He picked up the note, and the second his eyes scanned the words, all the color drained from his face.
“No… Sophia, this isn’t me—”
“They wore the same necklace as you! And the cameras caught your shape—your walk!”
My voice cracked. Tears finally spilled over, hot and humiliating.
“Have you been playing me this whole time? Is dating a hunter’s descendant some kind of sick entertainment for you?”
“What?”
He looked genuinely confused—hurt, even.
“What hunter descendant?”
“Me!” I shouted. “Thomas Green was my great-great-grandfather! You knew. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”
His expression collapsed.
“No… No, Sophia, that’s impossible. I looked into your family. Your line came from Ohio—”
“That’s my mother’s side,” I said with a bitter laugh. “My father is a direct descendant of Thomas Green. Looks like your research wasn’t as perfect as you thought, Mr. Black.”
He stepped back like I’d physically hit him.
“Sophia… I swear I didn’t know. If I had known—”
“What? What would you have done? Killed me first? The way your people tried to kill Jessica?”
“I didn’t touch your friend!” he shouted, finally losing the calm he fought so hard to keep. “I was with you the entire night! And this necklace—”
He grabbed his wolf-head pendant.
“This is one of a kind. It belonged to my father.”
“Then explain this!”
I shoved my phone at him, the screenshot Jessica sent glowing on the screen.
The man in the hoodie—same height, same shoulders, same hair. Every detail perfectly, horribly similar to Liam.
He stared at it.
And fear—real, soul-deep fear—darkened his eyes.
“Ezra…”
“What?”
“My cousin,” he whispered, voice barely holding together. “He… hates me. Because I believe wolves and humans can coexist.”
He looked at me, and something inside him seemed to break.
“He found out about you. He found out who you are. And now he’s framing me, Sophia. He wants to ruin everything I have. He always has.”
The doorbell rang.
Liam froze.
I froze.
He moved first—pulling me behind him as he opened the door.
Three men stood there.
The one in the center lifted his head. Under the hood was a face disturbingly similar to Liam’s—only sharper, colder, twisted by bitterness.
“Evening, cousin,” he said with a smile that made my stomach drop. His teeth were just a bit too sharp.
“So this is the little hunter?”
Liam shoved me farther behind him.
“Ezra, she has nothing to do with this.”
“Oh, she has everything to do with this.”
Ezra stepped forward, eyes gleaming.
“You know what Father always said? ‘Never trust a hunter. They’ll stab you in the back.’ Or in this case—”
His gaze landed on me.
“In the front.”
Then he pulled out a gun.
Not a modern one.
An old, ornate pistol—its barrel glowing silver.
“Silver bullets,” Ezra whispered.
“Just like they used on our family.”
The gunshot cracked through the air.
“No!” I screamed.
But Liam moved—too fast for the eye to follow. The bullet shredded the wall behind him, dust exploding everywhere.
His eyes glowed.
His teeth sharpened.
His hands curled into claws.
“Run, Sophia!” he shouted, voice already distorting.
But I didn’t run.
I did the stupidest thing possible—I lunged at Ezra, slamming into his arm with everything I had.
The gun skittered across the floor.
Ezra snarled and backhanded me so hard the world blurred.
My skull cracked against the table. My vision went dark at the edges.
“Brave little hunter,” he growled, leaning over me.
“But stupid.”
Then—wolf howls.
Dozens of them.
Close. Everywhere.
Ezra’s face paled.
“You called the pack?”
A massive black wolf—Liam—burst into the room with a roar that shook the walls. Behind him poured more wolves, huge and snarling. But they didn’t attack Liam.
They bowed to him.
“They’ve always followed me, Ezra,” Liam growled, voice layered with human fury and wolf dominance.
“Because you’re a tyrant.”
The apartment erupted into chaos.
Wolves clashed. Furniture shattered. Blood sprayed the walls. I crawled—half conscious—toward the silver gun. My fingers brushed the cold metal—
And a hand clamped around my wrist.
Ezra again.
“Let’s finish what our ancestors started, Sophia Green,” he whispered, lifting the gun.
He pressed the barrel to my forehead.
His finger tightened.
I did the only thing I could.
I ripped off the silver necklace Liam gave me and drove the pendant into Ezra’s arm.
His scream ripped through the air—raw and inhuman.
Smoke poured from the burn.
The gun went off, grazing my ear.
And then Liam slammed into him.
By dawn, it was over.
My apartment was a demolished crime scene. Wolves dragged Ezra and his followers away. Silence settled like dust over everything.
Liam stood in the morning light, bleeding, exhausted, human again.
He walked toward me slowly, like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to.
“I’m sorry,” we said at the same time.
We both laughed—broken, relieved, unbelievable laughter.
He touched my bruised cheek with trembling fingers.
“I would never hurt you, Sophia. Never.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“And now I finally believe it.”
I pulled out the silver necklace, the wolf pendant stained with Ezra’s blood.
“This… it’s yours.”
But Liam closed my fingers around it.
“No. It’s yours forever.”
His voice softened.
“Just like my heart.”
Sunlight caught the gold flecks in his eyes, turning them warm, impossible, beautiful.
“A hunter and a wolf,” I murmured. “This is the worst fairy tale ever.”
“Then let’s write a new one,” he whispered, resting his forehead against mine, “one about forgiveness… and love.”
When he kissed me, I tasted blood and tears and something that felt like a brand-new beginning. Outside, the world carried on—cars honking, birds singing, people living their ordinary lives.
But we weren’t ordinary.
We were a legend rewriting itself.
Two enemies who refused to stay enemies.
Two souls finally choosing each other over history.
One month later
I stood in the archives, staring at the documents that carried a century of hatred. Liam stood beside me, our fingers laced tightly together.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asked softly.
I lit the match.
Yes.
The flames devoured the paper, devoured the past.
Ash floated through the air like black snow.
And for the first time in my life, I felt free.
Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.
“Then,” he said, voice trembling with something close to hope, “let’s start our own story.”
He knelt.
Opened the box.
Not a ring—
A pair of silver earrings shaped like two wolves leaning into each other.
“Sophia Green,” he said, eyes shining like sunrise over snow,
“will you wear them, become my partner, and rewrite history with me?”
My answer wasn’t words.
It was a kiss.
A yes that echoed through both our hearts louder than any vow.