The Enemy
The night the Moon Goddess marked me, I wish she hadn’t.
I stood at the border of Thornridge and Blackthorn Pack, my boots sinking into the frozen ground. Behind me was my pack’s land, safe and familiar. Ahead of me was enemy soil, filled with danger and the scent of blood. The river between us whispered like it knew secrets I wasn’t supposed to hear.
I should have turned back. My father, Alpha Caden Thorn, would kill me if he knew I was here. But the mark on my palm burned like fire, glowing faintly in the moonlight. A crescent with thorns, carved into my skin as if by light itself.
The elders called it fate. The Goddess’s gift. A mate mark.
It didn’t feel like a gift. It felt like chains.
My wolf paced inside me, restless, pressing forward. She wanted something I didn’t understand. No, I told her. We can’t. We don’t belong here.
Then I smelled him.
Cedar. Rain. Smoke.
My chest locked tight.
He stepped out of the shadows on the far side of the river, and the world tilted.
Alpha Kael Blackthorn.
Even if I hadn’t seen him before at pack councils, I would’ve known who he was. Power rolled off him in waves, heavy and sharp. His golden eyes glowed in the dark, fixed on me like a predator who had already decided I was his prey.
The stories said he was ruthless, the youngest alpha in history, the wolf who carved his throne from blood. Seeing him now, I believed every word.
Still, my body betrayed me. My pulse hammered. My breath hitched. An odd tightening sensation started in my lower half. My wolf froze, then howled inside me.
Mate.
The word slammed into me so hard I stumbled.
Kael’s eyes darkened, and I saw the flicker of recognition in them. He felt it too. The mate bond.
“No,” I whispered. “No, this can’t be.”
Kael’s lips curved into something cruel. “Of all the wolves in the world, the Goddess ties me to a Thorn.”
My stomach dropped. My father would burn the world if he knew. Thornridge and Blackthorn had been enemies for generations. Our blood feud had taken too many lives already. To be tied to him, the man who carried that feud in his name, was unthinkable.
“I’ll never accept this,” I snapped, trying to ignore the way the bond pulled me toward him. His scent wrapped around me, dragging me closer even when I tried to step back.
Kael moved closer to the water, his golden eyes locked on me. “Then you’ll burn for eternity.” he said softly. “Because I won’t let you go.”
My heart hammered so hard it hurt. The mark on my palm pulsed like it agreed with him.
Before I could answer, I heard branches snap behind me.
“Rhea?”
I stiffened. My cousin Kade stepped into view, fury on his face, Mari right behind him. Their eyes dropped to my glowing palm.
Kade’s face went white. “No.” He grabbed my wrist so hard my bones ached. “We’re leaving. Now!”
Across the river, Kael’s wolves appeared, silent shadows with glowing eyes. One glance from him stopped them in their tracks, their discipline sharp and terrifying. He didn’t even need to raise his voice.
“Take your hand off her,” Kael said, his tone calm but absolute.
Kade’s grip tightened. “Touch her and I’ll tear your throat out!”
Kael’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll try.”
The air between them crackled with tension. My wolf pressed against my ribs, torn between my blood and my mate.
“Stop!” I shouted, jerking my hand free from Kade. “If you want me to leave, then stop making it worse!”
Kade froze, shocked at my tone. I’d never spoken to him like that before.
Kael’s gaze returned to me, sharp and burning. “We need to decide,” he said. “Now. We sever the bond before your pack finds out… or we don’t.”
The word don’t hit me like a hammer. Severing a bond meant intense pain. Some wolves didn’t survive it. Others lived hollow lives, broken in ways no healer could fix.
But not severing it? That may end up being worse. That meant a future that would destroy everything.
“I can’t,” I whispered. My throat felt raw. “Not tonight. Not here.”
For a second, I thought I saw relief flash in his eyes. He inclined his head slightly, his tone softer than before. “Then you’ll meet me,” he said.
“Absolutely not,” Kade growled beside me.
Kael ignored him, his golden eyes fixed only on me. “Two nights from now, at midnight, at the hunters’ chapel on the ridge. Its neutral ground. No pack owns it.”
The old chapel. Everyone knew it, it had been abandoned for years. It was haunted by human stories. It was a place where only fools went.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Two nights,” I said, my voice shaking.
Kael nodded once. “Don’t be late.”
Then he turned, and his wolves melted into the shadows with him, leaving only the echo of his command behind.
The bond throbbed inside me like a second heartbeat. My palm burned with the mark. I wanted to scream. I wanted to collapse. I wanted to run to him and never look back.
Kade grabbed my arm again, shaking. “You are telling your father. Before dawn.”
“I’m not,” I said, voice sharp. “If you want to, then go ahead. But I won’t.”
Kade’s jaw clenched. “I love you, Rhea. Don’t make me watch you throw yourself into ruin.”
Mari slipped her hand into mine, her eyes steady. “Sometimes ruin is exactly what the Goddess wants,” she whispered.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
That night, lying awake in my small room under the eaves, I stared out at the ridge where the chapel sat in the distance. My mark glowed faintly in the moonlight.
“Two nights,” I whispered to the dark.
The bond pulsed back, answering like it had heard me.
