LOGINKael's PovI knew something was wrong the moment the air shifted. The kind of wrong my body recognized before my mind caught up.Maia halted in a distance. Her hand slid back until her fingers brushed mine, not gripping, not warning, just checking that I was there. That alone set my nerves on edge. Maia didn’t check unless she already knew the answer scared her.“You feel it,” I said quietly.She nodded once.The corridor ahead narrowed, not structurally, but in the way a forest narrows when something is watching you from the dark. The city had gone silent in a way I had never heard before. No distant transit hum. No mechanical breathing through the walls. Just emptiness stretching forward.I stepped half a pace in front of her without thinking. The instinct was older than reason. Wolf-brain, she used to tease. Protective to the point of stupidity.She didn’t stop me.That worried me more than if she had.The scent hit next.Metal. Ozone. And underneath it, something warm and animal,
Kael's povThe change hits me before the sound does.It starts like a warning hum I have learned not to ignore. My heartbeat slows instead of racing. My hearing sharpens. Every footstep in the trees around the compound snaps into focus like someone turned a dial.Maia is still asleep.She is curled on her side on the narrow cot, hair loose, face turned toward the wall. The faint rise and fall of her back steadies me. For a moment I consider waking her anyway, just to hear her voice and remind myself she is real and here and breathing.I do not.If my instincts are right, we need seconds, not explanations.I slide off the cot without letting the metal frame creak. My boots are already laced. I grab my jacket, shrug it on, and step outside.Later that night, the perimeter lights flicker as I move along the outer path. The compound is quiet, too quiet for a place that has been running on nerves and half-sleep for days. I count the guards I can hear. Two fewer than there should be.That i
Kael’s POVI knew something was wrong the moment the forest died it's noise.This was the kind of silence that presses in, that makes the hair along your arms lift because even the insects have decided to stop breathing.Maia was a few steps ahead of me, moving carefully, her boots barely disturbing the damp ground. Moonlight filtered through the canopy in broken shards, silver against her dark hair. She hadn’t said a word since we crossed the river, but I could feel her tension in the way her shoulders stayed tight, in the way she kept her hands too close to her sides.“Stay close,” I said.She glanced back, nodded once, and kept going.The scent hit me next.Wolf erupted. It looked fresh, fierce, unfamiliar.I slowed, letting my senses stretch. The old instincts stirred under my skin, restless and impatient. I hadn’t shifted in days, not since the city burned itself open and forced us into the wild. My body didn’t like restraint when danger was near.“Maia,” I murmured. “We’re not a
Kael’s POVBy the time the moon rose, I already knew something was wrong.Not because of the city, or alarms, or collapsing systems. Those things had become background noise in my life. You learn to ignore them the same way you learn to ignore pain that never fully leaves.No. This was the wrongness that crawled under the skin.Maia felt distant.She was walking a few steps ahead of me through the industrial stretch beyond the transit docks, her coat pulled tight, her posture controlled. Anyone else would have thought she was calm. Anyone else didn’t know how she moved when she was lying to herself.“You’re too quiet,” I said.She didn’t slow. “So are you.”That was fair. The air smelled like metal, oil, and rain. It should have smelled like the moon. I tilted my head slightly, letting the instinct rise. The animal part of me was restless, pacing, scraping its claws against the inside of my ribs.We weren’t alone, then i stopped walking.Maia took three more steps before she noticed.
Maia's povI stood still in the corridor while Kael moved ahead of me, his back tense, his posture already half defensive. He did that when his instincts caught something his mind had not named yet. He never talked about it, but I saw it every time.“Stay close,” he said without turning around.I did not answer. I did not need to. I stayed close anyway.The corridor smelled different here. Not metal or coolant, but something warm and sharp underneath, like rain on stone mixed with something animal. It pulled at something low in my chest. A memory I did not fully own stirred and then went quiet again.Kael noticed my hesitation. He slowed just enough to glance back. “You feel it too.”I nodded once.We reached the junction where the lights flickered unevenly, one side bright, the other dim. That was where I saw him.He leaned against the wall like he belonged there, arms crossed loosely, head tipped forward as if listening to something only he could hear. He was tall, taller than Kael,
Kael's povI smelled blood before I heard the fight.It came on the back of the air, copper and rain and something feral that made the hair along my arms rise.The corridor we were moving through narrowed into an old service run, concrete walls sweating moisture, lights flickering like they were tired of pretending to work.Maia walked ahead of me, steady but slow, her hand brushing the wall as if she could read what had passed through here before us.She stopped.Her shoulders went tight, not frightened, just alert.“Someone’s hurt,” she said.“I know,” I answered.That was when I heard it. A low grunt, pain dragged through clenched teeth, followed by the scrape of boots on concrete. I moved without thinking, pulling Maia back with one hand and stepping forward, body already bracing for impact.A man stumbled into view from the side passage. He was tall, broad, dark hair plastered to his forehead with sweat and blood. His jacket was torn open at the side, soaked through, and the way







