Chapter One The Night He Claimed Me

Chapter One

The Night I Ran Into the Wolf

A hand grabbed my wrist.

Not rough.

Not gentle.

Certain.

“Relax, Ava,” someone murmured behind me.

Laughter circled us. Low. Knowing.

My back pressed against the wooden fence at the edge of the village. The moon hung too bright above us, silver light spilling over faces I had known my entire life—and never trusted.

His thumb slid slowly along the inside of my wrist.

Testing.

My stomach twisted.

“Don’t,” I said.

It came out thin.

Another body stepped into my space, blocking the narrow path to the main road.

“You’re always alone,” one of them said. “Doesn’t it get lonely?”

A hand brushed my waist.

Not an accident.

Not yet violent.

But close.

I stiffened. My pulse hammered in my throat.

“Let me go.”

“Or what?” the first one asked softly.

His fingers tightened—just enough to remind me he could do worse.

The air shifted. Thickened.

They didn’t think I was strange.

They thought I was available.

That realization burned hotter than fear.

My body moved before my mind could.

I twisted, driving my elbow backward. Someone cursed. I tore my wrist free and shoved hard enough to make space.

And I ran.

Their laughter followed me down the empty street.

“Run, then!”

Footsteps chased after me.

More than one.

I didn’t look back.

The village blurred as I sprinted toward the only place we were warned never to go at night.

The forest.

Branches tore at my sleeves as I crossed the tree line. The air turned colder instantly, thicker—like stepping underwater.

Behind me, the footsteps slowed.

They wouldn’t follow.

Cowards rarely chase where they aren’t the biggest predators.

My lungs burned. My vision blurred.

But I didn’t stop.

Not until the forest went silent.

Not normal silence.

Watching silence.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

I took one more step—

—and collided with something solid.

A chest.

Warm. Immovable.

I stumbled backward.

He didn’t.

I looked up.

Moonlight cut across sharp cheekbones and eyes that glowed gold in the dark.

Not reflection.

Light.

My heart skipped.

Not the same fear I’d felt minutes ago.

This was cleaner.

Sharper.

Primal.

He stood half in shadow, broad shoulders outlined in silver. Power radiated from him like heat from stone left too long in the sun.

I knew what he was before my mind formed the word.

Alpha.

It didn’t sound in my head.

It settled in my bones.

“Turn around,” he said quietly.

His voice wasn’t loud.

It didn’t need to be.

I didn’t move.

His gaze dropped to my throat.

Heat coiled low in my stomach—traitorous and sudden.

“Run,” he added.

A test.

Every instinct screamed at me to obey.

So I did.

I darted past him.

One step.

Two.

An arm locked around my waist and yanked me backward.

My back slammed into his chest. Hard muscle. Unyielding.

I gasped.

His hand came up to my throat.

Not choking.

Claiming.

My pulse went wild beneath his fingers.

“You run from boys in your village,” he murmured near my ear.

His breath was warm. Dangerous.

“You don’t run from me.”

Electricity shot through my body. Sharp. Violent. Not pain.

Something worse.

Recognition.

I struggled, but he tightened his hold, lifting me slightly off the ground as if I weighed nothing.

“Let me go!” I snapped.

The forest answered with a low growl.

Not him.

Others.

His jaw flexed.

“You crossed into my territory,” he said, voice turning lethal. “Do you have any idea what that means?”

“I didn’t know,” I breathed.

His grip tightened at my throat.

“You should have.”

Something flared beneath my skin.

Hot.

Blinding.

A thread pulled tight between us, invisible but suffocating.

His body went rigid.

He felt it too.

For a split second, something like shock crossed his face.

Then anger replaced it.

“No,” he muttered.

The word wasn’t for me.

It was for fate.

I gasped as heat seared through my chest, racing down my spine, settling low in my stomach.

My knees weakened.

He caught me before I could fall.

Our eyes locked.

The gold in his darkened.

“You,” he said slowly.

Not a question.

An accusation.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whispered.

“Don’t lie.”

His thumb pressed against the base of my throat.

Right over my racing pulse.

The heat flared stronger.

My vision flickered—

—and suddenly I saw flashes that weren’t mine.

Claws.

Blood on snow.

A woman screaming.

Fire.

I cried out.

He released my throat abruptly, as if burned.

The distance between us lasted exactly one second.

Then he grabbed my chin and forced my face up again.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m human,” I said.

His laugh was dark.

“No,” he replied.

The forest erupted in howls.

Close.

Too close.

Shapes moved between the trees.

His pack.

They had felt it too.

His gaze didn’t leave mine.

The anger in it wasn’t directed at me.

It was at the bond burning between us.

“You don’t belong to them,” he said.

“I don’t belong to anyone.”

Something dangerous flickered in his eyes.

He stepped closer.

The air vanished from my lungs.

“Wrong.”

His hand slid from my chin to the back of my neck.

Firm.

Possessive.

Mine.

The word didn’t leave his lips.

It didn’t have to.

The bond ignited fully.

A pulse of heat tore through me so violently I gasped and clutched at his shirt.

He stiffened.

For a heartbeat, we were the only two beings in the forest.

Then one of the wolves stepped into the clearing.

“Alpha,” a voice called carefully. “What is she?”

His jaw tightened.

His grip on me didn’t loosen.

“She,” he said coldly,

“is the reason the curse just woke up.”

Silence fell.

And for the first time in my life—

I understood.

I hadn’t run into the forest.

I had run into him.

And he wasn’t letting me go.