Marked by the Enemy Alpha

Chapter 3: The Blood Moon's Curse

Thea

The forest clearing is ancient—older than any pack, older than memory. Massive stones form a perfect circle, worn smooth by centuries of ceremonies just like this one. Torches flicker at cardinal points, casting dancing shadows across faces tight with anticipation.

I stand at the very back, wedged between two other omegas who smell like fear and cheap perfume. If I could disappear into the earth itself, I would.

The Blood Moon hangs heavy overhead, swollen and red like a wound in the sky. Every unmated wolf in Crescent Moon Pack is here, arranged in concentric circles according to rank. Alphas at the front, of course. Then betas, deltas, gammas. Omegas in the back, where we belong.

And at the very center, standing alone in a space that seems to bend around him, is Draeven.

He's changed into ceremonial clothes—a black shirt open at the collar, dark pants, bare feet against sacred ground. His silver eyes reflect the crimson moon, making him look otherworldly. Dangerous. Like something that shouldn't exist in the mortal realm.

I force myself to look away.

Just survive tonight. Tomorrow, you run. Disappear. Start over somewhere he'll never find you.

Alpha Garrett raises his hands, and silence falls like a curtain.

"Brothers and sisters," his voice carries across the clearing. "Tonight, under the Blood Moon's blessing, we gather as our ancestors did. To seek what the Moon Goddess has written in the stars. To find what fate has ordained."

The ritual words wash over me. I've heard them before—at ceremonies in my old pack, when I was too young to participate. When my parents stood in circles just like this, hands clasped, laughing about how they'd already found each other years ago.

Pain lances through my chest. I dig my nails into my palms, using physical hurt to drown the emotional kind.

"We ask the Goddess to reveal our paths," Garrett continues. "To bind soul to soul, heart to heart, for all eternity—"

A sharp intake of breath ripples through the crowd.

The moon flares brighter, washing everything in blood-red light. It's starting.

Around me, wolves begin to shift restlessly. Some gasp. Others cry out. The lucky ones—those whose mates are here, close, touchable—stumble toward each other with matching expressions of wonder and recognition.

I feel nothing.

Thank the Goddess. Relief floods through me so intensely my knees almost buckle. I'm safe. I'm—

The pain hits like lightning straight to my collarbone.

I scream—I can't help it—as fire races across my skin, searing from shoulder to throat in jagged lines that feel like they're being carved by invisible claws. My shirt collar suddenly feels too tight, too hot. I claw at it desperately, dimly aware that every wolf in the clearing has turned to stare.

No. No, no, no—

The mark. The mate mark. It's forming.

I can feel it burning itself into my skin—intricate, permanent, undeniable. My wolf surges up with a howl of pure joy that shatters what's left of my composure.

No! Not now! Not—

My eyes snap up against my will, drawn by a force older than reason, stronger than survival instinct.

Across the circle, through the crowd of staring wolves, Draeven stands frozen.

His hand is pressed against his neck, silver eyes wide with something that might be shock. Might be recognition. As I watch, his fingers slowly fall away, revealing skin that's glowing with the same ethereal light I can feel radiating from my own mark.

No.

The mate bond snaps into place.

It's not gentle. Not gradual. It's a chain made of starlight and fire, wrapping around my soul and yanking tight. Suddenly, I can feel him—all of him. His shock. His hunger. The predatory satisfaction rolling off him in waves. His wolf, massive and ancient and utterly focused on me.

And underneath it all, something else. Something that feels like... recognition? Like he's been searching for something and just found it?

This can't be happening.

"The Alpha King," someone whispers.

"It's the King's mate," another voice hisses.

The crowd parts instinctively, creating a direct line of sight between us. Between the most powerful alpha in the realm and the omega nobody, wearing a dead girl's name.

Draeven's shock is already fading, replaced by something darker. Something that makes every hair on my body stand on end. He tilts his head, studying me like I'm a puzzle he's just figured out, and then—

He smiles.

It's not kind. It's not warm. It's the smile of a predator who's just cornered prey that ran far too long.

He takes a step forward. Then another. The crowd scrambles to get out of his way, wolves tripping over themselves to clear his path. He moves with deliberate slowness, giving me time to understand what's happening. Time to feel the full weight of fate's cruelty.

My wolf is going insane, throwing herself against the cage of my control, desperate to run to him instead of from him. The mate bond hums between us, getting stronger with every step he takes, until I can barely breathe through the intensity.

Run, my rational mind screams. Run now, while you still can.

But my body won't move. Whether from the bond or shock or some treacherous part of me that wants to see what happens next, I don't know.

Draeven stops three feet away.

Up close, he's overwhelming. Taller than I realized, radiating power that makes my omega instincts scream at me to bare my throat, to submit, to—

No. He murdered your family. He destroyed everything you loved.

"Well," his voice is low, meant only for me, though I know every wolf here can hear with their enhanced senses. "This is... unexpected."

I force myself to meet his eyes. Those terrible, beautiful silver eyes.

"Stay away from me," I whisper.

His smile widens. He raises his hand slowly, deliberately, reaching for my face—

I flinch back violently.

Something flickers across his expression. Hurt? Anger? It's gone too fast to read.

"Too late for that, little omega." His hand falls, but his gaze holds mine captive. The mate mark on my collarbone burns like a brand. Like a promise. Like a threat.

And when he speaks again, his voice carries across the entire clearing, sealing my fate with one single word:

"Mine."