FOUND HER
1149 Words
Chapter 2 (Zane’s POV): “Found Her”
I had waited eighty-seven years to find her.
It wasn’t a metaphor or exaggeration. It was the curse of being a werewolf bound to an ancient prophecy, born under a blood moon and marked by the stars to find one soul, one mate, and one destiny. My life had been a hunt, a warpath, a ceaseless search for someone I didn’t know—only felt.
And tonight, I found her.
Not in a palace. Not in a temple. Not in the sacred cities of old.
She was barefoot, exhausted, wearing a threadbare shirt and socks that didn’t match. And she was perfect.
🌒 I Smelled Her Before I Saw Her
The city was loud and crude. Nothing like the wild territories I was used to—places where wolves ran free and the air smelled of pine and blood. Here, the sky was dull with smog, and even the stars hid behind city lights.
But her scent cut through it all.
Foxfire and bloodlight.
Powerful. Forbidden. Familiar.
The scent of royalty, of myth. A hybrid no one thought still lived.
She was supposed to be dead.
Hidden.
Lost to time.
But there she was—in a place reeking of fried oil and sweat—serving drinks to drunk humans who didn’t deserve to look at her, let alone speak her name.
I waited outside the building for hours, watching from the shadows. My wolf paced beneath my skin, growling at every man who smiled at her. She didn’t notice me—of course not. She was too busy surviving.
I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss her, rip the throats out of every man who touched her tray, or both.
She had no idea what she was. Or what she meant to me.
To the world.
To our kind.
When she finally stepped outside, shoulders slumped, arms hugging herself against the cold, I felt the bond snap into place.
It was violent.
Like lightning under my skin.
I took a single step forward and nearly collapsed. My wolf howled so loudly inside my head, I thought I might shift right there on the sidewalk.
She was beautiful in the way stars are before dawn—worn out, dimmed by darkness, but undeniably divine. Her hair spilled down her back in ginger waves. Her skin was golden like she belonged in a royal painting, and her eyes—
Sky blue. Ancient. Unaware.
She passed me by without a glance. Just like that.
It made something primal in me snap.
She didn’t know me. But I knew her.
She was mine.
And she was going home.
I followed her, silent as a shadow. She moved like someone who had no one waiting for her. Her steps dragged. Her shoulders hunched. Even her aura dimmed from what it should have been.
By the time she reached the broken gate of an old, crumbling house, I had seen enough.
Inside that house were notices of unpaid bills, envelopes filled with stress, and a hunger no creature should endure. She was drowning, surviving on crumbs when she was born to command armies.
I made one call.
“I want every debt erased,” I told my handler. “School, rent, hospital bills, loans—everything. I want her clean by morning.”
“kane” my beta asked.
“Luna.”
He didn’t question further. I paid him to obey.
I stood outside her door for half an hour, heart pounding like I hadn’t faced entire packs in war. I’d battled monsters, led wolves, and walked through fire. But facing her? That terrified me.
Still, I knocked.
She opened the door holding a frying pan.
A frying pan.
I almost smiled.
Her eyes locked with mine, and I felt my soul still. The mate bond pulsed between us like an open flame. She didn’t understand it yet, but I saw it in the way her breath caught. The way she shifted on her feet.
“Luna,” I said softly. “You smell like foxfire.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I smell like what now?”
My voice deepened instinctively. “You’re mine.”
She blinked. “Okay. That’s enough weirdness for one night.”
I stepped forward, uninvited. She didn’t back away. Brave, or foolish—I couldn’t tell. Maybe both. She had no idea who she was speaking to. Or what she was.
“I’ve waited my whole life for you,” I told her. “Now that I’ve found you, I’m never letting you go.”
She stared like I’d sprouted a second head.
“Sir, this is a Wendy’s.”
She was sarcastic. Adorable. And completely unaware of how close she was to awakening a bloodline that had been hunted for centuries.
I wanted to laugh. Instead, I growled.
A low warning that vibrated in my chest.
She stiffened. Her eyes flicked to my face like she was trying to figure me out, piece by piece.
“I am a werewolf,” I said, because I saw the disbelief forming.
“Oh. Fantastic. So I’ve officially lost my mind,” she muttered.
I didn’t blame her.
So I pulled out the file. Records. Bills. Details of every hardship she’d endured for the past five years. The kind of surveillance only my network could have gathered.
She paled.
Her voice was small now. “Who are you?”
I softened. Took a step closer. Our hands brushed. Sparks flew.
She gasped.
I knew what she felt. That invisible string tightening between us. The bond was waking.
“You’re not just a girl, Luna. You’re royalty. A princess of the fox-vampire line. Hidden in this crumbling city to protect you from those who’d kill you for your blood.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re insane.”
I didn’t argue. I was, maybe. Insane for her.
“I’ve paid your debts,” I said, and her lips parted like she couldn’t believe what she heard. “School. Rent. All of it.”
“Why?”
She looked like she might cry.
“I don’t need charity,” she whispered.
“It’s not charity,” I said, voice low. “It’s instinct. It’s fate. You’re mine. I protect what’s mine.”
Her eyes shimmered.
That’s when I saw it—the real her, hidden beneath the pain. The fire. The royalty. The power she hadn’t yet unlocked. It was there, under the sadness.
She didn’t speak for a long moment.
Then, she did the bravest thing she could have.
She said, “Okay.”
Not because she trusted me yet. But because somewhere, deep down, the bond was singing to her too.
She didn’t know it yet.
But she had just stepped back into a world of magic, blood, and war.
And I would burn kingdoms before I let anyone take her away
- Writer
