The moon hung high in the sky, silver and beautiful, its light glimmering over the forest. The looming tall trees, with their ever-reaching branches, broke the light up into majestic patches in front of him. The world around him was perfectly illuminated, and even with his perfect night sight, he was amazed at how the brightness was almost too much for his eyes—the gleam cascaded off the trees and the leaves on the ground in front of him.

Caleb Saunders inhaled deeply, breathing the open air into his massive lungs and letting his chest pump and stretch to its absolute limit. He loved the way it felt to be alive, and he never felt more alive than on the nights with a full moon. The sweet scents that flooded his head were magnificent, and he loved to taste every single thing Mother Earth had to offer when he was in his fully shifted form.

It was during nights like this that he found himself gladder than ever to be a werewolf. He’d been born a wolf; he’d never known anything else, although, as a younger wolf—and especially as a child— he’d often wished that he could experience what it was like to be normal. It wasn’t until maybe the past twenty years or so that he’d realized how lucky he was, and he had finally grown to truly appreciate being a wolf.

Caleb emerged out of a legion of trees into a stretch of open land. The grass was dying and shorter than usual under the October sky. He loved this time of year. Everything seemed to be winding down and going into hibernation: the color of the trees, the smells, the sights and sounds—all of it was intoxicating to him. His feet began to thump harder against the cool ground as he started to sprint across the open field. In the distance, he could plainly see where the forest wrapped back around, the way it would soon engulf him in a warm embrace of trees and shrubbery.

Caleb welcomed it all. As a creature with one foot in the supernatural world of being a werewolf and the other foot firmly rooted in the realm of being human, he was able to experience and truly appreciate the best of both worlds and everything that each had to offer someone like him.

He wondered what the rest of his pack was doing tonight. Many of them did not seem to share his enthusiasm for experiencing everything through the eyes of a shifter. Most of them had long ago become disillusioned with their immortality, but Caleb still found new things in this ever-changing world to be surprised and inspired by. Perhaps it was because he was a young wolf still, barely two hundred years old, or maybe it was because he was now the alpha.

He’d been born to his pack’s last alpha, David. His father had been killed by a silver bullet while out one night on a routine surveillance route. Caleb knew that the murderer belonged to the Manzweil pack, a werewolf clan with a long-lasting feud against his own—he knew, deep in his bones, that his father had been a casualty of that feud. But there had never been any actual proof, and Caleb had never been able to find anything, even after more than thirty years.

Human hunters were also out there that could be blamed for any tragedy surrounding werewolf packs, but their numbers were very. The lycanthropes had tried to keep a low profile for the entire span of their existence, but some humans did occasionally stumble onto them. These people were a nuisance and had to be swiftly and carefully dealt with.

Caleb hated the idea of killing anyone, even more if it was a human, but if a human came at him or his pack to destroy them, then he would do what had to be done. It was simple self-defense at that point.

As much as he and the rest of the pack knew that the Manzweils had murdered his father, nothing could be done about it. The feud had lasted for almost five hundred years, but the packs had been quietly coexisting in the same region for that the last few decades.

No one wanted an all-out war. It would draw the wrong kind of attention, and bloodshed was something Caleb’s father had forbidden if it could be avoided. Caleb was doing his best to uphold his father’s wishes, even though certain members of his pack had tried to convince him to end the feud by any means necessary. While he understood their feelings, and while he agreed that the Manzweil pack was dangerous in more ways than one, he just did not want to start anything that would risk even more lives. He knew that if his father were still with them, he would not accept it, no matter what.

Caleb was almost to the edge of the forest when he spotted… something out of the corner of his eye. At first, he thought it might be a member of the Manzweils. Instinctively, he crouched down in a defensive position, ready for whatever might be coming his way. As an alpha, his reflexes were far superior to that of an average werewolf, but he knew never to underestimate an opponent, no matter how weak they appeared to be.

After a few moments without anyone or anything jumping at him, Caleb approached the patch of grass where he thought he’d seen the threat. But what he found was no threat—it was a woman.

She was lying face-down on the ground, her body shaking from head to toe, leaves tangled in her hair, wearing little clothing, and as Caleb moved closer to her, he could see a bad wound on her shoulder.

It only took him a moment to smell the silver. It permeated the air surrounding the woman, emanating harshly from the wound itself. Caleb could see that the bullet had not penetrated the flesh, but merely grazed her. If it had actually hit her, she would have been dead.

Which could only mean one thing: the woman was a wolf, like him. He was certain of it. No one else would have been shot at with a silver bullet.

As Caleb knelt down to lay his hand on her, he could feel her life slowly fading away. She was going to die soon if he didn’t help her.

Caleb carefully scooped the woman up in his arms. As he did so, she opened her eyes, only briefly, and he got a good look at her face for the first time. She was beautiful; angelic, even. Her long blond hair perfectly cupped her smooth facial features and her soft, perfect mouth. Her body was curvaceous, but athletic. And Caleb couldn’t help but notice her large bosom, now pressed against his chest as he gently cradled her. Looking into her eyes, he could tell that she probably didn’t know what was going on. Her gaze was hazy and unfocused; it was only a survival instinct. Then she passed out again, her breath becoming shallower by the second.

Caleb ran at full speed, carrying the woman through the woods as he dodged trees and plants, using his perfect vision and supernatural athleticism to ensure her safety.

His first instinct was to take her to his pack, but then he thought better of it. While she wasn’t part of them, he didn’t think she was part of the Manzweils, either. He wasn’t aware of any other packs in the area, though. He needed to find out more about who this woman was exactly, so his cabin, a small yet cozy cabin in the middle of the woods, would be the perfect place.

He often used it during the week of the full moon so he could better commune with nature, and it just seemed to help him feel closer to who he really was without having to constantly pretend to fit in the modern society all around him.

Once they reached his cabin, Caleb quickly bathed the woman. He poured in several different concoctions into the water. The pack doctor had given each pack member remedies to help if they were ever poisoned with silver. Caleb was glad he had them on hand. It was important that he extract every little trace of silver from her wound and skin.

Even though the bullet had only grazed her, just those microscopic particles were enough to nearly kill her. It would have happened over a long period of time, so he figured this woman had been lying there for at least a day. She was strong; it was a miracle that she was still alive.

After the bath, Caleb dressed her in a pair of his sweats and a t-shirt. He felt very odd about seeing this woman nude, and he did his best to overt his eyes to respect her privacy, but in a matter of life and death, privacy often had to go out the window. He just hoped she would also see it that way when she recovered… if she recovered.

The next twenty-four hours were going to be crucial. He would have to stay with her and monitor her condition nonstop.

Once he had put her to bed, Caleb mixed together an elixir containing ginger root, wild lavender, and marigold. Next, he added the most important ingredient: wolfsbane. Even though wolfsbane was actually poisonous if ingested or injected on its own, it bolstered the immune system of werewolves when mixed with specific plants.

Using a dropper, Caleb carefully gave the potion to the woman. Then he sat down with a book beside the bed and waited to see if she improved… or if he had been too late.