Kira's POV
I woke up on cold concrete with a massive headache.
For a second, I couldn't remember where I was or what had happened. Then it all came rushing back. The wolf. The hunters. Those glowing gold eyes.
I sat up fast too fast. My head spun and I had to put my hand on the ground to steady myself.
"Easy," a deep voice said. "You hit your head pretty hard."
I looked up and gasped.
The wolf was gone. The man was back. He was sitting against the wall a few feet away from me, watching me with those same gold eyes. Now that I could see him properly, I realized how big he was. His arms were covered in tattoos, and even sitting down, he looked dangerous.
"You're... you're a..." I couldn't even say the word.
"Werewolf," he finished for me. "Yeah."
My brain felt like it was going to explode. Werewolves weren't real. They were just stories. Fairy tales. Things that didn't exist in the real world.
"This isn't happening," I said. "I'm dreaming. Or maybe I'm dead."
"You're not dead," the man said. "Though you almost were. Those hunters would have killed you if I hadn't grabbed you."
"You grabbed me?" I looked around. We weren't in the alley anymore. We were inside some kind of old building. Broken windows let in moonlight, and I could see graffiti on the walls.
"I had to get you out of there," he said. "They were going to shoot."
"Shoot me? Why would they shoot me?"
"Because you helped me," he said simply. "Because you broke the silver chains. That makes you dangerous to them."
I laughed, but it came out kind of crazy-sounding. "Dangerous? I'm not dangerous. I'm nobody. I wash dishes for a living."
"You're not nobody," the man said. His voice was firm. "You just broke silver with your bare hands. Do you know how impossible that is?"
I looked down at my hands. They looked normal. Ordinary. A little red and chapped from all the dishwater, but normal.
"I don't understand any of this," I said. My voice was shaking. "Who are you? What do those hunters want? And why did those chains break when I touched them?"
The man was quiet for a long moment. Then he leaned forward, and the moonlight hit his face. I could see the pain there. The exhaustion.
"My name is Dane," he said. "I'm the Alpha of the Oakhaven Pack. Those hunters are called the Coalition, and they want to kill every werewolf in the world. As for why the chains broke..." He paused. "I think you already know the answer to that."
"No," I said quickly. "No, I don't."
"You felt it, didn't you?" Dane asked. "When you touched the silver. The warmth. The power."
I wanted to lie. I wanted to tell him he was crazy. But I couldn't.
"Yes," I whispered. "I felt it."
Dane nodded slowly. "That power isn't normal. Humans can't touch silver when it's binding a wolf. It burns them just like it burns us. But you didn't burn. You broke it."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you're not fully human," Dane said.
The words hit me like a punch to the stomach.
"That's impossible," I said. "I am human. I've always been human."
"Have you?" Dane asked. "Have you ever felt different? Like you didn't quite fit in? Like there was something inside you that you couldn't explain?"
I opened my mouth to say no. But the word wouldn't come out.
Because he was right.
I had always felt different. Like I was missing something. Like there was a hole inside me that nothing could fill.
I thought it was because I was an orphan. Because I had no family. But what if it was something else?
"No," I said again, but my voice was weak. "You're wrong. You have to be wrong."
"I wish I was," Dane said softly. "But I can smell it on you. Magic. Old magic. The kind that hasn't been seen in this city for over a hundred years."
"Magic isn't real," I said desperately.
Dane raised one eyebrow. "I just turned into a wolf in front of you, and you're saying magic isn't real?"
I didn't have an answer for that.
"Look," Dane said. "I know this is a lot to take in. Trust me, I get it. But right now, we don't have time for a breakdown. Those hunters are looking for us. They won't stop until they find us."
"Us?" I squeaked. "Why are they looking for me? I didn't do anything!"
"You broke their chains," Dane said. "You freed me. That's enough."
"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked. Panic was rising in my chest. "Go home and pretend this never happened?"
"You can't go home," Dane said. His voice was gentle but firm. "If you go home, they'll find you. And they won't just kill you. They'll study you. Figure out how you broke the silver. Then they'll use that knowledge to kill more of my kind."
"Your kind," I repeated numbly. "Werewolves."
"Yes."
I put my head in my hands. This was too much. Way too much. A few hours ago, my biggest problem was being tired and lonely. Now I was sitting in an abandoned building with a werewolf who was telling me I had magic in my blood.
"I want to go home," I said. My voice sounded small, like a little kid's.
"I know," Dane said. And he actually sounded sorry. "But you can't. Not yet."
"Then where am I supposed to go?"
Dane was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "With me."
I looked up at him. "What?"
"Come with me," he said. "To my pack. To the Den. You'll be safe there."
"Safe with a bunch of werewolves?" I laughed, but it sounded hysterical. "That's the opposite of safe!"
"The Coalition won't stop hunting you," Dane said. "They're humans, but they're organized. They're dangerous. And they have weapons that can kill anything wolf or human or whatever you are. The only place you'll be safe is with us."
"I'm not a werewolf," I said stubbornly.
"No," Dane agreed. "You're something else. Something rarer. And that's exactly why they want you."
A sound echoed through the building. Footsteps. Heavy boots on stairs.
Dane's head snapped toward the door. His whole body went tense.
"They found us," he whispered.
My heart started racing. "How? How did they find us so fast?"
Dane stood up in one smooth motion. He moved toward the broken window and looked out.
"They're surrounding the building," he said. His voice was calm, but I could hear the anger underneath. "Six men. Maybe more."
"What do we do?" I asked.
Dane turned to look at me. His gold eyes were glowing in the dark.
"Can you run?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Then run."
He moved to the window. For a second, I thought he was going to jump. We were three stories up. No one could survive that fall.
But then his body started to change again. Bones cracking. Fur sprouting.
The wolf appeared where Dane had been standing.
And it was massive. Even bigger than before. Its fur was dark as midnight, and its eyes burned like liquid gold.
The wolf looked at me. Then it did something that made my breath catch.
It lowered its head. Not like it was attacking. Like it was... offering.
"You want me to ride you?" I whispered.
The wolf made a sound that might have been a yes.
I heard shouting from below. The hunters were inside the building.
I didn't have a choice.
I ran to the wolf and grabbed onto its thick fur. It was softer than I expected. Warm.
The wolf tensed its muscles.
And then it jumped.
We flew through the air. The ground rushed up to meet us. I squeezed my eyes shut and held on as tight as I could.
We hit the pavement hard. The impact should have broken every bone in my body. But somehow, I was fine.
The wolf took off running. Faster than I'd ever moved in my life.
Behind us, I heard gunshots.
Silver bullets whistled past my head.
The wolf dodged left, then right, then left again. We ran through alleys and over fences. The city blurred around us.
Finally, the wolf slowed down. We were in a part of town I'd never seen before. Old warehouses and empty factories.
The wolf stopped in front of a huge building that looked like it had been abandoned for years. But when I looked closer, I saw lights in the windows. And people moving inside.
The wolf shifted back into Dane. I fell off his back and landed on my butt.
"Welcome to the Den," Dane said.
The door to the building opened.
And at least twenty pairs of glowing eyes stared out at me.