THE CRASH
Maya had been running from the curse for twenty-two years, but that night the curse caught her.
Rain hammered the windshield. Her old Toyota sputtered on the empty mountain road outside Blackwood City. Phone dead. Gas low. She took this shortcut because the main road was blocked by police, and now she was lost.
The dashboard clock blinked 11:47 PM. Full moon tonight.
Her skin burned. Every full moon her bones tried to shift and failed, because of the curse her mother put on her before she died. "You will never find your mate, Maya. You will never shift. You will hide what you are, or they will hunt you."
Maya gripped the wheel. Sweat on her forehead. Her teeth sharp.
Then something huge stepped into the road.
A wolf. Bigger than a wolf. Black as night, eyes glowing amber.
Maya screamed and swerved. Tires screeched. The car spun, hit the guardrail, and crashed into the forest.
Glass shattered. Metal crunched. The airbag punched her face.
Silence. Rain.
Blood dripped from her forehead onto her white dress. The dress for her sister's wedding tomorrow. Now ruined.
She kicked the door open and fell onto wet leaves. Mud on her knees.
The black wolf was gone. In its place stood a man.
Tall, soaked, shirtless despite the cold rain. Hair black, wet. Chest scarred. Eyes amber, same as the wolf. He looked at her blood on the ground and inhaled.
And froze.
Maya felt it then. A snap in her chest, like a rope pulling her soul out and tying it to him. Heat flooded her. Her cursed wolf, silent for twenty-two years, howled inside her for the first time.
Mate.
No. Impossible. The curse said she would never have a mate.
The man stepped closer. Rain ran down his abs. He knelt, grabbed her chin roughly, forcing her to look at him.
"Who are you?" His voice low, dangerous.
"Maya... Maya Cole," she whispered, shaking. "My car... I thought it was an animal..."
"You crashed onto my land. Private territory. No human enters here." He stared at her neck, her lips, her blood. His pupils dilated. "You smell like..."
He stopped. Hand tightened on her chin.
"Mate."
The word fell like a death sentence.
Maya pushed him. "Don't touch me!"
He didn't move.
"You are mine now."
Maya slapped him. Hard.
The sound echoed in the forest.
He touched his cheek slowly, then smiled. Cruel, beautiful.
"Little wolf has claws."
He threw her over his shoulder. She kicked, screamed.
"Put me down! Put me down, you psycho!"
He carried her through trees toward lights. A massive mansion hidden in forest, black stone, windows glowing gold.
Guards in black appeared, also smelling like wolves, eyes glowing. They bowed when they saw him.
"Alpha King. You caught an intruder?"
"My mate," he said. "Lock the gate. No one enters. No one leaves."
Maya froze. Alpha King? She heard stories in underground wolf bars. Ronan Wolfe. Alpha King of Blackwood. Two hundred years old. Ruthless. He killed his own father for power. He never took a Luna because no female survived his rut.
And now he claimed her.
He kicked open huge double doors and carried her into heat, into light, marble floors. He dropped her on a black couch.
She scrambled up, dress torn, hair wild. "Listen, I don't know what you think this is, but I am cursed! If you mate with me, I die! My mother cursed me! My mate dies too!"
He poured whiskey, unbothered. Water dripped from his body onto rug. "Curses can be broken."
"Not this one! Every female in my family died the night they met their mate! I will die!"
He turned. Amber eyes locked on hers. He walked to her, slow, predator.
"Then you will die as my Luna," he said softly, tucking wet hair behind her ear. His touch sent fire through her cursed mark on her shoulder, a black moon birthmark that burned. "But you will not die tonight."
Maya shivered. Not from cold. From his scent of pine and smoke and power.
"Why me?" she whispered.
"Because for two hundred years, I felt nothing. Tonight, your car crashed into my wolf and my dead heart started beating again."
He leaned down, lips near her ear.
"Say it. Say you feel it too."
"I feel nothing," she lied, voice breaking.
He laughed. "Your pulse says otherwise, little mate."
Outside, thunder cracked. The full moon broke through clouds, silver light flooding mansion through glass roof.
Maya cried out as pain ripped her spine. The moon. Her wolf trying to shift and failing, because of curse. She fell to floor, back arching, nails digging into marble.
Ronan was instantly on knees, hands on her waist, holding her shaking body. "Shift. Let it come. Stop fighting it."
"I can't! The curse! It won't let me! It kills me every time!"
"Let me help you."
He pressed his forehead to hers. Amber met brown. The mate bond exploded between them like wildfire.
Heat. Pain. Power.
Maya screamed as black marks crawled up her neck, curse fighting bond with dark magic.
Ronan growled, a true Alpha growl that shook windows and made guards outside kneel, and bit down near her mark, his canines breaking skin.
The curse mark burned white, blinding.
Maya went limp in his arms, breathing hard, sweat and rain and blood mixing.
He picked her up gently, carrying her toward the grand staircase, her head against his chest.
"You stopped it," she whispered weakly.
"Temporarily," he said, eyes dark with promise. "The curse wants you dead. I want you alive. We are at war now, little wolf. And I never lose."
"Where are you taking me?"
"To my bed. You will sleep in my room. If you run, my wolves will drag you back. If you die, you die in my arms. Understand?"
She should be terrified. She was terrified of him, of this bond, of dying.
But deep inside, her cursed wolf curled happily around his scent for the first time in twenty-two lonely years.
She was cursed to never find her mate.
And she had just crashed into the one wolf in the city who could never let her go.
