CLAIMED BY THE CURSED, EXILED DEITY

I shrank in fear and confusion. He stepped closer, slowly, as if in disbelief. I attempted to step back, but I couldn’t. A powerful magic glued me to the spot.

His hands caught me with a blend of roughness and gentleness, his eyes never leaving mine.

The air around was filled with his strong scent of mint, filling my nostrils. It was so strong and intoxicating that I felt myself weakening in his touch. Or maybe it was my weak body giving out.

“Mate.”  His tremor was low and heavy as his eyes tore through mine.

My heart stuttered.

“What?” I whispered, breathless, unbelievably.

He clearly could not have been referring to me. I had a mate. And even if I didn’t, I couldn’t possibly have such a deity for a second mate.

My pulse raced so fast. “Who are you?” I managed to whisper through the surge of confusion, pain, and denial.

But he wasn’t listening—he was transforming.  Not shifting but transforming.

Silver veins lit beneath his skin, glowing like molten metal. His wolf features sharpened—his teeth lengthened, his aura expanded, and the air crackled with magic.

The very earth trembled.  I felt howls so loud from all the corners of the mountains, mingling with the crackling of his bones. I shivered in his hands, not with fear but with shock.

Silently, he stepped closer until his massive form loomed over me. He knelt slowly, irreverently—his eyes fixed on me as if seeing something sacred.

His gaze held mine.

My wolf, the one I thought had been dead inside of me since that morning, weakened and cracked and flickered inside me. Her presence surged for just a heartbeat—and in that moment, our eyes shifted.

My vision gleamed gold, and the beast before me broke. A violent gasp tore from him.

His back arched.

His hands slammed into the ground on either side of me as a force ripped through him—so wild, ancient…. A surge of power exploded outward, shaking the trees, bending the wind, and sending ripples through the soil.

His growl turned into a roar—deep, primordial, echoing through the entire forest.

My heart raced as he struggled to contain the magic flooding him.

Immortal powers.

Powers of a crown long lost?

Powers that legends said only awakened for a destined mate.

And I—

Broken, banished, rejected, and at the point of death—was that mate? I could feel the familiar bond. The mere reason why I didn’t bother to run for my dear life and stood glued to the ground when he appeared? It was because he didn’t pose a danger to me.

He lifted his head slowly, breathing so hard that his giant body shook. When his eyes opened, they were no longer silver.

They burned with the fire of a king—an immortal. Maybe an unstoppable monarch of the supernatural world.

He reached for me.  Not gently but possessively, as if touching what he had been hunting for centuries.

“My name…” He inhaled sharply, as if speaking cost him control. “It’s Magnon!”

Magnon!

I fell to my knees with bewilderment. I saw darkness for a moment as a wave of doom swept across me.

“Mag…Ma…Mag…” The name was too heavy for me to spell out.

Fear struck me tenfold! 

Magnon?

This was a name pulled from ancient wolf scripture. A name that evoked terror even by the mere thought of it. A name feared by packs around the world. The creature who was exiled hundreds of years ago and the supernatural realm lived so peacefully after that.

Because he was cursed. He brought nothing but destruction wherever he went. His mere existence angered the moon goddess. Everything, the wolves and the soil, rejected him; wolves fell sick just from his mere presence, and pups cried nonstop, rejecting his presence; at some point, the crops would just dry whenever his feet touched the soil. And in some packs, like the Silverwood pack, the moon would just dim the minute his shadow appeared.

His emotions evoked catastrophes that left even the very own people he claimed to protect in ruins and mostly dead; he weathered storms with his rage, earthquakes that could swallow a couple of packs at once, wildfires that burned even forests, and shadows that killed without and for no reason at all.

The very same immortal creature that strangely survived an execution to kill him after he was accused of burning alive all children of the Mooncrest pack bearing the spirit mark. Whispers had it that even the goddess didn’t want him dead after that incident.

But those whispers died years later when he acted against the gods and the moon goddess herself. He tore down the ancient Frostline Temple, a place that was considered sacred, where the wolves communed with the gods. That on its own was an unforgivable crime. But as if that was not enough, he thereafter killed the moonlight during a battle with his dark magic. The worst omen that has ever happened in the history of wolves.

Alphas could not take it anymore. Kingdoms united against him and agreed that he be exiled. And the storms calmed. Calamities stopped. Peace reigned!

“They told the aftermaths.” his roar tore through the forest again, everything shifting in the command of his voice. “But not the entire story. The truth still remains buried, unexposed, hidden.”

His eyes shone goddess gold, almost blinding me. He appeared like an immortal deity. A dangerous one that made my eyes shut with fear.

“Look at me, Mate!” He ordered, and I immediately obeyed.

I peeled my eyes, fixing them on his. The fire radiating from his goddess-gold eyes almost burned me whole. I trembled with a force I could not explain. Flames broke out of my entire body, and I could not explain what provoked them. My broken bones screeched as if they were being patched, and my wounds burned like acid had been poured into them.

I thought the killer king had decided to finish what my ex-Alpha had started, until my wolf stirred within me and giggled. “He is healing us, Reign. He indeed is our mate!”

If only I had energy, I would have scolded Mina for rejoicing over such a monster of a man being our mate. Honestly, there would be nothing funny if this were not a mistake.

I almost shut my eyes again to the tormenting radiations from him, but he ordered me to keep them open, not caring how much torture and struggle that was for me.

Again, I wondered, had I angered the moon goddess in any way? I loved the idea of a second mate, a second chance in love and life. But why would she mate me with a creature like Magnon? The king of destruction and terror. The one that every creature hated and feared? The one that, for the first time in the history of ruling, made the kingdoms unite against just one creature: him, Magnon!