Bound by the Blood Moon

Chapter 2 The Wolf Castle Dungeon

Three rough-cloaked wolf guards dragged me across the damp, muddy forest path, my bare ankles scraped raw by tangled thorn vines. The crimson moon still hung heavy above treetops, its bloody glow dyeing every blade of grass and every stone we passed. Ronan walked a few paces ahead, his broad back rigid, not once glancing back at me as I stumbled and nearly fell into the muck.

We reached Stormfang’s stone fortress before midnight. Tall black iron gates creaked open to swallow us whole, and the cold stench of iron, beast fur and old blood wrapped around me the second I stepped inside. Servant wolves bowed their heads low as Ronan passed, their golden eyes darting to me with hidden malice and curiosity. I knew what they whispered among themselves: a weak half-blood stray, captured as their Alpha’s unwanted fated mate.

Ronan finally spun to face me in the dim stone hallway, his jaw tight, voice low and sharp enough to slice skin. “You will stay within these castle walls from this night onward. No sneaking into human villages, no running into forbidden woods. You belong to Stormfang now—you belong to me.”

I pulled my wrists free from the guards’ grasp, chest heaving with suppressed rage. “I will never belong to the pack that slaughtered my mother. That bond under the blood moon means nothing to me. I will escape the first chance I get.”

A flash of brutal fury crossed his face. He snapped a single order at the guards beside us. “Lock her in the dungeon until she learns obedience.”

Two guards seized my arms again, hauling me down a narrow, slippery stone staircase deep beneath the castle. The air grew colder and damper the lower we went, filled with the moldy rot of old bones and iron chains. They tossed me roughly into a tiny cell with only a thin pile of straw for bedding, slamming the iron cell door shut with a deafening clang.

Through the metal bars, I watched Ronan’s tall figure stand at the top of the stairs for a long moment. He did not turn to look at me, but I heard his quiet, tormented murmur carry down the stone tunnel: “I have no choice, Layla. If I lose you, the blood curse will end my life before the next full moon.”

Then his footsteps faded away, leaving me alone in pitch darkness, trapped between a deadly curse and a man I hated more than anything in the world. I curled into the straw pile, hot tears stinging my cheeks, my wolf whimpering deep inside my chest, aching for the mate bond it could not refuse.