Kael
She's in my bed.
Lying in the dark, her silver hair glowing faintly in the firelight, her breathing shallow, her body restless. I can sense it — the burn crawling beneath her skin, the confusion warring with desire.
She doesn't know what she is yet. But I do.
My mate.
The one the stars promised.
The one the council forbids.
The one the prophecy says will kill me.
And I can't stay away.
I watch her from the shadows of the chamber, perched on the edge of a velvet chair like a predator waiting for the right moment to pounce. My wolf stirs under my skin, growling low, begging me to take her. Now. To mark her. Claim her. Bind her soul to mine until death — or war — tears us apart.
But I can't.
Not yet.
Not when everything I know says she's both salvation… and ruin.
My fists clench.
The moment I touched her, I knew. The bond snapped into place beneath the surface — a whisper, a heat, a pull that threatened to rip me apart. Her scent… gods, her scent. Moonrose and temptation, innocence laced with danger.
She doesn't even realize it, but she's already calling to me.
Every breath. Every look. Every heartbeat she has no control over… I feel it. In my blood. In my bones.
And every second I don't touch her again feels like punishment.
I rake a hand through my hair and force myself to leave the room before I do something irreversible.
Like mark her.
Because the moment I sink my teeth into that perfect skin — the moment I claim what fate's already given me — there's no undoing it. No going back. The bond will fully awaken. And with it… the curse.
The prophecy.
> The silver flame shall rise beneath the cursed moon.
She who bears the wolf's forgotten blood shall awaken the Alpha King's doom… or his rebirth.
The Elders believe it means my death. They believe she's here to end my bloodline. That her existence threatens the balance of our world. But they don't know her like I do.
They don't feel her the way I do.
They didn't dream of her every full moon for the last three years.
I did.
The first time I saw her in the dream, she was covered in blood — hers or mine, I still don't know. She was crying, broken, beautiful. And when I reached for her, she whispered my name like a curse.
I never forgot that.
The second time, she begged me not to touch her… as she touched me first.
By the tenth dream, I was waking hard and aching, her voice still echoing in my head. And when the dreams stopped? I nearly lost my fucking mind.
Until tonight.
Until her.
A knock shakes the door to my war chamber.
I don't need to look. I already smell him.
"Come in," I say, voice like gravel.
Rael steps in, tension rolling off him in waves. My second-in-command. My childhood friend. The only one who knows even a fraction of what I carry. And he's not happy.
"You're spiraling," he says instead of a greeting.
I glare. "I'm fine."
"You're drinking. Avoiding council summons. Ignoring your pack."
"My pack is safe."
"Because you locked your fated mate in your bed and walked away from her?"
My jaw tightens. "She's not ready."
He folds his arms. "You mean you're not."
I don't answer.
Because he's right.
If I mark her, it seals more than a bond — it unleashes a chain reaction we can't stop. Her heat will hit like a wildfire. Her power will unlock. And the Council? They'll scent it the moment it happens. And they'll come.
Not to honor her.
But to kill her.
"She has no idea what she is," I say quietly. "She doesn't know what her bloodline means. She thinks she's human. She doesn't understand the danger."
"Then tell her," Rael growls. "Let her decide."
"No," I snap. "Not yet. Not until I'm sure."
He exhales sharply. "And when the Blood Moon rises? What then?"
I glance toward the window, where the sky is already shifting — darker, heavier, pulsing with energy. Three nights from now, the Blood Moon will hang above us like a curse. And if the bond isn't completed by then…
Either she dies.
Or I do.
And I still don't know which one the stars intend.
"I'll protect her," I say instead. "Whatever it takes."
"You're risking everything. The crown. The packs. Your life."
"I've risked it all before. But this time... it's for her."
Rael shakes his head. "You were never supposed to have a mate, Kael. Not after what you did."
The words hang in the air like smoke.
He means the fire.
The massacre.
The night her mother's village burned to ash under my command.
The night the last of her bloodline was supposed to die.
She doesn't know.
She can't.
Because if she ever finds out that the Alpha she's tied to—the one she kissed, the one she wants—was the one responsible for slaughtering her past…
She'll never forgive me.
And maybe she shouldn't.
But gods help me… I'm too far gone now.
She's mine.
Even if fate says I have to burn for it.