thick and unfamiliar.
Then, her foot caught.
She stumbled over a knot of thick, gnarled roots hidden beneath fallen leaves. Her body pitched forward, and she struck the forest floor hard. The air burst from her lungs in a sharp cry, and pain flared up her leg like lightning.
She lay there for a moment, stunned.
The forest was silent.
No snarls.
No pounding steps.
No howls tearing through the night.
Only the faint rustle of leaves and the distant hum of unseen insects.
Her heart hammered violently in her chest as she slowly lifted her head.
"Am… am I safe?"
Her voice came out as a whisper, fragile and disbelieving.
She tried to push herself up, but the moment she put weight on her foot, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through her ankle. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed back onto the earth, biting her lip to keep from crying out.
It was sprained badly.
Panic curled in her stomach.
"I can't… I can't stay here," she murmured.
With trembling hands, she dragged herself forward, crawling through the damp leaves, her palms stinging from scrapes, her breath coming in broken gasps. She searched blindly for a clearing, for light, for anything that might give her a sense of where she was.
"Where… where am I?" she whispered.
The forest felt different here.
Heavier and magical.
The air pressed against her skin like a living presence. It hummed faintly, vibrating with power so old it felt woven into the roots of the land itself. The shadows were deeper. The moonlight dimmer. Every sound seemed swallowed before it could travel far.
And then she felt it...
That unmistakable sensation.
She was not alone.
Her instincts screamed for her to run.
The hairs on her arms rose, and a chill slithered down her spine. The silence was not peaceful. It was guarded and watchful, as though she had crawled straight into the heart of a predator's territory.
Not prey hunted in open forest.
Prey that had stepped into a den.
Her breath hitched.
"I… I'm sorry," she whispered, though she did not know to whom.
The leaves behind her rustled.
Before she could turn.
Something grabbed her.
She was lifted effortlessly off the ground, her body rising into the air as though gravity itself had been dismissed. The world blurred. Trees streaked past her vision in a rush of shadow and moonlight.
She screamed.
Her heart slammed violently against her ribs as she struggled in the stranger's grip. His arms felt like iron, unyielding. She kicked, clawed, and twisted, but it was like fighting stone.
"Let me go!" she cried, panic surging through her veins.
There was no answer.
Only the wind roaring in her ears as he moved, fast. Faster than any wolf she had ever seen. And faster than a bullet shot.
Desperation took over.
She bared her canines and lunged, sinking her teeth into his arm with everything she had left.
Warm blood filled her mouth.
But the intruder did not flinch.
He did not slow.
He did not even grunt.
Instead, heat surged through her body.
A sudden, unfamiliar warmth spread from her chest to her fingertips, flooding her senses in a dizzying wave. Her pulse stuttered. Her breath came out shaky. The taste of his blood sent a strange, electric shiver down her spine, making her head feel light.
"What… what is happening to me?" she whispered.
Her grip weakened.
Her thoughts blurred.
The forest rushed by in streaks of moonlight as she lay helpless in his arms, her heart pounding not only with fear, but with something dangerously unfamiliar.
"Where… where are you taking me?" she breathed.
But the stranger only tightened his hold.
And the night carried her deeper into a realm that did not belong to her, into territory where ancient power slept beneath the roots, and where fate had already begun to rewrite her future.