PROLOGUE AND WARNINGS(18+)
Scarlett Reine POV
I was running for my life.
The moon hung low above the treeline, spilling silver light over the forest, a blur of shadows, thorns, and cold earth beneath my bare, bleeding feet. Wind whipped through my wild red curls as I sprinted, lungs burning, heart rioting.
Behind me, the ground trembled with thundering paws. Wolves, his wolf soldiers and hunters chasing me like living, breathing nightmares.
I didn’t dare slow down. I knew exactly whose order they followed.
Alpha Azrael Thorne.
For days I’d been hunted like prey, dragged out of the fragile peace I’d carved for myself in another pack. That peace shattered the moment he found me. Now, barely, I had escaped but not for long. His wolves flooded the forest like a storm, eyes burning with orders they would rather die than disobey.
But one was faster.
One massive shadow weaving between the trees with impossible, predatory speed.
Him. That monster.
He wasn’t letting anyone else claim this catch.
My heart slammed against my ribs. Not him. Anyone but him. But my weak, human legs were trembling, slowing. I was only half wolf, half nothing.
Branches tore across my cheeks. Roots clawed at my ankles.
But I ran anyway.
I shoved through a wall of underbrush, branches lashing my arms as I tore deeper into the forest. I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. The Pack Kingdom’s elite hunters were right behind me, the ones who never failed to drag a runaway back to their Alpha.
Back to him.
How did I end up here again? How did I let myself fall back into his world, his rage, and his obsession?
A snarl cracked through the forest low, powerful, and vibrating straight through my bones.
Him. Always him.
His aura crawled over my skin like ice and fire, tugging at the unwanted bond he branded into me. The mark beneath my collarbone throbbed, hot and angry because I was running.
A curse and a chain tied to him.
I begged the Moon Goddess. Not him. Not now. But my trembling, half‑blood legs could never outrun a kingdom’s Alpha.
Could never outrun the monster who ruined me.
My wolf, what little I’d ever had, retreated the night he took everything. She never came back, leaving me smaller, slower, and breakable.
But I didn’t stop.
Behind me, howls rose closer. His wolves were hunting me like they always had.
Like I was born prey.
I veered left, plunging into old pines where scent trails tangled, confusing even the best trackers. My only hope.
Then I heard that one set of paws. Heavier. Ruthless, tearing through the undergrowth like a storm, gaining on me with terrifying purpose.
My legs screamed as I forced them faster. They still burned from jumping the tall stone wall I’d hurled myself from to escape him. My calves throbbed, my ankles felt like cracked bone, and warm blood slid down my shins from cuts I didn’t remember getting but fear shoved me forward.
That fear that hollows your bones.
That steals your voice.
That makes your soul whisper prayers you don’t believe in.
Don’t let him catch me… please…
My breath came out in shallow bursts, tasting like iron and desperation. The forest reeled around me.
Still, I wasn’t fast enough. Human speed wasn’t enough. No wolf to call on. No claws. No strength.
Now I understand why they called me half‑human. Incomplete. A mistake the goddess abandoned.
I didn’t know why he spat “traitor” like poison, why he was so hell‑bent on revenge.
I only knew this, if he caught me again, I wouldn’t escape.
Not alive.
Not sane.
Not me.
A roar thundered through the forest, too close.
I turned sharply down a narrow, thorn‑choked path, hoping to lose him.
Yet he didn’t slow down.
His massive, shadow‑black shape tore through the trees, branches cracking under his weight. He was faster. So much faster.
He could always smell me, always could.
Another roar shook the night, feral, guttural, and furious.
My foot snagged on a root. I stumbled, caught myself, and glanced back.
Big mistake.
The enormous wolf exploded from the trees, a tearing blur of darkness. He didn’t leap. He launched.
Twice the size of any warrior. Moonlit muscles flexing. Molten gold eyes fixed on me like prey he’d been starving for.
Gravity bowed to him. He vaulted over trunks and jagged rocks in terrifying silence.
Fangs bared, eyes blazing.
A predator descending.
“Moon Goddess”
I whipped my head forward, begging my body for one more burst of speed.
Too late.
He crashed into me like a storm, an avalanche of muscle and fur. The ground vanished as his body slammed into my back. I flew forward, tumbling through dirt and dead leaves as the world spun.
Impact.
My back struck the earth hard. Air exploded from my chest as he rolled with me, pinning me beneath him when we stopped spinning.
Heavy. Immovable.
His fangs clamped onto my shoulder, locking my body in place. I thrashed, but his hold was iron.
A predator’s grip.
He caged me with his body, panting, snarling above me. Heat pressed into my spine, his breath scorching the back of my neck.
A low growl rolled from his chest, deep, feral but darker than anger. Possession. Obsession. A claim that would not be broken. His silhouette began to shift, bones snapping, fur folding into skin, limbs reshaping.
The monstrous weight became a different danger, human, but no less lethal.
Azrael.
Medium-length black hair, damp from the chase, fell in dark, wild strands around his sharp, chiseled features. Jaw clenched. Molten-gold eyes burned like they wanted to devour me.
Before I could inhale, his hands shot out, catching my wrists and slamming them above my head. His chest pressed into mine, hard and unyielding, his weight anchoring me to the earth as if escape were impossible.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.
One hand slammed into the ground beside my head, claws half-formed, cracking the earth. His face stayed buried against my shoulder, holding me there with nothing but heat and dominance.
He inhaled me. A slow drag of breath along my skin.
Then he lifted his head. Face hovered inches above mine, lips brushing mine, chest rising like a storm barely contained. Eyes rimmed in feral red, ancient and merciless.
His lips, shaped for both pain and temptation, curled into a snarl, voice low, venomous, thick with twisted satisfaction,
“Did you really think you could run from me, little mate?”
That deep, too-human, too-dangerous growl made my pulse stutter.
I stared up at him, chest heaving, tears burning behind my eyes. A small, broken sound escaped me.
His breath skimmed my mouth in slow arcs, setting my nerves ablaze as he leaned closer, heat pressing against me. Voice sinking into a dark promise,
“Run again… and I’ll chain you to my bed myself.”
Every word wrapped around me like chains, every glance a tether I could not, would not, break. I was trapped not just by his hands, but by the weight of him, by the pull of something I couldn’t name, something that would consume me utterly.
His eyes, cold, furious, consuming, locked onto mine, claiming, condemning and devouring me.
His breath slid over my lips again, voice dropping lower, darker,
“Because I finally found you, little wolf… and I’ll drag you back bleeding if that’s what it takes to keep you.”
How did I end up here?
I’ll tell you.
Warnings rated 18+: Dark, explicit, and unapologetically erotic. This is a story of domination, obsession, and forbidden desire. Only for mature readers ready to be consumed.
