The Man in the Shadows
Gabrielle POV
The bell rings, signalling the end of the longest school day of my life. I only need to make it home without anything eventful happening.
Outside, the air feels heavier. Charged.
Like the world has tilted somehow.
We cut across the edge of campus, skirting the gravel path instead of sticking to the pavement like we usually do. I don’t remember deciding to go this way – my feet just… turn. Like they already know where they’re going.
I walk along, trancelike before being snapped back to reality by Tess.
“Earth to Gabi – wake up babygirl, because you only turn eighteen once!”
Eighteen.
The number echoes again, heavier this time. Not just a birthday, a threshold.
“Hey,” Tessa says more gently. “What’s going on? You've been acting weird all day. Don't let Connor mess with you. It's what he wants – and we can never, ever let him win.”
I shake my head, forcing a smile. “I'm fine,” I lie. “ I just… ”
That’s when the sensation hits me.
A strange awareness. Not fear exactly – something that tugs at my spidey-senses.
I stop dead.
The woods are quiet. Too quiet.
“Gabi, what’s up? You're freaking me out.”
I can’t bring myself to answer.
My instincts are suddenly on high alert.
That’s when I see him.
He stands just beyond the tree line, where the campus thins and the forest begins. Tall. Broad-shouldered. His stance is relaxed, but there’s something coiled about him – like he could move in a heartbeat if he wanted to.
A wolf. Not one I recognise.
That alone is strange. Willow Creek is insular. Outsiders stand out.
His gaze locks onto mine.
The impact is immediate. Not the pull from the dream, but something I can't quite place. Like being seen in a way I don’t have words for yet.
His eyes flicker, dark and assessing, and for a moment I have the absurd urge to straighten my posture.
He takes a step closer.
Instinct screams at me to run – but I don’t move.
Up close, he’s undeniably handsome – yet somehow, I feel nothing at all.
“You shouldn’t be this close to the boundary,” he says.
His voice is low and smooth, edged with quiet command – the kind that doesn’t need to be loud to be obeyed.
“And you shouldn’t be watching young girls from the trees,” Tessa shoots back. “You do realise you’re giving off creepy stalker vibes, right?”
“Even if you are unfairly hot.” She mutters the last part, fully aware his wolf hearing will catch it anyway.
One corner of his mouth lifts. Not a smile. More like amusement.
“I – I’m still on school grounds,” I manage to add – hoping to ease the tension.
“Barely.” He says.
His gaze drops – not in a leering way, but deliberate. As if he’s cataloguing me. The freckles on my nose. The copper in my hair. The necklace resting against my collarbone.
Something in his expression changes.
Interest.
“Eighteen,” he murmurs.
My pulse skips – sharp and sudden, like I’ve been caught out in something I didn’t know I was hiding.
“Excuse me?”
He looks back up, eyes sharp now. “You turned eighteen.”
It’s not a question.
“How do you– ”
“Easy,” he says lightly, raising his hands. “Your friend here is not the most... discreet. I could hear from the other side of the quad.”
Tessa snorts a protest, before shrugging. He’s not exactly wrong.
Before I can ask why he asked, he steps back, reclaiming the space between us. Whatever intensity had wrapped around him moments ago snaps shut, controlled.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he adds. “I was sent to… check something.”
“By who?” I ask.
For a moment, he hesitates.
“My Alpha.”
The word lands with weight.
Something inside me stirs – a quiet answering hum. His eyes flicker again, narrowing slightly, as if he noticed too.
“I’m Rowan,” he says. “I’m… helping out with the retreat next week.”
That doesn’t make sense. “Helping how?”
He smiles – brief, unreadable. “Logistics. Safety.”
His eyes dip – not to my body, but again to my necklace. Just for a fraction of a second.
My fingers close around it instinctively.
Something flashes in his gaze. Satisfaction. Relief. Maybe both.
“You should be careful out there,” he adds quietly. “The forest’s been restless.”
Tessa bristles. “That’s comforting.”
Rowan chuckles. “Just honest.”
Then he steps back, already disengaging.
“Happy birthday,” he says to me as he walks away before calling back, “If anyone asks, you didn’t see me.”
“And stay away from the woods!”
Then he’s gone – slipping between the trees with unnatural silence.
I stare after him, heart racing. For a second, I get the strangest feeling that he’s memorising me.
Could this day get any weirder?
“Okay,” Tessa says slowly. “That was ... strange.”
I nod. “Yeah. If he’s helping out, why couldn’t he be here?”
The hum under my skin surges and my heart pounds. Somewhere deep inside, beneath the confusion and fear, something settles.
Not comfort – certainty.
Something is happening to me. And it didn’t start at school.
It started the night I turned eighteen.