Chapter 1
They told me wolves mate for life—
but what happens when the Alpha chooses my sister instead of me?
On the night of her coronation, I walked in on them—her in his arms, him marking her as if I never existed.
I should have run, but instead I bared my throat… and he bit me.
Now I carry his mark, his scent, and a secret that could burn the entire pack to ashes.
……
I walked in on my sister moaning my fated mate’s name.
The sound ripped through me like claws across bone, raw and unrelenting. My lungs seized, my nails curled into the wooden doorframe, and every fiber of my wolf screamed mine. Yet there he was—Damien Blackwood, Alpha of the largest pack in the northern territories, my destined mate—his teeth buried in Serena’s neck, not mine.
“Clara.” My sister’s eyes went wide, her lips swollen, her skin already blooming with his mark.
Damien didn’t even flinch. His amber gaze pinned me, powerful and merciless.
“You weren’t supposed to see this.” His voice was dark velvet, dangerous enough to choke me with its calm.
I couldn’t breathe. For eighteen years, I had waited for this man—trained, bled, prayed for the Moon Goddess to bind us. And she had. I felt it in my bones the moment our eyes first met last week at the Gathering. That magnetic pull, the searing fire under my skin, the undeniable certainty of fate.
But now? That fire turned to acid.
“You’re my mate,” I whispered, my voice shredded with disbelief. “You’re supposed to be mine.”
He stood, towering over both of us, shirt undone, veins pulsing with Alpha heat. “I am Alpha first, mate second. And the pack needs her, not you.”
Her. Serena. My perfect sister, golden-haired, beloved, flawless.
The laugh that broke out of me was jagged, hollow. “So you’ll betray the Goddess herself?”
Damien stalked toward me, the scent of cedar and blood clinging to him. My wolf whimpered in my chest, torn between rage and desperate, aching desire. His hand gripped my jaw, forcing my gaze up to his.
“I’m not betraying anyone. The Goddess gave me two options. And I chose.” His lips brushed my ear, the words scorching: “But don’t think I’ll ever let you go.”
Then he sank his teeth into my skin.
The pain was blinding, electric, a chain of fire lashing through every nerve. My wolf howled inside me, claws raking at my ribcage, torn between ecstasy and agony. His mark burned over mine, claiming what he had no right to claim, binding me to him while he already bound himself to her.
When he finally pulled back, blood dripped down my collarbone. My knees buckled, but I refused to fall.
Serena’s voice trembled, horrified. “Damien, what did you do?”
He smirked, wiping my blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Exactly what I wanted.”
I stumbled backward, clutching my throat, my heart beating so violently I thought it might tear free. My mark pulsed in sync with his, tethering me to the man who had just destroyed me.
“You can’t bind us both,” I gasped, my voice breaking. “It will kill us—kill me—”
“Or make you stronger.” His gaze burned into me, something twisted and possessive gleaming in his eyes. “You’ll learn to share, little wolf. Or you’ll break.”
