CHAPTER 2

"ARGHHH!!!!! NO, LET ME GO!!!!" I fought him with all my might and managed to push him away.

Blood dripped from my neck onto my clothes. He was actually trying to mark me by force.

Lenox was outraged. He grabbed my arm so fast that I couldn’t fight back. He spun me around, forcing my back against his chest, his other arm locking around my body. With both my hands trapped, I couldn't move.

I struggled desperately to break free, but it was useless. His grip was so tight I felt like I was being crushed.

And then—

His free hand tilted my head to the side, exposing my neck. I gasped as I felt his sharp teeth against my skin, and without hesitation, he sank them deep into my flesh.

"Urghhh..." I groaned in pain.

I stomped on his foot as hard as I could, but all it did was make him grunt—it wasn’t enough to make him let go. And then it hit me. A massive wave of electricity surged from my neck, traveling through my entire body, making me tremble uncontrollably.

Tingles spread over every inch of me, my heart pounded wildly, and everywhere he touched felt like it was burning.

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed before the strength in my legs gave out.

I was marked.

Lenox slowly released me, and I collapsed onto the cold floor, shivering.

"You f**ker..." I whispered weakly.

But the moment I met his eyes, I instantly regretted looking at him.

Before I could react, I was slammed into the wall—hard. His eyes were filled with pure hunger and impatience.

"Lenox, you f**ker! Let me go!" I screamed in his face, using what little strength I had left to choke him.

Even though he had slammed me against the wall, he hadn’t restrained my hands. Instead, his right hand gripped my collar, bunching up my clothes.

Lenox didn’t say a word. He just stared into my eyes like he was about to devour me whole.

His intense gaze sent a shiver down my spine, and I swallowed hard.

"I will give you two months to fix your life so you can be worthy of me. If not, you will see how far I can go." He leaned down.

Of course, he thought so little of me. I had been with someone else for five years while he had been searching for his mate like a madman. I had heard that he nearly searched the entire world for me. But the reason we never met until now was that I hadn’t been home when he first visited my pack.

I had run away and lived in human territory for almost a year, only returning when James found me. As it turned out, James had never stopped looking for me since the moment he learned I had disappeared. He had been searching for me nonstop until he finally found me.

The pain in my chin snapped me out of my thoughts. Lenox had pinched it, forcing me to meet his gaze.

"Even if you don’t want to be mine, there’s nothing you can do. You were born for me," he said, his voice dangerously low.

"I can overlook your past relationships before we met. But if you choose what is not meant for you after meeting me, be prepared to face my wrath." His tone was cold, venom dripping from every word as he stroked my face.

My eyelids grew heavier, and no matter how hard I fought to stay awake, the darkness slowly swallowed me. The last thing I felt was being lifted and carried out of the bathroom.

"Ahhhh!!!!!!" I jolted awake, panting.

"Oh great... Just a dream... Just a—" My words died as my hand instinctively touched my neck.

"NO!! NO!!"

I ran to the mirror, my heart hammering in my chest. And there it was—the mark.

A royal bloodline mark.

The mark from a royal shifter was different. It resembled a small magic circle, and once it appeared, it meant you belonged to the person who had marked you forever. There was no way to break the bond.

Unlike a regular shifter’s mark, which looked more like a bite tattoo, the royal mark was visible only to werewolves. Humans couldn’t see it—except for the gifted ones who could perceive the unseen.

A werewolf without royal blood could have their mark voided using the Blue Flame.

The Blue Flame was no ordinary fire. It was a flame from a thousand years ago—one that could never be extinguished. Mates who wished to sever their bond had to lie within it, enduring its torment. The time spent within the fire depended on their will to break the bond. Some endured only a few hours, but most had to remain for two to three days. The flame did not physically harm them, but it tortured their souls until the bond was completely severed.

"This can't be happening!" I clenched my fists.

One week later.

That was the first and last time I saw Lenox. It had been a week since the incident, and no one knew about it except for me, James, and Lenox.

I knew many werewolves whispered behind my back, judging me for being with James despite not being his mate. But James was the only one who had ever truly cared for me. Not my brother. Not even Joana, my best friend. No one, not the way James did.

When I was nine, my parents—the Alpha and Luna of our pack—died in a plane crash. Since then, my brother Scott, now our Alpha, has distanced himself from me. We had been close as children, and I knew he once loved me dearly. But after our parents’ deaths, I received nothing but his contempt.

It wasn’t that he treated me cruelly—he never forced me to clean the packhouse or made me a slave. But he deprived me of love.

He wasn’t happy when I was happy.

And when he found out that his mate was Joana, my best friend, his resentment toward me grew even worse. Before Joana came of age and discovered he was her mate, he had treated her like garbage—simply because she was my friend. And when the truth was revealed, he blamed me for the way he had treated her.

Joana never abandoned me, but I could feel that she had changed.

I suppose I had just been desperate for love—and I found it in James.

Yes, I should have waited for my fated mate. But I had fallen too deeply with James, I can't help it.

But now… James didn’t know I had been marked.

When Lenox threw him that day, he had lost consciousness from the impact. He never saw what happened.

No one could tell a she-wolf had been marked unless she had consummated with her mate—or unless they saw the symbol on her neck, which only appeared after marking. So, I had hidden it well—with makeup.

"Hey, Cassy?"

Joana tapped my shoulder from behind as we arrived at the packhouse from school. She was in the passenger seat—like I was her driver.

"Hmmm?" I glanced at her.

She leaned closer, whispering, "What’s going on with you and James? You’ve been acting weird around each other for a week."

"You’re imagining things. We’re fine," I forced a smile.

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me.

"Did you guys break up?"

"Just let it go, Jo! You know that’ll never happen. We just had a little argument, nothing serious." I sighed and got out of the car.

"James and I are visiting the Winter Pack next week for our sister’s birthday. Did he tell you?"

I froze. My hand clenched around the car door handle.

James hadn’t told me anything.

After that day, he seemed cold to me, but I thought things were getting better. I thought we were fine.

But how could he leave without telling me?

Before all this, he would always take me with him to the Winter Pack for his sister’s birthday.

Jena, his sister, had been mated to someone from another pack and had been living there ever since. So why is he acting coldly?