Chapter One

The forest was alive beneath her paws.

Rain kissed the leaves in silver whispers, running through her fur in cool, shimmering trails as she raced between the trees. Every drop felt electric, every shift of wind a soft hand guiding her forward. The world glowed green and white under the moonlight, each branch and stone illuminated as though the forest itself wanted to be seen—wanted her to see it.

Here, her heartbeat belonged to something larger than her body.

Here, she felt the world answer her.

This was her truth.

Her freedom.

The part of herself she trusted most.

Elora ran, muscles stretching in an effortless rhythm older than memory. The forest opened for her, trees bending like courteous sentinels, roots rising and falling beneath her paws like rippling waves. The scents of moss, rain, and rich soil layered in her lungs, grounding her in everything familiar and safe.

Far off, the river’s voice rose—a bubbling ripple over stone, a laugh carried on wind. That sound always found her in the dream, brushing her soul with a gentleness she didn’t receive waking. Tonight, it wrapped around her like a warm breath, easing the ache in her chest she hadn’t realized she’d brought to sleep.

In the dream, she was always home.

The forests surrounding Ancnix were sacred to her kind. Wolves, panthers, lions—Mahina’s children all found solace beneath its canopy. But in her dream, the woods were more than a sanctuary. They were an extension of her spirit—vast, untamed, and accepting in a way her waking world rarely was.

But she wasn’t alone.

The first sign of him was warmth brushing against her awareness, subtle but certain, the way one sensed sunlight before it touched skin. A presence moved beside her, matching her stride with ease, as intrinsic to the dream as the rain or the moonlight.

She didn’t need to see him to know who he was.

He was light at the edges of her vision, shifting shadows shaped by something brighter. When she tried to look directly at him, the dream bent—softened—shielding him like a secret the world refused to give up.

Yet she knew him.

Not by name.

Not by memory.

But by something deeper, a certainty that lived bone-deep, soul-deep.

He belonged to her.

And she to him.

Together, they ran through moonlit rain, their movements weaving a rhythm only the forest seemed to understand. The stormline approached in the distance, lightning flickering white against towering clouds, but the storm feared her. Feared them. They ran straight toward it, fearless and laughing in spirit though neither made a sound.

Her chest swelled with something warm and painfully alive.

Happiness.

Rare. Fragile. Precious.

Awake, she carried too many shadows to feel this kind of ease. Too many nights filled with silence, too many moments wishing her father’s voice or anger would fade into nothing. Too many mornings pretending bruises were accidents.

But here, she didn’t have to pretend.

Here, she was nothing but motion and instinct, a creature of moonlight and breath.

And he—

He was her calm.

Her warmth.

The reason she felt whole.

She leaned toward him instinctively, brushing her shoulder against the shimmering shape she could never quite see. He returned the touch with a surge of heat that rolled through her fur and settled into her chest.

She wished she could tell him she knew him.

She wished she could ask who he was.

She wished—

The forest changed.

It happened without warning.

The air thickened, heavy with the bitter taste of ash. Rain sputtered, turning sluggish, as if falling through oil. The river’s laughter cut off mid-breath. The trees—once vibrant—grew still, their leaves drooping as though something had stolen their lifeflow.

Elora skidded, claws digging into the mud. Her ears flicked forward, body low and alert. Her wolf instinct howled a warning, sharp and icy.

The shadows shifted.

Darkness began to bleed between the trees—thick, unnatural, swallowing color until everything faded into sickly gray. It moved like smoke but carried weight, pressing against her fur, crawling along her spine until cold seeped into her bones.

She turned toward him—

But he was gone.

One heartbeat he’d been there, warm and steady.

The next—

Nothing.

The absence hit her like a blow. Panic flared, sharp and clawed, ripping through her chest. She searched wildly, nose lifting to catch a scent that should have been familiar as breath. But the dream had already devoured him.

Her world tilted.

A low vibration rolled through the forest—a hum so deep it rattled her ribs. It sounded ancient. Endless. A thing that slept beneath mountains and woke only when the world was about to change.

Her fur bristled.

Fear enveloped her, primal and absolute, a feeling she rarely tasted in waking life. But this dream was not just a dream. It never had been. And something in the dark had been waiting for her.

Waiting for them.

The earth shuddered.

She tried to run—tried to move, breathe, call for him—but her limbs felt heavy, trapped in mud she couldn’t see. The shadows curled upward, tendrils reaching with hungry intent. They didn’t feel like natural dark. They felt like thought—like purpose.

Run.

The whisper slid into her mind like a cold finger tracing her spine.

Not her voice.

Not his.

Something else.

Something old.

She tried to leap—

The world cracked open beneath her paws.

Light shattered into splinters.

Shadows surged upward like a tide, swallowing forest, sky, river—everything.

The ground vanished.

The air ripped itself apart.

Elora fell into darkness.