3

Emily had never packed for a trip that would last six months.

Her apartment looked like a sporting goods store had exploded.

Hiking boots sat beside business clothes.

Field notebooks were stacked next to hiking socks.

Bear spray.

Rain gear.

Binoculars.

GPS equipment.

Jessica leaned against the kitchen counter, sipping coffee while watching the chaos unfold.

"You know," she laughed, "most people make lists."

Emily held up two completely different hiking jackets.

"I did."

Jess looked around the apartment.

"You clearly ignored it."

Emily threw one of the jackets into her suitcase.

"I've never been this far from home."

"You'll love it."

"I hope so."

Jess smiled.

"You've always wanted to work somewhere untouched."

Emily nodded.

"There's something about forests."

"What?"

"I don't know."

She paused.

"They've always felt..."

"Like home?"

Emily frowned.

"Yeah."

Jess grinned.

"You're weird."

"I know."

---

Three days before her flight, Emily's parents invited her home for dinner.

It wasn't unusual.

Sarah made homemade lasagna whenever something important was happening.

Birthdays.

Graduations.

Breakups.

Job promotions.

Lasagna meant love.

The evening felt almost normal.

Almost.

Michael barely touched his food.

Sarah smiled often, but it never quite reached her eyes.

Emily finally noticed.

"Okay..."

She set down her fork.

"What's going on?"

Her parents exchanged a look.

It was quick.

Silent.

The kind of look shared by people who had spent decades finishing each other's thoughts.

"Nothing," Sarah said too quickly.

Emily raised an eyebrow.

"Mom."

"We're just going to miss you."

Emily laughed.

"It's Montana, not Mars."

Michael forced a smile.

"You'll call?"

"Every week."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Sarah reached across the table and squeezed Emily's hand.

"You've always kept your promises."

The silver crescent moon necklace slipped from beneath Emily's shirt.

Sarah's eyes immediately fixed on it.

She became very still.

"You still wear it."

Emily looked down and smiled.

"Every day."

"It suits you."

"It makes me feel..."

She hesitated.

"What?"

Emily frowned.

"I don't know."

She absentmindedly rubbed the pendant between her fingers.

"Safe."

Sarah quickly looked away before Emily could see the tears forming.

---

Later that night...

After Emily had driven home...

Michael climbed into the attic.

Dust floated through the beam of his flashlight.

He knelt before the old cedar chest.

His hands hesitated.

For twenty-five years he had kept his promise.

Never tell her.

Never let her know.

Never open the journal.

Tonight...

He broke that promise.

Inside lay a worn leather journal wrapped carefully in a faded blue blanket.

He slowly opened it.

The first page contained a photograph.

A baby.

Barely a few weeks old.

Wrapped in white cloth embroidered with silver crescent moons.

Around her tiny neck...

Hung the same necklace Emily wore today.

Michael stared at the picture.

"I wish we'd had more time."

He turned another page.

Every line was written in elegant handwriting.

To whoever protects my daughter...

If you are reading this...then her mother and I have failed.

Michael closed his eyes.

He remembered that night as if it had happened yesterday.

---

Rain.

Thunder.

Someone pounding desperately on the front door.

Sarah opening it.

No one standing there.

Only...

A wicker basket.

Inside...

A sleeping infant.

And the journal.

Nothing else.

Except...

Footprints.

Not human footprints.

Massive wolf tracks leading into the woods before disappearing completely.

No explanation.

No note beyond the journal.

No missing child reports.

No one ever came looking for her.

The Carters had contacted authorities.

Months passed.

Then years.

Eventually...

Emily simply became their daughter.

Not by blood.

By love.

---

Michael carried the journal downstairs.

Sarah looked up from the couch.

"You opened it."

"I had to."

"We promised."

"I know."

He sat beside her.

"I think we should tell her."

Sarah looked toward the empty hallway where family pictures lined the walls.

Emily's first steps.

First Communion.

Middle school graduation.

Prom.

College.

Every milestone.

Every memory.

"She's our daughter."

"I know."

"If we tell her now..."

Sarah's voice broke.

"What if she leaves?"

Michael reached for her hand.

"Then we tell her she has another family."

"I don't want another family."

His heart ached.

"I don't either."

---

Two days later...

Emily boarded Flight 271 to Bozeman, Montana.

She settled into a window seat.

Headphones on.

Book open.

The engines roared to life.

As the plane climbed through the clouds, she watched Boston disappear beneath her.

She smiled.

"See you in six months."

She had no idea that, at that very moment, hundreds of miles away in the mountains surrounding Black Hollow...

Someone else was waiting.

---

High above the valley, on a granite cliff overlooking endless pine forests, stood a man dressed entirely in black.

He looked no older than thirty.

Dark hair brushed his shoulders.

A scar ran from his temple to the corner of his jaw.

His silver eyes never left the winding road leading into town.

Kael.

Behind him stood another man, younger, with sandy blond hair and an easy grin.

"You've been standing here since sunrise."

Kael didn't answer.

The younger man sighed.

"You know she's still two days away."

"I know."

"So why are we freezing up here?"

Kael finally spoke.

"Because I've waited twenty-five years."

His friend fell silent.

After a long moment, he asked quietly, "Do you really think it's her?"

Kael closed his eyes.

"I don't think."

The wind shifted.

It carried the faintest trace of a scent no one else could detect.

Wildflowers after rain.

Fresh pine.

And something ancient.

Something woven into the very magic of the mountains.

Kael inhaled slowly.

Then smiled for the first time in years.

"I know."

His friend looked toward the valley below.

"Does Magnus know?"

Kael's smile disappeared.

"He felt her awaken the same night I did."

"Then he'll come."

"Yes."

"And if he reaches her first?"

Kael's expression hardened.

"He won't."

The blond man studied his Alpha for a long moment.

"You've never even met her."

"No."

"You don't know if she'll want anything to do with us."

Kael gazed toward the distant horizon where the last light of day painted the sky in gold and crimson.

"I don't expect her to."

He rested one hand over the place where an invisible bond seemed to pull at his heart.

"All I want..."

His voice was quiet, almost lost in the wind.

"...is the chance to make sure she survives long enough to choose her own future."

Far below, hidden among the trees, a pair of crimson eyes watched the two wolves from the shadows.

Magnus smiled.

"So," he murmured.

"The game begins."