Chapter 1

_Emma's POV_

The rain was falling so hard that I could barely see the road in front of me.

The windshield wipers moved back and forth but it did little to help. The dark highway looked empty and almost forgotten. The trees on both sides moved with the wind. Their branches were shaking like they were warning me to turn back.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as the rain continued to pour heavily against my windshield. The road ahead was almost impossible to see. The darkness around me made the empty highway feel even more unsettling.

I hated driving at night, especially during storms like this. There was something about being alone on a dark road with only the sound of rain and thunder around me that always made me uncomfortable. But I had no choice.

My shift at the animal clinic had ended later than expected because a small injured puppy had been brought in just before closing. The poor thing had been shaking in pain and I couldn't bring myself to leave it there alone.

That had always been my problem. I cared too much. My best friend Lily reminded me of that all the time.

"Emma, you know that you can't save every living thing in the world, right?" she would say while shaking her head at me.

But Lily didn't understand. When I looked into the eyes of an injured animal, I didn't just see an animal. I could feel their pain. I saw something helpless that needed someone to care. Maybe that was because, deep down, I understood what it felt like to be alone and need someone to stay.

I sighed softly and focused on the road ahead. I hoped that I would reach home soon. My warm bed sounded like the best thing in the world after a long day. But as I turned the corner, my headlights suddenly caught something unusual on the side of the road.

There was a motorcycle.

My heart skipped a beat. The black bike was lying on its side near the trees, looking completely abandoned. For a second, I thought maybe someone had left it there after the storm. Then I saw the person beside it.

There was a man.

My first thought was that he was dead. My second thought was that I should keep driving. A strange feeling moved through me as I stared at him. Something inside me whispered that I should leave. That I should not get involved. But I couldn't.

I had never been the kind of person who could ignore someone in need. Even when every instinct told me to walk away. With a quiet sigh, I pulled the car over and turned off the engine.

"Just my luck," I whispered to myself.

I grabbed my medical bag from the passenger seat and stepped outside. The rain immediately soaked my clothes.

I slowly walked closer. The man was wearing a black leather jacket that looked expensive. His motorcycle boots were covered in mud and one of his hands was pressed tightly against his side.

That was when I noticed the blood. There was so much of it that my stomach tightened.

"Sir?" I called out, trying to keep my voice calm despite the uneasy feeling growing inside me.

He didn't answer. I took another step closer.

"Can you hear me?"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then his body suddenly moved.

I froze.

Slowly, the man lifted his head and the second our eyes met, I forgot how to breathe. I had never seen anyone like him before. There was something frightening about him, something that made every instinct inside me scream that I should be careful.

But at the same time, I couldn't deny that he was unbelievably attractive. His dark hair was soaked from the rain, falling over his forehead. His face was sharp with a small scar near his eyebrow that only made him look more dangerous. But it was his eyes that caught my attention the most.

They were unlike any eyes I had ever seen before. They weren't the normal shades of brown or hazel that I was used to seeing. They were a deep golden color, bright and intense, like the eyes of a wild animal silently watching its prey. My heart beat faster and I hated that I couldn't look away.

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

The man stared at me without saying anything. For a moment, his expression changed. He looked confused, almost as if he couldn't believe that I was standing there. But that emotion disappeared quickly. The coldness returned to his face.

"You shouldn't be here."

A shiver moved through me. I swallowed and looked at the blood covering his side.

"You are bleeding. I am trying to help you."

I expected him to be grateful. Instead, he only continued staring at me like I was the one thing he couldn't understand.

"You don't know what you are helping."

His words made no sense. I opened my medical bag.

"I work at a veterinary clinic. I can at least stop the bleeding until an ambulance arrives."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "A vet?"

I frowned. "Yes. And before you say anything, animals are not that different from humans when it comes to injuries."

He looked at me like I was strange. Maybe I was. Most people would have already run away. But something about him made me stay.

Suddenly, a loud sound came from the trees behind us. The man's entire body immediately became tense. His eyes moved toward the darkness as if he had sensed something which I couldn't see.

"Get back in your car," he ordered.

I looked behind me, confused. "Why?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he looked directly at me. "Emma."

My blood ran cold. I froze. I had never told him my name.

"How do you know my name?"

But he didn't respond. The sound from the forest grew louder. Someone was coming. I could hear footsteps moving closer through the wet ground. The injured man slowly pushed himself to his feet. I immediately stepped forward.

"You shouldn't stand. You're hurt."

He ignored my warning. His attention remained fixed on the darkness between the trees. Then someone stepped out.

A man wearing black clothes appeared from the shadows. There was a cruel smile on his face.

"Found you," he said.

His eyes moved toward the biker.

"You really thought you could hide from us?"

The biker's face changed. All emotion disappeared, leaving behind a cold expression that made him look like a completely different person.

"Leave," he said quietly.

The stranger laughed. It was a dark and unpleasant sound that made my stomach twist.

"Still protecting humans? After everything?"

I had no idea what was happening. I looked between the two men, trying to understand what kind of situation I had walked into.

"Who are you?" I finally asked.

Neither of the men answered my question. The stranger only looked at me and after a moment, a slow smile appeared on his face.

"Interesting."

The way he said it made a chill run through me. Before I could understand what he meant, the biker moved in front of me. He was protecting me. That confused me more than anything else.

Why would a stranger, someone who looked dangerous and who had just appeared out of nowhere, try to protect me?

"You came here for me," the biker said coldly.

The stranger's smile grew. "Yes."

His eyes moved back to me. "But now we found something much more valuable."

The biker's expression changed instantly. A low sound came from his throat. At first, I thought I imagined it. But he was growling. Not like a person. Like an animal. It was a deep sound that made every instinct inside me scream to run. Fear slowly crawled through my body.

I didn't understand what was happening but I knew something was very wrong. Then everything happened too quickly. The biker moved. For a second, I thought that he was running toward the stranger. But then I saw his body change. A loud cracking sound filled the air.

I watched in horror as his body began to shift in a way that should have been impossible. His muscles grew larger. His body twisted. Dark fur spread across his skin. The man I had been trying to help was disappearing before my eyes. And something else was taking his place.

A wolf stood in front of me. It was a massive wolf. A creature that belonged in nightmares, not in the middle of a rainy road. I stumbled backward. My heart was pounding painfully against my chest.

No. This couldn't be real.

My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing. There was no way a human could turn into a wolf. There was no way monsters like this existed. But the truth was standing right in front of me.

The wolf suddenly attacked the stranger. The sound of the fight filled the night, mixing with the heavy rain and the thunder above us. I couldn't move or scream. I could only stand there and watch.

The wolf was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was powerful, fast and deadly. The stranger tried to fight back but he never stood a chance.

Every movement of the wolf was precise and terrifying like he had been born for this exact moment. Within seconds, the fight was over.

The forest became silent again and the only sound I could hear was the heavy rain falling around us and the terrified beating of my own heart.

I stood frozen as the wolf remained over the stranger's body. My eyes moved toward the man lying on the ground. I had just witnessed a murder.

The wolf slowly turned its head toward me. My breath caught. Every part of me screamed that I needed to run, that I needed to get away from this place as quickly as possible.

But my body refused to listen. I couldn't move. The wolf took a slow step toward me. I expected it to attack me but it didn't.

Instead, something strange happened. The wolf suddenly stopped. Its head lifted slightly and it began to smell the air around me.

I felt confused. What was it doing?

Then the wolf froze completely. For a moment, it looked almost shocked. Before I could understand what was happening, its body began to change again.

The dark fur disappeared. The huge frame shifted. The creature slowly became the man I had seen before. But he wasn't the same person anymore. The cold expression on his face was gone. He looked stunned.

"What are you?" I whispered.

He didn't answer. He only stared at me like he had just discovered something impossible.

"No..."

The word escaped his lips quietly, almost like he was trying to convince himself that what he was seeing couldn't be real.

I stepped backward, my fear growing stronger.

"What?"

He moved closer. Immediately, I raised my hands between us.

"Don't come near me."

He stopped. For a moment, neither of us spoke. His golden eyes stayed locked on mine. Then, he whispered one word.

"Mate."

My stomach dropped. "What?"

His eyes darkened. "This is impossible."

I shook my head. "I don't know what kind of game you are playing but I am leaving."

I turned around and ran toward my car. I could feel his eyes on my back. I opened the door. Before I got inside, his voice stopped me.

"Emma."

I froze. Slowly, I looked back. The biker was standing in the rain. He was watching me.

"You have no idea who you are," he said.

"What does that mean?"

He didn't answer. He only looked at me like he had found something he had spent years searching for.

Then I drove away. I didn't stop. I didn't look back once not until I reached home. My hands were still shaking when I locked the door behind me.

A man became a wolf. He knew my name. And he called me his mate.

I laughed quietly. "This is insane."

I walked to the kitchen and poured myself water. My hands shook so badly that some spilled onto the counter. I looked at my reflection in the window. I looked normal.

I was just Emma, a veterinary nurse. A woman with a normal life. So why did that man look at me like he knew a secret I didn't?

My phone suddenly rang. The sound made me jump. It was an unknown number. I stared at it. A part of me already knew who it was. Slowly, I answered.

"Hello?"

A deep voice spoke. "You shouldn't have stopped that motorcycle tonight, Emma."

My heart started beating faster. "Who is this?"

The voice was calm. "You saw something you were never supposed to see."

My fingers tightened around the phone. "What do you want?"

There was a pause, then:

"To keep you alive."

The call ended. I stood frozen. Outside my window, the storm continued. But something felt different now. Because somewhere out there...

The monster I thought I saw was looking for me.