THE CURSED MATE OF THE BLOOD MOON PACK KING

I ran until my lungs burned. The forest swallowed me whole, branches tearing at my dress, at my skin. I didn't care. Anything was better than going back to that house. To him. "Aurora, you're being dramatic," my sister had said, standing next to my fiancé. My ex-fiancé. In our bed. Dramatic. Right. The trees grew thicker, darker. I should've stopped. Everyone knew the rules—never enter the Blackwood Forest. Especially not tonight, when the moon hung fat and red in the sky like a bleeding wound. But I kept running. Until I heard it. A sound that wasn't quite human. A growl that vibrated through my bones and made every instinct scream run. But my legs wouldn't move. I stood frozen as the sound came again, closer this time, followed by something that might've been a word. Or a curse. I pushed through the last line of trees and stumbled into a clearing bathed in crimson moonlight. And that's when I saw him. He was massive. Even collapsed against the ancient stone altar, bleeding from a dozen wounds, he was the biggest man I'd ever seen. Dark hair fell across a face that was too beautiful to be real, all sharp angles and cruel lines. But it was his eyes that stopped my heart. Gold. Pure molten gold, and they were locked on me. "Run," he rasped. His voice felt like gravel and silk. "Run, little human." I should have. God, I should have. Instead, I moved closer. His blood was pooling around him, so dark it looked black. And something about it pulled at me, called to something I didn't understand. "You're dying," I whispered. His laugh was bitter. "For three hundred years, I've been dying. Tonight, I finally get my wish." Three hundred years? What was he talking about? My hand reached out before I could stop it. My fingers touched his blood, and the world exploded. Heat seared through me. The Blood Moon flared brighter, turning the whole forest red. The man—the creature—roared, and his body began to change. Bones cracked. Skin rippled. His face shifted into something between man and beast, and those gold eyes blazed with an intensity that should've killed me. But I couldn't look away. Couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. He lunged forward faster than anything that size should move. One massive hand wrapped around my throat—not squeezing, just holding me in place. His face was inches from mine now, and I could see the war happening behind his eyes. Human and animal. Control and chaos. "What have you done?" His voice was deeper now, rougher. Not quite human anymore. "I—I don't—" "You touched my blood under the Blood Moon." He leaned closer, inhaling deeply at my neck. His whole body shuddered. "You awakened me." "I didn't mean to—" "It doesn't matter what you meant." His grip tightened slightly. Not enough to hurt, but enough to make me understand how easily he could. "The bond is formed. The curse is renewed." "What curse? I don't understand any of this!" He pulled back just enough to look at me properly. Really look at me. And something in his expression shifted. Softened. Then hardened again, like he was furious about that softness. "You will," he said quietly. "If you survive long enough." Then he released me and stepped back. His body shifted again, bones cracking back into place, becoming more human. More man than monster. But no less terrifying. He stood before me in the moonlight, blood still covering his skin, wounds already healing before my eyes. He was easily six and a half feet tall, broad and powerful, and completely unbothered by the fact that his clothes had torn away during his transformation. I looked away quickly, heat flooding my face despite everything. "What's your name?" he demanded. "Aurora." My voice shook. "Aurora Thorne." "Aurora." He said it like he was tasting it. Testing it. "I am Kael Bloodmoor. King of the Shadow Lycans. And as of tonight, you belong to me." "I don't belong to anyone—" "You sealed your fate the moment you touched my blood." He moved closer again, and I backed up until I hit the altar. He caged me in with his arms, leaning down until we were eye to eye. "The Blood Moon has chosen. You are mine now. My curse. My salvation." His eyes dropped to my lips. "My mate." "Your what?" But before he could answer, pain exploded through my body. I screamed, clutching at my neck as something burned beneath my skin. Kael caught me as my legs gave out, and the last thing I saw before darkness took me was his face above mine. And his eyes, glowing like twin suns. "Mine," he whispered, and it sounded like a promise. Like a threat. Like the beginning of the end. To be continued...