He killed her mate. Now fate has bound her to him. Rhea's world shattered the night her fated mate was slaughtered during a rogue attack. And she knows exactly who to blame-Xander Blackthorn, the ruthless Alpha heir who led the assault. But fate plays cruel games. When the mate bond awakens, it's not her lost love she's tied to... it's him. Now held within his powerful pack, Rhea wants vengeance. She burns with hatred. But Xander isn't the heartless monster she imagined-and the more she fights the pull between them, the more it threatens to undo her. Dark secrets rise. Painful truths surface. And as war looms between packs, Rhea must make a choice: Will she destroy the Alpha who stole everything from her? Or fall for the one man she swore she'd hate forever?
Chapter 1 The Night Everything Burned
The forest was still burning when Rhea stepped over the remains of her mate.
Ash clung to her skin like a second curse, her fingers trembling as she crouched down beside the shattered body of Cassian. His wolf form had shifted back-naked, bloody, lifeless. The bond between them was severed the moment he died, and yet, her chest ached like she'd been split in two.
She didn't cry. The tears had dried up hours ago.
"Rhea." A voice behind her-urgent. "The elders said we need to move. They'll be back."
"They?" Her voice came out like ash-hoarse and hollow. "You mean him. Xander Blackthorn."
Silence.
Everyone knew the name. The Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack. Ruthless. Feared. The one whose warriors attacked under a blood moon, leaving her pack in ruin. Some claimed it was rogues. Rhea knew better.
She had seen him. Just before the fire. Just before Cassian died.
Golden eyes. Cold. Calculating. Watching.
She stood slowly, Cassian's pendant in her hand. It was the only thing not soaked in blood.
"I won't run," she said. "Not until I bury him."
The ground was too hard. She dug with her hands anyway.
By the time the moon reached its peak, she had buried her mate beneath a ring of black stones, just like he would've wanted. Her fingers bled, but she didn't care.
She pressed the pendant to her lips.
"I'll avenge you," she whispered. "Even if it kills me."
They found her at the border.
The neutral pack had offered safe shelter. Rhea stood between two warriors, her face unreadable, heart iced over.
Then she felt it.
A pull. Violent. Gutting.
Her knees buckled.
"No," she whispered. "No, no, no-"
Because she knew that feeling.
The Mate Bond.
And as footsteps echoed toward her, slow and deliberate, she forced herself to look up-
-into the golden eyes of the monster who murdered her mate.
Alpha Xander Blackthorn.
"Fate must be laughing," Rhea thought bitterly. "Because it just bound me to the man I swore to kill."