Chapter 4

XANDER

I found my mate.

And in the most unexpected, unimaginable way possible.

Looking back now, maybe there had been signs long before today.

Ten years ago, to be exact.

That night had been my first shift, my first moon run.

Young, but those born from my bloodline always shifted earlier than most.

As we approached the heart of Mystic Forest, I had felt it.

An intense pull from within the fog.

Then a voice, soft and insistent, whispered for me to enter. It told me something important was waiting for me inside.

I tried resisting at first, but the feeling only grew stronger. In the end, I gave in, slipped away from the pack and ran straight into the thick fog.

It was an absurd, reckless and undeniably idiotic decision.

From birth, I had been told stories, cautionary tales, about that place.

Stories of people who entered and came out broken.

Some lost the ability to shift. Some went mad.

Some never returned at all. As for whether they died, or were trapped inside, no one knew.

Not that it made any difference either way.

In short, no one walked into that fog and emerged unscathed.

But I did.

For reasons I couldn't understand then, or even now, I did the impossible and survived.

Inside, I followed the pull, searching desperately for what had called to me… but found nothing.

Only endless white fog.

Even that strange inner voice disappeared as if it had never existed.

In the end, I chalked it up to some bizarre side effect of my first shift and slipped back the same way I entered.

Unharmed.

Because everything went so smoothly and easily, I even wondered if all the terrifying stories were lies.

When I rejoined the moon run, my father—the Alpha leading the pack—questioned my disappearance through mind-link. I brushed him off with some flimsy excuse and kept the truth buried.

I didn’t dare tell him, or anyone else, that I had gone to the very place we had been forbidden from stepping into.

And for a time, arrogance and complacency replaced the fear I was supposed to feel for that place.

But as I grew older, I witnessed firsthand what happened to those who ventured inside intentionally or by accident.

Their fates were real, horrifyingly real.

That was when I understood something painfully simple:

My survival that night had been luck.

Pure, impossible luck.

From then on, especially with my lifespan already threatened by the bloodline curse, I stayed far away from the forbidden grounds.

I never imagined that ten years later, cornered and desperate to protect my secret, I’d be forced to gamble with my life again—hoping that same impossible luck would save me.

And it did.

But this time… the fog wasn’t empty.

Moreover, the strange pull was back, stronger than before. And so was the whisper in my head.

They led me deeper into the fog, and as I did, I witnessed the mist thinning until it finally disappeared and something else stood in front of me.

A medieval mansion.

Surrounded by a lush, thriving garden.

Someone was living here.

In the heart of the forbidden ground.

It sounded absurd—even to me—but it was real.

After I collapsed in the middle of the rose garden, I watched her approach. A woman of breathtaking beauty, walking barefoot across the dewy grass, her pale, slender feet glimmering faintly under the moonlight.

Then her scent hit me—or perhaps it was the garden's—an heady, intoxicating blend of roses and herbs that wrapped around my senses.

Next, my heart, always calm and steady, gave a single, loud thump against my ribs.

And the whisper in my mind rose again, this time clear and undeniable.

Mate.

My first reaction was denial.

Impossible. Ridiculous.

But the restless energy coursing through me as she drew closer told me the truth.

She was my fated mate.

Once I accepted that—I had no choice—the questions flooded in.

Had she and the building always been here?

If so, why didn’t I find them here ten years ago?

If not, how did she manage to slip inside without alerting either my pack or the neighboring one?

And more importantly—

What was she?

She wasn’t wolf.

Even in my weakened, cursed state, I would’ve sensed that.

Human? Spirit? Something else?

The answer came from her own lips.

“…how did you manage to slip past the poisonous miasma outside and my enchantments…?”

Enchantment.

She was a witch.

My mate was a mysterious witch living in the forbidden grounds of Mystic Forest.

What an intriguing, yet suspicious person.

And judging from the calm indifference in her eyes—despite the soft, gentle tone she spoke to me with—she was far from harmless.

Which was perfectly understandable, after all, not just anyone could survive out here.

But for the moment, I had more immediate concerns.

I needed a temporary shelter.

I needed time.

And needed her not to throw me out in my half-dead, cursed state.

So I made a plan.

Act harmless.

Make her believe I was just a lost, pitiful little creature that wandered into her territory.

She must not know I was a werewolf.

Not just to keep my secret, but also because something deep, instinctive, warned me she might not be pleased at the discovery.

So I looked up at her with the most innocent eyes I could muster.

Then, while she was distracted, I nuzzled her hand.

I couldn't be sure since I had no prior experience, but that should count as showing goodwill, right?

But her reaction—freezing up, jerking back—suggested otherwise.

And then I felt it.

Killing intent.

Aimed directly at me.

My blood ran cold.

Why the sudden change?

Did she sense I wasn’t an ordinary pup? Her magic detected the truth?

If that was true—

A bitter thought occurred to me.

Was I going to become the first Alpha killed by his fated mate before we even officially recognized the bond?

And in this state, half-paralyzed by the curse, I couldn’t even run, not to mention fighting back.

Just when I lost hope, our gazes met and unexpectedly, she hesitated.

Something in her gaze seemed to shift.

And instead of striking, she threw her head back and laughed, a sharp, bitter sound that echoed something deep inside me.

Before I could make sense of it, her expression smoothed back into calm indifference.

Then something unbelievable happened.

Magic—real, tangible magic—formed in her hand.

Not channeled through tools or rituals like the witches I’d encountered before.

Pure, raw power.

Then while I was still stunned, she shot it toward me.

It felt warm, alive.

Then slowly, it healed me..

Not just my injuries, but the searing, relentless agony in my bones.

The curse’s pain.

She told me to leave afterward, but I barely heard her.

All I could think was—

My mate was extraordinary.

More than extraordinary.

For the first time in years, my entire body felt light, no longer crushed under the curse’s weight.

Her magic eased it.

A thousand thoughts ran through my mind in a short span of time, my eyes sparkling with hidden excitement.

As she turned away, I made a decision.

There were still some hours before dawn, before I returned to my human form.

Within that time, I needed to learn everything I could about this mysterious woman.

And the best way to do that was to stay near her.

But disappointment soon washed over me.

I had forgotten that during the curse’s active hours, I'm left half-paralyzed, unable to do nothing but wait for dawn to break.

The fact I’d made it this far was already a miracle.

That thought had barely settled when I felt something change inside me.

A spark of energy shot through my body.

My limbs twitched.

My muscles responded.

My strength, albeit faint, had returned.

My eyes instantly widened, complicated emotions flooding them.

Her magic didn’t just ease the curse.

It restored a sliver of my strength, which in my current condition, was more than enough.

My resolve hardened.

No matter what it took, I had to stay by her side.

There was a chance that she might know something about my bloodline curse.

Maybe…

Maybe this mate of mine might just be the key to breaking it.