Prologue

“How can the moon goddess be so vicious?” Zayden thundered aloud, his body convulsing with the blind rage galloping through his bones. “How could she do this to us? How?”

Standing behind the furious man, Dhara trembled with all her being. Her heart raced amok in her chest, and her knees threatened to buckle. Her alpha’s rage exploded throughout the bare room and brought sickness to her soul. Seeing him hurting and on the brink of shattering made her feel horrible about herself and their unfortunate circumstances. But what could she really do? The moon goddess molded her destiny with her own capable hands, or so she was told, and who could ever go against the goddess?

However, despite all the red flags and anger visibly pouring out of Zayden, Dhara sucked in a deep breath and took one more step closer to where he stood. Despite the absence of physical contact between them, she could easily sense the rumble beneath his chest as if it were her own. He was burning up with anger, frustration, and heartache.

As soon as her palm went up to settle on his broad shoulder, to tell him he needed to calm down, that becoming furious at a goddess was going to get them nowhere, Zayden spun on his heels—surprising her—and pinned her to the wall next to the window.

His magnificent, soaring height hovered over her tiny frame.

She felt so small, yet alight with emotions that made no sense to her confused mind.

She gasped.

“Why?” he grumbled lowly this time, eroded under the heavyweight of his crushed hopes and expectations. His voice carried heart-crushing torment, something that stabbed through her heart and twisted it painfully.

His hot breath burned her from within, causing her to ache in places she didn’t even know existed.

“Because it’s for the greater good,” fighting the whimper that threatened to stumble out of her mouth, she whispered to him with just as much tenderness. Searching for his gaze and wanting nothing more than to know that he heard. Understood that she wasn’t any less miserable either. In her entire life, she had never felt something so strong, so magical, so captivating for anyone else. It was only him she wanted, yearned for. But her hands were tied, her destiny literally sculpted into stone.

“For the pack,” he surrendered, whispering those words into the crook of her neck.

Zayden couldn’t deny the soothing effects her delicate voice had on him. It calmed the heck out of him. Whenever she was close, all he craved was to run his tongue over her luscious skin, kiss those puckered lips until she was breathless, and sink his teeth into her flesh, marking her as his own.

But he couldn’t. No matter how much his wolf cried, complained, or growled. He couldn’t.

The moon goddess made sure of that. She made sure that the Alpha of the Bloodmoon pack suffered for his actions in the most excruciating manner.

Not able to claim his mate being her most cherished one.