The world slowed when the howl ended.
The air itself seemed to bend, thick with static and silver light. Nova couldn't move. She stood rooted at the edge of the field, pendant cold and glowing against her chest, while Caleb's voice echoed somewhere far behind her—panicked, human, normal.
"Nova! What is that?!"
She didn't answer. She couldn't.
Because whatever was stepping out from the trees wasn't a shadow anymore.
It had a body.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Covered in thick fur that shimmered dark blue under the stormlight. Its eyes glowed a molten gold, the same shade as Elijah's only feral, hungry.
The creature snarled, steam rising from its breath.
Caleb grabbed her arm. "We have to go"
The monster lunged.
Nova didn't think. Her instincts moved before her mind did jerking Caleb aside, throwing him to the grass. Claws slashed through the air where his chest had been a heartbeat ago.
The sound was deafening. The scent of ozone filled her nose, sharp and burning.
"Run!" she shouted.
But Caleb froze, wide-eyed and pale. The creature's gaze snapped toward him again, and Nova didn't know what possessed her but she stepped between them.
The pendant flared like lightning.
A burst of light exploded from her chest, throwing the creature backward into the trees with a bone-cracking crash.
Silence.
Smoke curled from the grass where the light had hit.
Caleb stared at her as if she'd grown wings or fangs. "What the hell was that?"
Nova looked down. Her hands glowed faintly at the fingertips. The light pulsed once, then faded.
"I, I don't know," she whispered.
Before she could say more, she heard footsteps light, fast, familiar.
Elijah burst out from the treeline, his face tight with fury. "I told you not to come here!"
Nova's head snapped toward him. "You knew it would come back!"
"I felt it," he said through clenched teeth. "You called it."
Her stomach twisted. "Called it?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he turned toward the woods. "Get him out of here," he said, nodding to Caleb.
Caleb stepped forward. "I'm not leaving her"
Elijah's eyes flashed amber. "You will if you want to live."
Caleb stumbled back, his bravado evaporating under that inhuman gaze. Nova wanted to protest, but another sound cut through the air low growling, deeper this time. More than one.
Elijah's jaw tightened. "They're hunting in pairs."
Then, before she could blink, he moved. One moment he stood beside her; the next, he was halfway across the clearing, meeting the charging shapes head-on.
The transformation wasn't subtle.
Elijah's bones seemed to ripple beneath his skin, muscles tightening, claws tearing through the air. It wasn't monstrous it was beautiful and terrible, like the forest itself had taken human form to fight back.
He collided with the first creature, the sound echoing like thunder.
Nova's instincts screamed to run but her feet wouldn't move. Something inside her was burning now, the same pulse from before, stronger, wilder.
Her heartbeat matched the rhythm of the growls, the clash of claws against claws.
Caleb grabbed her arm again, shouting something she couldn't hear. The world was a blur of light and shadow.
Then one of the beasts broke through Elijah's defense slashing across his shoulder. He staggered, blood dark against his shirt.
Nova's breath caught.
The pain in her chest flared sharp, unbearable. And then she heard it:
a whisper, like the forest speaking through her bones.
"Protect the pack."
Her vision blurred white.
Heat surged through her spine, her skin splitting open with light instead of blood. The pendant burned against her chest and when she screamed, the sound wasn't human.
Wolves howled in answer.
Then everything went black.
When she opened her eyes, she was lying in the ruins of what used to be the football field. The grass was scorched in a perfect circle around her. The air stank of smoke and rain.
Elijah knelt nearby, blood drying on his neck but eyes still bright, watching her.
"You shifted," he said quietly.
Nova tried to sit up, dizzy. "Shifted? What does that mean?"
"It means," he said, voice trembling between awe and fear, "you're not human anymore."
Her throat went dry. "Then what am I?"
Elijah hesitated, then met her gaze. "The last of the Moonbound line."