Chapter Three

The night after the hospital felt wrong.

The stars were too bright. The crickets too loud. And Aiden’s body… didn’t feel like his.

He sat on the windowsill of his bedroom, hoodie draped over his shoulders, the cool wind brushing against his skin like whispers he could almost understand. His stitches ached, but it wasn’t pain that kept him awake it was restlessness. An itch under his skin, a buzz in his bones.

Cass hadn’t messaged all day.

Not even a meme or a stupid joke.

And Aiden hadn’t called either. He didn’t know how to say, Hey, I can hear people’s hearts beating now, or I think I smelled someone crying three blocks away.

How do you say I’m not normal anymore?

He stared at the woods past his backyard. They looked different now. Alive. Like they breathed with him. Every leaf shimmered with a kind of haunted light.

He could feel the forest.

And worse he wanted to go back.

His reflection in the glass caught his eye.

Same brown eyes. Same messy curls. But sharper. Wilder. Like something had stepped behind his gaze and refused to leave.

He turned away, teeth clenching. His stomach growled.

He’d eaten a full dinner two sandwiches, soup, even the dry hospital cookies Helena always kept in the kitchen.

But he was still starving.

The hunger had weight. It wasn’t just food he wanted. It was… something else. Something raw.

He dug his fingers into the mattress and exhaled slowly.

He didn’t need a doctor to tell him what was wrong.

He needed answers.

And there was only one person reckless enough to chase a dead girl’s story into the woods.

Cass.

The next morning came in pale gold, but Aiden barely noticed the sunlight pouring through his curtains. He hadn’t slept. Not really. His dreams had been flooded with howls and glowing eyes. With trees that whispered and shadows that bled.

By the time he pulled on a sweater and jeans, his heart was racing not from fear, but from anticipation. His body felt too awake. His senses too sharp.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

He needed to see Cass.

The bus ride to school was a blur of noise and scent too many voices, too many smells, like the world had turned up its volume and left him stranded in the middle of it. Aiden sat by the window, breathing shallowly, trying not to wince every time someone moved too fast or laughed too loud.

When the bus squealed to a stop in front of Ravenwood High, he didn’t wait. He pushed past the crowd and scanned the parking lot.

There. Leaning against the rusted hood of his beat-up car, arms folded, face unreadable Cassian Blake.

Cass looked… different.

Not in the way Aiden did. Not changed. Just quieter.

Usually Cass had that smirk on his lips like he knew something no one else did. But now his eyes were sharp, watchful, like he’d been waiting.

And maybe he had.

Aiden walked straight to him.

“You’re alive,” Cass said flatly.

“You didn’t answer my texts.”

Cass shoved his hands into his pockets. “Didn’t know what to say. ‘Hey, man, glad you didn’t die after being mauled in the woods by some mystery creature’ felt a little insensitive.”

Aiden gave a half-hearted laugh. “Fair.”

They stood there a moment, the air thick with everything unspoken.

Then Cass added, “You… feel different.”

Aiden looked at him. “You too.”

Cass tilted his head. “What happened to you out there?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me,” Aiden replied.

Cass didn’t answer right away. He glanced toward the woods just beyond the school’s fence line. “I think… whatever did this to you wasn’t just an animal.”

“You think I got bit by what? A monster?”

Cass shrugged. “We live in Ravenwood. This town’s been weird since birth.”

They exchanged a look. That unspoken truth that they both knew something was wrong, something real and terrifying bound them together tighter than anything else could’ve.

Aiden took a breath. “I’m not… normal anymore.”

Cass didn’t flinch. “Define not normal.”

“I can hear stuff. Smell stuff. Last night I heard my neighbor crying through the wall. And this morning I caught the scent of Mrs. Thornton’s perfume before she even got out of her car.”

“Okay,” Cass said slowly, blinking. “That’s… not terrifying at all.”

Aiden hesitated. “There’s more.”

Cass raised a brow.

“I’m hungry,” Aiden whispered. “All the time. Not for food. For something else.”

Cass didn’t joke this time. He just nodded.

“You were bitten,” he said. “And now… something’s waking up inside you.”

Aiden blinked. “How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve been researching. Since the night it happened. That scream? The one we heard before you blacked out? It wasn’t a coyote. I recorded it. Ran it through some filter online. It’s not an animal sound.”

Aiden stared.

“I think you were bitten by a werewolf.”

The words hit like thunder. Not loud but final. Real.

Aiden looked away, trying to laugh, but his voice broke. “You’ve officially lost it.”

“Have I?”

Cass pulled out his phone, swiped through pictures, then turned the screen toward him. There, pixelated but unmistakable, was the outline of a massive shape taller than a man, all shadow and claw and glowing eyes half-hidden between trees.

“I snapped it when you were screaming,” Cass said. “Right before it ran.”

Aiden’s stomach twisted. That shape. That presence. He remembered feeling it more than seeing it something ancient, hungry, and full of rage.

“What do I do?” he asked softly. “If it’s true?”

Cass looked at him, voice low. “We find out what you’re becoming. Before it takes over.”

Cass looked at him, voice low. “We find out what you’re becoming. Before it takes over.”

Aiden didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Because something had already shifted inside him.

A rustle behind them made him stiffen. Someone had dropped a book on the pavement across the lot and Aiden heard it like it was right beside him. The thud. The sharp intake of breath. The whisper of fabric as the girl stooped to pick it up.

His body reacted before his mind could. His head snapped toward the sound, nostrils flaring.

He smelled her fear.

Not sweat. Not nerves.

Fear.

It called to something dark curling in his stomach, and for one terrible second, he wanted to chase it.

To see her run.

To see if he could catch her.

“Aiden.” Cass’s voice was sharp.

He turned back, blinking hard, heart hammering.

“Hey,” Cass said again, stepping closer. “Don’t disappear on me.”

Aiden clenched his jaw, nails digging into his palms. “It’s starting.”

Cass didn’t back away. “Then we deal with it. Together.”

And somehow, that was enough.

Not to stop the change.

But to slow the hunger.

For now.