Chapter 3: The Boy in the Forest

He was the wolf.

Aria didn’t know how she knew it—only that she did. The boy who stood in front of her now was the same one who had watched her from the woods in the form of a grey wolf. The same silver eyes. The same eerie calm.

She stumbled back, her breath catching.

“You,” she whispered. “What are you?”

The boy didn’t move closer. “You already know. Don’t you?”

She didn’t answer. Her body was too busy trying to understand what it had just done , what it was still doing. Her skin still burned. Her legs felt barely human. She wasn’t even sure if she’d fully returned to her normal form.

“I saw you,” she said shakily. “Outside the school.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I was trying not to be seen.”

“Well, you failed,” she snapped.

That seemed to amuse him, but he didn’t smile. “I didn’t expect you to shift so soon.”

“I didn’t shift. I had a breakdown.”

“Same thing,” he said simply.

Aria stared at him, heart hammering. He looked her age maybe a little older. Tall. Strong. But not in a school-sports kind of way. More like... something ancient wrapped in a teenage disguise. His presence felt too big for his body, like he didn’t fully belong in this world.

She hugged her arms around herself. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I will,” he said. “But not here.”

He turned and began walking deeper into the trees.

Aria hesitated. “I’m not going with you.”

“You already did,” he called over his shoulder.

And that was the truth. Her feet were already moving.

The woods grew darker as they walked, but Aria’s eyes adjusted faster than normal. She noticed things she shouldn’t have: the way the trees leaned slightly toward them, how the wind seemed to pause when they passed. The forest felt alive in a way it never had before.

They came to a clearing surrounded by tall pines. The moonlight spilled into the center like a spotlight.

“This place is protected,” he said, glancing around. “No one will hear us here.”

“Protected?” she echoed. “Like... with magic?”

He didn’t confirm, but didn’t deny it either.

He looked at her for a long moment, as if searching her face for something. Then finally, he said, “My name is Kael.”

Aria said nothing.

“I knew you once,” he continued. “In another life.”

Her stomach turned. “What?”

“Your name was Ariya,” he said. “You were the Alpha of the Shadow Fang pack. You led us... until the night you died.”

She took a step back. “Okay. This is crazy. I’m not this ‘Ariya.’ I’m Aria Moon. I’m a senior. I have a normal life.”

“You had a normal life,” Kael said. “Until the blood moon returned. Until your body started to remember.”

Her legs shook.

He kept going. “You’re not human, Aria. Not completely. You’re Moonborn. A bloodline thought to be extinct. That crescent on your wrist? It’s not a birthmark. It’s a mark of inheritance.”

She looked down at the pale moon-shaped mark. It throbbed faintly, like it heard him.

“I’m not some fantasy creature,” she said, trying to laugh but failing. “I can’t be.”

“Do you remember your dream?” Kael asked. “Running. Fighting. Dying. You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”

She didn’t answer.

Because yes she had seen it.

“It wasn’t a dream,” he said. “It was a memory. A fragment of your past life.”

Aria backed up until her leg hit a root. “So, what you’re saying I was a wolf in another life and now I’m just... back?”

“yes and You were killed,” Kael said, his voice lowering. “By someone close to you. Your death triggered a curse. You were reborn without memory. But now that the blood moon is rising again, your power is waking up and so are your enemies.”

The words hit her like a slap. “Enemies?”

He nodded. “There are those who would kill you again before you remember everything. Before you become what you were always meant to be.”

Aria’s breath shook. “And what exactly is that?”

Kael looked at her with something like awe and maybe fear.

“You’re an Alpha,” he said softly. “And you were never supposed to come back.”