Chapter 1

The woods didn’t smell like pine and fresh air. They smelled like rot. Wet, freezing rot that seeped through the soles of my canvas sneakers and numbed my toes.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, checking my phone for the third time. No signal. Of course not. The Hollow was a dead zone in every sense of the word—a moss-draped ulcer in the side of the Blackwood Forest where the human world bled into something older.

"Come on," I whispered, my breath pluming in the twilight. "Rent is due on Tuesday."

I wasn't here for a hike. I was here because I was twenty-two, drowning in art school tuition, and I had found a patron who didn't use Venmo.

I didn't hear him approach. I never did. One second, I was staring at the gnarled roots of the ancient oak stump; the next, he was just *there*.

Rian.

He stood ten feet away, seemingly woven out of the shadows and the gray mist. He was shirtless, which should have been ridiculous in thirty-degree weather, but on him, it just looked dangerous. His skin radiated a heat I could feel from here, a furnace burning beneath a human disguise that never quite fit. His eyes, too reflective to be entirely human, locked onto mine.

He didn't say hello. He didn't ask how my classes were. He simply stepped forward and dropped a heavy burlap sack onto the stump. It hit the wood with a dull, heavy *thud* that sounded like salvation.

"The river was generous," Rian said. His voice was a low rumble, like stones grinding together deep underground.

I stepped forward, my hands trembling as I undid the twine. Inside, jagged nuggets of raw gold and uncut garnets glinted in the fading light. It was messy. It was primal. And at the pawn shop downtown, it was worth three months of rent, easy.

"Thank you, Rian," I said, looking up through my lashes. I slipped into the role I thought I was being paid for—the grateful, sweet companion. "This helps so much. Really."

I reached out to touch his arm, a calculated gesture of intimacy. "How was your week? Did the pack—"

He flinched.

It wasn't a shy recoil. It was a predator’s twitch. A low growl vibrated in his chest, so deep it rattled my teeth. He caught my wrist before I could make contact, his grip bruisingly tight.

"You smell like him," Rian snarled.

I froze. "What?"

"The boy," he hissed, pulling me closer. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling sharply. "Cheap smoke. Sweat. Fear. You smell like a human male."

"It’s just Mark," I stammered, my heart hammering against my ribs. "From my sculpture class. We were working late in the studio. He just... he borrowed my jacket for a smoke break."

Rian didn't let go. If anything, his grip tightened. The air around us grew heavy, charged with a static that made the hair on my arms stand up.

"I bring you gold," Rian whispered against my skin, his lips grazing my pulse point. "I bring you stones from the deep earth because you are too soft to hunt, too slow to kill. I feed you. I shelter you."

"It’s... it’s an arrangement," I managed to say, though my voice sounded small and terrified. "You help me, I spend time with you. That’s the deal."

"Is it?"

He moved too fast for me to track. In a blur of motion, he had me pinned against the rough bark of the oak tree. He didn't hurt me, but he consumed my space, looming over me like a storm front. His eyes were fully dilated now, the pupils swallowing the iris until they were black pits.

"Why do you want these cold stones, little bird?" he asked, kicking the burlap sack. It toppled off the stump, spilling a fortune into the mud. "I could bring you hearts. I could bring you a kingdom. I could tear the throat out of this... *Mark*... and lay him at your feet."

"I need the stones to live," I whispered. "In my world, this is how we survive."

"Your world is broken," Rian declared. He leaned in, his nose brushing against my jawline, replacing the scent of my classmate with the smell of rain, musk, and ownership. "And I am tired of buying time with you."

"Rian, wait—"

"No." He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye. There was no humanity left in his expression, only the stark, terrifying clarity of the wolf. "The allowance ends tonight, Jade. You have grown fat on my offerings. You are strong enough now."

"Strong enough for what?"

He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a baring of teeth.

"To be collected."

He released me abruptly. The cold air rushed back in, freezing the sweat on my skin. Rian took a step back, melting into the shadows of the tree line as seamlessly as smoke.

"Run back to your lights," his voice echoed from the darkness, surrounding me. "Buy your safety for one more night. But leave the window open, little bird. I am done paying for what is mine."

Then, silence.

I stood alone in the Hollow, my back pressed against the tree. The gold lay in the mud at my feet, glittering and useless against the promise he had just made.

I dropped to my knees and began frantically shoving the nuggets back into the sack. My hands were shaking so hard I dropped a garnet. I left it.

I grabbed the bag and ran toward the town lights, my lungs burning. I told myself I would use the money to leave. I told myself I would move to a city where there were no forests.

But as I ran, I wasn't checking the path for roots. I was checking the shadows. And deep down, beneath the terror, a sick, heavy thrill curled in my stomach.

I wasn't running to escape. I was running to see if he would chase.