THE ALPHA'S SUCCUBUS

013

I turned, just in time to see something not human emerge from the brush.

Tall. Distorted. Its flesh was slick with symbols that shimmered like blood and oil. Its eyes were lidless pits, teeth gnarled and jutting like broken bones. Its limbs stretched too long, joints bending the wrong way.

It moved fast. Too fast. I barely had time to raise my arm when it lunged. Can things stop coming at me? What did I do to the universe?

A blur.

A howl.

Steel flashed. A body slammed into the creature midair with a crunch that echoed through the woods like a god shattering bone.

It was dead before it hit the ground.

A man stood over it. Breathing hard. Eyes glowing gold.

I turned, still on the forest floor where I’d fallen.

Shapes emerged from the trees.

Tall. Broad. Moving with lethal grace. Men at first glance. Until their eyes gleamed silver, and their presence pressed into my bones.

And at the center of them, him.

He didn’t need to speak. The forest bent to his will. His presence roared without sound, commanding silence, stillness, submission.

He hadn’t looked at me yet.

He stared down at the broken thing. His chest rose and fell slowly. His claws were still extended, thick with black blood. Wait, he has claws.

Before I could make out what creature he was, his scent hit me. Wild pine. Smell of rain on dry earth And something darker beneath. It collided with my senses like a memory I’d lived before.

My knees trembled.

Thank God I was already on the floor.

———

The warning came just before dawn.

An unnatural energy rippled through the land like a heartbeat gone wrong. The warriors at the southern border had felt it too, a disturbance deep in the marrow of the earth. Old power, wrong power. It carried the scent of death and broken oaths.

By the time the call reached me, I was already halfway there, riding the edge of instinct with Landon and Bjorn flanking me. Patrols were routine, but this wasn’t routine. The land we walked on knew us. It breathed with us. And tonight, it trembled, leading us to our goal.

“Hunters,” Bjorn growled, nose to the wind. “Not human.”

“No,” I muttered. “Old blood." Older than any of us.”

What has become of all this trespassing? As we neared the perimeter, the stench thickened. Not just decay or blood but magic gone sour. Pact-bound. Twisted. These weren’t rogue soldiers. These were summoned things. Created for one purpose.

To kill. To capture.

Before I saw her, I felt her.

A pulse of something other, something sacred and wrong and beautifully out of place. Like sunlight caught in the wrong sky. It struck me low in the gut, then curled down my spine. My wolf surged, hot and eager, howling to break free. Not for battle.

For her.

But I didn’t look. Not yet.

I focused on the threat.

The hunter was nearly on them, all jagged limbs and ancient rage, its presence a splinter in the air. Bjorn moved, but I was faster, flashing through the dark like lightning made flesh. I hit the creature midair, claws sharp like steel slicing, bone crunching. It was over before the thing hit the dirt.

And still, I didn’t look at her.

I couldn’t.

If I did, if I let myself see her now, my control would snap. My wolf would claim before my mind could reason. So I stood over the broken hunter instead. It was beginning to take the shape of a human, my claws were still extended, my chest rising slowly and heavy.

“Take it away,” I said, my voice low but final.

The other warriors who had now arrived obeyed immediately, dragging the corpse into the dark to be burned. This wasn’t chance. I told myself I would never go in search of her, but somehow she was here on the same day.

But so were they.

And I needed to know why.

Because hunters born of old blood and darker pacts don’t rise for nothing, no one sends them unless they’re afraid and know something.

Only then did I lift my gaze.

And the world shifted. Everything inside me, every law, oath, and command I have ever given myself broke. Eyes like stormlight met mine, wild, alive, furious, terrified. She was trembling. Bleeding. Alive. Yet I could smell her essence. Her scent caught in my lungs, she felt it too. She wanted me just as much. A thread pulled tight between us.

My wolf howled.

She was ethereal.

Skin like porcelain left too long beneath moonlight. Eyes too wide, too ancient for her youth, full of both wonder and fire. Her hair clung to her face in sweat-damp strands, her lips parted like she couldn’t quite catch her breath. Neither could I. The scent that had tormented my mind, clawed through my thoughts for weeks, this was its source.

The one that haunted my sleep. That filled the forest when no one was there. That made my wolf restless, sleepless, maddened with want. It had always been her.

And now she was real.

My wolf lunged in my chest, snarling, wild, mine echoing through my bones.

She was too untouched by this world. Too unaware of what we were. But she was the one.

My mate.

The tension in me was unbearable. I was trembling, every inch of me pulled taut between duty and instinct, between Alpha and beast. My blood burned under my skin. My canines lengthened despite my will. The urge to mark her, bite, claim, brand her with my scent ripped through me like fire licking dry grass.

But she was not alone, there was another frame beside her. Smaller. A girl. Blood on her sleeves. Wide eyes and terror curling around her like smoke.

I mindlinked Landon without looking away.

“Take them to the pack house. Feed them, make them comfortable and guard them. And I want answers the moment I return.”

“Understood,” he replied instantly through the link.

Her eyes were locked on me. And gods help me… She felt it too.

I saw it in the way her breath hitched. The way her hand tightened around the other girl’s sleeve. The way her eyes, so wide and confused, still held something deeper, hunger. Recognition. That ancient pull we couldn’t name, pulling her toward me too.

I took a step forward before I knew I had.

My wolf was rising, he didn’t care about the other girl. Not even the threat. Just her, snapping teeth, flooding every nerve, howling to taste her skin, to tear down whatever boundaries stood between us. Now. Now. Now.

I stopped.

Fists clenched. Jaw locked. Breathing ragged.

Control first. Her second. Answers above all.

If I touched her now, if I gave in, I wouldn’t stop.

Not until the bond was sealed. Not until she was mine in every way.

And gods, I wanted that. I wanted her marked under me, wearing my scent like armor. But she was hurt. Frightened. Unprepared. And I needed answers more than I needed release.

Just barely. I shoved him down with a snarl, turning the burn in my chest into something cold and controlled because if I looked one second longer, I’d throw her over my shoulder and take her into the woods and make her forget every danger in the world except me.

I can’t afford to lose focus now. The fact that she was here, that these creatures had followed or hunted her, raised questions too dangerous to ignore. None of this was a mistake. And if it was a trap…

Bjorn appeared at my side, already tracking what little trail the hunters had left behind. Old blood was seared into the soil. Symbols, burnt into bark where I had slammed him. Runes that hadn’t been seen in centuries.

“Where the f*ck are they coming from?” he muttered. “These aren’t random attacks anymore.”

“No.” My voice went low. Dark. “This is a summoning.”

Someone had called them here. And they were after her, a human for whatever reason.

I forced myself to walk past her without speaking. Without touching her.

It nearly killed me.

Every breath I took was filled with her. Spring rain on stone, jasmine blooming in snow. Her scent wrapped around my thoughts, blurred the lines between man and beast.

I clenched my fists to keep from reaching out.

The moment my skin touched hers, it would all be over. My wolf would rip free, and there would be no pretending we weren’t already bound.

Not until I understood why she was here.

And what she was hiding.