One: The Rogue Wolf

Mara’s POV

The forest was alive that night. Shadows rippled between skeletal trees, and the wind carried the scent of damp moss, pine, and wolves, too many of them. I pressed my back against a rough oak, holding my breath as a pair of glowing amber eyes flashed in the darkness. Another patrol.

They had been scouring the borders harder than ever. Bloodfang wolves; Ronald’s wolves.

His name burned like poison on my tongue.

My fingers curled around the dagger strapped to my thigh, the hilt worn smooth from years of use. I could kill him with this. I had trained my entire life for it.

Every scar etched into my skin was a reminder of that night, my pack slaughtered, my parents’ lifeless bodies sprawled in the dirt, my little brother’s terrified cries silenced by a sword through his chest.

Ronald, Alpha of Bloodfang, had stolen everything from me.

I was going to kill him.

Not tonight or tomorrow but revenge was a patient game, and I had learned to play it well.

I inhaled deeply, feeling the familiar stir of my wolf beneath my skin. She was restless, pacing, snarling for blood. Not yet, wolf, I whispered to her. She growled in my head but obeyed. If I shifted now, the patrol would scent me, and I’d be dead before I got anywhere near him.

The guards’ voices drifted through the trees, low and gruff.

“Smell that?” one murmured.

My heart thundered in my chest.

“Probably just a deer,” the other replied.

No, wolves always knew. My scent was masked with dirt and ash, but instincts weren’t so easily fooled.

I slipped silently through the undergrowth, every step measured. Moonlight sliced through the branches above, lighting my path in silver beams.

For a second, I glanced upward, meeting the pale, glowing orb in the sky. The Moon Goddess. Silent as always. She had watched while my family was torn apart and done nothing. I no longer prayed to her, never.

A twig snapped behind me. I whirled, dagger raised, as a massive wolf prowled out of the shadows. Its eyes gleamed gold, lips curling back over razor-sharp fangs.

“Rogue,” the wolf growled, voice thick with disgust as it shifted mid-step into a towering man. His skin glistened with sweat under the moonlight, scars crisscrossing his chest. “You shouldn’t be here.”

He lunged before I could react.

I dove to the side, rolled, and slashed at his ribs as I passed. The dagger cut deep; his snarl echoed through the forest.

Shouts erupted in the distance, more patrols. Damn it.

I ran.

Branches whipped at my face, roots snagged at my boots, but I kept moving, heart pounding in my ears. I had survived worse than this. I knew these woods as well as they did.

“Stop her!” a voice roared.

I veered left, ducking under a low branch, and threw myself down a steep embankment, landing hard. Pain shot through my knees, but I pushed myself up, sprinting through the shadows.

My wolf clawed at my insides, begging to take over, but I grit my teeth, not until I was safe.

The scent hit me before I saw him.

Power,raw and suffocating power.

I froze mid-step. Ahead, standing in a moonlit clearing like a predator carved from obsidian, was Ronald. The Alpha. The monster I had spent my life hating.

He was taller than I imagined, broad shoulders casting a long shadow under the moonlight. His hair was dark as midnight, falling to his jaw, and his golden eyes glowed with an otherworldly light.

He didn’t need to bare his teeth or growl to command fear; his presence alone stole the breath from my lungs.

He was beautiful in a deadly way, the kind of beauty that came with blood and death.

And for a terrifying moment, I couldn’t move.

Our eyes met.

The world shook.

It felt like being struck by lightning, the bond slamming into me with a force so violent my knees nearly buckled. My wolf let out a guttural, desperate howl inside my head, clawing to get closer. Heat surged through my veins, making it impossible to breathe.

Mate? No. No, no, no.

This was wrong, a cruel joke from the Moon Goddess herself.

The man I had come to kill, the one who slaughtered my family, was my mate.

“Rogue,” Ronald said, his voice deep and smooth, but laced with warning. His eyes narrowed, and I saw his wolf behind them, feral and curious. “Who sent you?”

I gripped my dagger tighter, forcing my legs to obey me. Every instinct screamed to run, to hide, but another part of me, my wolf wanted nothing more than to go to him.

The bond pulsed between us like a heartbeat, and I saw recognition flicker in his eyes. He felt it too. And he hated it.

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he stepped forward, slow and deliberate, like a predator stalking prey.

“I asked you a question,” he said softly, dangerously.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

The patrols caught up, surrounding me in a semicircle.

“Kill her,” one of the guards said, baring his teeth.

Ronald didn’t even look at them. He raised a single hand, silencing them instantly. His eyes never left mine.

Something passed between us then, a silent acknowledgment of the bond neither of us wanted.

Ronald tilted his head, golden eyes glinting with suspicion and something darker. He stepped closer, so close I could feel the heat radiating from him, and murmured, “You smell like you’re mine, but I don’t want a mate.”

His hand closed around my throat with precision, his voice a dangerous whisper that sent a shiver down my spine.

“Prove to me why I shouldn’t rip you apart right here.”