Chapter 1 The Raid

The air was thick with ash and blood.

Luna ran.

Her breath tore through her lungs like splinters. Branches sliced across her bare arms as she darted between the trees, the forest alive with snarls, howls, and the thundering of boots behind her. Fires crackled somewhere in the distance, lighting the night in pulsing orange flares, but she didn't dare look back.

She'd already seen enough-her pack's stronghold burning, warriors torn apart, her brother's scream cut off midshift.

This wasn't just a raid. It was a purge.

And the devil leading it? They called him The Savage.

Her feet pounded the damp earth as if the rhythm alone could beat back the dread pooling in her gut. She had no weapon, no wolf-her first shift had never come-and now, without her brother or her pack, she had no protection.

"Fan out!" a voice bellowed in the dark, gravel-edged and cold. "She's close."

Luna skidded behind a wide oak, pressing her back to the bark as her pulse stuttered. Her legs trembled. The bond under her skin-thin, dormant for years-suddenly flared to life. Her body reacted before her mind could process it.

He's near...

She clenched her jaw. No. It wasn't possible.

Then the silence fell. A heavy, unnatural stillness.

And he stepped into it.

Lucien DeVark.

The Savage Alpha.

He emerged from the smoke like a demon from myth-tall, broad, bare-chested, his torso slick with blood that wasn't his. Golden eyes burned in the dark, glowing with an unnatural light, and when they locked onto hers, the air snapped.

"Found you," he said softly, almost like a lover would.

Luna turned to run, but it was too late.

In a blur, he was in front of her, slamming her back against the tree with one hand wrapped around her throat. Not tight. Just enough to make her heart thunder.

"So small," he murmured, eyes raking over her. "And yet, you've got the blood of a traitor in you."

"Let me go," she rasped.

He tilted his head, sniffing the air. His grip faltered for half a second.

Then it happened.

The snap-not of bone, but of fate. The mate bond roared to life between them like wildfire. Heat surged under her skin. His eyes widened in something like shock.

"You... can't be."

Luna's lips trembled. "No," she whispered. "No, no, no-"

Lucien's fangs extended slowly. Not from hunger.

From rage.

"I am not your mate," she said, spitting the word like venom.

But they both felt it. The pull. The heat. The bond.

And it changed everything.

Because now she wasn't just a rogue.

She was his.

And he'd burn down the world before letting her go.