Under The Blood Moon

PROLUGUE

The night smelled of rain and iron. Shadows stretched long across the trees as I stood at the edge of the forest, my heart hammering in my chest. Behind me, the voices of my family rose—commands, warnings, the endless weight of expectation. In front of me, the world fell silent, daring me to step into it.

“Isla, don’t.” Liam’s voice was sharp, protective. My twin brother always tried to hold the world together, even when it was breaking me apart. His hand caught my wrist, strong and sure, but I pulled away.

“I can’t breathe here,” I said. The words cracked, but I forced them out. “I need something else. Anything else.”

The truth was raw. I was a wolf without a wolf, the child of Alphas who could never shift, never fight, never be what I was meant to be. Every look from my father carried disappointment. Every whisper from the pack reminded me that I was incomplete.

And yet—beneath all the shame—there was something restless inside me. Something that had been clawing at my chest for years.

That night, the moon was swollen, heavy, a pale eye watching. I didn’t know then that it would lead me to him. To the man who ruled with fear, the Lycan King himself. Xander Blackthorn.

People whispered his name like a curse. Merciless. Untouchable. A man who built walls out of blood and kept his heart colder than the steel of his throne. He had no mate, no love, no weakness. Until me.

But fate has a cruel sense of humor. It bound me to the one man who could destroy me as easily as he could save me. And under the blood moon, when his gray eyes met mine, I felt it—the bond I never wanted, the fire I could never escape.

This is not a story of gentle love. It is a story of claws and teeth, of passion and power, of a girl who was never enough and the king who refused to feel. It is a story of desire sharpened into a weapon, of a bond forged in fire and shadows.

And it begins with a choice: to walk away from everything I knew, or step into a world that would either awaken me—or break me.