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CHAPTER SIX: THE STRANGER IN THE SHADOWS
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2025-11-26 02:36:08THE STRANGER IN THE SHADOWS
I froze.
“M–Mate?” The word felt foreign on my tongue, like it belonged to a life I hadn’t lived.
The man stepped out of the shadows slowly, the moon behind him outlining the sharp lines of his body. Broad shoulders. Defined muscles. A presence that felt… ancient. Dangerous. Unyielding.
My breath hitched.
This wasn’t Ethan.
This man was taller, older, radiating a kind of power that shook the air around him. His hair was a tousled mess of ash-blond and gold, falling over eyes that glowed faintly under the moonlight—silver, like the wolf I had seen.
He pulled on a pair of dark pants he must have left near the trees, but his torso was still bare, revealing scars that looked like they had stories older than the forest itself.
I stared, throat suddenly too tight to swallow.
He didn’t look at me the way Ethan did.
Ethan looked at me like I was dirt.
This man… looked at me like I was inevitable.
“Who…who are you?” I whispered, taking a shaky step back.
He didn’t move.
He didn’t blink.
He just watched me, as if memorizing me with every second that passed.
“Damien,” he said at last, his voice deep, rough, and carrying the weight of something I couldn’t name. “Damien Vaashekoff.”
I blinked. “Why…why would you call me mate? You—you don’t even know me.”
His jaw clenched, and he took a step toward me — slow, controlled, predatory.
“Don’t I?” he murmured.
My heart raced. “No. You don’t.”
He paused, studying me with eyes that felt like they could see beneath my skin.
“You smell like fear,” he said quietly. “But… something else too.” His gaze softened—barely. “Something you haven’t awakened yet.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Awakened.
Bella’s words echoed—“You’re the last of your kind.”
I shook my head quickly. “No—no, you’re making a mistake. I don’t have a wolf. I can’t shift. My mate rejected me. I’m nothing—”
“Don’t say that.” His voice cut through the night like a blade.
I swallowed, startled.
“You don’t get to decide what you are,” he said, stepping closer. “Your wolf does.”
I stepped back until my shoulder hit a tree trunk.
His eyes flicked to it. “Running won’t help. Not from me.”
“Why?” I breathed.
“Because I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.”
My lungs seized.
He stepped closer — close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating off his body, close enough that I could see the faint scar slicing through his right eyebrow.
The same one I saw on the wolf.
“You,” I whispered, realization crashing through me. “You were the wolf in the clearing.”
He nodded once.
“You were watching me since I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His eyes didn’t waver. “To make sure nothing touched what’s mine.”
My heart stuttered.
Mine?
I shook my head fiercely. “No—no, I just got rejected. I can’t have another mate. That’s not how it works.”
He let out a low, humorless laugh. “You think the Moon Goddess gave you him?”
I stiffened.
He leaned in slightly, voice dipping lower. “She gave you to me. I felt it the moment you stepped foot on this land.”
I was trembling — from fear or something else, I didn’t know.
“I don’t feel anything,” I said honestly, voice barely audible.
“I know.” His expression didn’t change. “You’re blocked.”
“Blocked?”
He studied me again, eyes scanning my face like he was reading something only he could see.
“Your wolf is asleep,” he said. “But not dead.”
My breath caught.
Asleep.
Not dead.
“So she exists?” My voice cracked on the last word.
“Yes,” he murmured, almost gently. “And when she wakes, she’ll come straight to me.”
Something inside my chest fluttered violently — hope mixed with terror.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he suddenly stiffened, head snapping to the side.
His entire aura shifted—calm to lethal in a heartbeat.
“What…what is it?” I asked.
He growled low — a warning rumble that vibrated the air.
“Someone’s coming.”
I turned, my pulse spiking.
Footsteps.
Voices.
And then—
“Emily!”
My grandfather’s voice. Sharp. Panicked.
Branches snapped as several pack warriors burst into the clearing, shifting between human and wolf, all breathless and tense.
My grandfather—Matteo—pushed through them, eyes wild as he grabbed my shoulders.
“Are you out of your mind?!” he hissed. “You should NEVER be alone in the forest at night!”
“I—Grandpa, I didn’t mean— I was just—”
Then he saw Damien.
Everything stopped.
The warriors stiffened instantly. Some growled. Others lowered their heads in… fear?
Matteo’s eyes widened, recognition slashing through his expression like lightning.
“You,” he breathed. “What are you doing here?”
Damien didn’t move, didn’t blink. “Collecting what’s mine.”
The forest fell silent.
My stomach dropped.
My grandfather’s face twisted into something between fury and dread.
“You stay away from her,” he warned. “You have no right—”
Damien tilted his head, a dangerous smile touching his lips.
“You forget who you’re speaking to, Matteo.”
My grandfather’s jaw clenched.
And then—he bowed.
The warriors followed.
My breath caught.
Bow?
Why were they bowing?
Who was this man?
Damien’s eyes flicked to mine.
“I’ll see you soon, Emily.”
And just like that, he vanished into the trees, swallowed by darkness as if he was made of it.
I stared at the empty space he left behind, my heart pounding so hard it hurt.
My grandfather grabbed my arms.
“Emily,” he said urgently, “listen to me carefully.”
I turned to him slowly, still shaken.
“That man,” he whispered, “is someone you must never cross paths with.”
“Why?” I whispered.
“Because he’s the most dangerous werewolf alive.”
I swallowed hard. “Who…who is he?”
Matteo’s voice trembled.
“He’s the Werewolf
King.”
My heart stopped.
And then he added, voice barely audible—
“And he just claimed you as his mate.”
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