The Three Who Chose Me Chapter 5: Blood in the Forest

Josie

The air was cool when I slipped out the window.

Kiel didn’t say a word—he just extended a hand toward , like this was all perfectly normal. Like it was ordinary for a girl to follow a dangerous Alpha into the woods after her world had just been ripped apart.

Maybe it was foolish. Maybe it was reckless.

But I took his hand anyway.

We walked in silence for a while, the moonlight trickling through the trees like silver threads, guiding us deeper into the forest. My slippers sank into the moss with every step, and still, I didn’t speak. I didn’t ask where we were going or why he’d co. Sothing in his expression told not to break the quiet—not yet.

Finally, Kiel stopped beside a clearing dappled in light. The wind sighed through the branches. Everything stilled.

Then he sang.

It wasn’t a song in any language I knew—just soft syllables and ancient sounds, carried by the hush of the forest. His voice was low, steady, almost haunting, as though he were singing to the trees, the stars, and sothing older still.

The mont he opened his mouth, sothing changed in the air.

A warmth blood in my chest. My shoulders eased. The panic that had gripped since the pack house dissolved like fog under sun.

I forgot my parents.

I forgot the slap, the exile, the fire behind Varen’s eyes.

There was only this. His voice. The moonlight. The impossible peace of it all.

He finished the song, and the clearing held its breath, as if reluctant to let go.

When I looked at him, really looked at him—he was different.

Not the hard, cocky enforcer I thought I knew. Not the grinning wolf who cracked knuckles and smirked like nothing could touch him.

Here, he was sothing else entirely.

"Where did you learn that?" I whispered.

Kiel glanced at , his expression unreadable. "My mother. Before she died."

There was sothing fragile in his voice, like he didn’t talk about her often.

"She said it was an old magic," he continued. "Sothing only the moon can hear. I thought... you might need it."

Tears stung my eyes before I could stop them. I turned my face away, wiping quickly.

"I didn’t an to cry."

"I didn’t an to make you."

We both laughed, quiet and uncertain, like two strangers who’d just recognized sothing familiar in each other.

I wanted to ask more—about his mother, about the magic, about the way he looked at like I was worth singing to.

But I never got the chance.

A rustle behind us. The crunch of boots on dry leaves.

Kiel’s head snapped up. He stepped in front of instantly, eyes narrowing.

Three n erged from the shadows, blades glinting in their hands.

"Josie Starlight?" the leader called, voice oily and smug. "You’ve got a pretty price on your head."

My blood turned to ice.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak.

Kiel didn’t hesitate.

The shift was instant—no ceremony, no warning. One mont, he was flesh and bone. The next, he was sothing monstrous.

His body expanded, sinew stretching, bones cracking. Fur sprouted over his skin like wildfire, and his eyes—those soft blue eyes—turned to sothing ancient and rciless.

I’d never seen anything move so fast.

Kiel launched himself at the first man, claws ripping through his chest. Blood sprayed the leaves. The second tried to run—he didn’t make it two steps before Kiel was on him, fangs sinking deep into his throat.

The third fell to his knees, trembling. "Please—please—I was just following orders—"

Kiel stopped.

Not because of rcy.

But because he wanted him alive.

The wolf stepped back, shaking out his fur, and shifted again—back to the boy with blood-streaked hands and eyes that burned.

He dragged the bandit forward by the collar. "Who hired you?"

The man whimpered. "I don’t—I can’t—"

Kiel slamd him against a tree. "Try again."

"Soone from inside your pack!" he scread. "They—they said kill the girl, make it look like an accident! That’s all I know, I swear!"

My legs buckled.

Inside our pack?

My parents were the first nas that leapt to mind. They hated enough. They always said I was better off dead.

But sothing colder crept in next. Varen. Thorne. Kiel.

They were dangerous. Powerful.

And I didn’t really know any of them.

The thought lodged in my chest like a splinter.

Kiel dropped the man. "Go."

"What?"

"Run," Kiel said, voice low. "Tell them what happened. Tell them what’s coming if they try again."

The bandit scrambled up, tripping over corpses as he fled into the trees.

I turned to Kiel. "You let him live?"

His lips curled in a quiet, savage smile. "So he can deliver a ssage."

Before I could respond, the forest erupted with shouting.

Thorne and Varen crashed through the underbrush, weapons drawn, eyes scanning the scene.

"What the hell is this?" Varen barked.

"Are you hurt?" Thorne demanded, grabbing my shoulders.

"She was attacked," Kiel said. "Bandits. Hired."

"You took her out here alone?" Varen snarled. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Kiel stepped forward, eyes blazing. "I saved her life."

"After you endangered it."

Thorne shoved between them. "Stop—both of you!"

But it was too late.

Varen’s fist flew first. Kiel caught it, slamd his brother into a tree.

Thorne tackled Kiel, cursing. They rolled through the leaves like wolves in battle, snarling, fists connecting with bone.

"STOP IT!" I scread, lunging toward them.

I grabbed at arms, at shirts, anything I could. "This isn’t helping! Stop!"

But soone shoved—Kiel? Thorne? I didn’t know.

I stumbled.

Fell.

And landed right in Varen’s arms.

For a mont, everything paused. His arms locked around , solid and warm, heart pounding against my back.

I shoved away from him.

"I’m not your toy," I snapped. "You three better figure this out—before I choose none of you."

And then I turned and walked, trembling, back through the woods alone.

Behind , I didn’t see the bandit crawling back into the clearing, blood sared across his face as he whispered into the dirt—

"She has no idea... what’s coming."