CHAPTER 2
958 Words
Rain pattered steadily on something above me—a roof, maybe. The world swayed slightly, warm in some places, cold in others. My body ached as if I’d been dragged miles.
Wait.
Dragged.
My eyes snapped open.
A dim fire flickered on stone walls. I was in a cabin. A large one. Not pack housing. Not anywhere I recognized. My right arm throbbed where the creature had slashed me, now wrapped in clean white cloth.
“Easy.”
The voice was deep. Calm. Dangerous.
I turned sharply—and froze.
A man stood at the edge of the room, arms crossed over a broad chest, rain dripping from his hair onto the wooden floor. The storm howled behind him through an open doorway, lightning briefly illuminating his silhouette.
He stepped forward.
Tall. Powerfully built. Eyes molten gold, glowing faintly in the dim light.
I inhaled sharply. That scent—
Wild forest. Iron. Storm-charged earth.
Alpha.
Not just any alpha.
Stronger. Older. More lethal.
He crouched in front of me, gaze scanning my injuries with a quiet intensity that made my heart stumble.
“You’re safe,” he said, though his voice carried no softness. Only certainty. “For now.”
I pushed myself up, wincing. “Who are you?”
His jaw flexed. “Aidan Cross.”
The name hit me like a shockwave.
Aidan Cross.
The true Alpha heir.
The one who disappeared five years ago.
The one the elders refused to speak of.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I whispered.
He arched a brow. “Clearly not.”
I swallowed, unsure whether to be relieved or terrified.
“What were you doing in the woods alone?” he asked, voice dropping lower. “Your scent was all over the Bloodback’s territory. You should’ve been torn apart.”
Shame burned through me.
“The ceremony,” I muttered. “I… left.”
His eyes narrowed. “Left? Or ran?”
Heat crept up my neck.
Aidan studied me as if peeling back layers I didn’t know I had. “You’re hurt. Your wolf should’ve healed you. Why isn’t it responding?”
I stiffened. “Because I don’t have one.”
He blinked once. Slowly.
Then he stood abruptly, pacing a few steps away, palms braced on a table.
“That explains it,” he muttered.
“Explains what?”
He turned, golden eyes glowing brighter. “Why I felt it.”
My heartbeat stumbled. “Felt what?”
He approached with slow, deliberate steps that made the air seem thinner.
“The bond,” he said softly. “When I found you.”
My breath caught.
“No,” I whispered. “No, that’s not possible. Kael—”
“Kael is nothing,” Aidan cut sharply, voice cold. “A title-holder. A temporary figurehead propped up by elders who fear my return.”
He stopped directly in front of me.
“In the moment I touched you, the mate-bond snapped into place so hard it nearly dropped me to my knees.”
I shook my head. “You’re mistaken. I don’t— I’m nobody. I’m not even ranked.”
Aidan leaned closer, eyes burning. “The moon doesn’t make mistakes.”
My pulse hammered so violently I felt lightheaded. This couldn’t be real. Couldn’t be happening. I had just been humiliated—destroyed—in front of the entire pack.
And now this?
“You’re lying,” I whispered.
Aidan’s expression hardened. “If I wanted to lie, little wolf, I wouldn’t have carried you through a thunderstorm drenched in your blood.”
My breath hitched.
He continued, voice low and dangerously steady. “Your scent hit me first. Then your blood. Then the bond.” He exhaled sharply, as if still unsettled. “I haven’t felt anything in five years. And then you appear.”
I froze.
He took a step even closer.
“Tell me who hurt you,” Aidan said quietly. “Tell me who made you run.”
A lump rose in my throat.
The ceremony. Kael’s words. Seraphine’s whisper. The laughter.
My humiliation poured back like acid.
Aidan’s jaw clenched as he watched my face. “It was someone from the pack.”
It wasn’t a question.
Lightning flashed behind him, illuminating the raw fury tightening his expression, something feral simmering beneath his skin.
“Aidan—” I began.
“Who,” he growled.
I swallowed hard. “Kael.”
Aidan went still.
Completely still.
Then his eyes shifted—bright gold overtaking the irises, the faint outline of fangs pressing against his lower lip.
“Aidan—stop. Please.” My voice shook. “I don’t want violence.”
He looked at me with a storm behind his gaze.
“He rejected you publicly,” he said, voice barely human. “Humiliated you. Drove you into danger.”
His hands curled into fists.
“And he dared do it on the night the moon chose you for me.”
My breath caught.
“I am going back for him,” Aidan said. “And for anyone who allowed it.”
“Aidan—”
“You’re mine.”
The words hit me like a physical force.
“I am not,” I whispered, though my voice fractured.
His golden eyes softened—only slightly.
“You will understand soon.” He stepped back, heading toward the door. “But first, I’ll deal with the one who hurt you.”
A cold rush of panic surged through me.
“Aidan, wait—!!”
But he was already shifting—bones reshaping, muscles expanding, fur bursting through skin—until the massive warform from the forest stood in the doorway.
He snarled once.
And disappeared into the storm.
- Writer
