The stolen clothes were stiff against Nova’s skin, the fabric clinging uncomfortably to her after so much time spent in her wolf form. The oversized hoodie helped ward off the chill of the night, but it did little to smother the gnawing sensation in her chest. Hunger, exhaustion, and this weight she now felt was suffocating her.

  Kael moved ahead of her, silent and steady, his dark figure cutting through the dense forest like a phantom. He barely made a sound as he walked, his steps deliberate and controlled. Nova, on the other hand, was painfully aware of every branch she stepped on, every misplaced footfall that sent pebbles skittering into the darkness. The contrast between them irritated her.

  “Do you always walk like you’re gliding over air?” she muttered.

  Kael didn’t look back. “Do you always walk like you’re trying to alert everything in a ten-mile radius?”

  Nova scowled but said nothing. She wanted to be a part of this life. She felt at ease here, like this is where she was supposed to be all along. Shouldn’t it be second nature to her? She wasn’t used to moving like she belonged in the wilderness, listening for things beyond what her eyes could see.

  Kael abruptly stopped. Nova nearly collided with him.

  “Pay attention,” he said. “The forest speaks if you know how to listen.”

  She folded her arms. “Great. Now it’s a talking forest.”

  Kael sighed, then stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Close your eyes,” he murmured, his breath warm against her ear.

  Nova hesitated. She wasn’t sure why, but she did as he asked, the tension in her shoulders melting away under his touch.

  “There’s a stream up ahead, about a mile,” he said. “I want you to focus on it.”

  She frowned. “You can hear water from this far away?”

  “Yes,” Kael murmured, his lips brushing her temple. “But I can smell it too.” He kissed the side of her neck, slow, deliberate. “And so can you.”

  Nova inhaled sharply. The air was thick with Kael’s scent, smoke, pine, something darker that was uniquely him. But underneath it was something else. Damp earth, moss, and a sharp, clean note she hadn’t thought to define. Water.

  She had noticed it before, hadn’t she? But it was just another sound, another smell in the constant flood of input her body forced upon her. She’d dismissed it without realizing. But now… now, with Kael’s hands steadying her and his voice guiding her, it became real.

  Her lips parted slightly. “I hear it,” she whispered.

  Kael hummed his approval, his grip around her waist tightening for the briefest second before he pulled back. “Good,” he said.

  Kael started walking again. “You just need to learn how to filter through the noise,” he said over his shoulder. He paused, thoughtful. “None of us receive our wolves until our eighteenth year. Young wolves are trained early so that they aren’t completely defenseless when the time comes. You’re at a disadvantage compared to others your age, physically speaking. But I think you’ll overcome that quickly.”

  Nova fell into step beside him, dragging a hand through her hair. “So what, you just… train?” she muttered.

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  Kael didn’t answer right away, and for a while, they walked in silence. The deeper they went, the more Nova became aware of the night moving around them—the faint rustle of leaves, the distant hoot of an owl, the soft scurry of something small in the underbrush. The world wasn’t quiet, not really. It was alive, constant, humming with life.

  And yet, beneath it all, there was something else. A rhythm, a pattern. A steady pulse that seemed to beat just beneath the surface of the chaos.

  She hated that Kael was right.

  The stream appeared sooner than she expected, silver threads of water glinting in the moonlight. Kael crouched beside it, cupping a handful and drinking. He let the water run over his fingers before shaking them off absently. Nova hesitated, then followed suit, the cold water burning her throat in the best way, cutting through the dryness she hadn’t realized had settled there.

  Kael sat back on his heels, watching her. “Your wolf is still silent?”

  Nova stilled, caught off guard by the question. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and shrugged. “If I even have one.”

  Kael studied her for a long moment before answering. “She’s there.”

  Nova scoffed. “You don’t know that.”

  “I do,” he said simply. His amber eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “My own can feel her. He is waiting for her.”

  The words settled uncomfortably in her chest. She didn’t know how to respond, so she didn’t. Instead, she let the sound of the water fill the space between them, steady and relentless.

  Nova looked away, staring at the water. She had never been good at opening up to anyone, but she knew it wasn’t going to do any good to keep her thoughts to herself here. She let out a slow breath, steeling herself before speaking.

  “I hated my parents, you know? I don’t have a lot of memories where I was actually very happy with them. Just a couple when I was small: road trips, trips to the park. It was easy then. They didn’t expect anything from me except to just exist.”

  Her fingers trailed idly through the water, watching the ripples spread outward. “Everything was fine until I was put into school,” she continued. “The more problems I had, the more they resented me.”

  Kael remained silent, but she could feel his presence beside her, steady and unmoving.

  “I was never what they wanted,” she said, voice quieter now. “They expected me to be this…perfect daughter. To be quiet, polite, obedient. The kind of kid who excelled in school, made them look good to their friends. But I wasn’t.” She let out a bitter laugh. “I struggled. I wasn’t stupid, but I had trouble focusing, trouble fitting in. I didn’t make friends easily. I was too loud when they wanted me silent, too different when they wanted me normal.”

  Her hands clenched against her knees. “And they hated me for it.”

  Kael shifted beside her, but he still said nothing. Nova was grateful.

  “They always found ways to remind me how much of a burden I was. Every bad grade, every awkward social interaction, every time I didn’t live up to their expectations. It was like proof to them that I was defective. My mother especially… she acted like I was some kind of embarrassing stain on her life. She tried to fix me, like I was just a project she could mold into whatever image she wanted. I think I spent half my childhood grounded, being lectured about how I was difficult, how I needed to try harder.”

  Nova exhaled sharply, running a hand through her hair. “At some point, I just stopped trying. Stopped caring about what they wanted. It didn’t matter how much effort I put in. I was never going to be what they wanted me to be.”

  She finally glanced at Kael. His expression was unreadable, but there was something dark in his gaze.

  “I used to think about leaving all the time,” she admitted. “Running away, disappearing. Just… never coming back.” She scoffed. “Guess I got my wish, huh?”

  She hadn’t meant for her voice to crack on the last word, but it did.

  The silence stretched between them, heavy with things unsaid. The weight of everything, her past, her parents, the blood on her hands, pressed down on her chest like a stone.

  Then, Kael spoke, his voice low and certain.

  “They were never your real family.”

  Nova swallowed, her throat tight. “I know.”

  But knowing didn’t make the ache go away.

  She turned back to the water, watching the current move. Maybe it always had to be this way. She was never meant to belong in their world in the first place.