Chapter 2: The Forest Knows
The morning after Aria's encounter with the wolf felt like waking from a fever dream.
She woke tangled in her sheets, the scent of pine still clinging to her skin, her heart beating like a war drum. It wasn't just a dream—no, the memory of molten golden eyes and the way the earth seemed to breathe beneath her feet was too vivid, too electric to dismiss.
She stood at her window, staring out at the forest's edge. The mist clung low like it was hiding something. Watching. Waiting.
Her grandmother's warning echoed in her ears.
*"Stay away from the forest. It remembers things you don't."*
But what was she supposed to remember?
At school, Aria barely heard a thing the teachers said. She kept replaying the moment—the wolf, the way it looked at her, the sensation that it wasn't just an animal. It had *known* her. Understood her. Like it was something more.
And deep down, something wild in her wanted to go back.
That night, the dreams returned.
But this time, they weren't just dreams. They felt like memories pulled from a life she'd never lived.
She stood beneath a blood-red moon, her hands stained, a voice whispering her name like a curse and a prayer. "Aria..." Always that name. Always that voice.
She woke up gasping, clutching her sheets.
She couldn't stay away.
She found herself walking, no—*drawn*—back into the forest, like invisible strings were pulling her forward. The trees whispered, their branches curling overhead like fingers.
And then she saw him.
Not the wolf.
A man.
Towering. Barefoot. Shirtless. Hair like midnight and eyes like fire. Standing in a clearing like he *belonged* to the wild.
Aria froze.
Caius Blackthorn.
The name came to her like instinct. She didn't know how. She just... did.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, voice rough like gravel and smoke.
"Neither should you," she whispered, her voice trembling.
He tilted his head, stepping closer. "You came back."
She swallowed. "I had to know... Was it you? Last night?"
Caius's eyes glinted. "You saw the wolf."
"You were the wolf." Her voice cracked. "That's not possible."
"Isn't it?" he asked, now only inches from her. His heat reached her like fire. "You felt it. Just like I did."
The silence between them crackled, electric.
Then he whispered, "You're not what you think you are, Aria. You're more."
Before she could speak, a howl tore through the trees. Low. Warning. Angry.
Caius stiffened.
"They've found us," he growled. "You need to go."
"Who?" she asked, panicked.
"Others like me," he said, voice tight. "But not like me. You're not safe here. Not yet."
Before she could argue, he stepped forward, grabbed her hand—and it burned. Not in pain, but like fire meeting fire. Recognition. Soul to soul.
"You're awakening," he murmured. "And they'll kill you before you find out why."
Then everything blurred.
He pulled her close. The world spun.
And the forest swallowed them whole.