Luna Everleigh's POV
***
I couldn't move.
The forest around me felt suffocating, the towering trees stretching into the sky like silent sentinels, trapping me beneath their ancient shadows. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth, pine, and something else—something dark and unrelenting.
Him.
Rhydian.
The name lingered in my mind, foreign yet familiar, like an echo of something I should have known but couldn't quite grasp.
He stood only a few feet away, his silver eyes glowing in the dim moonlight. His presence was overwhelming, a force of nature that bent the very air around him.
And I couldn't process what had just happened.
He had spoken. The massive wolf—the creature that had just torn apart the beast that attacked me—had shifted into a man. A man who now stood before me, completely bare and completely unbothered by it.
I tore my gaze away, heat rushing to my cheeks despite the cold that clung to my skin.
This isn't real. This can't be real.
But every fiber of my being told me otherwise.
Then he took a step forward. Slow. Deliberate.
The air between us crackled with something unseen, something ancient.
I flinched, my back pressing against the rough bark of a tree.
His nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled, as if drawing in my scent. His movements were smooth, predatory, like he was studying me.
Panic coiled in my stomach.
"I have been waiting for you," he murmured, his voice low, almost reverent.
A shiver raced down my spine.
"W-What?" My voice barely came out.
His lips curved slightly, but it wasn't a smile. It was something else—something unreadable.
Something dangerous.
"You don't remember," he said, tilting his head. "But your soul does."
A lump formed in my throat. "I—I don't know what you're talking about."
His silver eyes darkened slightly. "You will."
Every instinct screamed at me to run.
So I did.
To be continued...