Bounded By The Alpha ️

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.