Chapter 1

The scent of chlorine and desperation clung to Elara like a second skin. It was better than the stench of stale blood and fear that defined the last three years of her life in the underground circuit, but not by much.

She stood at the edge of the cavernous indoor rink, the cold air hitting her like a slap. Above her, the gothic spires of Crestwood Academy—a prep school that doubled as the Alpha Council’s highly secure training ground—loomed like a stone curse.

Elara was not supposed to be here. She was Street Kid stock, a stain on the polished floor of privilege. Her presence was a contract: trade three years of forced, profitable violence in the Fighting Ring for one year of controlled violence on the ice. The Council was desperate to win the secret inter-Pack league, and they needed her Berserker Bloodline as their secret weapon.

Don’t shift. Don’t lose control. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. The mantra was stale, but effective.

“You’re late, Feral.”

The voice was like grit in a wound—sharp, demanding, and utterly dismissive. Elara didn't need to turn around to know who it was. Kael. Rival Enforcer. The Beta’s son.

Kael walked toward her, his body moving with the arrogant, balanced perfection of a born athlete. He wore the blue and white practice jersey, the Crestwood 'Claws' logo—a stylized wolf—stretching across his chest. His expression was a flawless mask of superiority.

“The puck drops in five minutes, and you are standing here smelling like a sewer rat,” he said, stopping close enough for the rich, clean scent of his Pack to overwhelm her. He was cedar and cold winter air—everything she was not.

“And you smell like entitlement and cheap cologne,” Elara countered, meeting his dark, judgmental gaze without flinching.

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a dangerous hush. "Listen, recruit. This is my team. My Pack. You are a hired tool. You follow my rules. One outburst, one display of that savage little temper, and I will personally see you dragged back to the ring you crawled out of. Understood?"

“Crystal,” she hissed. Enemy. That was the only word her wolf allowed.

She laced up her skates, the practiced motion an anchor in the chaos of her mind. When she finally stepped onto the ice, the transition was shocking. The rink was a smooth, silent canvas of white, reflecting the blinding stadium lights. It felt utterly alien compared to the scarred, blood-stained earth of the Ring.

Kael blew a sharp whistle. "Drills. Full speed, three minutes. Elara, you're with Zane."

A pale, muscular boy with perpetually worried eyes glided up to her. This was Zane, the quiet one, the one who communicated mostly through gestures. He was the only one in the Harem who hadn't openly sneered at her.

"Pass," Zane mouthed, tapping his stick on the ice.

They began the drill. Elara had never played hockey, but her feral instincts compensated for lack of technique. She learned the angles fast, absorbing the physics of the puck. But the speed of the shifters was unlike anything she had encountered. The twins, Jax and Cole, flashed past in a blur of synchronized motion. Rhys, the bulky goalie, was a wall of calm calculation.

For the first thirty seconds, she was fine. Then Kael initiated a full-contact exercise.

"The goal is not just the net, Feral," Kael yelled across the ice. "The goal is survival. Don't be gentle."

He came at her first. It wasn't a warning; it was a detonation. Kael skated with a savage elegance, cutting off her angles, forcing her wide. She tried to anticipate his move, but he was too fast, too controlled. He slammed her into the boards.

The impact drove the air from her lungs. She stumbled away, rage boiling beneath her sternum.

Don't shift.

She recovered, grabbing the puck and heading for the net. She saw an opening, a blind spot near the boards where she could try to sneak past him.

It was a mistake.

Kael saw the desperation in her eyes and adjusted. He accelerated, a black and blue projectile aimed solely at her center of mass.

His hip check was brutal, textbook perfect. It spun her around, sending her flying. She hit the ice with crushing force, her head snapping back. The air around them suddenly grew thick, charged with static electricity. The lights seemed to dim.

Elara didn't just feel the pain of the collision; she felt the burn of his power, the raw force of a true Alpha.

She looked up, seeing Kael skating back toward her, his face taut with adrenaline and disapproval.

"Pathetic," he snarled. "You fought in the Ring, and you can’t handle a clean check? Get up, or get out."

Something snapped. Not her bone, but the carefully constructed cage around her power.

Berserker.

A low, guttural sound tore from her throat. Her vision tunneled into a red haze. The ice beneath her felt less like a surface and more like the earth she was meant to tear apart. Her teeth ached with the need to shift.

She scrambled to her feet, abandoning her stick. She launched herself at Kael, not as a hockey player, but as a predator aiming for the kill.

She didn't reach him with her hands. Her forearm slammed into his.

The contact wasn't violent; it was cataclysmic.

A massive, electric jolt, impossibly hot and sickeningly familiar, ripped through both of them. It was the scent of rain, cedar, and blood—but filtered through a resonating frequency that settled deep in her soul. It was a chord of destiny that had no right being played.

Kael froze, his eyes widening in pure horror. The rage vanished from Elara's mind, replaced by a terrifying, undeniable truth whispered by her very DNA.

Mate.

He took a stumbling step back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The scent of their undeniable, Forbidden Bond hung heavy and suffocating between them, recognized by every wolf on the ice.

"No," Kael whispered, his voice shaking. "No, this is impossible."

Elara could only stand there, trembling, knowing that the man she was destined to hate, the enforcer sworn to crush her, was the only one who could truly control her. She had been freed from the Ring, only to be chained to a fate far more dangerous.

Kael looked at her, then up at the high, secluded Alpha box where the Council was watching. Panic flashed in his eyes, stark and uncontrolled. If they knew, they would separate them—or worse, use their bond to control her power completely.

"You will forget that happened," Kael ordered, his voice suddenly hard and desperate. He skated backward, abandoning her on the ice.

"If you tell anyone," she whispered back, the words laced with raw venom, "I will expose you all. I'll take this whole Pack down with me."

But the threat was a lie. Her heart, already compromised, told a different story. She was trapped.

She didn't know who was more doomed: her, the feral with the uncontrollable power, or him, the perfect Enforcer now shackled by a bond to his enemy.

The rink lights hummed, indifferent to the destruction unleashed on the ice. Elara looked toward Kael, who was already huddled with Rhys, their conversation frantic. She knew they were already planning how to deny the truth.

They were her enemies. They were her salvation.

She was Feral on the Ice, and now, she was Bound.

Kael was heading toward the locker rooms, a dangerous look of fear and resolution on his face. Would he confront the Council, or try to run from his fate?