All Chapters of SHADOWBORN: The Rise Of The Dragon Wolf : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Chapter 1 Present Day Nyx's POV My legs burned from three hours of dance practice, but I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my face. I'd finally nailed that impossible spin Coach Damien had been torturing me with for weeks. My dance bag bounced against my hip as I walked down Maple Street, humming the routine music under my breath. The sunset painted everything golden—the cracked sidewalks, the row of tired-looking houses, even our mailbox that had been leaning sideways since we moved in. Home. Or at least, the closest thing to home I'd known in years. This was the fifth house we've moved in, in ten years. Fifth neighborhood, fifth fresh start. Fifth time watching Mom pack everything into worn-out boxes like our lives could be folded neatly between duct-taped cardboard and forced smiles. We started moving when I was nine, I don’t remember what exactly happened back then. Just flashes. The sound of a door slamming, the weight of my mom’s arm around me as she pulled me i

Chapter 3 Alexander’s POVI didn’t tell anyone.Not my brothers, not my mom. Not even Dad, and he always had a way of figuring me out with just one glance. But this, this was something I didn’t know how to explain. How do you tell your family you were bitten by a wolf that turned into a man and whispered cryptic last words before dying in your arms?The pain in my hand didn’t fade. If anything, it had begun to burn, an ache so deep it felt like fire was living in my veins. I wrapped the wound with a thick cloth, hiding it beneath the sleeve of my hoodie, pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t.Sleep didn’t come easy that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face, the man’s. Pale, hollow, as if the life had been drained out of him long before he took his last breath. His voice echoed in my skull. "Protect yourself and everyone around you..."I tossed in bed, the sheets clinging to my skin, drenched in sweat. I kept hearing rustles outside, like footsteps too heavy for

Chapter 5Alex POV "NO!"The word tore from my throat and I jerked backward so hard I nearly fell, my whole body shaking with the effort of stopping myself."What the hell is happening to me?" I said out loud, my voice cracking.I scrambled away from the dead rabbit and pressed my back against a tree, gulping air like I was drowning. My pulse thundered in my ears and nearly drowned out the sound of my own ragged breathing.I'd been about to eat it raw and the very idea made me sick, but the hunger remained and clawed at my insides and demanded satisfaction."Get it together," I whispered to myself, but my hands were still shaking. "You're not an animal."But what if I was becoming one?I didn't sleep that night because I couldn't, so instead I wandered the forest like a ghost and put as much distance between myself and that clearing as possible. I walked until my legs gave out and I collapsed beneath another tree, staring up at the stars through the canopy.The dying man's words cir

Chapter 7Nyx POVMaybe it was just adrenaline and desperation making me more aware of everything, or maybe it was something else that I didn't want to think about too much. The way my ears picked up sounds I'd never noticed before, like the difference between a squirrel's footsteps and a bird's, or how I could smell water from further away than seemed normal.I caught another rabbit that day and cooked it the same way, and I found more berry bushes and even some nuts that squirrels had been hoarding. The rabbit came easier this time, like my hands knew what to do without my brain having to figure it out first. When I skinned it I didn't feel sick like I had with the first one, and when I ate it I felt stronger than I had since leaving home.I was getting better at reading the forest and understanding what it could give me, like there was a part of my brain that had been sleeping my whole life and was finally waking up. I could tell which berries were ripe just by looking at them a

Chapter 9AlexI hadn't slept much and every time I closed my eyes I saw her face again and the way she'd looked so small and frightened on my couch. I kept telling myself I should have made her leave, because having her here was dangerous for both of us but especially for her.Something in me had recognized her the moment I caught her scent on the wind, it had taken every ounce of control I had to stay calm when I walked into that cabin and found her sleeping there.Her hands clutching protectively against her chest, like she was holding the most precious thing in the world.She smelled like that man in the woods who bit me weeks ago, that should have been impossible because she looked completely human and acted human, there was no way in hell that she could be connected to that thing that had changed my life forever.But there was something else mixed in with that familiar scent that made the beast in me pace restlessly and whisper things I didn't understand, about wanting to prot