MasukKAEL
I was in the back of the car, staring out the tinted window, fury etched into every line of my face. The city lights rushed past in silver and gold blurs, unnatural, gaudy, just like everything else about tonight. I pulled at my tie, getting it loose at the neck, around which obligation already seemed to be strangling me.
Werewolf and Lycan parties. Mate hunt ceremonies. Perfume-soaked, politics-infused, fake-ass balls. It was all, every bit of it, a farce. A well-rehearsed show in which nothing was true and everyone wore a mask behind it all.
A parade of fake smiles, sharp teeth, suits tailored, and glittering gowns.
Small talk between the ones who'd kill each other as soon as the lights went out.
I despised it.
And yet, as the Lycan Leader, not only had I been expected… I’d been demanded. That was the part of my title I hated most. I hadn’t asked for this role. But I hadn’t clawed my way to the top for applause or admiration. I led because there was no one else who could. Because the world had been chaos, and I was able to control it.
But gatherings of this nature, in which power took a back seat to appearances, irritated me like nothing else.
And they were fraught with desperate attempts to suck up, fake compliments, and hands that shook mine only to gauge how hard I squeezed.
It was all noise and theater.
I rested my back against the leather bench. I closed my eyes for a moment and ran a hand through my hair, hoping to smooth down the building frustration.
“Another evening wasted,” I muttered.
The driver, wisely, said nothing, keeping his eyes on the road.
I couldn't even remember how many of these fucking nights I'd already been through. How many potential mates had tried to make me notice them? How many fathers and Alphas had thrown their daughters in my face like pieces of meat for sale?
None of it made any difference in any case because they didn’t know me, and they didn’t want to.
To them, I was a crown. A throne. A prize to win.
But the price of being the most powerful man in our world came with a price: Isolation.
No one touched me without a reason. No one spoke to me without thinking. Even my closest pals were connected more by fidelity than genuine blood.
This world we inhabited was founded on pretense, control, and lies cloaked in tradition.
Even the Moon Goddess, our supposed creator, sat in silence while her children ripped each other to pieces in her name. And the mate bond? It was overrated nonsense. A trick of biology and desire that people garbed in prophecy and destiny.
I had no patience for it.
And yet there I was, rolling inexorably toward another sparkling jail, where I would once again have to feign a role I’d never wanted, killing time for hours until I could escape, until I could be alone.
We pulled up to the grand ballroom, and I glowered at the ostentatious building. Red carpet and bright lights were a façade, disguising what was, in fact, inside. Irritation surged through me. I didn’t belong here.
The door creaked, and my grandfather, Ashvale, marched out like a man half his years. His piercing eyes were focused on me while I remained in the car, not moving to come after.
He would demand that he come to make sure I showed up. And honestly? He wasn’t wrong to doubt me.
“Is this really necessary, Grandpa?” I asked. I was getting a touch resentful by the time I appeared, my voice thick with it. “I have better things to do than stand here so everyone can kiss my butt.”
Ashvale raised an eyebrow, unfazed. “As long as you’re the Lycan Leader, you have responsibilities… one of which is this. Until you come home with a mate, you’ll be forced to go to these galas and pairing ceremonies. It’s tradition.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tradition, my foot,” I scoffed. “You know I don’t give a shit about that. I’m not a lovesick puppy chasing a fated mate. And I don’t want you talking to me like I’m a child. I’m the Lycan Leader, remember?”
Ashvale’s gaze hardened. “You’re not a whole leader until you find a mate. I was married and had your father at your age,” he puffed. “This is not a command, Kael, it is an obligation. Now, go in. But I’ll be waiting, so don’t even think of slinking away.”
I grit my teeth, holding back a response. There was no use arguing with him when he was like this. I turned on the ball of my foot and marched into the ballroom.
The second I stepped into the room, the place went silent. Heads were turning, whispers were running through the audience, and I could feel every pair of eyes bearing down on me. I thought it was disgusting… people watching, the subtle ass-kissing. It was exhausting.
I retreated to the opposite side of the room, avoiding people who weren't worth a second glance. But before long, a steady stream of young Alphas and Betas approached, each more eager than the last. I suffered their hellos and their circuitous talks, smiling politely with my attention and thoughts elsewhere.
This was my pattern: show up, suffer, and get out of there as soon as I could. I was in the process of figuring out how to leave when something funny caught my eye.
A scent. Sweet, primal, and intoxicating... unlike anything I'd ever known. Through the specious perfumes and the cloying aftershave, it came, pulling at me like a magnet. I stiffened. I was awake, scanning the room, feeling the sandpaper fill my nose. My wolf, Fenrir, reared up and whimpered inside of me, pacing about in spirals and pushing me to track the origin.
Then I saw her.
A young woman was alone at the rear of the ballroom. She was flushed, her eyes open and wild, searching the room like a trapped animal. She didn’t fit in here… that was for sure.
She seemed out of place among the well-dressed crowd, an ugly shard of glass among the crystal. Flaxen tangles cascaded around her, shaping her face in messy swirls around her head. And her dress was sticking to her as if she’d been running.
It wasn’t just her appearance I was drawn to. It was the scent.
She reminded me of someone I’d seen.
An Omega who was desperate for me at one time, now shivering and flushed, seemingly wanting to fling herself into my arms, if she just handed herself over, that would somehow cross the chasm between us. This girl had that same edge to her.
But there was something else, too. Something I couldn’t yet name.
Those around her scrunched up their faces in disgust. The last was a word I’d learned to live without, but Fenrir stirred with a low growl, whispering one word through my bones: MATE!
I looked into her eyes, and for a moment everything went hazy. The sound of the gala receded as my heart thundered in my ears. The arousing scent made me come in despite myself. Fenrir surged forward, ready to have her, but voices around us made me return to myself.
“Why can’t she control her pheromones? Pathetic,” someone sneered.
“Guess that’s what you get when you don’t have a wolf. No wonder she’s by herself,” another crowed with laughter.
“Wolfless deviant. She doesn’t belong here.”
My jaw tightened. Fenrir snapped at the insult that was thrown at her, but I held him back. So this was it, a pariah, a werewolfless werewolf whose body she could not command. A deviant. Out of every woman the Goddess could’ve fated to me… she chose the one the world had already discarded. Cruel doesn’t begin to cover it.
I studied her for a moment. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want her. I’d never bought that premade mates crap, and a wolfless mate… it was even worse. I’d walked headfirst into a liability so dangerous, my reputation would be trampled, and I’d be pitted against those I led.
I went to leave, but Fenrir growled, and suddenly I was walking toward her. I shoved Fenrir back... barely. She was a complication, an inconvenient truth I wasn’t ready to claim, and I already had too many complications.
A last look at her. I looked askance. She’d always be an outcast, a freak with nowhere in my world. I would remain the untethered leader, not bound to an appointed mate.
As I made for the exit, a motion caught my eye.
A young Alpha had her cornered, with two of his tethered minions at his sides. I had his number immediately: rich, conceited, besotted with his rank, and stupid enough to believe that having power gives a person the right to touch whatever he pleases.
She was up against the wall, obviously cornered. She stiffened as he looked in, feeling his arm caging her in, his minions flanking him like guards.
Then he grabbed her.
His palm gripped at her breast painfully, and her body jerked in response… whether from fear or the insatiable tug of her heat, I couldn’t tell.
I just felt this rage hit me like waves of fire. It was abrupt. That was assault, and every part of me wanted to stop it, to claw him away from her and break his wrist and throw him to the ground for daring to touch her that way.
But I didn’t move. I restrained myself as fists balled at my sides. I didn’t know why I froze.
Perhaps what I’d already worn wore my attention tonight. Or perhaps it was the weight of the crown I bore that required self-discipline over impulse. Or, possibly, I was holding out to see exactly how much he would push it.
Then his hand inched down… and that was it.
A low, dangerous growl ripped out of my throat before I could stop it.
MAYAFinn’s car idled quietly outside the Ashbourne pack house. We’d pulled up nearly twenty minutes ago. Neither of us moved to get out.I sat with my hands folded in my lap, absently tracing the edge of my blouse with one fingertip. My mind kept replaying the day in loops.Heat crept up my cheeks. Gods, how embarrassing. Did he think I was just using him as a shield? A convenient way to shut Kael down? The shame twisted in my stomach. I shook my head sharply, trying to dislodge the thought, but it clung.The silence between us stretched. Finally, Finn broke it.“Did you mean it?” he asked quietly. “About accepting my proposal?”My heart gave a hard, unsteady thud. I turned to him. The dashboard lights cast faint blue shadows across his face, highlighting the sincerity in his eyes. Swallowing past the sudden tightness in my throat, I nodded.“I do.”A small smile touched his lips, then widened into a full, relieved grin that made my chest ache with fresh guilt and uncertainty. “Okay,
KAEL“I was never raised with being able to express how I feel,” I stated in a rough tone. “Sometimes when I want to say I love you, I end up saying it wrongly. The domestic staff raised me in the pack house. Love to me meant eating dinner and occasionally going hunting. All of this is alien to me, Maya. You should at least give me a second chance to redeem myself, and I will learn how to love you since my methods didn’t work the first time.”She stared at me for a long moment. Then she drew in a shaky breath.“I’m going to marry Finn,” she announced, sniffing back tears. “You can go ahead and get married to Selene. I no longer care.”“You want to punish me, Maya…” My voice cracked. “I get it. But you don’t have to go to such extremes. You’ll…” A tear slipped free; I didn’t bother wiping it away. “You’ll kill me.”“And yet you haven’t died after four years of waiting,” she said woodenly. “There’s nothing for us again, Kael. I cannot bring myself to forget. Finn asked me to be his Luna
KAELThe only thing standing between Fenrir manifesting was me.He snarled inside my chest, furious, claws scraping against the bars I’d built to keep him contained. Our mate’s denial had sliced through him like silver. And Finn’s smug little smile wasn’t helping. Every time the Alpha’s eyes flicked toward me with that quiet, victorious amusement, Fenrir lunged harder.I waited until the hall thinned out. Elders filed past in low murmurs. The priestess had already departed for her evening rites. Soon it was just the three of us.Maya must have sensed me coming because the moment I took a step forward, she started walking again. Finn matched her pace easily, calm and composed beside her, but his eyes kept darting back to me, amused, almost daring.“Maya,” I called out. “A minute.”“Not now, Kael,” she answered without slowing. “It’s almost evening, and it’s a four-hour ride to Ashbourne. We want to get home before dusk.”I wanted to approach this objectively. I wanted to sound less lik
MAYAMy heart skipped a beat, and for a moment, the entire hall seemed to hold its breath with me. I glanced around quickly. My eyes darted from Finn, who sat a few paces behind me with that quiet, steady presence I’d always relied on, to the council members watching me with varying degrees of curiosity and suspicion, and finally to Kael. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.Trying not to scoff, I turned back to the priestess and forced a sweet, composed smile onto my face.“I haven’t found my mate yet.”A ripple of surprise moved through the hall. Some elders didn’t even bother hiding their disdain. The priestess’s expression shifted in quick succession: surprise, disbelief, then a deep frown settling between her brows as she studied me more closely.“That’s impossible,” she said. “Every Moonwhisperer throughout our history has always found their mate on the full moon of their eighteenth birthday.”Except I had just celebrated my nineteenth when I found mine, I thought bitterly, an
FINN“Yes,” The priestess nodded solemnly. “Every Moonwhisperer in history, including Neriah, the first, has at some point been stripped of their abilities. This is not the first time.”“So how were they able to fight?” Elder Mira asked, leaning forward. “They all underwent training,” the priestess answered. “Serious, vigorous training that made them stronger, stronger than any ordinary Lycan. Most of them gained the strength of a hundred Lycans combined. The Moonwhisperer, before Maya, the general from across the sea, had the strength of a thousand Lycans. That was because of his experience as a warrior, coupled with his special gift.”A fresh wave of shocked murmurs spread through the hall. Even Kael looked taken aback.“But why?” Kael’s voice cut through the noise. “Why did they all lose their powers? Was the Dark One responsible for that too?”The priestess inclined her head. “The pattern has been consistent. Because of how Moonwhisperers discover their powers, the Dark One alway
FINNI’d thought about a thousand ways to finally tell Maya how I feel.In one version, there were flowers, armfuls of them, roses and lilies spilling across a moonlit clearing. In another, I held a single stem between my teeth, dressed in my best suit, soft music drifting from somewhere while I dropped to one knee. I’d scrolled through endless internet threads, watched rom-com clips late at night, imagining every moment. The right words. The right time. The right everything.But none of those scenarios included blurting out a marriage proposal in a dingy motel room. And none of them prepared me for the way she stiffened in my arms the second the words left my mouth.“Finn…” Her voice was small, uncertain. I felt her shoulders tense against my chest.“I’m serious,” I said, willing my tone to stay steady even as my pulse hammered in my ears. “If you were my Luna, whoever did this wouldn’t have the guts to do it. No one would dare touch you. No one would have the power to hurt you like
MAYAI don’t remember falling asleep. One moment, Xander was murmuring that I’d be at home while living with him, the next something feather-light brushed my chin, and my eyes snapped open.It was cold... too cold. Pine needles were under my bare feet, and towering trunks blocked the sky. I recognis
MAYAI hummed a random tune under my breath, pushing the vacuum back and forth across the living room rug. Three months had passed. Three whole months of dating Xander, and every day I kicked myself for not noticing him sooner. My heat cycles used to feel like a prison sentence; now they were the
MAYAI woke to sunlight spilling across my pillow like warm honey. For a moment, I just lay there, blinking at the ceiling, waiting for the usual fire to claw through my veins. Nothing. There was just a low simmer, yes, horny, but it was manageable.What did Xander do to me?I stretched, curling my
MAYAI stood frozen at what Nanny said, and then a laugh burst out of me. I crossed my arms, shaking my head in disbelief. “Break up with him? You have no right to tell me that. Absolutely none.”“It’s for your own good, Maya,” she flatly said. “You’ll thank me later.”“No.” I shook my head, “Who d







