The first time he saw her, she was running.

Branches snapped under hurried footsteps, breath fogging the cold night air as the forest swallowed her whole. Lantern light flickered behind her—voices shouting her name, calling her a murderer, a monster no different from the one rumored to haunt these woods. He was aware and pissed for a human crossing his territory

She tripped near the tree line, hands scraping against damp leaves, and for a moment the forest went impossibly quiet.

From between the trees, red eyes opened. He watched from the shadows, tall frame blending into the dark, horns barely visible beneath the canopy. He had seen humans flee before—screaming, begging, praying—but she didn’t look back. She just kept going, fear written into every movement, not toward him, but away from them. The smell of blood clung to her clothes.

Not hers.

As the torches drew closer, his wolf tail flicked once, slow and deliberate. The forest shifted. Branches groaned. Shadows stretched unnaturally long. By morning, the girl would be gone from the town’s reach.nAnd the forest would gain something new—not a victim, not a killer, but something he would have to drive out of HIS territory