Chapter 1
The silence of the forest at dawn had a peaceful calm that Maya was starting to love. She had left the city searching for exactly that: a stillness that simply didn’t exist there.
She slid her finger over the screen of her new camera, checking the settings for the fourth time as if it were something inevitable, a little ritual of hers. As if, suddenly, the device might just turn itself off.
She always did the same thing. She wanted to make sure every photograph came out perfect, without having to fix anything later or resort to Photoshop. It wasn’t that using it was wrong, but she preferred capturing authentic, original images, taken with her own hands.
“Come on, give me something nice…” she murmured, looking for a good angle to photograph a deer she had spotted among the trees.
She had been staying for two days in a small wooden cabin, lost among pines that seemed endless. She had paid three weeks in advance, determined to use this forced retreat to forget her unbearable boss and a lifestyle that was consuming her. According to the blogs she had read, nature was perfect for “detoxing.” Well… it was also an excellent excuse to finally force herself to take a vacation.
And to try out her first professional camera. She had owned cameras before, yes, but none of this quality. This one had cost her months of saving while working at a magazine specializing in wild animals.
The cold air felt pleasant thanks to the thick hoodie she was wearing. She moved carefully among protruding roots and fallen branches, focusing on an old log while waiting for some curious deer to appear or a bird to stay still long enough.
Nothing.
“Perfect… just like my life. Pure wasted potential,” she complained with a faint smile.
She inhaled the icy air, taking a few more steps to the right in search of a better angle. And then she heard it: a soft, distant crack, but not distant enough to ignore.
Maya tensed.
It was probably a squirrel. Or a fox, she told herself, though her inner voice sounded more anxious than convincing.
Another sound. Closer.
Heavier.
Maya gripped the camera with both hands, though they were trembling slightly. She didn’t know why she was shaking when, as far as she knew, she hadn’t seen any truly dangerous animal.
She moved slowly to the side, aiming the camera through the pines. She peeked through the lens, ready to capture whatever was moving.
A little zoom.
Another.
And then she saw it.
A wolf.
Big.
Very big.
Much larger than she had thought a real wolf could be.
Her heart skipped a beat, though she couldn’t tell if it was fear or excitement.
“Wow… a wolf. A real wolf,” she whispered, almost euphoric. “Alright, little wolf, don’t move so much…”
Anxiety was eating her alive, but so was the adrenaline of the perfect shot.
She started taking photos.
And then it happened.
Her camera captured, frame by frame, the exact moment the wolf that had emerged from the brush began to transform. Its body arched. Bones cracked. Limbs changed shape. Fur receded, sliding as if absorbed by the skin. The jaw contracted until it formed a human face.
The wolf was no longer a wolf.
And it became a man.
He fell to his knees, breathing heavily, as if the process had drained every fiber of his body. His skin still trembled, muscles adjusting as if settling under an invisible force. The man leaned forward, one hand on the ground.
The body of that man, large and muscular, took shape before her eyes. In profile, his silhouette was an impossible blend of strength and vulnerability, still trembling from the metamorphosis. The muscles in his back tensed and relaxed in waves, as if each fiber was slowly remembering it belonged to a human and not a beast.
His chest expanded with a deep, powerful breath, revealing the defined line of his pectorals moving with the agitated rhythm of his recovery. Broad shoulders gleamed in the dim light, covered by a thin layer of sweat tracing the carved contours of his muscles.
Maya felt the air leave her chest.
Her finger, however, never stopped pressing the shutter.
Photos.
Photos.
Photos.
It was as if she couldn’t stop.
She inhaled deeply, but the air got stuck in her throat.
And then, as if fate decided it had toyed with her enough, she stepped back.
And onto a branch.
CRACK.
The sound echoed like a dry hit in the forest. Like when you try to walk in your house and the door creaks as if you slammed it against the wall, giving away your location.
The man lifted his head.
Turned toward her.
And saw her.
His eyes—clear, intense, still shining with a trace of wildness—locked onto Maya’s.
She felt the world stop.
The man squinted, as if he needed a second to focus on what he was seeing. He was still breathing heavily, chest rising and falling with an almost animal force. It was like watching a predator reorganize his senses after returning to human form.
Maya didn’t move. She couldn’t. Even if she had tried.
Her body was rigid, frozen, anchored to the ground by a mix of terror, fascination… and an absurd curiosity that refused to die even in life-or-death situations. It was as if her brain screamed “run” while her soul said, “wait, wait, what the hell was THAT?”
The man slowly straightened, both hands resting on his thighs. Each movement seemed heavy, tense, as if the transformation had left its mark on every muscle. Still, there was something about him… something powerful even in this almost vulnerable state.
He stood upright.
And there, for the first time, Maya could see him fully.
God.
The guy was enormous. A wall. A living sculpture carved with intent. The definition of his muscles, the strength in his stance, the breadth of his shoulders… it was as if the forest had made him to intimidate everything that breathed within it.
And he was still naked.
“Shit…” she whispered, barely lowering the camera an inch. It wasn’t modesty. It was shock.
The man’s lips moved slightly, as if trying to speak, but only a low, deep growl came out, making the air between them vibrate.
Maya swallowed hard.
