Beneath the Howling Pines

The night before the full moon always carried a hum beneath the air. Like the forest itself was holding its breath.

Elena Blackthorne sat on the old roof above her room, legs tucked beneath her, the wind teasing strands of her hair as the pines whispered below. The moon wasn’t full yet — just shy of complete — but its pull was already threading through her blood, a low thrum that made her fingers twitch and her skin itch.

Nyx, her wolf, stirred restlessly inside her.

Almost time, she whispered from deep within, her voice wild and smooth like smoke.

Elena exhaled and tilted her head back to watch the stars blink awake above the treetops. She’d grown up surrounded by those trees — raised in the heart of Ashfang territory where the pines stood ancient and close and full of secrets. Some days she loved it. Other days, it felt like the forest was swallowing her whole.

Tomorrow she’d turn eighteen.

And tomorrow… she might finally meet her mate.

Her chest tightened at the thought. Every wolf got their first shift at fifteen — a violent, unforgettable transformation that tore through bone and muscle and identity all at once. Elena remembered hers vividly.

It had been the night after a summer storm. She’d run from the packhouse during an argument with her mother and ended up deep in the woods, soaked and barefoot, rage pulsing through her veins. Then came the seizing heat in her spine. The way her skin cracked like fire beneath her. The way she thought she was dying — until she wasn’t.

Until Nyx emerged.

I’m here, her wolf had said, panting through their shared mind. I’ve always been here.

Elena hadn’t known whether to scream or laugh. Instead, she collapsed in the dirt, trembling, naked, and forever changed.

She hadn’t been alone for long. Mara had found her — or rather, Mara’s wolf had. Fierce and silver-eyed, she padded silently beside Elena as if they’d known each other in another life. Mara had stayed with her that night, curled beside her like a silent promise.

They’d been best friends ever since.

Now, three years later, Elena waited for the second transformation that every wolf dreamt of — the moment the Moon Goddess revealed their fated mate.

But what if no one appeared?

What if she felt… nothing?

Or worse, what if she felt something for someone who didn’t feel it back?

We’ll know, Nyx said gently. When it’s time, we’ll know.

A low voice drifted up from the open window below her.

“Elena?” Mara called. “You’re gonna freeze your ass off out there.”

“I’m fine,” she called back without looking. “Just thinking.”

A pause. “About him?”

Elena smiled faintly. “There is no him. Not yet.”

“Still.” Mara sounded hesitant. “Just… don’t get your hopes up too high, okay?”

Too late.

Elena had been dreaming about this since her first shift. Since the moment she realized being a werewolf meant more than teeth and territory. It meant connection. It meant not having to explain the gnawing ache in her chest or the way silence sometimes made her feel hollow. It meant having someone who knew.

Someone who could look at her and say, I see you.

Not just the surface. But all of her — the scars, the wildness, the loneliness buried beneath the sharp edges she showed the world.

She wanted that more than anything.

To be chosen.

To be known.

To be loved.

She sighed and pressed her hand to her chest, feeling the steady beat beneath her ribs.

“Tomorrow,” she whispered.

But something in the trees below stirred — not with wind, but with warning.

The forest, which had once felt like a cradle, now felt like it was watching.