Would you believe me if I told you monsters hid in plain sight?
Elara jolted awake, lungs dragging air in ragged gasps. The scratchy blanket clung damply against her skin. For a heartbeat, she didn't move, only clutched at her chest, her body shaking.
Her gaze darted down. She was in one piece. Her arms, her legs—whole. No blood. No torn flesh. But then the vivid memories of every detail of that lycan leaning close assaulted her.
Her stomach flipped.
Despite being bloodbound to a lycan pack, this was her first time seeing one this close.
That creature—God!
A snarl stretched over elongated jaws, lips split too wide, revealing teeth too long, fangs still dripping with warm blood. Its skin seemed too tight over its bones, ridged where it shouldn't be, shadows clinging like they were part of it. And the eyes—those unnatural grey eyes—inhuman and yet familiar. They'd pinned her like prey, like a cat savoring a mouse before breaking it.
"No…" she croaked, pushing up so fast she nearly tripped on the mattress.
With a yelp, she scrambled to the window and ripped the warped shutters open.
"What the hell…?" Her voice cracked.
Nothing.
The forest stretched in silence, washed clean. The ground glistened, dark and wet—it must have rained sometime after she passed out.
But... there was no Luke. No body. No blood.
Nothing!
Her hands clawed through her tangled hair, pulling as hysteria took over. "No, no, no! I saw it! I saw it!"
She pressed her forehead against the damp wooden wall. "Did I… dream it?"
But the memory of those eyes—grey, sharp, cruel—seared through her mind again. They were too vivid to be anything else... She could still smell the blood like copper on her tongue.
Her hands shook as she snatched her phone from her mattress. The screen lit instantly, exploding with notifications—dozens of missed messages, group chats, random notifications. All from her friends.
'Did the pack know?'
Her trembling thumb dialed a number.
"Elle?! Girl, where have you been??!" Lily's shrill voice burst through the speaker.
"Did… did something happen in the pack?"
"What? Girl, you went MIA after what happened. I was looking everywhere—"
"Lily!" Her own voice cracked. "Di—Did something happen in the pack today?"
A long, unsettling pause. Then a sigh.
"No… nothing much yet, but don't worry. Everyone's talking about the appeal for behavioral conduct during the lycan guests' visit. We were just as much a member of the pack as they were. Don't worry about a thing. Sally's father is gonna be back tomorrow evening. My parents are trying to cancel their trip, too. I just..! I just can't believe Uncle Marcus!"
Elara dragged herself to the bathroom.
"No, no, Lily. Did something else happen in the pack today?"
"Nothing major," Lily said after a pause, suspicious now. "Why are you asking like this? Elle?"
Elara bit her bottom lip, wiping the blood from her wound with rough swipes ignoring tthe sting. "Is...Is Luke in the packhouse?"
"...Elle, you—"
"Is he?"
"No, no, he isn't, girl! They left for a look around as soon as the dinner was over." She paused, "I really don't know what to say... Are you okay?"
Her fingers fumbled with the tap. Cold water sputtered out. She yanked her dress up, needing to clean the wound on her leg.
The water ran pink down her skin.
Her breath caught then her eyes widened.
Splinters.
Tiny wooden splinters from the floor, buried deep in the raw flesh on her wound, burned.
Her stomach dropped. "Oh God…"
They hadn't been there before. It wasn't a dream!
Did they dig into her skin when she scrambled across the cabin floor? When the monster was ripping Luke apart.
"Elara!" Lily's voice cut sharply through the line.
She shut her eyes, breathing hard to control the trembling. "Ye—yes. I was just asking. I—I gotta go—"
"Elle, no! Just hear me out!" Lily's tone had shifted, urgent now. "I'm in Alejandro's place. I thought you went there, but I couldn't find you anywhere last night! Tell me where you are, I'll send Sally to get you."
'...Would they believe me? No... they would, but what will happen next? Luke was the heir of the Acastor Moon Pack. What will become of her if she is the sole witness to his murder after he harassed her the night before?'
"I'm… fine, Lily. I'll call you in a bit. "
'Is that Elara?' She heard Alejandro in the background. 'Let me talk to her.'
"Elle! Elle, don't just hang up! Alejandro wants to talk to you, too, so just tell me where you are right now."
"I...I will call you back." Her voice cracked as her heart ached. "I'm on my way home."
Elara hung up before Lily could reply, sliding down against the cold bathroom tiles.
It was real.
Every second of last night came flooding back, sharper with each breath. The blood, the claws, the broken gurgle in Luke's throat.
And those eyes.
Gray eyes.
Her phone rang constantly. She turned it off to think. For all she knew... in the pack, only three people had them. Damon. Kaelen. And Alpha Duskbane himself.
Her chest constricted. That meant… it had to be one of them. The Alpha of the largest pack in the region—or one of his heirs.
"No, no! What am I thinking! Why would they kill their guest, a pure-blooded lycan? God, what do I do?"
But whoever he was... he saw her. He knew her face. He hadn't killed her last night, but why? Why had he stood there, fangs dripping, telling her to run?
Maybe he'd wanted her fear to stretch, to rot her alive from the inside. Maybe he'd come to finish the job now.
Something that Lycans' monthly hunting rituals have taught her is that they love a good chase... A shiver ran down her spine. When their hunts were scheduled, humans were strictly forbidden from entering the forest.
"What if he comes back now?"
She scrambled to her feet, heart pounding, and bolted out of the cabin. Her boots slapped the mud, lungs burning as she pushed herself into the forest's thinning edges until she broke onto the main road.
Voices.
A cluster of pack members was walking past. Their noses wrinkled instantly at the sight of her—mud-streaked, hair wild, dress still damp. She must've looked like a drowned rat, but Elara didn't care. Relief struck her so strongly that her knees nearly buckled. She wasn't alone. Not out here.
She pushed past them, running harder, wobbling on her shaky legs until her house came into view.
The moment she stumbled inside, she slammed the door shut and locked it. One lock. Two locks. Three. She twisted each until her fingers hurt, then pressed her forehead against the wood, panting.
Their small house came into view.
No matter what she did, whoever he was—Alpha, Damon, or Kaelen—they wouldn't leave her alone. They couldn't. She'd seen too much.
"I need to leave," she whispered, the words spilling into the empty room. "I can't stay here anymore."
She ran upstairs, two steps at a time, and threw open her wardrobe. Clothes tumbled into her arms in messy handfuls as she stuffed them into a worn travel bag. Her hands shook so badly she kept dropping things. Her breath came in short gasps, her mind screaming at her to hurry.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
She froze.
Her heart jumped so violently it hurt.
"No… no!"
The knocks came again, louder, deliberate, rattling the frame.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
A blouse slipping from her grip. Her pulse hammered in her ears.
Then came a faint creak, the shift of weight on wood.
Elara's mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out. The air had left her throat. Her body moved on instinct, spinning toward the door, trying to run—
—but her ankle twisted, and she fell hard, the bag spilling clothes across the floor.
She lay trembling, palms pressed flat against the boards, wide eyes darting between the door and the balcony.
KNOCK.
This time softer. Almost mocking, accompanied by the creak of his weight of the floor.
He was here.