Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Road to Shadow Ridge

Elena’s POV

These mountains have not changed. There is still the smell of pine, rain and regret in the air. Each mile I drive through feels like swallowing glass.

Maya sleeps in the backseat, her little head rolling with each curve. Her breath comes thin and shallow. I keep glancing at the mirror, afraid she’ll stop breathing if I blink too long.

“Almost there, baby,” I whisper. “Just a little longer.”

She doesn’t answer.

The dial of the dashboard goes on past midnight. The fog fills the road and rings the car round. My wolf is weak and uneasy within me. She hates this place. I do too.

Shadow Ridge. The home I once dreamed of ruling beside Damon Blackwood. The same home that threw me out five years ago when he rejected our bond.

I grip the wheel tighter. I didn’t come back for him. I came back for our daughter.

Silver Veil Syndrome. The name itself sounds like a curse. It’s what happens when a pup is born from a broken mate bond. Her wolf is fading, and only her father’s blood can save her.

I’d searched every doctor in Seattle, begged every healer I knew. The last one looked me in the eye and said, “Without the father, she won’t last three months.”

That was twenty days ago.

Now I’m driving back into hell.

The forest gets dark and the headlights cut in line with mists that did not want to be seen. My muscles in my fingers are sore since they are tightly holding onto the steering wheel. I force myself to breathe.

“You’re not the same woman who left,” I tell myself quietly. “You don’t need him. You just need his blood.”

The road narrows. The ancient landmark pillars spring forward...two worn stone posts into which the top of the Shadow Ridge has been hewn. I recall that I crossed this line and had broken my heart and my wolf screaming within me five years ago.

It is as much like stepping over the same wound.

The car I pull in on the verge of the rocks. There is no noise in the forest other than the low rumbling of the engine.

“Mama?”

Maya’s voice is soft, barely a whisper.

“I’m here,” I say, turning to her. “Go back to sleep, sweetheart.”

Her eyelids flutter. “Are we home?”

The word stings. “No, baby. Just passing through.”

She sighs and falls asleep once again, with her blanket. I extend my fingers and touch one of her curls. Her skin burns like fire.

My wolf whines. We're running out of time.

I know.

I drive forward, crossing the border.

The moment I do, it hits me...an invisible current, like static crawling up my arms. The old bond between me and the land. The pack magic. It still remembers me.

I shove it away.

Not now. Not ever.

The trees narrow in further and the branches form like ribs that wrap me up. My eyes are on the winding road. My brother’s cabin should be ten minutes ahead. Marcus promised to meet us, to talk to Damon before I did. I just have to make it that far.

Something shifts in the air.

A faint prickle dances across my neck. My wolf goes still.

She whispers inside me, We’re not alone.

I look in the rearview mirror. The road behind is empty, swallowed by fog. But the feeling doesn’t fade.

“Probably patrols,” I whisper. “Stay calm.”

Still, my pulse starts to race. I slow down, listening.

The forest hums with life...owls, wind, the distant rush of a stream. Then, beneath it, another sound. Faint. Barely there.

Footsteps.

Not human.

I flick the headlights off. The road goes dark.

“Mama?” Maya murmurs.

“Shh. Sleep, baby.”

I hold my breath and listen.

There. A low crunch of leaves on the left. Then another on the right. Two sets of steps, keeping pace with the car. Wolves.

My wolf snarls softly, ready but weak. I can’t shift, not with Maya in the car.

My heart slams against my ribs. They shouldn’t be this close to the border patrol line unless…

Unless someone already knows I’m here.

The steps grow louder. I press my foot to the gas. The car jerks forward, tires spitting gravel.

For a few seconds, nothing follows. Then, in the fog beside me, two shapes blur between the trees. Low, fast, and silent.

"Damn it," I breathe.

I cannot see their colors, only their motion...silver lines running through the fog. My wolf is chaining at my flesh, and demands to fight. I grip the wheel harder.

“Not now,” I whisper. “Not with her here.”

The woods pass by in a flash. At this point the road forks, the one going to the cabin of Marcus, and the other further into pack land. I take the left.

The shadows follow.

One of them jumps and I hear claws razing 

I slam the brakes. The car skids to a stop, heart hammering.

Silence.

Then, through the fog, eyes appear. Two pairs. One golden, one dark. Watching.

I roll down the window slowly, the night air cold on my face.

“Show yourselves,” I call out, voice steady though my hands shake. “If you’re patrol, say it. If not, I’ll take that as a threat.”

No answer.

The eyes vanish.

My wolf paces inside me, restless. That scent, she murmurs. Familiar.

I breathe it in. Faint but distinct. Pine, storm, smoke. It hits me like a blade to the chest.

No. Not his scent. It can’t be.

I shake my head hard. “You’re imagining things.”

But the air feels charged now, humming like a storm about to break.

I check on Maya again. She is asleep, with her small hand holding on to the blanket. I cannot risk to shift or stop. I have to keep moving.

I squeeze the gas, and propel the car. The fog becomes even more dense and devours all that came behind me.

The next few minutes stretch forever. My hands ache. My throat burns. Every turn feels like a trap.

At last the trees grow sparse and faint cabin light is shining through the mist ahead. Relief sinks in me nearly to my knees. Marcus's cabin.

Almost there.

One more last time I look at the mirror. The background road is lonely once again. No glowing eyes. No sound.

But just as I exhale, something flickers at the edge of the forest...a shadow slipping through the fog, too fast to be human.

Then another.

Both vanish as quickly as they came, leaving only the echo of their presence and that haunting, familiar scent in the air.

My wolf presses close to my heart. He knows.

I tighten my grip on the wheel. “Then let him.”

The pines are whistling and I draw the final hill and headlights stabbing mist.

There is some howling somewhere behind me...somewhere low, powerful, too near.

The howl rips through me, through blood and bone and memory. My wolf shudders, recognizing the sound.

I bang the locks of the car door with a racing heart.

“Mama?” Maya stirs weakly.

“It’s okay, baby. Go back to sleep.”

But even as I whisper it, I know it’s not true.

The howl comes again, closer this time.

And I finally understand.

I’m not just being followed.

I’m being hunted.