Chapter 3 – Feral Awakening

The abandoned lodge reeked of dust and rot, but the shadows were mine. I huddled in the corner, soaked from rain and trembling, not just from the cold, but from everything that had come before. Betrayal, humiliation, exile… it weighed on me like iron. And yet, there was something else, something that refused to be silenced: the pull. The hunger. The bite that burned on my shoulder like fire.

I pressed my hands to it, fingertips brushing the faintly glowing mark. My body flared at the touch, heat pooling in places I shouldn’t have felt it, muscles tensing, nerves alight. A growl rose from somewhere deep inside me.

I shivered and pulled back. “No,” I whispered, trembling. “I won’t… I can’t…”

But my body didn’t listen. The shadows in the lodge seemed to curl toward me, stretching, bending, alive. My reflection in the broken window caught me off guard, just for a second, the face staring back wasn’t entirely human. The eyes glimmered with a golden sheen, the outline of fangs flashed, and the faint suggestion of fur ran along my jawline. My chest tightened, my pulse racing with something primal.

I was more than I had ever known. And it terrified me.

I pressed my palms to my face and sank against the wall. My chest heaved. My pulse was erratic, thundering in my ears. The lodge groaned around me as if the old timbers recognized the awakening inside me. Every instinct, every muscle, every cell in my body pulsed with a feral rhythm I had never felt before.

I wanted him.

The thought struck me with such force I gasped aloud. Not Lysentha. Not Calder. Him. The Alpha King. My mate. Rhaegon Ashmoor. I had never met him without the bite marking my skin, yet every fiber of my being recognized him, like a flame, like a storm, like hunger made flesh.

And then the air shifted.

I froze. The hairs on my neck lifted. Something, or someone, was near. Not the wind. Not the trees.

It was him.

Rhaegon’s scent hit me first, a storm of dominance, fire, and something impossibly magnetic. My pulse quickened. I could feel the wolf beneath his skin, pacing, restless, calling to mine. The mark burned hotter. Shadows around me flickered, curling toward the windows, as though the lodge itself was responding to the presence outside.

I swallowed hard, trying to steady my voice. “Rhaegon,” I whispered, and the sound was almost a prayer.

The door burst open with a violent crash, splintering wood under his boot. He stepped into the lodge like a predator claiming territory, eyes silver and stormy, jaw clenched, aura sharp with frustration and fury.

“You!” he growled, and it was both accusation and relief. “Where the hell have you been?”

I pressed myself back into the wall. “You don’t understand, ”

“Oh, I understand,” he snapped, his voice low and commanding. “I understand that my mate vanished without warning, leaving me to chase shadows while another woman, another liar, wears what belongs to you!” His eyes flared, scanning me, and the intensity made my knees weak. My pulse hammered, heat pooling in places I didn’t want him to know.

“I didn’t, ” I began, but my words faltered. How could I explain the impossible? How could I tell him that I had never wanted Lysentha, that Calder had betrayed me, that the bite, the mark, had been given to me by him, by a stranger in the Blackwood? That it had awakened something inside me I didn’t even understand?

His hand lifted, brushing my jaw, and the contact sent a shock through me. My body arched, instincts flaring, desire sparking at the touch. I gasped, forcing my knees to remain on the floor.

“You feel it too,” he said, almost to himself, and I could hear the growl in his chest. “The bond… it’s alive. But why are you hiding? Why did you leave me?”

“I…” My voice cracked. I couldn’t speak the truth, not fully. Not yet. “I had no choice. Lysentha… Calder… they, ”

He slammed his hand against the wall beside my head, and I flinched. “Enough!” His eyes burned into mine. “I don’t care about her. I care about you. You.”

The words made me shiver. Desire, fear, rage, and longing collided inside me. I wanted to push him away, to scream at him for entering my sanctuary, but I also wanted to collapse against him, to let the bond pull me into him, to let the fire between us consume me.

“You don’t understand,” I whispered, voice shaking. “I’m… not what you think. I’m, ”

“You’re mine,” he said firmly, cutting me off, his voice low and dangerous. “Even if you run, even if you hide, even if they steal everything from you, you’re mine.”

A sob escaped me, unbidden, and I pressed my hands to my face. “I’m not… wolfless,” I admitted, almost to myself. The words felt like a confession, a truth that had been buried for years. “I… I didn’t know… until now.”

His eyes widened slightly, the silver in them flashing. “Show me,” he demanded, and I did, almost unwillingly. I closed my eyes, letting the shadows pool around me, letting the instinct rise. My nails scratched against the wooden floor as the faint golden glow of my wolf shimmered beneath my skin. My reflection in the shattered window confirmed it, my hidden wolf, long sealed, awake at last.

Rhaegon’s breath hitched. His wolf howled somewhere deep inside him, low and dangerous, echoing through the lodge. “So this is why… the bond… it’s stronger than I imagined.”

I pressed my back to the wall, trembling. “I… I don’t know what I am yet,” I whispered. “But it’s too much… I’m… scared.”

“You’re not alone,” he said, stepping closer. His presence was overwhelming, dominating, intoxicating. “Not anymore. Whatever you are… whatever power is in you… I’ll face it with you. But I need you to stop hiding from me.”

I swallowed hard, desire and fear twisting through me like fire. “I can’t… I don’t even know how to control it,” I admitted. “It’s… it’s everything, all at once. Pain. Heat. Hunger. Rage. I feel… him. I feel… you.”

His lips brushed mine in a fleeting, possessive motion, not a kiss, not yet, but a claim. My body arched, instinct pulling me into him. My pulse flared. The lodge shadows bent toward us as though acknowledging what was happening.

“You’re mine,” he murmured again, voice low, guttural, impossible to resist. “Even before I knew your name. Even before this bond…”

And then I stumbled backward, almost losing my footing as my eyes caught a section of the floorboards I had never noticed before. A faint glow beneath the dust, hidden hinges. Curious, trembling, I knelt and pushed. The boards creaked, revealing a hidden compartment.

Inside lay a bundle of yellowed papers, journals bound in leather. My mother’s handwriting. My chest tightened. Could it be? Could these journals hold the truth about why I had been “wolfless,” why the pack had always treated me as incomplete?

I flipped the first page, scanning quickly, my breath catching. Names, rituals, seals… references to an ancient wolf lineage, a bloodline sealed to protect me from enemies I had never known existed. My pulse raced. I was… more than a normal omega. I was something ancient, something powerful. Something dangerous.

Rhaegon watched silently, tension coiled in his muscles, eyes sharp, but I could feel his wolf stirring, sensing the awakening in me.

“We need to read these,” I whispered, voice trembling. “I need to know… who I am… what I am.”

He nodded once, sharply, still dominating the space, still pulling at the bond that throbbed between us. “We will,” he said, and I could hear both determination and frustration in his tone. “But you shouldn’t have come alone. You’re dangerous… and someone is out there.”

My stomach twisted. “Who? Lysentha? Calder?”

He shook his head, eyes narrowing, nostrils flaring. “No. Something else. Something I didn’t anticipate. The bond has flared stronger than I thought possible… and it’s drawing attention.”

I felt it too, a prickling along my spine, every hair on my body standing at attention. Shadows outside the lodge deepened unnaturally, the wind carrying a sense of being watched. Someone, or something, was near.

Rhaegon’s wolf howled suddenly, deep and resonant, echoing through the night. The sound set my pulse racing, the bond flaring hotter, pain and desire intermingling in a dizzying rush. My body responded without permission, trembling, quivering, alive in ways I had never felt.

I looked up at him, breath ragged, heart hammering. “What… what is it?”

He growled low in his throat, eyes scanning the forest. “Someone’s watching us,” he said, voice tight. “And they’ve felt the bond too. Whatever is coming… it’s not human. And it’s close.”

I swallowed, my hand instinctively brushing the bite on my shoulder. Heat radiated from it like wildfire. My body screamed in recognition, in longing, in fear. I wanted him. I wanted to run. I wanted to fight. And above all… I wanted to know if he would accept me, fully, despite the lies, the stolen bite, the betrayal that had marked every step of my life.

But before I could ask, a low rustle came from the treeline outside, and I froze. Shadows shifted unnaturally.

Something, or someone, was moving closer.

And it wasn’t just the Alpha King’s wolf that was howling anymore.

I pressed my back against the lodge wall, trembling. My pulse flared hotter than ever. The mate bond was alive, feral, uncontrollable, and whatever, or whoever, was out there, they knew it. Rhaegon’s eyes

narrowed, jaw tight. “Stay close,” he said, voice rough. “Because it’s coming… and we’re not ready.”