Adeline's POV
The horse's mane slipped through my fingers.
I was losing my grip. My hands were too cold, too sweaty, too shaky from fear.
Behind me, Marcus's footsteps pounded closer. "You can't run forever, Adeline!"
Yes, I could. I had to.
I wrapped the horse's mane tighter around my fists and squeezed my legs against its sides. "Please," I whispered to the massive black animal beneath me. "Please run. Please save me."
The horse's ears swiveled back, like it was listening.
Then it launched forward like a rocket.
I'd ridden horses my whole life. Fast horses. Champion racehorses. Expensive show horses that cost more than houses.
But I'd never ridden anything like this.
This horse didn't run. It flew.
Its hooves barely touched the ground. Wind screamed in my ears. My eyes watered so badly I could hardly see.
Trees whipped past us in a blur of white and brown. Snow sprayed up from the horse's hooves like ocean waves.
"Holy," I couldn't even finish the sentence. I was too busy holding on for my life.
Behind us, Marcus's voice was already fading. "COME BACK HERE! THAT HORSE IS WORTH MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER BE!"
Good. Let him chase me. This horse was faster than anything he had.
We burst into the tree line, and everything changed.
The temperature dropped instantly. Not just cold freezing. My breath turned to ice crystals in the air.
And the trees were different.
These weren't the normal pine trees that surrounded Pine Valley. These were massive oaks with trunks wider than cars. Their branches twisted together overhead like a ceiling.
Silver mist rose from the ground, glowing in the moonlight.
"Where are we?" I asked out loud.
The horse snorted and ran faster.
Okay. So we weren't stopping to chat. Got it.
I tried pulling back on the horse's mane, using the rope that still dangled from its halter. "Whoa, boy. Easy. We're far enough away now."
The horse ignored me completely.
"Hey!" I pulled harder. "I said stop!"
Nothing. If anything, the horse sped up.
Fear started creeping up my spine. Not fear of Marcus anymore. Fear of this situation.
I didn't know where I was. I was on a stolen horse that wouldn't listen to me. And the woods around us were getting stranger by the second.
Lights flickered between the trees. Not firelight. Not flashlight beams. Something else. Blue and green and purple, dancing through the mist like living things.
"This is bad," I muttered. "This is really, really bad."
The horse's hooves made almost no sound on the forest floor. Like we were running on clouds instead of dirt.
Then the trees started glowing.
I'm not kidding. The actual bark lit up with silver symbols. They pulsed in rhythm with the horse's hoofbeats, boom, boom, boom.
"What is happening?" My voice came out high and squeaky. "What are those?"
The symbols got brighter as we passed. The air around us started crackling with energy. Static electricity made all the hair on my arms stand up.
My skin tingled. My teeth buzzed. Even my bones felt like they were vibrating.
Something was very wrong with these woods.
"Stop!" I shouted at the horse. "You have to stop! This place isn't normal!"
But the horse just kept running. It knew exactly where it was going.
Like it had been here before.
Oh no.
A horrible thought hit me: What if this horse belonged to someone who lived in these weird woods? What if I'd accidentally stolen it from its home?
"I'm so sorry," I said to the horse. "I didn't know you lived here. I just needed to escape. I'll get off as soon as you stop, I promise."
The horse's ears flicked back again. But it still didn't slow down.
The mist got thicker. I could barely see five feet in front of us. But the horse seemed to know the path perfectly.
We ran and ran through the glowing forest. Minutes passed. Or maybe hours. I couldn't tell anymore.
My legs were cramping from gripping so tightly. My hands were numb from holding the mane. My face felt frozen from the wind.
But I didn't let go. Because letting go meant falling. And falling in these woods felt like a very bad idea.
Finally, the horse started to slow.
Relief flooded through me. "Thank you. Oh, thank you."
But my relief died fast when I saw what was ahead.
Through the mist and the glowing trees, a massive wall rose up into the night sky.
Not a wall made of wood or brick. This was stone and steel mixed together in a way that shouldn't be possible. It stretched as far as I could see in both directions.
And it was tall. Really tall. Taller than any building I'd ever seen.
Towers rose from the wall like giant spikes. Lights shone from windows way up high. The whole thing looked like a castle from a fantasy movie.
Except this was real. I could see it. Smell it, stone and metal and something else. Something wild.
"No," I whispered. "No, we can't go there."
But the horse was already walking toward massive gates set into the wall.
The gates started to open with a sound like thunder rolling.
Guards appeared on top of the wall. Lots of them. They shouted things I couldn't understand and pointed weapons down at me.
Real weapons. Swords and spears and bows with arrows.
Who still used swords and spears?
"I'm sorry!" I called them up. My voice shook. "I didn't mean to come here! I just needed to escape someone, and this horse brought me here on its own!"
The guards didn't lower their weapons. If anything, they aimed more carefully.
A man stepped through the open gates.
Everything in my body told me to run. To kick the horse and race back into the woods.
But I couldn't move. I was frozen, watching this man walk toward me with slow, deliberate steps.
He was tall. Really tall. With broad shoulders and a powerful build. His dark hair had silver streaks running through it, catching the light from the torches on the walls.
But his eyes were what scared me most.
They were gray. Storm-cloud gray. And they burned with cold, controlled fury.
This was not a man you wanted to make angry.
And I had definitely made him angry.
He walked closer. Guards followed behind him, weapons ready. The horse I was sitting on stood perfectly still now, like it was waiting for orders.
The man stopped right beside us. He looked up at me with those terrifying gray eyes.
Up close, I could see he was probably in his thirties. Strong jaw. Sharp features. A scar cutting through one eyebrow.
He looked like he'd been in battles. Won battles.
And I'd just stolen his horse.
"Who," he said in a voice that made the ground vibrate, "dares to steal my horse?"
His horse. I was right. This was his home. These were his guards. His fortress.
And I was a thief.
"I didn't steal him!" The words tumbled out of me. "I mean, I did, but not on purpose! I was running from someone, and he was just there, and I needed to escape."
"Silence." One word. But it cut through my babbling like a knife.
I shut my mouth instantly.
He studied me for a long moment. Those gray eyes traveled from my face down to my hands still tangled in his horse's mane, then back up.
"You rode Shadowmere," he said quietly. Dangerously. "Through the Thornwood Forest. On Christmas Eve."
Was that bad? It sounded bad from the way he said it.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't know the forest was special. I was just running."
"From what?" He took a step closer. "What could possibly make a human desperate enough to steal a wolf's horse and ride into forbidden territory?"
Wolf. He said wolf.
My heart stopped.
"You're a werewolf?" I stammered.
His eyes flashed gold for just a second. Like Marcus's had. "I'm not just a werewolf, little thief. I'm the Alpha King."
Alpha King. The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
I'd stolen from a king. A werewolf king.
"I didn't know," I said quickly. "I swear I didn't know who you were or who this horse belonged to. I just needed to escape."
"You said that already." He reached up toward me. "Come down. Now."
"What are you going to do to me?" My voice came out small and scared.
"That depends." His hand was getting closer to my wrist. "Are you going to cooperate? Or do I need to force you?"
I looked at his hand. At the guards behind him. At the massive fortress with its impossible walls.
I had nowhere to run. No way to escape.
I was trapped.
"I'll cooperate," I whispered.
"Smart girl." His hand closed around my wrist.
And the world exploded.
Pain and pleasure, and something huge slammed through my body all at once. It felt like being hit by lightning. Like drowning in electricity. Like every nerve I had was on fire.
I screamed.
The Alpha King gasped and stumbled backward. But he didn't let go of my wrist.
"What?" His eyes went wide with shock. "No. That's not possible."
The horse beneath me reared up. I lost my grip and started falling.
The guards were shouting. The Alpha King was saying something I couldn't hear over the ringing in my ears.
And through it all, I felt it.
A pulling sensation in my chest. Like someone had tied a rope around my heart and was yanking on it.
The rope led straight to the Alpha King.
What was happening to me?
I hit the ground hard. Pain exploded through my shoulder and hip.
The Alpha King dropped to his knees beside me. His face was inches from mine. Those gray eyes were filled with something that looked like horror.
"You," he whispered. "You're"
"What?" I gasped. "What am I?"
But before he could answer, a familiar voice cut through the night.
"ADELINE!"
No.
No, no, no, no.
Marcus burst through the tree line with Jake and three other wolves. They all had gold eyes now. Fully shifted into their wolf forms.
And they were running straight toward the fortress.
Straight toward me.
"That's mine!" Marcus roared, pointing at me. "She belongs to my pack! Hand her over!"
The Alpha King's expression went from horror to cold rage in an instant.
He stood up, putting himself between Marcus and me. When he spoke, his voice made the very air tremble.
"No one," he said, "takes what belongs to me."
Belongs to him?
What did that mean?
The pulling sensation in my chest got stronger. So strong it hurt.
And I realized something terrible.
Whatever had happened when the Alpha King touched my wrist, it had changed everything.
I wasn't just a thief anymore.
I was something else.
Something that made a king willing to fight for me.