"What did you say?" Elara's voice trembled.
The stranger took a step forward, and the earth seemed to recoil beneath him. Smoke coiled around his boots, and where he stepped, the leaves curled and withered.
"I have crossed from the Ashen Gates," he said. "I followed the bloodline the ancients swore would be mine. You were born under the moonless sky cursed, they said. But in my realm, they call it a mark of royalty."
Elara backed away. Her heart thundered.
"You're not a wolf."
"No," he said, a smirk twisting his mouth. "I am the Demon Prince of the Sixth Court. And you, Elara, are my fated mate."
She wanted to scream. To run. But her legs refused to obey.
"Fated... to a demon? That's not possible."
"Fate doesn't ask for permission."
A flash of heat seared her shoulder. Elara cried out, collapsing to her knees as her skin scorched with invisible fire. When she tore open her tunic, the cursed mark had changed.
What once looked like an empty swirl now glowed with a ring of black flame.
"You've felt empty all your life because your soul wasn't born whole," he said, kneeling beside her. "I am the half you were denied. The wolves cannot accept you because you are not fully one of them."
Tears blurred her vision. "I don't want this. I didn't ask for this."
He reached for her cheek, and when his fingers touched her skin, the fire faded.
"Neither did I. But the bond has awakened. And now we are bound."
Above them, the stars blinked out.