You Don't Belong Here

The scent hit me first.

Smoke, blood, and something primal that made my knees weak.

I shouldn’t have come to the Red Moon Pack tonight.

My father’s debt was none of my business. But when the debt collectors showed up at our door with silver chains and snarling wolves at their sides, I didn’t have a choice.

“Pay what your father owes, or your daughter pays with her body.”

That was three days ago.

Tonight was the deadline.

The Red Moon Pack’s mating ball was in full swing. Wolves in designer suits and gowns danced under crystal chandeliers, pretending they weren’t monsters underneath. Music echoed through the marble hall, laughter, clinking glasses, the low hum of power plays happening in whispers.

I stood near the pillar in my plain black dress, invisible on purpose.

If they didn’t see me, they couldn’t claim me.

It didn’t work.

The doors slammed open with a crack that silenced the entire room.

“Where is she?”

His voice rolled through the ballroom like thunder. Low, dangerous, familiar in a way that made my scars burn.

Two men walked in like they owned the night.

Identical faces. Different auras. Different sins.

On the left was Alpha Kade. My mate.

Gold eyes, sharp jaw, the same man who looked me in the eye a year ago and said, _“I reject you, Aria.”_

He rejected me in front of the entire pack. Left me bleeding on the sacred ground while my wolf whimpered for a mate who didn’t want her.

On the right was his twin.

Alpha Kael.

Where Kade was controlled, Kael was chaos.

Where Kade wore restraint, Kael wore violence like a second skin.

His silver eyes were colder than the night air, and the air around him felt wrong. Dangerous. Like standing too close to a cliff edge.

He was banned from this pack.

Exiled for killing three rogues with his bare hands during the Blood Moon hunt.

No one crossed him and lived to talk about it.

Yet here he was. And he was looking straight at me.

His gaze locked onto me like I was prey, and his predator had been starving.

“Found you,” he murmured. The words were quiet, but they cut through the silence like a blade.

Kade stepped forward, jaw tight, wolf bristling under his skin. “She’s mine, Kael. Leave. Now.”

Kael laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound. It was the sound of someone who had nothing left to lose.

“Yours?” He took a step forward, and three guards stepped back instinctively. “You rejected her, brother. You left her bleeding on the mating ground while you ran to warm Kaia’s bed.”

My chest tightened. Heat rushed to my face.

He wasn’t supposed to know that. No one was.

Kael stopped right in front of me. He was taller than I remembered. Bigger. The scent of him was intoxicating and terrifying all at once - cedar, storm, and blood.

He reached out, fingers brushing my jaw. I didn’t move. Couldn’t. My body was frozen between fight and something far worse.

“You smell like fear and defiance,” he whispered. His thumb brushed over my skin, and my wolf stirred for the first time in months. “I like it.”

“Don’t touch her,” Kade snarled, his claws unsheathing.

Kael’s silver eyes didn’t leave mine. “Too late.”

He leaned in, lips brushing my ear. His voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear.

“From tonight, you’re under my protection, little Luna. And if you’re under my protection… you’re mine.”

The room went silent.

Even the moon outside seemed to hold its breath.

My father’s voice echoed in my head from three days ago: _“Sell her. It’s better than losing everything.”_

Kade’s voice from a year ago: _“I reject you.”_

And now Kael’s voice: _“You’re mine.”_

I should’ve run.

I should’ve pushed him away, screamed, called for help.

But all I could think was:

_Why does my traitor body want him to say it again?_

Why did his touch make the dead part of me wake up?

Kael pulled back, studying my face like he could read every broken piece of me. A slow, dangerous smile curved his lips.

“Run if you want, Aria,” he said softly. “But you and I both know you won’t get far. Not from me.”

He turned to Kade then, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.

“You had your chance, brother. You threw her away. Now she’s my problem.”

Kade’s fists clenched. “Over my dead body.”

Kael’s smile turned feral. “That can be arranged.”

And just like that, war was declared.

Over me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to disappear.

But deep down, a part of me - the part that had been numb for a year - felt alive for the first time.

Terrifying.

But alive.