CHAPTER 1: THE ESCAPE

LEO

I limped toward the woods, every step twisting my face into a grimace of pain. Sweat covered my body, my clothes clung to my skin, and my breath escaped through my split lips in short, painful gasps. A sharp, throbbing ache shot through my ribs with every movement, while my left leg threatened to give out beneath my weight.

Still, I kept going. I had to keep going.

When I finally reached the edge of the forest, I stopped dead in my tracks. Before me, the woods rose like an enormous wall of darkness.

I swallowed hard. No. Every part of my body refused to move forward.

For as long as I could remember, I had always been afraid of the darkness that lurked within the woods. Ever since childhood, the trees standing so close together, the branches that seemed to close above my head, and the unsettling thought of not knowing what might be hiding just a few feet away had always filled me with a deep sense of unease.

In a forest swallowed by darkness, danger could come from anywhere. That fear had earned me more than my fair share of ridicule.

What kind of wolf is afraid of the woods?

I could almost hear their laughter.

We are the masters of these forests, Leo.

And then there was that question, always accompanied by a mocking smile.

Are you sure you’re even a real wolf?

Even when my parents had tried to force me to confront my fear, I had always managed to find an excuse to avoid venturing into the woods alone after sunset.

And now, tonight, the very place I had spent my entire life avoiding had become my only chance of survival. If that wasn’t irony, I didn’t know what was.

I lifted my eyes toward the sky. Even the moon seemed to have decided to abandon me. Only a few hours earlier, it had been my most precious ally, yet now it had taken refuge behind an enormous dark cloud, plunging the forest into almost complete darkness.

“Coward…” I muttered.

A bitter smile tugged at my split lips.

Suddenly, something rustled in the undergrowth.

I flinched.

My smile vanished instantly.

My eyes darted nervously around me, searching the bushes, the trees, and the tall grass. For several seconds, I held my breath.

Nothing.

Just the wind.

At least, that was what I hoped.

I finally forced myself forward until I reached the first tree and pressed a hand against its trunk. The rough bark of the old oak scraped my palm, but I clung to it to keep myself from falling.

I closed my eyes.

Just a few seconds.

I only needed a few seconds to catch my breath.

A sharp pain tore through my ribs, and I clenched my teeth. My left leg throbbed so badly that I could feel my heartbeat pulsing all the way down into my thigh.

I couldn’t take much more.

Then I noticed something.

Down below.

Small, pale lights flickered in the distance.

One.

Then another.

Then several more.

Torches.

My heart skipped a beat.

They had found me.

I straightened immediately, almost forgetting the pain.

The forest.

I looked toward the darkness ahead of me.

Then toward the lights behind me.

Suddenly, the monsters my imagination had always placed among those trees seemed far less terrifying than the ones coming after me.

I plunged into the woods.

Using the tree trunks for support, I pushed forward as quickly as my injured leg would allow. Within moments, the darkness swallowed me completely.

Not a single ray of light pierced the canopy overhead.

The trees towered around me like tall, motionless figures, their crowns disappearing into the darkness. A thin mist crept between the trunks, brushing against ferns and twisted roots before vanishing into the depths of the forest.

And yet, everything seemed strangely peaceful.

A few leaves trembled beneath the gentle touch of the wind. The steady chirping of crickets mingled with the murmur of a stream I couldn’t see. Every now and then, the crack of a branch or the distant hoot of an owl disturbed the tranquility.

I kept moving despite the fear twisting my stomach into knots.

One step.

Then another.

And another.

I had almost managed to convince myself that I could do this when the ground began to tremble.

I froze.

No.

A flock of birds suddenly burst from the branches, filling the night with frantic cries and the thunderous beating of wings.

This time, I understood.

They had reached the edge of the woods.

Panic took over.

I grabbed my shirt and pulled so hard that the fabric tore apart. My tattered clothes fell piece by piece onto the damp ground. The freezing wind immediately bit into my naked skin, sending a violent shiver through my entire body.

But I had no time to worry about the cold.

I allowed the transformation to take hold.

The pain was brief and familiar.

My bones cracked. My body bent forward. My hands touched the ground before turning into paws, my nails lengthened into claws, and reddish fur gradually spread across my skin.

A few seconds later, the man was gone.

In his place stood a red wolf.

A wolf that was no longer particularly impressive.

My body was frail, so painfully thin that my ribs showed beneath my fur. My injuries hadn’t disappeared with the transformation. On the contrary, every single one of them seemed determined to remind me of its existence.

But there was only one thing I needed to do.

Run.

I leaped between the trees, my paws pounding against the damp earth at a frantic pace.

The darkness?

I wasn’t even thinking about it anymore.

Low branches whipped against my muzzle and caught in my fur. Sharp stones bruised the pads of my paws. Roots appeared without warning beneath my feet.

I ran.

As fast as my exhausted body would allow.

Eventually, the moon emerged from behind its cloud, and a few of its rays managed to slip through the thick canopy. Every now and then, they caught my reddish fur, making it blaze like fire in the night before the darkness swallowed me once more.

I had no idea how long I had been running.

My lungs burned.

Every breath was harder than the last.

My muscles begged me to slow down.

The pads of my paws, battered by stones and the miles I had covered, throbbed with every stride.

I wanted to stop.

To lie down.

To close my eyes.

Just for a moment.

But I couldn’t.

They were hunting me.

I strained my ears.

For several seconds, all I could hear was the pounding of my own paws against the ground and the harsh rasp of my breathing.

Maybe I had lost them.

Maybe—

A howl ripped through the night.

My blood ran cold.

A second howl answered.

Then a third.

They were still there.

Terror surged through my body like an electric shock.

I accelerated.

Faster.

I had to put as much distance between us as possible.

Reach another forest.

A river.

A border.

Anything.

I didn’t care where I was going.

I just needed them to lose my trail.

I leaped over a fallen tree trunk and continued running without slowing down. The trees blurred past me. I could barely make out anything anymore, only dark silhouettes, occasional flashes of moonlight, and fragments of ground appearing beneath my paws a split second before vanishing behind me.

Just a few more yards.

A little farther.

I could do this.

I could—

My front paw caught on a root.

Everything tilted.

My body was thrown forward with such violence that the air was knocked from my lungs.

I slammed into the ground.

Then I rolled.

A slope.

I hadn’t seen the slope.

I tried to dig my claws into the earth, but my body kept tumbling downward.

Dirt.

Branches.

Rocks.

Sky.

Dirt.

I no longer knew which way was up.

A branch tore across my flank, drawing a pained whimper from my throat. My claws desperately raked the ground, searching for something to hold on to, but found nothing.

Then I saw it.

An enormous boulder.

Right in front of me.

No.

I tried to twist my body away.

Too late.

My skull struck the stone.

An explosion of blinding pain erupted inside my head.

For a fraction of a second, I felt nothing.

No pain.

No fear.

No pursuers behind me.