THE LAST SHIFT: A Werewolf without a Wolf

"Ish! Kaia, it's freezing out here, you'll turn to ice."

I looked down from the rooftop, expecting to see Liam's usual scrawny frame with a cup of cocoa. But the voice wasn't his.

Instead, there was a man standing at the edge of our backyard. Halfway covered by the porch light that had blown. He had broad shoulders and dressed in black. His hood was pulled back to show dark hair with silver streaks. His eyes shine bright as light.

They looked... wrong. But familiar. God, why familiar?

"You're not Liam," I said.

"No." His voice was low and calm. "But you looked like you were about to fall off that roof. I figured I should say something before you did."

I narrowed my eyes. "Do you always sneak into people's yards at midnight?"

He tilted his head. "Only when the moon forgets to rise."

Something about the way he said it made me pause, quiet, almost poetic. I had been out there because of the exact same thought. No moon. Not a sliver only. The sky felt wrong for hours.

I pulled my blanket tighter. "Who are you?"

He stepped closer to the house. Not too near. Enough, however, to make me discern the trenchant line of his jaw, and the manner of his movement. Such as he was in the dark.

"My name's Kieran. I just moved into the old cabin across the woods."

That was a lie. Nobody had lived in that cabin for five years. With it's cracked walls and faded paint, it served as a.home for nocturnals and animal pests. However, deep inside I did not feel that something was screaming danger. Not yet. Instead, there was this strange tension crawling under my skin. The sort that you have before a storm

It wasn't fear.

It was heat.

"Right," I said slowly. "And you came by to say hello at midnight?"

He chuckled. "Not exactly. I heard... something. A cry. Thought someone might be in trouble."

That froze me.

"You heard it too?"

His smile disappeared. "It wasn't human."

My heart raced. I had heard it as well. Minutes ago. A voice too crude, too fragmented, to be natural. Somehow, I had almost forgotten it. Until now.

The bedroom window beside me screeched open.

"Kaia?" Liam's voice broke through the air. Sleepy and anxious. "Are you okay?"

I glanced back. "I'm fine."

He squinted down. "Who's that?"

"A stranger." I paused. "Sort of."

Kieran raised a brow. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You shouldn't."

Liam frowned. "Kaia, come inside. Now."

But something had shifted in the air. I wasn't ready to go back in. Not yet. Not when my skin was crawling with the sense that something huge was about to unfold.

I climbed down from the roof using an old vine support. It wobbled under my feet, but I landed steady.

Kieran watched me closely. Not in a creepy way. But like he was scanning for something under my skin. As if he could see it. The tightness in my chest, the thing that had always been there, trying to claw its way out.

"You don't feel it?" he asked. "What?" "The pull."

I stared at him. The silence stretched.

And then… A scream.

Wild and guttural. From deep within the forest. The same sound I had heard earlier, only now louder. Closer.

Both of us turned.

"You should go inside," Kieran said, stepping slightly in front of me.

"I'm not going anywhere."

He looked at me. Gazed at me really. As though he was attempting to put a memory, which was escaping him.

"I know what you are," he said.

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Not exactly. But I know what you're not. You're not broken. You're not wolfless."

I felt the breath leave my lungs. Nobody had used that word. Not aloud. But they all thought it. The others. The pack. The world. My skin began to crawl.

"How do you know things about me?"

His face softened. Just slightly. "Because I've spent my whole life hunting things like you."

"That's... reassuring."

"I didn't mean it that way." He added quickly, "I don't hunt to kill. I was part of the system that built you."

I shook my head. "No. You're talking nonsense."

"I'm not."

I turned to run. My legs didn't get far. Another cry shattered the stillness. This is nearer than ever before.

It made my bones hum.

Kieran reached for my wrist. Not to hinder me, but to keep me straight.

"Don't run towards it," he said. "Not tonight."

His hand was warm. Steady. And in contact there was something that shocked me. It was as though my skin had suddenly recalled something that it had lost its whole life.

I pulled away. But my legs were already moving. Away from the house. Toward the woods.

Kieran cursed under his breath and followed.

Branches tore at my arms, roots clawed at my shoes, but something stronger drove me forward. I didn't question it. My feet knew where to go.

He caught up to me at Miller's Creek. The water was as black as glass. Still and silent.

I stopped. My chest was heaving. The air was thick and charged.

"There," I whispered.

The shimmer in the air was faint at first. Such as heat over pavement. Then it began to glow. Between two ancient oaks, the ripple widened. A shape stepped through.

Not one. Two.

Tall. Ragged. Blood and mud stained. And those eyes… Silver. Unnatural. Wolf eyes.

I froze.

"That's not possible," I whispered. "There's no moon tonight."

The figure smiled. Too many teeth. Too sharp.

"Hello, little wolf," it said. Voice smooth as silk over broken glass. "I've been waiting for you."

Kieran stepped in front of me, blocking my view. His stance changed. Protective and ready.

And I felt it then. The tuggings in my blood. The one thing which I had never experienced.

Not fear, but belonging.

And something more that was coming out, slowly, in the pause between the heartbeats. Attraction.