The forest swallowed the hunters whole.
Blackthorn Forest was different at night—older, heavier, as if the trees remembered things people had long forgotten. Torches flickered as men pushed forward, their shadows stretching and twisting across the bark. The fog followed them in, curling around boots and ankles like grasping fingers.
Lena stayed at the edge of the trees, heart pounding. Grandma Mae's words echoed in her head: That night decides everything.
She shouldn't be here. She knew that. But as the first howl rolled through the forest—loud, furious, and aching—she stepped forward anyway.
The pendant burned against her skin.
Each pulse pulled her deeper into the woods, away from the torches and shouting voices. The sound of the hunt blurred behind her—metal clinking, men calling out, the crack of branches under heavy boots.
Then everything went quiet.
Lena stopped.
The silence felt wrong, like the forest itself was holding its breath. She could hear her own heartbeat, fast and uneven. A sudden flash of movement made her spin around.
"Elias?" she whispered.
A shape emerged between the trees.
He looked almost human now—tall, broad-shouldered, his face strained with pain. His eyes glowed faintly, and dark veins crept along his skin like cracks in stone. He fell to one knee, gripping the ground as if it were the only thing keeping him from breaking apart.
"You shouldn't be here," he said hoarsely.
Lena gasped. "You can talk."
"Sometimes," he replied. "When the moon allows it."
She took a cautious step closer. "They're hunting you."
A bitter smile crossed his face. "I know. They always do."
A scream rang out in the distance—one of the hunters. Then another. The forest trembled, branches shuddering as something massive moved nearby.
Elias stiffened. "They've brought silver."
"I know," Lena said. "You can't stay here."
He looked at her sharply. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Lena hesitated. The truth rose like a tide she couldn't hold back. "The pull. The heat. The way the forest listens."
Elias closed his eyes. "Then it's begun."
Before Lena could ask what he meant, the moonlight flared brighter. Elias cried out, collapsing to his hands and knees. His bones shifted with sickening force—not shown, only felt through his screams and the way the ground shook beneath him.
"Run!" he shouted. "Before I lose myself!"
"I won't leave you," Lena said, though fear screamed at her to do exactly that.
Voices drew closer. Torches bobbed through the fog.
"There!" someone yelled. "I see it!"
Elias's eyes snapped open—no longer amber, but blazing gold. He rose, towering, the beast fully awake now. For a terrifying moment, he turned toward Lena, nostrils flaring.
She raised the pendant instinctively.
The symbols glowed.
Elias froze.
"Where did you get that?" he growled.
"It was my mother's," Lena said. "She believed you could be saved."
Pain rippled across his face, fighting with fury. He staggered back just as a shot rang out. A silver bullet struck a tree inches from his head.
Elias roared, a sound that shook the forest, and leapt into the shadows.
The hunters charged forward, but Lena stood her ground.
"Stop!" she screamed. "You'll kill him!"
Sheriff Alden stepped into the clearing, rifle raised. "Get out of the way, girl. That thing isn't human anymore."
Lena met his gaze, shaking but unyielding. "He is. And so am I."
The pendant burned hotter, and for a split second, Lena saw the truth—visions of her mother, the forest, the curse binding their bloodline.
The moon pulsed overhead.
Something inside Lena answered.
Her shadow stretched unnaturally across the ground, claws forming where her fingers should have been—just for a heartbeat.
The sheriff faltered.
"What are you?" he whispered.
Lena lowered her hands, breath ragged. "I'm the one who's going to end this."
From deep within the forest, a howl answered her—recognizing, promising.
The hunt was no longer about a monster.
It was about her.