LUCAR POV

My name is Lucar Vale, Alpha of the SilverClaw Pack

the strongest bloodline in the entire Northern Region.

Strength wasn’t something I prayed for.

It was forced into my bones.

My mother died in the Great War killed right in front of me by rogues who wanted our land, our bloodline, our power.

I was just sixteen.

Her death carved something vicious into me. A hunger to protect. A fury that never fully sleeps.

People say an Alpha’s power is tied to emotion.

If that’s true, then mine was forged in grief and sharpened by rage.

Even now… years later… my wolf still remembers that night.

Sometimes, he remembers too much.

Jayce, my Beta, grew beside me trained, bled, and fought with me. He’s the only one who dares to talk to me like I’m not just an Alpha but a man.

Especially about the one topic I avoid.

“You need a mate, Lucar,” he insisted earlier that evening as I sharpened my claws against a fallen log.

I didn’t look up. “Not this again.”

“Yes, this again,” he snapped.

“The ceremony is in two weeks. If you don’t find your mate by then, your wolf will tear through everything in his way.”

“My wolf is under control.”

“Your wolf,” Jayce said slowly, “is hanging on by a thread.”

I hated that he was right.

Every full moon, the pull inside my chest grew stronger,hotter,wild. My wolf was searching for someone… someone I had never met.

And time was running out.

I hadn’t planned to be anywhere near the human villages that night.

Jayce and I were patrolling the northern borders rogue scents drifting too close, tracks that didn’t belong to any known pack, and a tension in the air that made my wolf restless.

Jayce walked a step behind me. “Smell that?”

I already had.

Rot.

Smoke.

Death.

Rogues.

“They’re close,” I muttered, my voice deepening. My eyes flickered silver.

“Too close to the human edge,” Jayce frowned. “They never come this far.”

“Exactly. Something’s wrong.”

Then… a scream.

High,Terrified, Human.

I froze. Every instinct inside me sharpened like a blade.

Jayce hissed, “Someone’s…”

I didn’t wait.

I shifted instantly.

Bones cracked.

Fur erupted.

Power burst from my skin as my wolf took over massive, black, and uncontrollable when danger calls.

I tore through the forest.

And then I saw her.

A human girl, cornered against a tree shaking so violently she couldn’t even breathe. Two rogue wolves stalked toward her, jaws open, red eyes glowing with hunger.

I didn’t think, I didn’t plan, I attacked.

I slammed into the first rogue with full, brutal force hurling it sideways into a thick tree trunk. The impact shook the ground. The creature yelped in pain, collapsing in a heap.

The second rogue lunged at the girl, I planted my paws into the earth, lifted my head, and released something no human should ever hear.

My Alpha scream.

It ripped from my chest like thunder, deep, ancient, commanding.

The forest shivered.

Leaves rattled.

Birds fled the trees.

Even the ground trembled beneath us.

Both rogues stopped mid-attack

ears flat,

tails dropped,

eyes wide with primal terror.

And they fled without looking back.

Silence swallowed the forest.

Slowly, I turned to her.

She was pressed against the tree, trembling so hard her knees nearly buckled. Dirt streaked her cheeks. Her breaths were fast and broken.

Then she lifted her head.

And I saw them.

Her eyes.

Brown but not the simple kind.

Warm, soft, glowing like honey melting into caramel.

So deep I felt myself falling without even moving.

My breath caught.

My wolf froze.

For the first time in years…

he fell silent.

Completely, utterly silent.

I stared at her

fragile, breakable, innocent.

Long lashes trembling.

Soft lips parted in fear.

Pain hiding behind her eyes.

Beauty she didn’t even seem aware of.

Something violent snapped awake inside me.

A jolt shot down my spine.

My wolf surged forward, snarling one thing:

“Get her, Claim her, Mark her.”

I stumbled back, fighting him fighting myself.

My vision flickered silver to black, silver to black caught between man and wolf.

Her scent was too close.

Her heartbeat was too loud.

Her fear was too sweet.

She took a tiny, desperate breath and whispered:

“Please… don’t hurt me…”

Her voice.

Soft, Frightened, Sweet.

It almost broke me.

My wolf jolted overwhelmed by the sound of her.

Then it happened.

He snapped loose.

He surged forward before I could stop him.

My eyes turned pure silver.

My body moved on instinct toward her.

I lowered my muzzle to her neck…

breathed in her scent…

and something ancient ignited inside me.

I tried to pull back.

I tried to stop him.

But the wolf didn’t listen.

He took over.

And then

I bit her.

The mark of an Alpha.

The beginning of everything.