His Shadow Watches

The moon slipped behind the clouds as I turned away from both of them, Killian and Aiden, still bristling like wolves seconds from almost tearing each other apart. I didn't care anymore. I couldn't.

They weren't the danger I felt crawling under my skin.

He was.

That presence hadn't vanished. It had just hidden better than they could see. But I felt it now like smoke in my lungs, like fire under my skin.

My wolf was pacing, ears pinned, eyes flashing gold. She didn't want to run.

She wanted to submit.

To him.

I almost tripped over a root, gasping, grabbing the bark of the nearest tree just to stay upright. The forest spun, not from exhaustion, but from the scent, dark and strange and ancient. Not wolf. Not only wolf.

Predator.

And it was circling.

I turned back to Killian and Aiden. They weren't looking at me now, they were growling, faces too close, chests heaving, testosterone thick in the air like smoke before a fire. Neither of them had noticed what I had.

He was behind them.

Watching me.

My voice cracked. "Stop. Now."

They didn't hear me. Or didn't care.

My fists clenched. "I said STOP!"

They froze.

Killian blinked. Aiden turned. Then both of them looked at me with a strange new caution, as if something in my tone had changed.

It had.

Because I wasn't speaking just as me anymore. Not the broken girl they'd left behind. Something was waking inside me. Something my wolf didn't recognize but bowed to all the same.

"I think we're being hunted," I said quietly.

That got their attention.

Killian's nostrils flared. Aiden's spine straightened.

Both alphas began to scan the tree line.

"You're sure?" Killian asked, voice low.

I nodded.

No one spoke after that.

The silence pressed down like snow, too thick to breathe through. The wind didn't rustle. The leaves didn't sway. The woods were holding their breath.

And then…

A shadow moved.

Not in the trees.

Above them.

It dropped like smoke, like a living piece of the night, landing without a sound on the branch of a tree not twenty feet away. He stood there, tall, still, hooded and even though I couldn't see his face, I felt his eyes burn through me.

Killian and Aiden turned at once, both of them shifting halfway, claws half-out, muscles bunching.

But they didn't lunge.

They hesitated.

Because they felt it too.

This wasn't just another alpha.

He was something else.

"I've been patient," the man said.

His voice was deep and quiet, like embers crackling under ash. It slid down my spine, not soft, not loud, but felt like it had been etched into my bones before I was born.

My wolf went still.

Killian snarled. "Who the hell are you?"

The figure tilted his head. "I think you already know."

Aiden growled low. "That bond. The third tie—"

"It's mine," the man said, cutting him off. "She's mine."

The words didn't feel like a claim.

They felt like a sentence.

I stumbled back, hitting another tree.

"No," I breathed. "No, I—I don't know you. You can't—"

"I've watched you for years," he said calmly. "From the moment your wolf first howled under a blood moon. I was meant to wait. To come to you last."

He stepped forward, leaping from the branch without a sound.

When he landed, I finally saw his face.

He wasn't old. Not in the way I'd imagined. He looked… maybe twenty-five. Sharp cheekbones, shadowed jaw, and eyes like burning silver, too bright, too inhuman. Tattoos twisted up his neck, black and ancient. Runes in a language I didn't know.

But more than his face, it was the feeling that undid me.

The way my knees almost buckled from the pull.

The way my soul screamed.

Not in fear.

In recognition.

"You're not supposed to exist," Aiden whispered.

"Neither are you," the man replied.

Then he looked at me again.

And gods, that look, like I was prey and throne and fate all wrapped into one.

"What are you?" I whispered.

He didn't blink. "Your final bond."

"No."

"Yes."

"I can't handle this—"

"You don't have a choice."

My breath caught.

Because somewhere deep in me, I knew he was right.

The bond was already forming. Thread by thread. Rope by rope. Not soft like Killian's. Not familiar like Aiden's. This one was something darker. Hungrier. Binding me not in silk or heat…

But in chains.

Killian stepped between us. "You'll have to go through me."

"So be it," the man said.

Aiden moved too, both of them suddenly aligned for the first time in years, two alphas standing shoulder to shoulder.

But the man didn't flinch.

He smiled.

And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Smoke.

Vanished into the trees again without a trace.

Only the echo of his voice lingered:

 "You'll feel me again when the moon is full. And when you do, don't run."

Silence returned.

But nothing felt still.

Nothing felt safe.

Aiden cursed under his breath. "We need to get her out of here."

Killian was already turning to me, his hand out. "Come on. We're going."

I didn't move.

"I'm serious."

I looked at them both, heart hammering, mouth dry.

"I think it's already too late."