Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 10

The first thing Rowan Harper noticed was the silence.Not the familiar silence she’d grown up with in the mountains of West Virginia, where dawn always arrived with birdsong, creaking porch swings, and the steady murmur of creeks winding through the hollows.This silence was different.It felt…Patient.As though the forest itself had paused to watch strangers pass beneath its ancient branches.Rowan shifted the sling of her rifle against her shoulder and looked up through the towering pines.Germany’s Black Forest was breathtaking.The trees stretched impossibly high, their trunks disappearing into an emerald canopy that swallowed much of the afternoon sunlight. Moss covered fallen logs. Ferns blanketed the forest floor. Wisps of fog drifted lazily between the trees, softening everything they touched.It looked less like a forest……and more like an old cathedral.Beautiful.Ancient.Almost sacred.A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.Granny Harper would’ve loved this place.“Th

Dawn arrived reluctantly beneath the Black Forest canopy.Gray light seeped between the pines, revealing the remains of Rowan’s fire and the empty place where the enormous creature had kept watch.She sat up slowly, every bruise from the previous day announcing itself at once.Her shoulder ached.Her ankle throbbed.Cold had settled into her bones despite the shelter of the rock overhang.But she was alive.And beside the ashes lay the rabbit the strange animal had left for her.Rowan stared at it.“Still not normal,” she murmured.Nothing answered from the trees.She hadn’t expected anything to.Still, disappointment pressed unexpectedly against her chest.The creature had stayed long enough to bring her food, then vanished before daylight. Perhaps that was for the best. Whatever it was, it remained a wild predator capable of killing her before she could raise her rifle.Not that the rifle would offer much protection.It was real.The ammunition issued for the training exercise was n

The SUV tore through the Black Forest, branches scraping against its sides as Matthias forced it down a road that barely deserved the name.Rowan braced one hand against the door and the other against Fen’s massive shoulder. The vehicle bounced violently over roots and washed-out ruts, sending pain through her injured ankle with every impact.Fen stood wedged between the seats, too large to lie comfortably and apparently unwilling to move away from her. His steel-gray coat pressed against Rowan’s side, warm and solid enough to keep her upright when the SUV swung around another sharp curve.Behind them, an engine roared.“They’re following,” Rowan said.Matthias glanced into the rearview mirror.“I know.”The youngest hunter twisted in the front passenger seat and looked through the rear window.“Two vehicles.”His English was hesitant but clear.Rowan tightened her grip on the rifle across her lap. “Who are they?”No one answered.The SUV struck a deep hole.Fen shifted instantly, pla

No one moved.The broken front door hung crooked on its hinges, swaying gently in the cool mountain breeze. Dust drifted lazily through the shaft of afternoon sunlight pouring into the lodge, but inside, time itself seemed to have stopped.Rowan’s grip tightened around the knife in her hand.The man standing in the doorway looked at her with an expression she had never seen directed toward herself before.Wonder.Not curiosity.Not surprise.Wonder.As though he had spent years imagining this exact moment and still found the reality beyond anything he had hoped for.She hated it.She hated the softness in his eyes.She hated the sadness in his voice.Most of all, she hated the small part of herself that wanted to believe him.“You don’t get to look at me like that,” she said quietly.Elias didn’t answer immediately.Instead, he studied her face, almost as though committing every detail to memory.“You have your grandmother’s determination,” he said at last.“And your mother’s smile.”

The first howl faded into the night.A second answered.Then a third.Within seconds, the Black Forest seemed alive with voices. Some were near. Others echoed from distant ridges, carried through the pines by the evening wind.Rowan’s stomach tightened.Military training had taught her how to identify an enemy by sound. She could distinguish rifle calibers, helicopters, tracked vehicles, even the difference between artillery and mortars.This…This was different.These weren’t animals calling to one another.These were signals.Fen stood motionless in the broken doorway, his steel-gray coat glowing silver beneath the rising moon. Every muscle along his broad shoulders remained tense, but he did not growl.He listened.The black Direwolf watched him from the tree line, golden eyes reflecting the moonlight.“Still counting?” the black wolf asked.Fen didn’t move.“You always did.”Rowan frowned.“You understand him?”The question escaped before she thought better of it.No one answered.