Page 44 of Mate Night Snack
Emmett woke to cold air on his chest and the smell of moss.
For a moment, he didn’t move. Just listened.
The cabin creaked softly. The early light filtering through the window painted thin stripes across the bed. His arm stretched toward her side of the mattress.
Empty.
His heart dropped.
“Katniss.”
No answer.
He sat up, eyes adjusting fast, the wolf inside him rousing like a second heartbeat pounding in his ribs.
Her boots were gone from beside the door. So was her bag. And the faintest trace of her scent drifted out through the half-cracked window.
Not fear. Not yet. But something tugged at him like a thread pulled too tight.
He got dressed in seconds in his thermal shirt, jeans, boots, jacket and moved through the front door into the woods without a sound.
The forest met him with cool silence. Birds hadn’t started yet. The breeze was slow, thick with wet pine and old stone.
He followed her scent.
It curved around the ridge and hooked sharp toward the east trail—familiar, but off-kilter.
She hadn’t taken the main path. Not the safe one.
His pulse climbed as he realized where she was headed.
The Hollow Stone.
He moved faster.
The Hollow Stone wasn’t on any town map. Not even the council kept notes on it.
It sat at the heart of the eastern woodlands, older than Hollow Oak itself. A granite slab half-buried in a ring of twisted trees, carved with faded markings no one living could read. Some said the Veil had opened there first. Others said itwasthe Veil.
All Emmett knew was this: no one came here unless they were called.
And even fewer left unchanged.
The moment he stepped into the clearing, the air shifted. Cooler. Heavier. Like walking into a room that had been holding its breath for centuries.
Katniss stood at the end of the stone, barefoot in the grass, notebook clutched loosely in one hand. Her hair was tangled from sleep, her band tee wrinkled, her legs still dusted with pine needles.
She looked like something out of a dream. Or a warning.
He didn’t call her name. Just crossed the clearing slow, careful, until he stood behind her.
“You ever gonna stop running off to where you shouldn’t be?” he asked.
She flinched, then exhaled, soft and shaky. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You never do.”
She turned slowly, her eyes glassy but clear. “It was stronger this time.”
