REJECTED BY THE ALPHA, CLAIMED BY HIS BLOOD

Lyra Ashen crossed the Black Fang border, knowing it would either save her life or end it.

  The trees thinned first. That was always the sign. The forest grew quieter too, as if even the night knew better than to breathe too loudly here. Lyra pulled her torn jacket tighter around herself and kept moving, boots crunching softly over frostbitten leaves. Hunger gnawed at her belly, sharp and constant, but fear kept her upright. Fear was familiar. She trusted it more than hope.

  She had gone three days without food. Two without sleep. The snares she set beyond the border came up empty, and the river she depended on had frozen solid. Crossing into Black Fang territory was a death sentence for most rogues, but starving to death alone in the woods was slower. She chose the faster risk.

  She didn’t smell them until it was too late.

  The pressure hit first. Heavy. Crushing. Alpha land. Lyra staggered, breath catching in her throat as the invisible weight of it pressed down on her shoulders. Her wolf curled inward, instinct screaming at her to run, to submit, to disappear.

  Too late.

  A low growl rolled through the trees, followed by another. Shapes moved in the shadows, fast and silent. Lyra spun, dropping into a defensive stance even as exhaustion dragged at her limbs.

  “I’m leaving,” she said, voice hoarse but steady. “I don’t want trouble.”

  The wolves emerged one by one, half-shifted, eyes glowing faintly in the dark. Black Fang enforcers. She recognized the markings, the scars that spoke of a pack that killed first and asked nothing afterward.

  “You’re already trouble,” one of them said, circling her. “You crossed the line.”

  “I didn’t take anything.”

  “Breathing on our land is enough.”

  Lyra’s fingers curled into fists. She had been chased, beaten, rejected, and hunted before. This wasn’t new. What was new was the sudden, violent pull that tore through her chest like a lightning strike.

  It happened in a single breath.

  Heat exploded beneath her skin, searing and undeniable. Her heart slammed against her ribs as something ancient snapped into place, locking onto her soul with merciless certainty. Lyra gasped, dropping to one knee as the world tilted.

  No. No, no, no.

  Mate.

  The word echoed through her bones, brutal and absolute. She lifted her head slowly, dread flooding her veins.

  Across the clearing, the wolves parted.

  He stepped forward without urgency, as if the night itself bent to make room for him.

  Tyler Vorthrane.

  Lyra knew his name without ever having heard it spoken. The bond carried it to her, carved it into her mind like a brand. Alpha. Power radiated from him in suffocating waves, cold and relentless. He was tall, broad-shouldered, his dark coat dusted with snow. Scars lined his knuckles and jaw, marks of fights he had survived without mercy.

  His eyes met hers.

  Gold. Sharp. Unforgiving.

  The bond stretched between them, raw and blazing, and then recoiled violently.

  Tyler’s jaw tightened. His expression didn’t soften. It hardened.

  Rejection slammed into Lyra through the bond, sharp enough to steal her breath. She cried out, clutching her chest as pain lanced through her nerves. The wolves around them went still, shock rippling through the clearing.

  An alpha rejecting the bond the moment it formed was unheard of.

  “She’s an omega,” someone muttered. “A stray.”

  Lyra forced herself to stand, legs shaking beneath her. The ache in her chest burned, but she kept her chin up. Begging never saved her. She learned that lesson the night her first pack cast her out.

  “I didn’t know,” she said, swallowing hard. “If I had, I wouldn’t have crossed.”

  A lie. She knew exactly whose territory this was. But honesty had never kept her alive either.

  Tyler took a single step toward her.

  The air thickened. Alpha dominance crashed over the clearing, forcing several wolves to bow their heads instinctively. Lyra felt the command press against her spine, demanding submission.

  She resisted.

  Tyler noticed.

  His gaze flicked over her, assessing, calculating. Not a shred of warmth passed between them. The bond burned anyway, traitorous and alive.

  “Too late,” he said.

  His voice was low, controlled, and lethal in its restraint.

  Lyra met his eyes. “Then kill me.”

  A murmur rippled through the pack.

  Tyler stopped an arm’s length away from her. Up close, he was worse. His presence filled the space, cold and sharp like winter steel. His scent hit her then, iron and smoke, blood and pine. Her wolf stirred despite herself, furious and confused.

  “I don’t waste resources,” he said. “And I don’t accept weaknesses.”

  Her chest tightened. “I’m not asking you to accept anything.”

  His lips curved, not into a smile, but something darker. “You don’t get to ask.”

  One of the wolves stepped forward. Dane Korr, she realized dimly. His hostility rolled off him in waves. “Alpha, let me handle it. The bond doesn’t mean she belongs here.”

  Tyler didn’t look away from Lyra. “It means she can’t leave.”

  Lyra’s heart dropped.

  “I won’t stay,” she said. “I’ll go. I swear it.”

  “You can’t,” Tyler replied calmly. “The bond will kill you if you run.”

  Her breath stuttered. She had heard the stories—mates who fled too far. Bodies found broken miles from where they started.

  “Then reject it properly,” she said. “End it.”

  Tyler’s eyes darkened. For a split second, something dangerous flickered beneath his control.

  “I don’t sever bonds,” he said. “I break problems.”

  Before she could respond, he turned to his pack. “Chain her.”

  The word echoed through the clearing.

  Lyra froze. “No.”

  Two wolves moved immediately, iron restraints clinking as they advanced. Panic flared hot and sharp, but Lyra forced herself not to run. Running would prove them right.

  “You said you don’t waste resources,” she said desperately. “Chaining me proves you’re afraid of me.”

  That earned her his full attention.

  Tyler studied her for a long moment, then stepped closer. He leaned down slightly, his voice dropping so only she could hear it.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” he said. “I’m protecting my pack from what you represent.”

  His gaze flicked briefly to the glowing heat pulsing beneath her collarbone, the faint mark of the bond already forming on her skin.

  “You’re leverage,” he continued. “To my enemies. To fate. And maybe to me.”

  The chains closed around her wrists, cold and heavy.

  Lyra flinched as the metal snapped shut, the bond flaring in protest. Her knees nearly buckled, but she stayed standing, teeth clenched against the pain.

  Tyler straightened. “Take her to the lower holding rooms.”

  Dane grinned. “Public or private?”

  Tyler considered for a fraction of a second.

  “Public,” he said. “Let the pack see what happens when fate makes mistakes.”

  Lyra’s stomach twisted as the wolves dragged her forward. Snow crunched beneath her boots as she was pulled deeper into Black Fang territory, the trees closing in around them like a cage.

  She looked back once.

  Tyler stood where he was, watching her with cold, calculating eyes. The bond burned between them, unbroken and furious.

  This wasn’t a rescue.

  It wasn’t mercy.

  It was captivity.

  And as the pack gates came into view, iron and stone rising from the forest floor, Lyra realized with sick certainty that crossing the border hadn’t saved her life at all.

  It had handed it to the most dangerous alpha alive.

  And he had already decided what to do with it.