Chapter one - The Awakening Night

The rain had been falling since sundown, drumming against the roof of the Blackwood Pack’s border cabins and soaking the dirt paths that cut through the woods. Aria pulled her hood tighter around her face and stepped off the porch, ignoring the faint voice of her mother calling her back inside. Tonight wasn’t a night to stay in. Tonight, something restless burned beneath her skin, urging her out into the storm.

Her eighteenth birthday.

For weeks, she had felt it building, this strange pull in her chest, this prickling awareness at the edges of her senses. It was as though the forest itself was waiting for her.

She slipped between the trees, her boots sinking into the wet earth, heart pounding in rhythm with the thunder. She did not know where she was going, only that she needed to keep moving.

A growl split the silence.

Aria froze. The sound was low, dangerous, too close. Her eyes darted through the shadows until she saw them, a pair of yellow eyes glinting in the darkness. A rogue.

Her breath caught, and instinct screamed at her to run. She stumbled backward, but the wolf lunged, teeth flashing.

Before she could scream, another shape burst from the trees. A massive black wolf, larger than any she had ever seen. The ground shook as he collided with the rogue, snarling and ripping until the forest was filled with the sounds of tearing flesh and snapping bone.

Then silence.

Aria stood trembling, her back pressed against a tree. The black wolf turned, his fur slick with rain, his silver eyes locking on hers. For a heartbeat, the world stopped. Her chest tightened, heat rushing through her veins as though invisible threads pulled her toward him.

The mate bond.

Her knees gave out, and she collapsed into the mud. The wolf shifted before her eyes, fur fading, bones reshaping until Damon Black stood in his place. He was broad-shouldered, cruelly handsome, and utterly terrifying.

He did not look surprised. If anything, he looked furious.

“You,” he growled, his voice sharp as the storm around them. “No. This cannot be right.”

Aria’s lips parted, but no sound came. Every part of her screamed that this was fate, that she belonged to him, that the bond was real.

But Damon’s expression hardened. He stepped closer, towering over her, and hissed the words that shattered her world.

“I reject you.”

The forest seemed to swallow the sound. The bond in her chest twisted violently, as though a knife had pierced her heart. She gasped, clutching at herself, the pain searing and unrelenting.

And then, just as suddenly, something inside her flared, hot, electric, unfamiliar. A faint glow traced across her wrist, hidden beneath the mud.

Damon saw it too. His eyes narrowed. For a second, just one second, there was hesitation in his stare.

Then he turned his back to her and walked away, leaving her in the rain, broken and burning with a power she did not yet understand.

Rain dripped from the branches above, splattering her face, but she did not care. Her mind raced, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The bond, the glow, the sudden surge of power—it all felt like a dream she could not wake from. Yet every instinct inside her screamed that it was real. Her hands shook as she lifted them, watching the faint light fade into her skin. Something ancient stirred within her, a voice whispering secrets she could not yet understand. She shivered, a mixture of fear and awe coursing through her. If this was only the beginning, she had no idea how much her life was about to change.