Chapter 1: Run

The forest was too quiet.

Kiera ran anyway.

Her bare feet hit the damp soil in uneven, desperate strides, sending up soft sprays of earth. Her lungs burned. Her legs shook. Branches snapped beneath her weight—or maybe under someone else’s. The shadows behind her stretched too long, as if reaching for her. As if they had hands.

Her breath came in silent gasps. She hadn’t made a sound in years, not since the day they stole her voice. But her mind screamed.

Go. Go. GO.

Tall pines blurred around her. The twilight sky had turned the island into a dim watercolour of blue and ash. Every time she dared glance back, she expected to see white masks. Needles. Chains. Cold metal.

Her heart pounded so hard she felt it in her teeth.

She shouldn’t have left her shelter. She shouldn’t have tried to gather water at dusk—she knew better. Night belonged to memories on this island. Night belonged to the wrong things.

Her foot caught a root. She stumbled, caught herself, and kept running.

They're here. I know they’re here. I feel them.

No answer came from the trees. Only the quiet. The awful, heavy quiet.

Then—

A twig snapped to her right.

Kiera froze.

Her breath stopped. Her pulse roared in her ears like surf. She crouched low, fingers splayed against moss as she scanned the trees.

Nothing.

No lights.

No footsteps.

No mask glinting in the dark.

But something was there. She could feel it—a presence heavy enough to press air from her lungs. A predator’s weight. Like the forest itself was holding its breath, waiting.

Kiera’s stomach tightened.

Not them… something else.

The underbrush rustled behind her.

She didn’t think—she bolted. Again. Branches whipped at her arms, stinging her skin. A branch snagged her sleeve and tore it clean off. Pain flared, but she ignored it.

The forest floor sloped downward, pulling her faster. Her legs didn’t keep up.

She pitched forward.

The world spun—sky, trees, dirt—

She hit the ground hard.

For a moment, she couldn’t move. Her vision blurred. Her ears rang. The world dimmed to the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Then she felt it.

Warm breath on the back of her neck.

Her mind screamed so loudly it felt like it echoed across the entire island.

“DON’T TOUCH ME.”

The forest answered with silence.

Slowly—slowly—she rolled onto her back.

And froze.

A massive shape towered over her, blocking out the twilight. Not human. Not even close. Thick, dark fur. Shoulders the size of boulders. A head shaped like an animal, but intelligent—too intelligent.

A bear.

A bear that was much too big. Much too still. Much too focused on her.

Its eyes glowed faintly gold, reflecting the last scraps of daylight. Not wild in the way she remembered from glimpses of nature documentaries. Wild in a different way—aware, calculating.

It studied her.

Kiera couldn’t breathe.

She pressed backward on her elbows, dirt digging under her nails. The bear did not advance. But its gaze followed her, unblinking.

Then a second presence flickered at the edge of her senses.

Not sound.

Not movement.

Not breath.

A mind.

Hers was a storm—fear, panic, static—and it collided with something calm, deep, grounded. Like a mountain, silence pressed against the roar in her head.

Then—

A voice.

A male voice. Deep, steady, not spoken aloud.

“You’re hurt.”

Kiera choked on a silent gasp.

Her head whipped left and right, searching for the source, but the forest held no one. No man. Just the bear.

The voice came again.

“I won’t harm you.”

She shook her head violently, scrambling backward.

“No. No. No.”

This couldn’t be real.

Voices didn’t come from nowhere. Voices belonged to them. The white masks. The dark rooms. The needles.

Her breath fractured.

Images flashed behind her eyes—strapped tables, glowing lights, her own reflection with wires on her skull.

The bear lowered itself, massive frame dropping to a crouch. It tilted its head, like it was trying to look smaller. Gentler. Less like a creature that could crush her with a single paw.

The voice softened.

“Breathe. You're safe.”

“Safe.”

The word made her stomach turn.

Her thoughts lashed out before she could stop them:

“Stay away from me!”

The bear jerked slightly.

The voice went silent.

Kiera scrambled to her feet and staggered backward. Her limbs trembled, threatening to collapse under her. She made it three steps before her legs buckled.

The world spun again.

Her hands hit the ground, and everything blurred—trees, sky, the huge shadow that moved toward her.

Her heartbeat roared in her ears like thunder.

Then—

Large, heavy footsteps approached from behind the bear.

Another figure emerged from the darkness between the trees.

Not furred. Not an animal. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Human-shaped in the worst way—human figures meant danger, needles, pain—

But this one—

His eyes glowed the same gold as the bear’s.

He stepped into the open, stopping only a few paces away. His presence hit her like a tidal wave—strong, commanding, steady.

Alpha.

She didn’t know how she knew the word.

She just knew.

He looked at her with an expression that should have been impossible on a man built like he was—soft, cautious… concerned.

Then his voice filled her mind.

“You should not be alone out here.”

Kiera’s scream tore through her mind so violently that birds exploded from the treetops.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

The Alpha winced—but didn’t back away.

He didn’t flinch from her fear.

He didn’t turn from her panic.

Instead, he took one step closer—

And the ground shook beneath them.

Not from her panic.

Not from the bears.

From something else.

Something was moving through the trees behind her.

Something hunting.

The Alpha’s eyes snapped upward, sharp and alert. The bear beside him growled, low and rumbling.

The Alpha’s voice hit her mind like an order wrapped in velvet.

“Behind you. Run—now.”

Kiera turned—

And saw a pair of glowing white lights between the trees.

Not an animal.

Not a bear.

Headlamps.

Hunters.

Her blood froze.

She stumbled backward, her knees giving out.

The Alpha lunged toward her—

But not fast enough.

Not fast enough at all.

A tranquilizer dart hissed through the air—

straight toward her throat.