Her heartbeat is slowing.
That's the first thing I notice.
Not from fear anymore… but calm. Cautious, yes. Wary. But calm.
She doesn't scream. She doesn't run.
She just sits beside me—touching me. Treating my wounds again, like I'm something worth saving.
Like I'm not a monster.
I should be ashamed.
I should have run days ago.
But I stayed.
Because the moment I smelled her scent in this forest—the same scent I remembered from twelve years ago and every time i went to windhollow to check on her. The lavender scent that is keeping me somehow sane—I couldn't turn away.
Not again.
Not her.
My name is Kael.
Prince of the High blood born of Valecrest Pack.
Once heir to a throne soaked in moonlight and war.
Now? Nothing. A shadow crawling through cursed woods. A beast walking on broken legs.
And it all began the night I lost control.
Twelve years ago, under a full blood moon, my body was forced into its first Shift. A rite of passage for my kind. I wasn't ready. I begged the Elders to wait, to delay it. But they wouldn't.
They bound me with silver cuffs and whispered ancient words over my flesh.
And when the moon rose, I became something else.
Fury. Claws. Blood. Teeth.
I lost myself.
I ripped through the trees like a storm, blind with rage, until I crossed a road near the mountain ridge.
A wagon.
A family.
A little girl in the back seat.
I remember her eyes—wide, glowing with innocence and fear.
I remember her scream when I leapt and crashed into the wagon.
Then….. i ran away. Hiding behind a tree watching as her parents died and she was crying trying to wake them up not to die. My father look straight to where i was hiding, he can see me due to the fact that we were werewolves. He checked on the couple to see if they are still alive, but they ain't. He pick up their daughter then asked his gamma to follow him, they to take her to the human hospital cause she has fainted. He told his beta and delta to find me and bring me back to the pack. Blood on his cloak. Shame in his silence.
Two humans were dead.
One child survived and lived.
That girl… is the girl beside me now.
Sophie.
I don't know how the gods play their games.
Why she ended up here.
Why her path led her into this cursed forest—my prison.
The Elders sealed me here long ago, tied to the land I defiled, forbidden to leave the Jungle Forest until I learn "control"—until I atone. But how does one atone for ruining a life?
I tried to forget her face.
But now, she's grown. Her eyes still bright. Her spirit still fierce.
And the moment I saw her, I knew…
The moon has tethered me to her.
This isn't coincidence. This is fate.
She speaks to me like I'm a man. Tends my wounds with hands that once bled because of me. Tells me about her dying grandmother. Her mission. Her desperation.
And I listen.
I understand.
Because I, too, know what it's like to be helpless.
To be a monster trapped in your own skin.
To crave redemption so desperately, you'd chase it through fire.
She doesn't know what I am yet.
She doesn't know what I've done.
But when she looked at me today—after I tore those rogues apart—she didn't look at me like a beast.
She looked at me like someone worth believing in.
Maybe… that's why the curse trembles in her presence.
Maybe she is the key to breaking it.
I don't know.
All I know is this:
I will follow her.
I will protect her.
And if the moon dares to curse her too—
I will burn the sky to keep her safe.
My eyes begin to close, my body finally surrendering to sleep beside her. I can feel the warmth of her foot through the fabric of her boot. It grounds me.
I haven't felt this close to peace in years.
And as sleep claims me, I hear her whisper again… soft and afraid:
"Whatever you are… please don't leave again."
I won't.
Not this time.
Not ever.