BOUND TO THE LYCAN KING'S DARKNESS

CHAPTER 1: BOUND The cold woke me up before anything else, not the normal kind that made you shiver. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was him. Lucian. He was sitting in a chair beside my bed, his head tilted forward like he'd been watching me for hours, and when our eyes met, something in my chest pulled tight. The bond. I could feel it now, humming under my skin, warm and electric and terrifying because it connected me to this stranger who looked at me like I was the only thing keeping him alive. The room smelled like rain and cedar, clean and wild, nothing like the stale cigarette smoke that had clung to Marcus's apartment. "How long was I asleep?" I asked and my voice came out rough. "Two days," Lucian said and he leaned forward, his silver eyes locked on mine. "You needed rest after the bond snapped into place." Two days. I'd lost two whole days and Marcus was still out there and I was here in a castle that shouldn't exist with a mark on my wrist that glowed faint gold. I looked down at my arms and all the cuts and bruises from running through the forest were gone, my skin smooth like nothing had happened. "What did you do to me?" I whispered. "I saved you," Lucian said and his jaw tightened. "And I bound you to me forever, I know you didn't ask for this but the mate bond doesn't care about choice." The truth of it hit me like a fist. I was trapped here with this man who claimed to be my fated mate, and I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. I tried to pull away but the bond yanked at something deep in my chest and made me gasp, and Lucian was there instantly, his hands on my shoulders, warm and steady. "Don't fight it," he said. "The bond is new and raw, fighting it will only hurt you." "Then let me go," I said but even as the words left my mouth, I knew it was a lie. "I can't." Lucian looked at me like it was tearing him apart. "The bond won't let me, you're my mate now and that means you're mine to protect." The possessiveness in his voice should have scared me but instead it made something warm flush in my stomach. What was wrong with me? The silence stretched between us, heavy with everything we weren't saying. Through the tall windows, I could see mist curling around the castle towers like fingers. "Tell me about the curse," I said finally. Lucian went completely silent. For a long moment I thought he wouldn't answer, then he stood and walked to the window, his shoulders tense. "Fifteen years ago, I rejected a witch's advances," he said and his voice was flat, empty. "She cursed me, said the darkness would consume me slowly and turn me into a mindless beast, unless I found my fated mate and completed the Blood Moon Ceremony." My heart hammered against my ribs. "What's that?" He turned to face me and his eyes had gone dark, almost black. "A ritual where we both bleed onto the Moon Goddess's altar under the blood moon, it seals the bond completely." The air felt thick suddenly. "And if I refuse?" "Then I die." He said it so simply, like it didn't matter. "The darkness wins and you go back to your world carrying a bond that will hurt every single day for the rest of your life." I could already feel it, this pull toward him that was growing stronger every minute, and the thought of it hurting made my chest ache. Fear clutched up my throat. I'd spent two years learning to survive Marcus, learning to make myself small and quiet and invisible. Now I was supposed to bleed onto an altar to save a King I just met? But what was the alternative? Go back to running? Go back to checking over my shoulder every second? "When's the blood moon?" I whispered. "Three weeks." Three weeks. That was it. Three weeks to decide if I wanted to tie myself to a cursed King or go back to a life of fear. Lucian crossed the room and knelt beside the bed. His hand touched my face and electricity raced down my spine, the bond singing between us. "I won't force you," he said softly and his thumb brushed my cheek. "But I'm asking you to stay, let me protect you." I thought about Marcus and the bruises he'd left on my ribs and my arms and my soul. I thought about the fear that had become my constant companion. I thought about this man who looked at me like I mattered, like I was precious instead of disposable. "Okay," the word came out barely a whisper. "I'll stay." The relief on his face was devastating and then he was pulling me close, the bond singing between us. The stone floor was cold under my bare feet when I woke the next morning. Lucian was gone and I was alone in sheets that probably cost more than everything I'd ever owned. The door opened and a man walked in, not Lucian but he had the same predatory grace. He grinned when he saw me. "You're awake, I'm Roman, Lucian's Beta and your tour guide for the day." "I don't need a tour guide," I said. "No, but you do need someone to show you around before certain pack members decide to test you." My stomach dropped. "Test me?" "You're human and you're their King's mate, some will want to see if you're weak." Roman must have seen something in my face because his expression softened. "Relax, I won't let anyone hurt you." "Where is he?" I asked. "Council meeting, the elders are having a meltdown about you." I followed him into corridors that seemed endless, stone walls lit by torches. Servants bowed as we passed. Roman explained the pack hierarchy as we walked. Alphas and Betas and Omegas, how Lucian ruled over multiple packs. My head spun trying to track it all. Then we entered a massive throne room and the temperature seemed to drop. A throne carved from black stone sat on a raised platform, jagged and sharp, something about it made my skin crawl. "That's the death throne," Roman said quietly. Ice flooded my veins. "What?" "Every Queen who's completed the Blood Moon Ceremony has sat on that throne, every human Queen has died within days." The world tilted under my feet. "Every Queen?" "The ceremony needs your blood to break Lucian's curse, but human bodies can't handle that much magic, it burns them out from the inside." My breath came short and sharp. "And you're telling me this now?" "Because you deserve to know what you're walking into," he met my eyes. "Lucian won't tell you, he's too desperate for you to stay." I stared at the throne as every instinct screamed at me to run. But where would I go? Back to Marcus? Back to dying slowly from fear? "I'm still doing it," I heard myself say. Roman's eyebrows shot up. "You're serious." "I have nothing to lose, maybe three weeks of mattering to someone is worth it." He stared at me, then laughed, not mocking but something closer to respect. "You're either the bravest person I've ever met or the most reckless." "Probably both," I admitted. Roman shook his head, still smiling. "Lucian's going to have his hands full with you." Behind us, the massive doors to the throne room slammed open. A woman stood in the doorway, tall and beautiful with emerald eyes and auburn hair, and when she saw me, her smile was all teeth and venom. "So," she said, her voice sweet as poison. "You're human." Roman went completely still beside me and when I looked at him, his face had gone carefully blank. "Thalina," he said quietly. "What are you doing here?" The woman, Thalina, walked toward us and every step was deliberate, predatory, and I felt the bond in my chest pull tight like a warning. "I came to meet our King's new mate," she said and her eyes raked over me like I was something she'd scraped off her shoe. "I wanted to see what was worth breaking centuries of tradition for." She stopped right in front of me and I had to tilt my head ba ck to meet her eyes. "Tell me, little human," Thalina whispered and her voice dropped low, dangerous. "Do you really think you can survive what's coming?"