Chapter 2 THE WOLVES WHO DON'T SEE ME.

~~~Aria~~~

Now I know at least… that today, I shouldn't have gone to the river at all. Because something really followed me back. It wasn't footsteps. No. Not even a scent I can place. It's just… a feeling. As if the night didn't let me go.

I kept my head down as I continued walking through the village. But it didn't even help at all. That never did. That same silence. That same looks. The same quiet shift in the air anytime I walked around.

But today? It felt worse. Heavier. As if something was off. Or maybe — it was something in me that's off. I could still feel that ache on my shoulder.

It wasn't enough to slow me down, but it was so enough to remind me that what actually happened last night wasn't the same with those dreams I've had. I tried to pretend that it was nothing, and I tried not to think about it at all. But my body wouldn't just let me forget. Heat flickered beneath my skin every now and then. It was faint. Wrong. Unsettling.

I simply kept walking, tightened my grip around the water bucket Elder Myra had asked me to get water for her between my hands.

Don't draw attention to yourself Aria. Don't think about anything. I kept saying inside my head. Don't exist more than necessary. I mean, that's how I've been surviving it out.

“Would you watch your way?!” Snapped a voice from my left, just as my shoulder bumped slightly against someone. Water spilled onto the ground as it sloshed over the edge of the bucket.

That made me freeze to my spot. “I—I’m sorry,” I quickly said, already stepping back.

The girl I bumped into was Liara, she looked at me like I've just insulted her existence.

“Of course you should be sorry,” she shook her arms as she muttered, as if my touch left some stains on her. “Are you blind? You should try watching where you are going for once.”

I simply just lowered my gaze. “I said I'm sorry.”

A soft scoff came behind Liara. That's Doran. “Does it even matter? You know, she's barely aware of anything anyway.”

A few quiet laughs followed from the both of them. It wasn't loud. But it was enough, it had always been enough. My fingers tightened around the bucket immediately. Don't react. Don't give them that satisfaction, I said to myself. Without another word, I moved around them, and left. Simple. That's the fastest way out of their trouble. It had always been so.

~~~~*

“You look like you didn't sleep,” came a voice.

That voice sounded softer, and familiar. That voice didn't make anything feel tightened for once in my chest. I glanced up slightly. It was Naya.

I had already returned from getting the water for Elder Myra and I'm now seated in the far end of the building closer to the clearing.

Naya was seated on the low wooden fence near the edge of the clearing. One of her legs was swinging lazily as she watched me play with the edge of my dress. Her expression shifted the moment she got a better look of my face—her curiosity turned into concern.

“I did,” I lied.

She raised a brow now. “You know you're very terrible at lying.”

A small weak breath escaped my mouth before I could stop it. It wasn't quiet like a laugh, but it was this close to one.

She dropped and walked to my side and stared directly at me.

“I'm fine Naya,” I said, quieter this time.

Naya just stood there, folded her arms, studying me for a moment longer than necessary. I mean, she always does that. Like in a way that she's trying to see something other's won't care to check.

“Your shoulder,” she said suddenly.

That immediately made my body tensed. “What about it?”

She just tilted her head slightly. “You just kept on touching it.”

That was when I quickly dropped my hand. I didn't even realized I was doing that at all. “It's nothing,” I quickly said, and adjusted. “It's just… I slept wrongly.”

Naya didn't even looked fully convinced. But she didn't even pushed further. That's not her ways, because she never does. And that's why she's the only one I don't avoid. That moment, I wished she lives in Moonsilver Pack and not Moonshadow Pack honestly, so that I could have someone by my side.

“Come with me Aria,” she said instead, already dragging my hands and pulling me up.

“To where again?” I tiredly asked.

“You'll see, just a little walk,” she said. “Just come.”

I hesitated. Instinctively. Because there's nothing good that ever comes out from being seen too much. But then, Naya gave me one of those looks, the one that says ‘trust me.’

And I did for some reasons. “Fine,” I muttered.

Naya grinned slightly and was turning already. “Just try not to disappear on the way.”

I rolled my eyes faintly. “I don't disappear, who says I do?”

“Could've fooled me,” she laughed out.

~~~~*

Okay guess where we went to now? You know where Naya took me to? To a damn club in town which stretched before the Moonshadow Pack. That same club she'd been gisting me about, which she said it's full of fun. Right! That one.

A thought suddenly surfaced inside my head—I shouldnt have followed Naya here. The thought repeated. Again. And again. The way something inside of me was already screaming that the night would end badly—but yet I didn't know how to stop it. I was now seated in a place where I was never meant to be. Music buzzed through the walls like a living thing—close to something like a heartbeat that doesn't belong to anything human. The air smelled so wrong too, not from the alcohol and spice, but something deeper beneath it. Something I couldn't name that felt like teeth behind a smile.

On the velvet seat I was seated on, I shifted so uncomfortable, my fingers wrapped around the glass of wine I never remembered agreeing to take. Naya, beside me, looked completely at ease, as if she didn't just drag me into a building that sits too far from the Moonsilver territory to be innocent.

“Naya,” I called. “So this is what you called ‘a little walk’ huh?”

She slipped her drink and laughed after that. “Relax, baby girl, you looked as if someone just dragged you to execution.”

“That's because it feels exactly like it Naya.”

She didn't argue but just simply rolled her eyes. And that alone should've warned me. The place was loud, crowded with a lot of shifting shadows of bodies—some watching, some laughing, while some just existed like they were already waiting for something to happen. Most of them didn't entirely look like human, or maybe, I was just noticing it tonight.

Naya leaned closer now. “You know, my aunt owns part of this place, so we're safe.”

Safe… that word felt like something far away from a place like this. Before I could give her a response, a bartender slideed forward another drink to us without even asking. Good, that explains that Naya was very familiar with here, she accepted it freely, like she totally belonged here.

But me? I don't.

I barely touched the drink that laid before me. I felt my shoulder pulsed faintly again with that same strange ache I've felt since that river incident. I pressed my palm on it under the table, making heat to flicker around it under my skin. Everything about the sensation felt wrong. Always wrong.

“You're thinking too much now Aria,” Naya suddenly pulled me out from my thought.

I shook my head. “I'm not thinking enough,” I said, earning a small smirk from her.

But then, the air shifted the next minute. Not loudly, not dramatically, but just enough. Enough for my body to first notice even before my mind caught up with it.

I felt the aura from him even before I saw him. Not scent. Not sound. But his presence. Heavy. Controlled. As if the room just lost its permission to breath freely. Naya didn't even react, which clrearly meant that she knew him.

A figure walked towards us from the side of the bar, and stopped just within our space. There was no hint of smile on his face, and he didn't care to sit. He didn't need to ask for permission, because he owned it. He just stood there like the room adjusted itself for him. I didn't immediately look up, no, but when I finally did… my stomach tightened. Not because he was familiar. He wasn't at all.

He looked like someone completely carved out of restraint itself—unreadable expression, very dark eyes, posture too calm for someone who belonged in a place like this. Danger doesn't announced itself on him. It rests! Certain. Quiet.

He glanced at Naya first, his smile held between his tightened jaws. “You're late,” his voice came low. Not soft. Not rough. Just final…

Naya leaned back into her chair. “And you're early.”

A silence pause. Then his gaze shifted. To me. And it instantly made something tightened inside my chest. It wasn't curiosity, but just assessment. Like I was just a problem he didn't plan to calculate today.

“Who's this?” he asked. Not entirely to me. But about me.

My fingers trembled around the glass between my fingers.

Naya answered too quickly. “She's Aria.”

His gaze didn't leave my side. “From Moonsilver,” he said after a beat of silence. Not a question, but a conclusion, and I didn't respond to it. Something about this man told me that silence is better.

His gaze narrowed slightly. “Does she always stayed this quiet?”

I felt heat crawled up on my skin quickly.

“She actually speaks,” Naya evenly said.

“Does she equally shift?” He asked, making adrenaline rushed up through my entire body.

The question landed differently. Heavy. I felt my grip tightened slightly around the glass again.

Naya hesitated for half a second too long, and that was enough. He exhaled slowly but not from disappointment or surprise, just… uninterested.

“Then I don't think she should be here,” he said, the words weren't loud, but they were enough to slice so clean.

I didn't know why it hurted me, it should not right? Because I barely know him. Still… something inside me reacted anyway.

“I can leave,” I said before Naya could argue. Both of them turned quickly and looked at me. “I didn't mean to cause any trouble,” I stood up already getting up to go.

Naya straightened quickly. “Aria, wait—”

But I was already going out from the room, Naya following closely. I instantly recognized this pattern, being somewhere I don't belong… being looked at like an error in a system I don't understand. I've survived worse, so I can survive this one too. I turned before anyone could stop me.

The walk back outside felt longer than it should have. The air outside the club that night kissed colder on my skin, sharper, as if it's punishing me for stepping out of that place too early. Or maybe I was just imagining things again.

I stopped just far away where the sound of the music no longer passed through my ears. Only then did I stopped, Naya finally pulled me through my shoulders.

“Naya, don't worry, I can go back alone,” I said. “You should head back now.”

“No, Aria, I'm sorry for everything,” she said as she pulled me into a tight hug. “Let me take you back home, I can't leave you like this.”

“It's okay,” I tapped her on her shoulder. “Don't worry about me, let me get going.”

I hurriedly stopped a cab by the side of the road and waved Naya as I settled inside of it and headed home. That was when I finally exhaled, and only then did I realized the burning on my shoulders. I pressed my hand over it and winced slightly. “What is wrong with me…” the words disappeared into the air.

The anger was already building inside of me by the time I arrived home and Elder Myra was inside. I pushed the door open harder than necessary making Elder Myra look up from where she's seated quickly.

“Aria? What happened?” She asked, suddenly getting up.

“Nothing,” I snapped.

She paused, which clrearly said she didn't believe me. But she didn't pushed any further. I walked passed her before she could say anything, my footsteps quicker than usual on the wooden floor.

“Aria—” she tried to call again.

“I said nothing,” I repeated and this time my voice landed colder. Silence followed me down the hall as I entered my room and shut the door harder than I should have.

Everything felt smaller inside my room. Too quiet. Too still. As if even the walls were listening, I sat down on my bed, my breath finally falling apart.

Then I touched my shoulder, the heat pulsed again but this time… it answered. My breath caught slightly as the sizzling pain erupted, because under my fingers, there was a fa

int glow. Silver. Barely visible.

The air suddenly shifted inside my room, images flashed through my mind—the bar, the man, his eyes.

“Who was he?” I whispered into the silence.