The dream, the fire, and the pull.

Aria’s POV.

The forest burned around me.

Smoke curled like fingers reaching for my throat, choking the air from my lungs. Flames licked at the tree trunks, angry orange tongues that danced around in the night. And amidst the chaos—five pairs of glowing eyes stared at me from within the shadows. One set… silver. Another, ice-blue. The third, honey-gold. The fourth, deep-set golden. And the last, deepest pale eyes shimmering like death itself.

They watched me. It was almost as if they knew me. I stumbled backward at the intensity in each of the eyes. Then they whispered my name, making me jump back even further.

“Aria…”

Their voices weren’t spoken but felt, like silk across my bare skin, threading between my thighs, teasing my very core. My knees trembled. My breath caught.

“Aria…” the voices came again in their simultaneous bursts.

The whispers turned darker, heavier—need wrapped in danger, like something primal waiting to pounce. Suddenly, one of the owners of the eyes blazing at me suddenly turned into a wolf and stepped forward. His eyes ignited—literally burning, flames replacing pupils. They locked with mine, and I screamed as fire exploded in my chest, scorching from the inside out.

I woke up shrieking.

My body was drenched in sweat, the sheets twisted around my limbs like vines. My heart was pounding furiously inside my rib cage. Hands clutching my chest, I gasped for air, the heat still radiating through my collarbone like a brand.

A dream. It was only a bad dream, I thought to myself, my breaths heaving as I tried to calm my nerves down.

The door to my room burst open.

“Aria!” My foster mother, Ella, stood breathless at the doorway, gray curls frizzed around her temples. Her eyes were still half closed, indicating that my scream had most likely woken her up. “What is it, child? Another nightmare?” She asked, her hand already moving to my forehead to wipe the beads of sweats there away.

I could barely speak. “The forest… It was on fire. And there were wolves. Five of them. They—they whispered my name.” My voice came out a hoarse whisper when I finally managed to explain what was going on.

Ella’s eyes immediately darkened. Not with disbelief, but with fear.

She stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, and reached for my hands. “You must never go near those woods, Aria. Do you understand me? Never. No matter what you hear, no matter what calls to you, stay away.” She warned me.

This was not the first time she would warn me to stay away from the woods. I had no reason to go against her wish as I was terrified of the woods and all the hidden creatures that lurked behind it. If not for anything, then for the wild animals I knew wouldn’t mind me for breakfast if I dared to venture into their hood.

But this was the very first time I would notice the absolute fear in her voice.

What was lurking behind those tall, dense trees?

“I won’t,” I whispered, trying to sound convincing. “I wouldn’t risk it. You know I don’t even like snakes,” I managed to smile to show I was joking. Anything to diffuse the tension in my heart.

Ella gave me a stern look, but something in her gaze lingered. Something she wasn’t saying. But she shrugged after a moment. She stayed with me for about ten minutes more, until she was sure that I was now okay, before she got up and left.

“By the way, happy 21st birthday.” She said in a small voice as she opened the door.

“Thank you,” I replied, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

Once she left, I sat in silence, the remnants of the dream clinging to me like smoke.

I pushed back the covers and walked to the window, wanting to receive some fresh air to calm myself down. My breath caught when I saw the sky.

The moon was half-formed—a crescent glowing like spilled blood. Crimson and unnatural.

“What the hell…” I murmured, opening the window to get a clearer view. It was the coolest and scariest thing I have ever seen in my life.

The air was cool, sharp against my skin, and strangely… electric. It pricked my arms, and raised goosebumps on my flesh. Drawn by something I couldn’t name - maybe it was the strangeness of the moon or the compelling beauty it exudes - I stepped outside barefoot, onto the dirt path that circled our cottage. The world was too quiet, the night too still.

I stood in the middle of the compound, bathed in bloodlight.

That was when it all began.

It all started in my chest, an ache that deepened into my bones. My collarbone began to burn, searing with sudden, blinding heat. I let out a gasp—no, a scream—as my knees buckled and my vision blurred.

The pain was sharp, slicing through my body, like a pull of some sort I couldn’t resist. But behind it was… pleasure. Intense. Twisting. Scary.

I dropped to my knees, arching my back as the burn surged hotter. My breath turned to moans as a strange heat pooled low in my stomach. It was as if something ancient inside me had awakened.

What was going on?

But just as suddenly as it started—it vanished.

The wind blew softly again. The pain was gone. The pull was gone. My collarbone still tingled, but there were no marks as I used my fingers to examine the spot to see if I sustained any injury due to the burn I felt. No sign of what had just happened.

I shivered and slowly stood, my legs wobbly beneath me.

It was the strangest thing I had ever experienced and it frightened me. I suddenly became afraid, knowing that I should be afraid of what just happened out of the blue. I turned toward the house, ready to run back inside and pretend this was all just some strange dream, when—

I heard something. A rustle. A whisper.

I wasn’t alone.

A breath—warm and too close—fanned across the back of my neck.

And then, a voice so deep it made my thighs clench whispered behind my ear.

“Found you.”