Watching from the Shadows Part 1

Kieran -

I felt her approach before I saw her—a disturbance in the forest's rhythm that made my wolf pace restlessly beneath my skin. From the high balcony of the east tower, I had an unobstructed view of the path that wound through the ancient oaks, and I'd been standing here since dawn, waiting with the patience of a predator who knew his prey was coming.

The waiting had been torture.

Twenty-seven years of isolation, and now every minute felt like an hour, every hour like a day. My hands gripped the stone balustrade hard enough to leave marks, claws threatening to emerge as control slipped by degrees. The wolf wanted to shift, wanted to race down that path and claim what was rightfully ours. The man fought to maintain distance, to preserve whatever remained of civilized behavior.

Both were losing to something deeper—an recognition that went beyond rational thought, beyond the curse that bound me, beyond even the prophecy that had consumed my dreams for weeks.

She's coming.

The knowledge thrummed through my veins like electricity, making my entire body hum with anticipation. I could feel her drawing closer with each passing moment, pulled along the path by lights that danced to my will and carried by a horse that knew these woods better than any human ever could.

Mine, whispered the wolf. Finally, finally mine.

"You're going to wear a groove in that stone if you keep gripping it like that."

Lucas's voice cut through my reverie, though I didn't turn from my vigil. He'd been trying to talk me out of this for days—warning me about the dangers of forcing prophecy, about the impossibility of building love on a foundation of coercion, about the dozen ways this could end in disaster for everyone involved.

He wasn't wrong. But he wasn't right either.

"She's almost here," I said, my voice rougher than I'd intended. The wolf was too close to the surface, making human speech difficult.

"I can feel her," Lucas said quietly, moving to stand beside me at the balustrade. "The entire pack can feel her. She's... disrupting things."

Disrupting. Such a mild word for the way her approach was affecting every supernatural creature within fifty miles. The horses in the stables had been restless all morning. The ravens that nested in the tower had taken flight hours ago, cawing warnings I couldn't interpret. Even the roses in the garden below seemed to lean toward the forest path, as if they could sense what was coming.

"She's disrupting me," I admitted, flexing my hands to keep the claws from emerging. "I haven't felt this... unsettled since the early days of the curse."

"Unsettled." Lucas's tone carried dry amusement. "Is that what you're calling it?"

What I was calling it was inadequate for the reality. Obsessed would be more accurate. Consumed, perhaps. For weeks now, Catherine Montgomery had dominated my thoughts with an intensity that bordered on madness. Her scent on that stolen rose had been enough to drive me to distraction. Her name spoken in her father's desperate voice had echoed through my dreams like a summoning spell.

And now she was here, so close I could feel her presence like heat against my skin.

"There," Lucas said, pointing toward a bend in the path. "I can see them."

Them. The white mare I'd sent to meet her, and the small figure mounted on her back. Even at this distance, even through the dappled light of the forest canopy, I could make out details that made my wolf surge forward with possessive hunger.

Dark hair that caught what light filtered through the leaves. A straight spine that spoke of determination rather than defeat. Hands that held the reins with competent grace, suggesting she was more than just a pampered city girl despite her upbringing.

Beautiful, the wolf sighed. Perfect.

But it was more than beauty that held my attention. There was something in the way she sat the horse, something in the tilt of her head as she gazed around at the impossible forest, that suggested she wasn't entirely surprised by what she was seeing. As if some part of her had been expecting this—expecting magic, expecting wonder, expecting to find herself in a place that existed outside normal reality.

She belongs here, I realized with a certainty that went deeper than hope. She's not just arriving—she's coming home.

"Kieran." Lucas's voice carried a note of warning. "Your eyes."

I could feel them changing, pupils dilating as the wolf pressed closer to the surface. My vision sharpened, allowing me to see details that should have been impossible at this distance. The way her lips parted slightly as she took in the sight of the castle rising before her. The way her hands tightened on the reins—not with fear, but with something that looked almost like anticipation.

The way she turned her head, slowly and deliberately, until she was looking directly at the tower where I stood watching.

She senses me.

The thought hit like lightning, electric and impossible and absolutely true. Across hundreds of yards of space, through stone walls and gathering dusk, she knew I was there. Her gaze didn't waver, didn't search—it fixed on my position with the unerring accuracy of someone following an invisible thread.

For a moment that stretched like eternity, we stared at each other across the distance. I couldn't see her eyes clearly, but I could feel them on me like a physical touch. Assessing. Weighing. Deciding.