Chapter Five

The world hadn’t looked the same since the bite.

Colors were sharper. Sounds struck deeper. Even the wind brushing against Evelynn’s cheek felt like it carried secrets now whispers that curled behind her ears and danced down her spine.

She hadn’t told anyone what happened that night. Not Cass. Not her mother. Not even herself, not out loud. As if saying it would make it more real more dangerous. More irreversible.

But the mark on her shoulder pulsed with every heartbeat, and Aiden… he hadn’t come to school since.

She thought about him more than she should’ve. His eyes, how they glowed in the dark. The way he’d looked at her not with fear, but with something else. Hunger, maybe. Or regret.

That afternoon, she found herself walking the edge of Ravenwood Forest, the same woods where everything had changed. The trees stood like silent watchers, their shadows long and restless beneath the fading sun. Her feet led her forward before she realized she’d made a choice.

Back to the place it began.

Branches reached for her like fingers. The air smelled like damp earth and the memory of blood.

She should have turned back.

Instead, she stepped deeper.

The forest was quieter than usual. Too quiet. No birds. No wind. Just the sound of her own breathing, ragged and unsure.

Then

Snap.

A branch broke behind her.

Evelynn spun, heart hammering.

“Aiden?”

No answer.

She moved slowly, her hands trembling at her sides.

Then another sound not footsteps, but a low growl. Soft. Warning.

And there he was.

Leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, eyes glowing faintly gold in the dying light.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

His voice was the same deep, low, familiar but something in it had changed. Like he was holding something back, or holding something in.

Evelynn took a step closer. “Neither should you.”

“I mean it.” He pushed off the tree, moving toward her. “You don’t know what’s out here.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then tell me.”

He stopped. The silence between them thickened.

“You left me,” she whispered.

His jaw clenched. “I had to.”

“You bit me.” Her voice cracked. “You changed me. And then you disappeared.”

Aiden looked away. “I was trying to protect you.”

“By vanishing?”

He took another step toward her, and this time he didn’t stop. His eyes flicked to her shoulder to the mark he’d left and for a moment, guilt poured through him so strong, she could feel it in her own bones.

“I didn’t mean to,” he said, voice rough. “I lost control.”

Evelynn nodded slowly. “So it’s true.”

A pause.

“Yes.”

The word hung between them like a blade.

“I’m not human anymore, am I?” she asked softly.

“You’re still you,” he said. “But something’s waking up inside you now. Something wild. And others can smell it. They’ll come for you.”

“Who?”

Aiden didn’t answer.

Instead, he turned toward the forest’s heart.

“Come with me,” he said. “I’ll explain everything. But we don’t have much time.”

Evelynn hesitated. Every instinct told her to run. To go back to her normal life her home, her mother, the safe world that didn’t burn.

But it was too late for that.

The fire had already chosen her.

She followed him.

And behind them, deep in the woods, something else moved slow and steady tracking her scent.

Something that did not want her alive.

They walked in silence.

Aiden moved like he belonged to the forest. Like the trees parted for him, like the shadows respected him. Evelynn, on the other hand, stumbled more than once over exposed roots and slick moss, but she didn’t complain. Every step she took was a choice away from the life she once knew, and toward something she didn’t understand yet, but somehow couldn’t ignore.

“What’s happening to me?” she asked finally, breaking the silence.

Aiden slowed. “Your senses will sharpen first. Hearing, smell, vision especially at night. Then the strength will come. Speed. Healing. But it’s not just physical.”

She stopped walking. “Then what is it?”

He turned to face her. His eyes weren’t glowing now, but they still held that flicker like a storm waiting behind them.

“It’s the fire,” he said. “It’s in your blood now. And once it wakes, it changes everything. Not just your body. Your instincts. Your wants. Your fears. Your hunger.”

Evelynn swallowed hard. “And you? You’ve lived with this?”

“I was born into it,” Aiden said quietly. “It didn’t feel like a gift then. It felt like a curse.”

Her eyes searched his face, softening. “Is that what I am now? Cursed?”

“No.” His voice was firm, almost fierce. “You’re stronger than you know. But the world you’re stepping into… it’s not kind. Especially not to someone like you.”

“Someone like me?”

“You weren’t supposed to turn,” he said. “You weren’t meant for this. Which means they’ll see you as a threat. An accident. Or worse…”

“An enemy.”

Aiden nodded.

They kept walking until the trees thinned, revealing an old stone ruin hidden by time and vines. Cracked pillars. A half-collapsed wall. Moss growing over what once might have been a temple, or maybe a sanctuary. Whatever it had been, it felt ancient like it had witnessed things no one else had survived to tell.

“This is where I come when I need to remember who I am,” Aiden said.

“Who are you, really?” Evelynn asked.

He looked at her, then away. “A wolf trying to be a boy.”

Something in that answer broke her heart.

Evelynn stepped closer. She didn’t know what made her do it maybe the way his shoulders slumped, or the sadness in his voice but she reached out and gently touched his hand.

Aiden flinched, as if her touch burned him.

But he didn’t pull away.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she said softly.

“You should be.”

“I’m not.”

Their eyes met again, and the world held its breath.

Then a sound. Low and distant.

A second howl.

It was nothing like the one she’d heard before. This one was deeper, angrier… closer.

Aiden tensed. “We have to go. Now.”

“What was that?”

“Hunters.”

She froze. “You mean people?”

“No,” he said, voice grim. “Worse.”

A blur of movement behind them. Then a snarl.

Aiden moved fast, shoving her behind the fallen pillar just as a shadow lunged from the trees something large and black, with claws like daggers and eyes like embers.

It landed where Evelynn had stood seconds before.

She didn’t scream. She couldn’t. Her breath was caught in her throat.

The thing snarled again, stalking forward but Aiden stepped between them, a growl rising from his own chest.

And then, before Evelynn’s eyes, he changed.

Bones cracked. Muscles rippled. Fur burst from skin.

And in moments, the boy she knew was gone replaced by a creature of myth and nightmare.

A wolf.

But not like any she’d ever seen.

This one stood upright, taller than a man, glowing with heat and fury.

It roared, and the other creature hesitated.

Then it leapt.

And the night exploded into chaos.