The moon rose full and merciless over Blackridge Forest, its silver light slicing through the trees like a blade sharpened by fate.
I felt it before I saw it.
That pull.
That wrongness in my chest that made my breath hitch and my steps falter as I crossed the boundary stones marking the edge of our pack territory.
I stopped walking.
The forest was silent—too silent. No crickets. No owls. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath, as though the world itself knew something was about to happen.
"Don't be stupid, Elara," I muttered to myself, clutching the basket tighter in my arms. "You're just tired."
That was a lie, and I knew it.
I wasn't tired. I was *afraid*.
Tonight was the Night of the Full Moon, the one night every year when fate had a habit of rearranging lives without permission. The night the Moon Goddess decided who mattered—and who didn't.
I had never mattered.
At least, not to the Silvercrest Pack.
I was seventeen, wolf-less, and ranked so low in the pack hierarchy that even the omegas looked down on me. Orphaned at twelve, raised by obligation rather than love, I existed in the cracks between importance and invisibility.
And tonight, of all nights, I had been sent into the forest alone.
"Fetch moonbloom roots," Beta Mara had said, her lips curling in faint disgust. "And don't take too long. The ceremony starts at midnight."
She hadn't looked at me when she spoke. She never did.
Moonbloom roots were rare, and everyone knew they only grew near the old borderlands—the place where our territory brushed dangerously close to the lands of the **Nightfang Pack**.
The pack ruled by *him*.
Alpha Kael Nightfang.
The ruthless one.
Every child in Silvercrest grew up hearing his name whispered like a curse. A killer. A conqueror. An Alpha who ruled through fear and blood, who had taken three packs in the last decade and expanded his territory without mercy.
They said his wolf was massive, black as midnight, with eyes that glowed red beneath the moon.
They said he didn't hesitate.
They said if you crossed into his land, you never came back.
I swallowed hard and stepped forward anyway.
The moonbloom patch shimmered faintly ahead, its pale flowers glowing softly against the dark soil. I knelt, setting my basket down, and reached for the roots carefully, just as I'd been taught.
That was when the forest *shifted*.
The air grew heavier. Thicker. Charged.
My heart slammed violently against my ribs.
Someone was watching me.
I straightened slowly, every instinct screaming.
"Hello?" My voice came out small, fragile.
Silence answered.
Then—
A low growl rolled through the trees.
It wasn't the sound of an animal.
It was deeper. Smarter. Controlled.
Predatory.
I turned.
He stepped out of the shadows like the forest itself had parted for him.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Wrapped in black leather and dark authority. His presence crushed the air from my lungs, and my knees almost buckled under the sheer force of him.
Alpha.
Not just any Alpha.
**Him.**
Kael Nightfang.
His eyes locked onto mine, and the world *tilted*.
The pull in my chest snapped tight, burning, searing through my veins like wildfire. My breath hitched painfully, and I staggered back, clutching my heart.
"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "No, no, no…"
The word echoed inside my skull, ancient and undeniable.
*MATE.*
His expression shifted—just barely—but I saw it. The flash of shock. The sharp inhale. The tension rippling through his body like a coiled beast ready to strike.
"Impossible," he said, his voice low and dangerous, vibrating through the ground beneath my feet.
I shook my head again, tears stinging my eyes. "Please," I whispered. "I didn't know. I didn't mean to—"
His gaze hardened.
"You crossed into my territory," he said coldly. "On the Night of the Full Moon."
I stumbled backward, my heel catching on a root, and fell.
He was in front of me in a blink.
One moment he was several steps away; the next, he was crouched before me, his scent overwhelming—pine, smoke, and something darkly intoxicating.
"Look at me," he commanded.
My body obeyed before my mind could argue.
The instant our eyes met again, the bond surged violently, slamming into me so hard I gasped. My wolf—silent for seventeen years—stirred for the first time.
Weak. Small. But there.
His jaw clenched.
"You're unmarked," he said. "Untrained. Barely awakened."
"I don't have a wolf," I whispered. "I never have."
His eyes flicked to my neck, bare and untouched.
The moonlight caught the sharp planes of his face, the faint scar slicing through one eyebrow, the power coiled beneath his skin.
"Then the Moon Goddess has a cruel sense of humor," he said.
I didn't understand.
He rose to his full height, towering over me, and took a step back—as though distance alone could sever fate.
"I will not claim you," he said harshly. "I don't want a mate. Especially not one from a rival pack."
The bond screamed in protest.
My chest burned, my lungs tight as if I were suffocating.
"You can't just—reject it," I said, my voice breaking.
His eyes flashed red.
"I can do whatever I want."
The forest trembled.
"You will leave," he continued. "Now. If I see you on my land again, I won't be merciful."
I scrambled to my feet, grabbing my basket with shaking hands.
"But the bond—"
"—will be ignored," he snapped. "Suppressed. Broken if necessary."
That word shattered something inside me.
Broken.
I turned and ran.
The forest blurred through my tears, branches tearing at my skin, my heart screaming louder than my thoughts.
Behind me, I felt it.
His gaze.
Heavy. Burning. Unrelenting.
The bond didn't weaken.
It *tightened*.
And deep in the darkness, Alpha Kael Nightfang watched his fated mate flee—knowing fate was not done with either of them.