Chapter 98

Aria & Darren

Aria

I paused just at the forest’s edge, straining my ears to listen. The forest was silent now, save for the sound of the wind rustling through the pine trees and the birds flitting across the path.

It didn’t feel right to just walk away when someone was calling for help, but I knew better than to go into those woods alone. Over the past couple of days, Darren had drilled that into me enough times, and I wasn’t exactly eager to test my luck—especially after what had happened with those strange insects last night.

But I couldn’t just leave. Not when someone might need my help.

“Hello?” I called out, taking a cautious step closer.

There was no reply for a moment, and I almost convinced myself I imagined it—until a faint voice replied from somewhere down the path.

“Oh, thank the Goddess someone came! Can you please help me? I twisted my ankle!”

I squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever was calling for help, but I couldn’t see anyone. It was definitely a woman’s voice, but I didn’t recognize it.

“Where are you?” I called out, figuring that if she was too far I could run and get help instead.

“Not far! I’m just past the bend,” the woman answered quickly. “Please, I can’t walk.”

I took an instinctive step closer, but then hesitated. Darren would kill me if he found out I wandered into the forest alone. But the thought of leaving someone injured when they were close by felt cowardly and wrong.

Besides, I thought rather selfishly, this was another chance to prove to the pack that I genuinely cared, that I wasn’t just an unfeeling outsider raised by humans. If little acts like this could ease the others’ perception of me, then it was worth a try, wasn’t it?

Taking a breath, I stepped forward, my boots sinking slightly into the fresh snow.

“I’m coming!” I called out, pushing deeper into the woods.

The forest swallowed me quickly, and it was darker than I anticipated thanks to the dense canopy of snow-covered branches. Shadows engulfed the path up ahead, but I knew she was just beyond the bend, which was just ten or so yards further. So I followed the voice, my hands stuffed deep into my coat pockets as the sunless cold began to bite harder at my exposed skin.

But the further I walked, the more uneasy I felt. Every time I thought I was getting closer, the voice drifted again, this time to my right.

“Over here!”

I shifted course, frowning. “I don’t see you!” I called out.

“I’m over here! I see you now!”

I spun around, blinking through the thicket. But there was no one there.

That went on for a few minutes, the voice constantly changing direction. She kept assuring me that she was right there, that she could see me, and her pleas became more desperate. Soon, I began to get turned around, losing sight of the original path.

“It really hurts!” she cried out, sounding on the verge of tears. “Please, I can’t get home on my own!”

Eventually, though, something… shifted. It didn’t hit me at first, but when it did, it hit me like a freight train.

The birds had stopped singing.

The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I stopped walking, turning slowly in a circle. The forest was dark. Silent. And no one was there.

My stomach twisted.

How far had I walked? The path behind me was long gone, and the realization sank in like ice water down my spine.

I was lost.

“Hello?” I called out again, my voice cracking.

Nothing. No answer, no footsteps, and still no birdsong. Even the wind seemed to have gone silent. I may not have been a survival extraordinaire, but I knew enough about a silent forest to know one thing: if it suddenly goes quiet, then it’s not for no reason.

Panic lanced through me, and I suddenly began to regret my decision to blindly walk into the forest. I turned, figuring I could retrace my steps, but the sound of a snapping twig—like a gunshot in the silence—made me freeze again.

I spun around sharply, and my heart lodged itself in my throat when I saw the source of the sound.

Emerging from the trees were three wolves, large and dark, their eyes glinting under the pale morning light.

…

Darren

Lucas’s giggles filled the air as I lifted him onto my shoulders, his mittened hands gripping the top of my head for balance.

“Higher, Daddy!” he squealed, leaning forward so far I had to steady him with one hand.

“If I lift you any higher, you’ll fly away,” I teased, adjusting him as we trudged through the snow, back toward the village after a quick snow mobile ride. “And then who’s going to help me build the biggest snow fort ever?”

Lucas grinned wide, his cheeks pink from the cold. “Aria can help too!”

I smirked despite myself. “Oh, you think so?”

“Mhm!” Lucas bounced slightly on my shoulders, his little legs swinging. “Are you guys in love yet?”

I nearly stumbled. His innocent question hit far harder than I expected, and without thinking, I lifted Lucas off my shoulders and set him back in the snow.

Love. I hadn’t thought about it. Not like that.

Sure, there was no denying how I felt about Aria. She was everything I didn’t expect but somehow exactly what I needed. But love… I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to add that word to my vocabulary just yet. Or ever, if I was being honest. I’d never considered the idea of loving someone before. Not in a romantic sense, anyway.

“That’s not how it works, buddy,” I said, trying to keep my voice light so as not to concern him.

Lucas made a face. “But you like her a lot.”

I hesitated, unsure of what to say, but thankfully Lucas didn’t wait for an answer. Another boy called his name from the edge of the village, and he scrambled away, his face lighting up.

“I’m gonna play with the other kids! Bye, Daddy!” he yelled, darting off through the snow before I could stop him.

I watched him go, a faint smile tugging at my lips. It was nice to see him play with the other kids, although it was a bittersweet feeling. They didn’t know that Lucas was half human. If they found out, it could alienate him from the entire pack, from his entire kind.

But now Aria was here. She wasn’t a human, not technically, but she was still essentially a human in everyone’s eyes. Even mine, to some extent.

And yet… if she stayed, if she kept proving herself to these people… could they learn to be more trusting of humans? Could they even learn to accept humans? Could Lucas someday learn the truth about his real parents, and no longer live a lie?

That was all I wanted for him. And as for Aria, well…

It was impossible not to notice how I felt about her. But that didn’t mean it would work between us. Not with the life she still had in the human world. I wasn’t sure if I could ask her to leave it behind, not when so few wolves ever integrated with humans.

But that was a consideration for another day.

I exhaled sharply, heading back toward the pack house.

Wendy was standing just inside the doorway when I entered, her eyes narrowing knowingly. “She’s out walking,” she said before I could even ask. “And you know, there’s no harm in telling her how you feel.”

I huffed, tugging off my gloves. “Nosy as always, Grandmother.”

“I’m just observant,” she corrected, arching a brow at me. “Lucas is right: you obviously like each other. You should talk to her, Darren. Not just… whatever you did last night.”

I shot her a look, but she only smirked.

“I’m serious,” she added, her gaze softening. “You two are fated mates. That still means something, even in this day and age.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“Good.” Wendy smiled. “Then do the right thing.”

I nodded, although the ‘right thing’ just felt murkier by the second.

Before I could say anything else, Lucas burst inside, panting, his face flushed with more than just cold.

“Daddy!” he gasped. “I just saw Mommy walk into the woods all alone! And I smelled that mean lady Tracy!”