CHAPTER 8- THE WOLF

I couldn't settle, not after Elara told me Cassian already had a mate. I'd tried to push it out of my mind, but the more I tried, the more it lingered. None of it made sense, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do with any of it.

Something inside me was restless. My wolf had been pacing beneath my skin for what felt like hours, pushing against me with an impatience I had never felt from her before. I tried reading, but I kept staring at the same page without taking in a single word. I tried lying down, but that only made the feeling worse.

She wanted out and I didn’t understand why. I had shifted plenty of times before, usually when I needed to run or clear my head, but this felt different. It wasn’t just a desire to stretch my legs.

I frowned, pressing a hand against my chest. “What is wrong with you?”

For a moment, there was nothing. Then I heard a soft growl somewhere deep inside me. “Out.”

I frowned. “Why?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, that restless pressure pushed against me again, stronger this time, accompanied by a pull that seemed to reach beyond my body and made me push myself to my feet.

I should have ignored her. After everything Elara had told me, the last thing I needed was to go wandering into the forest in the middle of the night because my wolf had suddenly decided she wanted out, but the pressure inside me only grew.

I sighed. “Fine,” I said, finally giving up trying to ignore it. If my wolf wanted out that badly, I was going to let her have her way.

I changed quickly and slipped out before anyone could see me. The moment my feet touched the forest floor, the restless feeling sharpened. My wolf surged forward, and this time, I didn’t resist.

The shift hit me hard, pain tearing through my body as my bones twisted and realigned, my muscles tightening as my body reshaped itself. My breath caught in my throat as the familiar burn spread through every limb, but underneath the pain was something else.

Relief, my wolf had been waiting for this.

The last remnants of my human thoughts slipped away as fur pushed through my skin, and the world suddenly sharpened around me. Every sound became clearer, and every scent rushed at me at once, from the damp earth to the trees and the cool night air.

My paws hit the ground, and before I could even adjust to my new body, my wolf took off and this time, I didn't try to stop her.

The forest blurred around me as my paws struck the earth, my body moving faster than I could have managed in my human form. The cold night air rushed through my fur, and for the first time since Elara had told me about Cassian, the questions in my head went quiet.

My wolf knew exactly where she was going but I didn't, I simply followed. We moved deeper into the forest, away from the familiar paths I had walked countless times before. I had lived in the Southern Territory my entire life, but there was something almost strange about how easily my wolf navigated the trees.

She stopped dead so fast my head snapped up and then I caught it. Very faint, but there. Another wolf, drifting through the trees.

 My ears perked as I stood still, listening for any sign of movement. A branch snapped somewhere ahead, and my wolf immediately focused on the sound, moving cautiously toward it as the scent grew stronger.

Then a large grey wolf emerged from between the trees, and I froze as he stopped a short distance away, leaving us standing there in silence for a moment. He was bigger than me, his body powerful beneath thick grey fur, but it was his eyes that caught my attention, grey and strangely familiar. The longer I stared at him, the more something inside me seemed to settle. I should have been wary, but instead, I felt strangely calm.

My wolf didn't hesitate. It was almost as though she already knew him, and I had no idea how. The wolf tilted his head, watching me, and before I knew it, I found myself taking a cautious step toward him. He didn't move, so I took another, and this time he lowered his head slightly, almost as if he were allowing me to come closer, the gesture stirring a strange sense of familiarity that I couldn't quite place.

I kept moving until there were only a few feet between us, and he slowly came closer, stopping just in front of me. I should have been afraid, but something about him made it impossible to pull away, so I stayed where I was and let him close the remaining distance until our noses touched. The moment they did, something inside me shifted, and my wolf surged with a feeling so powerful it nearly knocked the breath from me.

For a few seconds, neither of us moved. I could feel his breath against my muzzle, warm against the cool night air, and something about being this close to him made every instinct in me quiet. My wolf leaned into him, and I found myself doing the same without thinking.

He pulled back slightly and looked at me, his grey eyes holding mine as if he were trying to memorize my face, then he nudged my muzzle gently with his. A strange warmth spread through me, and I nudged him back, earning a small movement of his tail that almost looked like he was pleased.

Before I could make sense of what was happening, he turned and trotted a few steps away, then glanced back at me. I watched him for a moment, unsure what he wanted, until he suddenly took off between the trees. My wolf surged forward without hesitation, and before I knew it, I was chasing after him.

He was fast, but he wasn't trying to lose me. Every time I got close, he would dart between the trees or change direction at the last second, always leaving just enough distance for me to keep chasing him. I could feel my wolf enjoying it, the excitement running through me as we raced beneath the trees with nothing but the sound of our paws hitting the earth and the occasional rustle of leaves around us.

I finally managed to catch up and lunged at him, but he twisted away at the last second, sending me stumbling past him. I turned around, almost offended, only to find him standing a few feet away, watching me. There was something almost playful in his eyes, and before I could decide whether I was imagining it, he lowered his front legs and raised his hindquarters, inviting me to chase him again.

My wolf didn't need telling twice.

I took off after him, and this time he let me get closer. I bumped my shoulder against his side, and he stumbled slightly before turning on me. For a moment, we circled each other, neither willing to back down, until he suddenly lunged forward and I jumped aside, snapping playfully at his tail as he ran past.

We kept going like that, chasing and dodging through the trees until I stopped to pay attention to where we were. The forest around us had become unfamiliar, and when the grey wolf slowed down, I realized we had gone much farther than I had expected.

He glanced back at me before continuing deeper into the trees and I followed after him. The path grew narrower, and the trees seemed to close around us until even the moonlight barely reached the ground. I had no idea where we were, but strangely, I wasn't worried. I trusted him without knowing why.

Then I heard water. I lifted my head, catching the faint sound of it somewhere ahead, and a moment later, the trees opened, making me stop dead in my tracks.

A lake stretched out before me, its surface dark and still beneath the moonlight, surrounded by trees so dense that I couldn't see where the forest ended. I stared at it for a moment, completely taken aback because I had lived in this territory my entire life and had never known this place existed.

The grey wolf walked toward the water as if he had been here countless times before, and after a moment, I followed him. He stepped into the shallows, the water curling around his legs, then looked back at me.

I hesitated at the edge, but my wolf took control before I could stop her, sending our body straight into the water. The cold made me shiver as the water closed around us, but she barely seemed to notice. When the grey wolf suddenly splashed us with one paw, I jumped back in surprise, only to feel my wolf splash him right back.

He shook himself, sending water flying everywhere, and before I could stop her, my wolf chased him farther into the lake.

For a while, my wolf simply played with him, circling through the shallow water, splashing and dodging as she chased him around the lake. I could feel every movement, every burst of excitement, but I wasn't the one controlling our body anymore. Somehow, I didn't mind. There was something strangely peaceful about being there with him, and for the first time in days, my mind wasn't filled with thoughts of Cassian or my mother's warning.

For a while, I simply let myself be there with him. Eventually, we slowed down, and the grey wolf came to rest beside me in the water. Our bodies brushed against each other, but neither of us moved away. I lifted my head and looked at him again, and the moment our eyes met, that strange feeling returned, stronger than before.

Those grey eyes. I knew them. I'd seen them before, and my heart started pounding as the thought I'd been trying very hard not to entertain finally surfaced. Cassian.

I stared at the wolf beside me, suddenly noticing all the things I'd ignored before—the way he watched me, the way he seemed to understand every movement without needing a sound, and the strange familiarity I'd felt from the moment we'd met. Even his scent felt familiar now.

My wolf stirred, and this time, I knew exactly why. She knew him. Somehow, she had recognized what I was only just beginning to understand, and the realization sent another rush of adrenaline through me.

The grey wolf went still, as if he had sensed the change in me. His eyes held mine for a moment before he slowly pulled away and took a step back.

“Wait,” I said as I moved toward him, my heart pounding harder.

But he didn't wait and before I could get any closer, he turned and bolted into the trees. I froze for a second, staring after him in disbelief, before my wolf surged forward, ready to chase but something about the way he'd run made me hesitate. He wasn't playing anymore.

He was running from me.