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Chapter 7 - chapter seven

Selene's POV

The man's voice lingered long after he vanished into the crowd.

Smooth. Too smooth.

I told myself to forget it — strangers in the city had a knack for creeping into your day if you let them. But his eyes… they wouldn't leave me alone. They were wrong. Not in color, but in depth. As if they weren't looking at me, but through me, peeling away layers I didn't even know I had.

The street noise faded behind me as I walked home, weaving past leaning lamp posts and cracked sidewalks. I glanced over my shoulder more times than I cared to admit. Each time, nothing. The city looked the same as it always did — worn down but familiar.

By the time I reached my building, the sun had ducked behind the crooked skyline, leaving the streets in a bruised shade of twilight. My apartment door groaned as I pushed it open. The air inside was still, stale, like it had been holding its breath all day.

I bolted the lock. Twice.

Normal. I needed normal. Tea, maybe music. Something steady to drown the way my skin prickled. I busied myself in the kitchen, the hum of the kettle filling the quiet, but the silence underneath it was… wrong. Too complete.

The tea steamed in my hands, but the warmth didn't reach the cold blooming along the back of my neck. I curled up on the couch, laptop on my knees, scrolling aimlessly, but I kept glancing at the window.

The building faced a narrow alley. Normally, the shadows down there were harmless — dumpsters, stray cats, the occasional trash bag that twitched in the wind. Tonight, though, the darkness looked heavier. Like it had… shape.

I told myself it was my imagination. Just city shadows and tired eyes.

But then something moved.

I froze, the mug halfway to my lips. At first, it was just the faintest shift, like the shadow had breathed. And then it stepped forward.

A figure. Tall. Too still. His silhouette was sharp against the faint streetlight bleeding into the alley. Not the man from the café — I could tell by the breadth of his shoulders — but something about him was… unnatural.

The air around him seemed to hum, faintly, the way power lines do when you stand too close.

My fingers tightened on the mug.

He didn't move closer. Just stood there, like he was waiting. Watching.

And then, slowly — deliberately — his head tilted.

The breath left my lungs in a shallow gasp. I stumbled backward, bumping into the coffee table. My phone sat there, just out of reach, but my eyes refused to leave the window.

The hum deepened, low and almost… predatory.

One step toward the phone.

A sharp scrape echoed through the alley — metal against stone. No… not metal. Claws.

The sound was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by a silence so deep it made the hair on my arms stand up.

And then, his mouth curved. Not a friendly smile — a promise.

I grabbed my phone, fumbling to unlock it, my hands shaking so badly I nearly dropped it. I didn't know if I should call the police, a friend, anyone. What would I even say? There's a man outside my window and I think he's humming at me?

The lights flickered once. Twice. Then died.

The dark swallowed everything.

My reflection ghosted faintly in the window, but behind it — movement. The figure had stepped closer. I could see the faint glint of his eyes now. They weren't human.

The kettle in the kitchen shrieked.

I jolted, the sound slicing through the silence, and in that split second of distraction, the figure was gone.

Vanished.

The alley was empty, as if nothing had been there at all.

I stood there, phone clutched to my chest, trying to convince myself I'd imagined it — when the faintest sound slid in from the darkness.

Not claws this time. Not humming.

A voice.

Soft. Amused. Close.

"Found you."

Kael's POV

The wind shifted, and her scent slid through the night like a blade through silk.

Warm. Unfamiliar. Dangerous.

Nyx stirred instantly in the back of my mind, his low growl vibrating in my chest.

She's close.

We had been circling the forest's edge for hours, tracking that one thread of scent that had been haunting me since the first time I caught it. I didn't know her name, but every instinct screamed she belonged to me. And tonight… someone else had found her first.

I heard the faint crunch of leaves long before I saw him — the rogue. His steps were deliberate, controlled, like a predator that thought his prey couldn't hear him. He wasn't just wandering; he was following her.

Nyx snarled. He's hunting her. Tear him apart.

I moved silently through the undergrowth, my boots sinking into the damp earth. My eyes locked on the shadow ahead — his dark form slipping between the trees, keeping just enough distance from the girl on the lit path beyond the forest line.

She walked alone, shoulders slightly tense, glancing over her shoulder like she could feel him. She couldn't see me — she never looked far enough into the trees — but I could feel her heartbeat from here, quick and uneven.

The rogue stepped closer to the edge, careful to stay hidden. He wasn't going to rush her; no, this one was patient, the kind that liked to corner his prey slowly. His focus was so fixed on her that he didn't notice me closing in.

I was ten paces away when Nyx suddenly stiffened.

Wait. He smells it.

The rogue's head lifted slightly, and he froze. His nostrils flared, picking up my scent on the wind. In an instant, his body language changed — shoulders coiling, breath quickening. He didn't attack. He didn't even look at her again. He turned sharply and vanished into the deeper woods, his retreat as swift as it was silent.

I could've chased him. Every instinct wanted to. But my gaze was already fixed on her.

Selene.

I didn't know her name yet, but something in me did. The bond — faint but undeniable — tightened in my chest. She was standing still now, eyes sweeping the shadows. Not at the rogue's path. At mine.

And then—

"Found you," a male voice called from behind her.

She jumped, spinning toward the streetlight. A young man stepped into view, casual, like he'd been looking for her all night. I recognized him instantly.

Evan.

Nyx bristled. Friend? Or problem?

I stayed in the shadows, my jaw tight. Evan walked right up to her, too close, speaking low. She relaxed — not entirely, but enough. I couldn't hear their words over the hum of the street, but I could see the way her shoulders eased, the way her lips curved slightly in what might've been relief.

Relief… for him.

Nyx growled in my mind, restless. We should take her now. Before she's gone again.

I didn't move. Not yet. My instincts screamed that storming into her life in this moment would ruin everything. She didn't know what we were. She didn't even know the rogue had been here for her. And Evan — if he was human, he was dangerously in the way. If he wasn't, then his presence meant something worse.

I took a slow step back, letting the forest swallow me again.

Selene and Evan began walking together down the path, away from the trees, their voices fading into the hum of the night. She didn't glance back once.

But the rogue's scent still lingered, faint but poisonous in the air, and I knew this wasn't over. He hadn't given up — just retreated. And next time, I might not get there first.

Nyx's voice was a cold promise in my mind. We hunt him next.

I looked once more toward where she'd disappeared with Evan. My fists curled at my sides.

We hunt them all.

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