The first time I heard her, I thought I was dreaming.

Not because the voice was soft—she wasn’t. She sounded fierce. Wild. Like someone who’d been caged too long and was furious to be awake.

But because she didn’t speak with words.

She growled.

And somehow… I understood her.

It started just after four a.m., when the shadows in my room felt too still. I was lying there, eyes open, heart racing, when a pulse of something not mine surged through me like lightning.

Run.

The word wasn’t spoken. It was felt. Pressed into my chest like instinct. Like need.

I sat up fast, breath caught in my throat.

“What…?”

No answer. Just silence—and a strange pounding in my ears that wasn’t fear. It was movement. Pressure. A restless presence pushing against the walls I hadn’t known were inside me.

My chest rose and fell faster. My skin felt too tight again. My bones ached in a way that had nothing to do with fatigue.

I stumbled to the window and pushed it open.

Cool night air rushed in like water over fire, and I gasped, trying to ground myself. To find my balance.

But the second I looked up at the moon, everything inside me screamed:

Run. Shift. Find him.

I pressed my hands against the windowsill and closed my eyes. “What’s happening to me?”

You’re waking up.

You’re not human.

You’re mine.

My head snapped up.

That wasn’t the same voice as before. That one was deeper. Male. Rough.

And it didn’t come from inside me.

It came from somewhere else.

⸻

KALE

He felt it too.

The second her wolf stirred, Kale jolted from sleep like he’d been stabbed in the chest.

She was feeling the bond now. Not just the mark—him.

He swore under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair as he sat on the edge of his bed, the sheets tangled around his waist like chains. He hadn’t meant to sleep. Hadn’t wanted to. But even his will had limits—and her presence was getting louder.

Strong.

Too strong.

And now she was hearing him, too.

The dream-link had formed. Sooner than expected.

It only happened in one condition: when the mate’s soul had fully awakened.

Kale cursed again and stood, pacing.

She wasn’t safe.

Not just because of him—but because others would sense her awakening soon. Especially those who hunted women like her.

And if they reached her before he did…

He didn’t let the thought finish.

⸻

AURA

By morning, the fever had passed. But my hands still trembled.

I stared at myself in the mirror, searching for something familiar.

The mark was still there, faint but real. My eyes looked the same, but something behind them had shifted. I could feel her now. The wildness. The part of me I’d spent nineteen years unknowingly suppressing.

It was like waking up next to a stranger in your own skin.

I didn’t recognize myself—but somehow, I knew exactly who I was.

Or maybe who I’d always been.

The thought scared me more than I wanted to admit.

I pulled on a hoodie and tucked my hair into a braid, trying to look normal. But nothing about me was normal anymore.

I left the house without telling anyone. Brenda wouldn’t notice. She never did.

I didn’t know where I was going. I just followed the pull in my chest.

That aching, low heat behind my ribs. Like a magnet buried inside me… dragging me north.

⸻

Meanwhile…

Kale stood in the center of the war room, surrounded by maps and scent markers, when Lucien entered again—this time with grim eyes.

“She’s moving,” Lucien said quietly. “Left the house at dawn. Heading toward the edge of town.”

“Alone?”

“For now. But she’s not the only one on the move.”

Kale’s jaw tightened. “The rogues?”

“Two were spotted on the east ridge. Possibly more in hiding. They’re close enough to scent her now.”

Kale didn’t speak for a moment.

Then: “Send the guards to stall them. Tell no one else. Not the Council. Not the Elders. No one touches her before I do.”

Lucien blinked. “So you’re finally going to her?”

Kale met his gaze coldly. “She’s mine.”

⸻

AURA

I should’ve turned back.

But something in me knew—it was already too late.

And if I didn’t find the truth soon, someone else would find me first.

And not everyone in the dark… came with answers.

Some came to kill.