That evening, the crackling of the fireplace filled the silence between us.

"I still can't believe you're here," Elly said softly.

I pulled my grandmother's old crocheted blanket tighter around my shoulders and let out a long breath. The weight I had been carrying since the funeral suddenly felt like something I could share. I had to stay strong against the townspeople all day. But here, with Elly, I could finally let my guard down.

"I'm barely holding on, Elly," I whispered. My voice trembled. "I keep telling myself I'm fine. That I can do this. That I'm keeping her memory alive. But the truth is... I'm scared. She was the only person I had. Now she's gone, and I'm in this place where everyone looks at me like I'm cursed. Like I'm carrying death with me wherever I go."

Elly moved closer and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "You're not cursed, Eva. You're brave. You came back here knowing exactly what kind of welcome you would get. That takes real courage."

I laughed bitterly and wiped my tears. "Courage or stupidity? I'm not sure which."

"Courage," she insisted. "Definitely courage."

A deep laugh burst out of me. "You know what? I think I'm genuinely losing my mind."

"Why?"

"Ever since childhood, I've been dreaming of a man with eyes like flames. And just now, I compared a wolf's eyes to his."

Elly's expression changed instantly. "What do you mean?"

I took a sip of my coffee. "Right before you arrived, I was getting firewood from the woodshed. And I swear, Elly... I saw something. A wolf. But not a normal wolf. This thing was enormous. The size of a bear. Reddish-brown fur. And those eyes..."

I paused, remembering that gaze. "Its eyes were just like the man in my dreams. Glowing. Amber-colored. It just stood there, looking at me. Then it vanished."

The moment the words left my mouth, Elly's face went pale. She set down her glass with trembling hands and reached for me. She grabbed the hem of my sweater and pulled it aside, exposing my collarbone and upper chest. She touched my skin gently, as if searching for something beneath it.

"Hey! What are you doing, Elly?" I cried out, pulling back.

Her shoulders dropped with a relieved look. She let go of my sweater and sat back on her heels. "Sorry. I apologize," she said quickly. "I just... needed to check something."

I was frozen. "Check what exactly?"

She bit her lip. "Do you have a fever? High fever can cause hallucinations. I was checking your temperature."

I laughed. "Elly, I'm a nurse. I would know if I had a fever high enough to cause hallucinations. Also, wouldn't checking my forehead be more effective than looking at my chest?"

She smiled. "You're right. Of course. That was silly of me." She looked away.

But I saw it clearly now. The lingering fear in her eyes. The tension in her shoulders. She was afraid of something. And it was connected to what I had just told her.

Then she turned to me with forced cheerfulness. "Hey! Let's play a game. How about scary story time? I'll start."

I shook my head. "Seriously? Aren't we a bit too old for that?"

"Come on," she insisted. "It'll be fun. Besides, you're in a creepy mountain cabin in the middle of winter. Perfect setting."

I sighed dramatically and sank deeper into the couch. "Fine. But if I have nightmares, I'm blaming you."

Elly's expression turned serious. "They say that long ago, blood-drinking demons lived in this valley. Not metaphorical demons. Real ones. They hypnotized people. Enslaved them. Tortured and killed them for sport. The demons built their kingdom on human suffering."

Despite my sarcasm, the story caught my attention. "Go on."

"The witches were an ancient bloodline with sacred magic. But they could not defeat the demons alone. So they created something new. Something powerful enough to protect both themselves and humanity. They merged three ancient forces: the power of a demon, the body of a wolf, and a witch who gave herself willingly to complete the transformation."

I could not help myself. "Let me guess. Like every story like this, there's a foolish girl who sacrifices herself for some man."

Elly shot me a look that clearly said shut up. But I just shrugged.

"What? Why is there always a woman throwing herself into danger to keep some man or Frankenstein creature alive? That's basically sexism."

Elly rolled her eyes but kept going. "The Börü lineage was born. The wolf clan. Every wolf was bound to a witch woman. They were connected by both a curse and a love powerful enough to transcend death. Together, they overthrew the demons. Humanity was saved. The witches became the mates of the wolves. The wolves became the protectors of all."

She paused. Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper. "But then... the woman of one of the wolves betrayed him."

Now she had my full attention. "Really? I wasn't expecting a Lilith to come out of this story. What did they do? Shun her? Burn her at the stake? They definitely punished her. How progressive for enlightened supernatural beings."

"Eva, please," Elly said seriously. "The wolf's woman fell in love with a human man. But she was deceived. The man she loved was a hunter. She betrayed her own kind for him. She broke the ancient magic that bound the witches and wolves together. The midnight seal. The one that gave the wolves their immortal forms and their ability to shift. It shattered. The wolves became trapped in their immortal wolf bodies. Unable to die. Unable to truly live. The witches were scorned by humanity because of this betrayal."

"And the man she loved? The hunter? What did he do?"

Elly's voice grew darker. "The hunter... after getting what he wanted, he and his hunter lineage began systematically destroying the witch bloodline. They slaughtered them. Hunted them down one by one. They also killed the ordinary people who supported the witches and wolves. Their goal was never love. It was only power."

A chill that had nothing to do with the cold crept through me. An inexplicable sorrow settled over my heart. Something in this story was wounding me in a way I could not understand.

I looked at Elly. "You didn't tell me this story just for fun, did you?"

She swallowed hard and nodded.

"Rose's daughter," I said slowly as the pieces fell into place. "That's why they call me Rose's daughter with such hatred. Because of some ridiculous old legend?"

Elly reached out and took my hand. "Eva, listen to me. People can be shallow, narrow-minded, and cruel. But legends... don't always lie. Promise me one thing. If you ever see anything that could prove this story is real, you'll come to me and ask for help."

I studied her face. She was smiling, but beneath it I could see genuine fear and worry.

"Alright. I promise. But tell me one thing. Where do you fit into this story?"

"I'm a guardian," she said simply. "My family has always been guardians. We protect the ancient bloodlines. Both the wolves and the witches. We believe in the balance. The peace. The harmony they bring. We remember their sacrifice."

I wanted to dismiss all of it as small town superstition. But looking at Elly's sincere face, I noticed something important. She believed it. Completely. And whether the legend was real or not, I trusted her.

"I'm glad you're here, Elly. Even if you're a little crazy, it's wonderful to have you beside me."

The tension on her face dissolved into laughter. "Same goes for you, Eva Rose!"

An hour later, Elly's rear lights disappeared down the mountain road. I was alone again with the crackling fire and my tangled thoughts.

I poured a glass of my grandmother's homemade wine. I had discovered the stash in the pantry while cleaning. I took my glass and settled into the velvet armchair by the fireplace.

I closed my eyes and let the memories wash over me. My grandmother always had a Turkish song she used to sing. She would hum it while hanging ornaments on the Christmas tree. While her worn hands braided my hair. Her voice was always filled with love and longing.

I never knew what the words meant. But I had learned the sounds. The melody. It was hauntingly beautiful. Sorrowful and passionate at the same time.

Now, with the wine warming my blood and the firelight casting dancing shadows on the walls, I found myself humming those same words.

"Yar elinden ölüm, olacak benim sonum. Sonu yok bu, Aşk-ı kıyamet..."

Death by the hand of my beloved shall be my end. This love has no end. A love of apocalyptic ruin.

My voice faded into the quiet crackling of the fire. The wine weighed down my limbs and my eyelids. I did not even try to move to the bedroom. The velvet armchair was comfortable. The fire was warm. I was exhausted.

I fell asleep.

But outside, hidden in the pitch black of the winter night, a pair of amber eyes watched the house.

Eyes that carried centuries of pain. Centuries of longing. And perhaps even love.

The wolf had heard every word of that song.

And deep within his cursed form, something ancient and powerful stirred.

The midnight seal had begun to wake...

Last night, Eva had surrendered herself to the arms of the night in the uncomfortable velvet armchair, sinking into the deepest darkness of sleep, wandering through the most hidden corners of her dreams.

And unbeknownst to her, the wolf outside had already begun to roam through her dreams. The only difference was that now he was closer, and far more feral than before...

This time, the dream she experienced was very different from the ones before it. The dream was so powerful that she felt everything vividly in her body, as if she were living it in that very moment. So much so that she couldn't even control her own breathing.

She was half-naked in a crisp white bed. The muscular man lying over her looked down at her with his amber eyes and smiled. He had wrapped himself around her, caressing every curve of her body.

The reddish-brown hair falling across his handsome face and those amber eyes were absolutely driving her mad. It was him, with those tattooed arms and that roguish gaze. The man from her dreams was touching her with desire.

"You kept me waiting," he growled, his voice dark and husky.

Eva was taken aback. She had never heard his voice in her dreams before. "You can speak," she whispered.

"Yes, my little one, because you came to me," he said in a low voice. "I am much closer to you now!"

He took Eva's parted lips into his mouth. As he consumed her with a shameless groan, his hands suddenly began to roam her body with bold abandon. He pulled away the thin sheet covering her and gazed at Eva's bare body.

Her full, naked breasts lay exposed before him, tipped with small pink peaks. A deep hunger awakened in his eyes. One hand gripped and squeezed her breast, while the other slid between her legs, caressing her inner thighs. Eva had held her breath. He had never been this fierce in her previous dreams. Now, she could feel him at every point on her skin. The man's fingers effortlessly pushed aside the thin fabric of her underwear and made direct contact with the most sensitive spot of her womanhood. The touch was so arousing, so perfectly placed, that Eva's body arched off the bed like a bow. A suppressed, trembling moan spilled from her throat.

The man responded to the sound of this moaning woman with a deep growl of his own. His fingers began moving in firm, circular motions against the sensitive bud of her wet womanhood. His lips traveled along her neck while his palms moved over her nipples. Every touch of the man's was driving Eva to madness, sending electric shocks through her that began at her core and radiated to every part of her body.

Under the man's bold caresses, Eva's legs parted of their own accord, as if in invitation. Fear and desire were mingled together; while her mind was confused, her body had surrendered completely to that man. With the comfort of knowing this was a dream, she offered herself to him with the same hunger.

The man fixed his amber eyes on her and, stroking his hardness, pressed it against her core. Eva was momentarily startled by the firmness pressing against her. Then she remembered that her dreams had never had this level of physical contact before, and with a fleeting fear, she murmured, "No... stop..." but her voice was weak and far from convincing. Her body was saying the exact opposite. Her hips rose toward those relentless fingers, seeking more contact.

The man, with a sly smile on his face, continued to kiss her. His thumb pressed harder against that small, swollen point. His other fingers slid lower, slowly entering her wet core. He was preparing her for his hard masculinity, savoring the sensation of her damp warmth flowing down her thighs.

As Eva writhed with pleasure in the crisp white sheets, she drew a deep breath. Her core was trembling now, the heat rapidly spreading through her body. This uncontrollable physical response filled her with a mixture of shame and intense pleasure.

The man, meanwhile, was consumed by an entirely different kind of hunger, he was searching for a sense of belonging. Like a wild animal, he was claiming his mate.

"There it is, you're soaking wet. You're getting ready for me," he murmured, his voice full of satisfaction. "This is how you show that you belong to me, daughter of Rose..."

Eva was completely undone now, her core pulsing like a heartbeat. Sensing that she was ready, the man stroked his hardness and, in one swift, merciless motion, braced himself against the headboard and rose above her. Eva watched the man's muscular form through bitten lips, watching his rhythmic movements inside her. With hard, driving strokes, he was filling Eva's tight, wet womanhood.

Eva's mouth opened in a cry, but the sound lodged in her throat. She was burning inside, stretching, and filled impossibly with the maddening pressure of his considerable hardness. Eva had surrendered completely now, and in this state of wild passion, she moaned with pleasure as she dragged her nails across the man's muscular back.

As the man's hard rhythm quickened, Eva's body matched his pace. Her hips were meeting the bed with each thrust, her entire body slick with sweat. Finally, the pressure building inside her became unbearable.

"Please..." she moaned, no longer certain what she was begging for. For him to stop, or to keep going?

But the man's answer was to go deeper, to go faster. His hardness was intensifying its rhythm. And then... the contractions exploded suddenly, violently. Eva felt as though every part of her body had reached its limit at the same moment. The orgasm in her core pulsed like a heartbeat.

­

The sound that tore from her throat as she came plunged her into deep shame.

But she hadn't been able to stop herself...

In this moment of pleasure, the man who had released himself forcefully into the depths of her womanhood shamelessly wet his fingers with the moisture flowing from Eva's inner thighs and caressed her womanhood again and again. Now every spasm, every tremor felt more intense than before. His eyes were fixed on his woman, his mischievous, roguish gaze recording the satisfied expression on Eva's face.

Eva had gone completely rigid with the force of her orgasm, left almost breathless. She could feel the wetness flowing from between her legs down her thighs.

The man withdrew from her in one sudden motion, and Eva arched like a bow, feeling a large, warm, quivering emptiness inside her.

The man leaned down, his lips brushing Eva's sweat-dampened ear.

"That was only the beginning," he whispered. "The seal is awakening, and I am coming for you, daughter of Rose..."

As the voice echoed in her ears, a chill swept across her skin. Then the image before her eyes suddenly shattered. Eva opened her eyes alone in the mountain cabin, her core still trembling. Her breath had been cut short, her heart pounding in her chest.

Her pajamas and the sheets were clinging to her skin with a cold dampness. The space between her legs was still throbbing, her insides still quivering. The sensation of the man's fingers and the intensity of that burning peak still reverberated through her muscles.

Her face had gone bright red. She brought her trembling hands to her core. The wetness was physical proof that the dream had not existed only in her mind. She felt like herself back in adolescence, when she had first begun to experience these feelings. Well, it was true she had no experience up to this point, but she had never felt such a meaningless, consuming sexual hunger before.

It was as though her body had entered some kind of process. None of her previous dreams had ever ended like this.

"How can it feel this real?" she grumbled to herself.

The image of those amber eyes, that roguish gaze, was still vivid in her mind. The patterns of the tattoos, the weight of his body pressing down on her, the burning fullness inside her... All of it was too real. And that terrified Eva.

She took a deep breath and brought her hands to her face. "This is madness," she murmured to herself. "It was just a dream. From stress. From loneliness."

Her tongue and her mind were busy making excuses. But her body wasn't lying. She was wet, she had felt immense pleasure, and she was completely satisfied.

She shook her head, trying to collect herself. She noticed the room was ice cold. The fireplace had long gone out, and every last trace of warmth had vanished from the room. This physical cold formed a terrible contrast to the burning heat of the dream.

She got out of bed and stood up on trembling legs. The cold floor made her legs tremble even more. Her steps were still unsteady as she walked toward the fireplace. The physical echoes of the dream were still reverberating through her muscles. *If even a dream with him left me this drained, I'd die if I actually slept with a man like that,* she thought.

At that moment, the cold air that struck Eva's skin as she threw off the warmth of the bed brought her back to herself for an instant.

"Ahh... Is this cursed mountaintop always going to be this cold?" she grumbled to herself.

One of the definite comforts of city life was proper heating systems. In these mountain conditions, she would have to quickly get the fireplace going to avoid freezing. She immediately got up from the armchair to go fetch more firewood from the shed.

As she got ready and opened the door, the rustling sound beneath her foot made her look down. What she saw surprised her.

On the veranda, left right in front of the door, was an enormous bouquet of flowers.

She bent down and picked up the flowers, looking around. But there was no one. Just snowdrifts, trees, and silence. Nothing else. She couldn't have expected anything different.

"Is this a joke..." she murmured. "We're literally on top of a mountain, who could have put this here?"

To be honest, she didn't dwell on it for long. She had always been a results-oriented woman, and her priority right now was not freezing to death. She set the flowers on the table inside and headed straight for the woodshed. She filled her arms with firewood and returned to the house. She went quickly to the fireplace and lit the fire.

When the flames crackled to life, Eva let out a comfortable sigh. Warmth slowly began to fill the room. She crouched in front of the fireplace and held her hands out toward the fire.

"Oh God, there's nothing more comforting than a fire. I think I really am a cursed witch," she murmured with a laugh.

A few minutes later, her eyes drifted to the flower bouquet on the table. She went over with curiosity and began to examine the flowers.

There was no note, and it didn't look like a random bouquet either. But she had to admit, these colorful, small-leafed flowers really were quite beautiful.

Eva brought the flowers to her nose and took a deep breath. The refreshing scent that filled her nostrils genuinely made her feel happy. A warmth seemed to spread through her from within. Strange as this morning had been, she was starting it in better spirits than most other days.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Eva fixed her eyes on it, and what she was thinking was plain to see.

Who was at the door? Could it be the owner of the flowers?