CHAPTER TWO

Darius’s POV

The battlefield reeked of blood.

Not just blood, fear. I could smell it on my men. Hear it in the way their breaths came ragged, their growls too sharp, their movements too frantic.

And worst of all, I knew why.

It was because of me.

Because their Alpha was no longer the beast he used to be. Because the Moon Goddess had cursed me, ripped the wolf from inside me and left me in this body, strong, yes, but slower, weaker, human in the ways that mattered most.

An Alpha without his wolf was nothing. A king without a crown. And every man here knew it.

“Hold the ridge!” Rowan’s voice rang out, hard and steady, cutting through the chaos. My Beta. My oldest friend.

He was trying to cover for me again, barking orders louder than he needed to, distracting them from the fact that their Alpha staggered when he should have surged.

That his blade swung heavy when claws should have ripped. That he bled too easily, too openly.

I gritted my teeth and swung at the rogue lunging for me, steel catching flesh. My shoulder screamed from the gash already burning there, but I refused to slow down. Not in front of my men.

“Darius!” Rowan shouted, cutting another rogue down as he slid to my side. “You’re pushing too far. Pull back.”

I growled, not at him, but at myself. “I won't pull back.”

“You’ll get yourself killed.”

“Better me than them.”

Rowan’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue. He knew there was no point.

The rogues pressed harder. Desperation always made them wild. They clawed and snapped like rabid dogs, and for every one that fell, two more seemed to come out of the shadows.

I could hear my warriors straining. Some cried out in pain. Some faltered, too slow to block. And all the while, in the back of their throats, was that low, bitter growl I knew too well: doubt.

They doubted me.

My blade split another rogue’s chest, blood spraying warm across my face. My lungs burned, my body screamed, but I kept fighting. Always fighting. Always pretending the curse hadn’t broken me.

And then…

The tide shifted.

One by one, the rogues faltered. One by one, they retreated. Soon the clearing was littered with bodies, the grass slick with red. My men exhaled in relief.

And I…I stood there, chest heaving, fury boiling inside me. Fury at Selene, at the curse, at the hollow silence where my wolf should have been.

That’s when I saw her.

She didn’t run like the others. She didn’t cower or crawl away. She stood.

A rogue she-wolf, her eyes blazing like wildfire, her body coiled and ready, as if every drop of blood in her veins screamed for war. She didn’t look broken. She didn’t look afraid. She looked like she wanted to burn the whole damn world.

My heart stopped.

Our eyes locked.

And the mate bond slammed into me.

It was like being struck by lightning. Pain and power, fire and ice. My chest squeezed so tight I almost dropped my sword. For a heartbeat, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe.

My wolf, silent for years, howled inside me.

Mate.

The word tore through me, raw and desperate, shaking the chains of the curse. I felt him clawing, felt him trying to break free. For the first time in years, there was life in him. Hope.

And she was the reason.

My salvation stood right there, dressed in blood and rage.

But her eyes…

Her eyes didn’t soften.

They hardened.

Recognition flickered, yes, but not the kind I had dreamed of in my darkest nights. Not the kind that would save me. No. Her recognition came laced with hate.

Her lip curled. She snarled. And before I could speak, before I could even breathe her name that I didn’t yet know, she lunged.

Claws against steel. Fire against fire.

She moved fast, faster than most trained warriors. Her strikes were sharp, precise, not wild. Each blow landed with intent, to hurt, to humiliate, to destroy.

“Mate?” she spat between attacks. “Don’t you dare look at me like that.”

I caught her wrist, barely, and shoved back. “You don’t understand…”

“I understand perfectly. You think I’ll bow? You think I’ll fall to my knees because the Goddess bound us?” Her laugh was bitter, sharp. “I’d rather die.”

Her words cut deeper than the gash in my shoulder.

“I’m not your enemy,” I said through clenched teeth, forcing her back a step.

“You’re an Alpha. That’s all I need to know.”

I froze. Her eyes burned with a hatred I couldn’t place. It wasn’t just me. It was every Alpha. Every leader. Every man who had ever worn the crown I carried.

“What happened to you?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Her jaw tightened. “Enough.”

She ripped free of my grip and swung again. I blocked, steel ringing in the night, sparks flying between us. My men had stopped fighting. They were staring now.

Watching me struggle not against a horde of rogues but against a single she-wolf who refused to bend.

Rowan’s voice cut through. “Darius! End it!”

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

Because every time her claws nearly met my throat, every time her eyes burned into mine, every time the mate bond tightened around my chest, I knew one thing: if I lost her, I was damned.

“Why are you fighting me?” I rasped, catching her by the arms again. “Why fight what the Goddess has made?”

Her face twisted. “Because I don’t bow to chains.”

Her knee slammed into my stomach. The air rushed out of me. I stumbled back, gasping.

And she ran.

Not like a coward. Like a storm. Like she had chosen freedom over everything else.

I stood there, bent over, pain clawing at my gut, the echo of her scent burning in my lungs.

My men murmured behind me, uneasy. They had seen. They had heard.

“Alpha?” Rowan stepped forward, his sword still dripping red. “What in the hell just happened?”

I wiped the blood from my mouth, my chest rising and falling.

“She’s mine,” I said hoarsely.

Rowan’s eyes widened. “Yours?”

“My mate.”

Silence crashed over the clearing.

I stared at the place she had disappeared, my heart still thundering, my wolf clawing desperately inside me.

She hated me. She despised me. She would rather die than be mine.

And yet…

The curse whispered through my veins, cold and sharp. Your wolf is lost until your true mate claims you. Fail, and you will fall.

The Moon Goddess had tied my survival to a rogue who wanted nothing more than to see me broken.

And for the first time in years, I didn’t know if I had won or lost.

All I knew was this:

She was my only chance.

My salvation.

And my doom.