Chapter 1
The town of Hollow Pines always smelled like pine needles and mystery. Tucked between misty mountains and an ancient forest, it was the kind of place where people whispered instead of talked-and where no one went into the woods after dark.
Kaela hadn't been back since she was ten, but her grandmother's passing brought her home. The old cottage was just as she remembered: ivy-choked, creaky, and filled with the scent of dried herbs. But the forest felt... different. Alive, somehow. Watching her.
It started the first night.
A howl shattered the silence, deep and close.
Kaela, heart pounding, stepped onto the porch and saw something staggering: a massive wolf limping through the trees, its silver fur streaked with blood. But before she could react, it changed. Bones cracked.
Limbs shifted. An standing in its place was a man-tall, wild eyed sbd beautiful,with a gash across his shoulder. He looked at her “you saw too much” he said voice gravel and wind then he collapsed.
His name was Riven. And he was a werewolf.
Kaela nursed him back to health in the days that followed at first they barely spoke. But slowly
