TO MATE A MONSTER

ELENA'S POV My chest tightened like a wire was being pulled through it. It started as a heat in my spine, low and strange, then flared out like wildfire licking my veins. My hands were visibly shaking. Something was wrong, without being told. Or maybe... something was happening. I turned, slowly. And there he was. Alpha Ethan Morgan. Very tall, hates the fact that he is handsome, and looks intimidating. The crowd parted from him like he owned the air they breathed. No! No! No. It can’t be him. But the second our eyes met, that second that lasted forever and not long enough, I knew what was happening. The mate bond. My body knew it before I did. My wolf stirred, rising like a scream in my chest, clawing toward him. I took a step back. My heart pounded so hard I felt it behind my eyes. I wanted to run. I wanted to shift. I wanted to tear something apart or scream out loud. But all I could do was stand there and let the memories swallow me whole. Ten Years Ago The forest smelled like burning smoke. That was the first thing I remembered. That, and my sister’s hand over my mouth as she pushed me slowly beneath a shield. “Don’t make a sound,” she whispered, her voice shaking. Blood soaked her shoulders, spreading fast through her shirt. “No matter what you hear.” The screams had already started. My mother’s voice was loud with command, telling my father to take the eastern wall. Crashing and snarling. A growl that didn’t belong to any wolf I knew. And then... Silence. Except for the drag of another wolf The footsteps stopped inches from the floorboards above my head. Then my sister screamed. A different kind of scream, a painful one at that. “Run, Elena,” she shouted, her voice splintering. Never come back. Don’t seek revenge. Swear it!” I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. But I saw his face when the board above me cracked, just enough for moonlight to shine through. A man with ash-blond hair, eyes like a winter storm, covered in blood. Calm. Watching, not like a killer, but like a judge. The same eyes I see now. Ethan Morgan. It wasn't just the face. It was the scent. It was the way the world around him held still, like even the trees didn’t want to challenge him. Something about him froze time itself. After the attack, I ran. I didn’t look back. Not once. I spent years hiding, learning to fight, and burying my past under training and grit. Every time I looked at the scar on my hip, that blood-red crescent moon, I remembered the oath I never made out loud but carried like a knife in my chest. Don't come back. Don't seek revenge. But I never stopped preparing for the day I would. Present I jerked away like I’d been burned. No, not him, anyone but him. He was standing across the gathering circle, speaking to his Beta. His face was serious, but his posture had shifted, just slightly. Like he felt it too. No! No! no! no! The bond couldn't be real. He killed my family. And now the same universe, the same moon that marked me, was telling me this man was mine? I turned on my heel, disappearing through the crowd, ignoring the looks, the whispers. I had trained myself for eight years to bury the past, to forget the scar that still burned on my hip. But the moment I saw him, it lit up like fire. The crescent moon. Crimson. The prophecy. The thing they said would one day decide the fate of a pack. The mark only one girl carries at a time. And it had chosen me. I didn’t know what curse I was meant to break. I didn’t even know it existed. But something deep inside me did. ETHAN'S POV Something shifted in the air. I smelled it before I saw it. A scent I couldn’t place, I couldn’t find the right words for it, and something colder beneath it. My wolf sat up in my chest, alert. Then I saw her. She was backing away, her eyes locked on mine like she wanted to kill me and kiss me at the same time. Brown hair spilling past her shoulders, eyes dark and wide. Her energy pulsed like lightning. I felt it. Mate. My blood went still. My breath stopped for a moment. Everything in me wants her. Then she was gone. She pushed through the crowd and disappeared into the trees. "Who was that?" my Beta, Julian, asked beside me. I didn’t answer. Because I didn’t know. But I was going to find out. My wolf was pacing, pulling toward her like a magnetic force. But underneath the pull was a chill. Something about her didn’t feel safe. Something felt... familiar. Like a nightmare half-remembered. I couldn’t explain it. But I knew this much: I would never be the same again. ELENA'S POV I leaned against a tree, my heart still beating like a war drum. Why him? I waited eight years for the right moment. For strength, and one day I could look into the eyes of the man who destroyed my family. Now fate just handed him to me as my mate. No. I would not look back. I would not forgive. And I would not fall into his trap, nor agree to be his Luna. Not with the Alpha of the pack that butchered my bloodline. He doesn’t even recognize me. Good. By the time he finds out who I am, it will already be too late.