مشاركة

CHAPTER 4: MINE

مؤلف: Sunkissed
last update تاريخ النشر: 2026-04-05 00:45:05

KAEL’S POV

I smelled her before I saw her.

Blood. Fear. And something else—something that made my Lycan surge forward so violently I almost shifted right there.

Mate.

The word echoed through my mind like a gunshot.

No. Impossible.

I’d already had a mate. Sera had died five years ago, and second chance mates were rare. The Moon Goddess didn’t hand them out like party favors.

But my Lycan didn’t care about logic or probability.

MATE, he roared. OURS. FIND HER.

I was running before I consciously decided to move.

My territory stretched for miles—dense forest, steep ravines, and enough warning signs to keep out anyone with half a brain. Trespassers were dealt with swiftly and without mercy.

That was the reputation I’d built. The reputation that kept my pack safe.

But this trespasser… this one was different.

I found her at the bottom of a ravine, crumpled against the rocks like a broken doll.

Female. Early twenties. Curvy build, chestnut hair matted with blood, wearing a torn gray servant’s dress.

She wasn’t moving.

My Lycan went feral.

I dropped to my knees beside her, pressing two fingers to her throat. Faint pulse. Barely there.

“Don’t you dare die,” I growled. “Not before I figure out what the hell is happening.”

Up close, the mate bond slammed into me with the force of a freight train.

Golden thread. Unbreakable. Binding me to this unconscious woman I’d never met.

My second chance mate.

And she was dying.

I scooped her up carefully—she weighed almost nothing despite her curves—and ran.

My mansion sat in the heart of my territory, surrounded by guards and wards. I burst through the front door, shouting for my healer.

“Marcus! Get Elena! NOW!”

My Beta appeared instantly, took one look at the woman in my arms, and his eyes widened.

“Is she—”

“Get. Elena.” I bit out each word.

He ran.

I carried her to my bedroom—the cleanest, safest place—and laid her on the bed.

Blood soaked through her dress. Her face was pale, lips blue. Scratches and bruises covered every visible inch of skin.

Someone had hurt her. Badly.

My Lycan snarled, demanding revenge.

“Soon,” I promised him. “First, we save her.”

Elena, my pack healer, rushed in with her medical bag.

“Kael, what—” She stopped when she saw the girl. “Oh Goddess. What happened?”

“I don’t know. Fix her.”

Elena’s hands worked quickly, checking vitals, examining wounds.

“She’s got three broken ribs, a fractured wrist, severe bruising, and she’s malnourished.” Elena’s voice was grim. “Kael, these injuries… some are new but others are weeks old. She’s been hurt repeatedly.”

My hands clenched into fists.

“Can you save her?”

“Yes. But she needs rest and time to heal.” Elena started cleaning wounds. “Who is she?”

“I don’t know.”

That was the truth. I had no idea who this woman was.

Only that she was mine.

And someone was going to pay for every bruise on her skin.

ARIA’S POV

Pain.

That’s the first thing I felt when consciousness returned. Sharp, throbbing pain radiating from my ribs.

The second thing was softness. I was lying on something soft. Not my cot in the servants’ wing.

My eyes flew open.

Unfamiliar ceiling. Unfamiliar room. Massive bed with silk sheets.

Where—

“You’re awake.”

The voice was deep, smooth, and came from the shadows near the window.

A man stepped into the light and my breath caught.

He was huge. At least six-six, with broad shoulders and muscles that strained against his black shirt. Jet-black hair, sharp jawline, and eyes… his eyes were the most striking thing about him.

Silver-gray. Like storm clouds.

And they were fixed on me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

“Kael Blackthorne.” He moved closer. “Lycan King. And you’re in my territory.”

Oh God.

The Lycan King.

I tried to sit up but pain lanced through my ribs and I gasped.

“Don’t move,” Kael ordered. “You’ve got three broken ribs.”

“I need to leave,” I said, panic rising. “I’m sorry for trespassing. I didn’t mean—”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

His tone left no room for argument.

“But I—”

“What pack are you from?” He crossed his arms. “Who hurt you?”

I hesitated. “Crescent Moon Pack.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “Alpha Derek Stone’s pack.”

I nodded.

“And the injuries?”

I looked away. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

The possessiveness in his voice made me look up sharply.

Why would the Lycan King care about some nobody Omega who’d stumbled into his territory?

“What’s your name?” he asked, his voice softer now.

“Aria. Aria Winters.”

“Aria.” He said my name like he was testing it. “Why did you run into Lycan territory? Everyone knows that’s suicide.”

“I wasn’t thinking.” The truth spilled out before I could stop it. “I just… I needed to get away.”

“From what?”

Everything. The rejection. The torture. The humiliation. Watching Derek and Celeste celebrate while I suffered.

But I couldn’t say that to this dangerous stranger.

“From my pack,” I said simply.

Kael studied me for a long moment.

“You’re malnourished. Covered in old and new injuries. Wearing a servant’s uniform despite smelling like Beta bloodline.” His eyes narrowed. “What did they do to you?”

“Nothing I didn’t deserve,” I whispered, repeating the words I’d heard for six months.

His expression darkened. “Who told you that?”

“Everyone.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then Kael did something unexpected. He pulled a chair close to the bed and sat, his massive frame somehow less intimidating at eye level.

“Listen carefully, Aria Winters,” he said quietly. “Whatever happened to you in that pack—whatever they told you—you didn’t deserve it. No one deserves to be hurt like this.”

Tears burned behind my eyes. “You don’t know what I am.”

“I know you’re brave enough to run into Lycan territory rather than stay where you were being hurt. I know you’re strong enough to survive injuries that would’ve killed someone weaker.” His silver eyes held mine. “And I know you’re my mate.”

The world stopped.

“What?”

“You heard me.” He leaned forward. “The moment I found you, the bond snapped into place. You’re my second chance mate.”

“That’s… that’s impossible.” I shook my head, ignoring the pain. “I already had a mate. He rejected me six months ago.”

Understanding flashed across Kael’s face. “Derek Stone.”

I nodded miserably.

“He’s an idiot.” Kael’s voice was flat. “And you’re better off without him.”

“He rejected me because I’m—” I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t voice the words that had destroyed me.

“Because you’re what?”

“Too fat to be his Luna.” The words came out broken. “That’s what he said. In front of the entire pack.”

Kael went very, very still.

“He said that to you.” Not a question. A statement filled with barely controlled rage.

“Yes.”

“And then what happened?”

I told him. Everything. The rejection ceremony. Being demoted to servant. Celeste becoming Luna. The six months of torture and humiliation. The nursery. The celebration. The warriors who’d chased me.

All of it came pouring out like a dam had broken.

When I finished, Kael’s hands were clenched so tight his knuckles were white.

“They did all of that to you,” he said softly, “because of how you look.”

“I’m not… I’m not what an Alpha’s mate should be.”

“Look at me, Aria.”

I forced myself to meet his eyes.

“You are exactly what a mate should be. Strong. Brave. Beautiful. And anyone who made you feel otherwise is a fool.”

“You don’t have to lie—”

“I don’t lie.” He stood, towering over me again. “And I don’t make mistakes. The Moon Goddess gave you to me for a reason. Do you feel it? The bond?”

Now that he mentioned it… yes. There was something there. A golden thread, faint but present, connecting my chest to his.

“I feel it,” I whispered.

“Good.” His expression softened slightly. “Now here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to stay here and heal. You’re going to eat proper meals and rest. And you’re never going back to that pack.”

“But I don’t have anywhere else—”

“You have here. With me.” He moved toward the door. “I’ll have Elena bring food. You need to eat.”

“Wait.” I struggled to sit up despite the pain. “Why are you doing this? You don’t know me.”

Kael turned back, his silver eyes intense.

“Because you’re mine, Aria. And I protect what’s mine. Always.”

He left before I could respond.

I sat there, stunned, trying to process everything.

The Lycan King—the most feared wolf in North America—was my second chance mate.

And he’d just claimed me.

My wolf, silent for months, finally stirred.

Safe, she whispered. Finally safe.

Maybe she was right.

Or maybe this was just another nightmare waiting to begin.

استمر في قراءة هذا الكتاب مجانا
امسح الكود لتنزيل التطبيق

أحدث فصل

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 54

    ARIA’S POVThe new moon arrived without ceremony.One moment the sky held its last trace of reflected light. The next — nothing. Pure dark, the stars present but the moon absent, and the quality of the magic in the air shifting immediately, the way pressure shifted before weather.I felt it through the Royal senses.The dark magic frequency, which had been a background hum since the coven began converging, suddenly expanded. Like a sound becoming audible when interference cleared. Like a signal finding its range.Eleven signatures.All of them moving.“They’re crossing the perimeter,” Morgana said beside me. She’d been at the territory’s eastern edge for the past hour, her own senses extended, tracking the approach with the forty-years-of-practice precision of someone who knew how covens moved. “All eleven. Simultaneous.”“Coordinated,” Marcus said.“Emergency protocol,” Morgana confirmed. “They’re running the full formation — distributed app

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 53

    MARCUS’S POV It happened during breakfast. Of all the possible moments — three days of intensive battle preparation, the new moon twelve hours away, eleven witches converging on Lycan territory with the coordinated precision of a coven that had been running emergency protocols for twenty years — it happened at the breakfast table. Elena was arguing with me about something. I couldn’t afterward remember what. Something about patrol rotation and whether the northern position was adequately covered, and she had opinions about this that she was delivering with the directness she’d developed over the past weeks — the directness of someone who’d spent years as an Omega learning to make herself small and had recently concluded that was an inefficient use of her time. She turned to point at the map on the wall. And the bond snapped. Not like a sound — like a shift in gravity. Like the center of the room changing location without warning, and the new center was a red-haired woman five

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 52

    ARIA’S POVThe war room again.Same table. Different weight.Dr. Chen had given us an hour — practical, in the way she was practical, understanding that information like this required processing before it became workable. She’d handed Kael a medical summary with the specific efficiency of someone who knew he’d read it three times and still have questions, and she’d left.We sat with it.Kael held the summary without reading it. He’d read it — I’d watched him read it twice in the medical wing while I was still processing the scanner’s second life-sign. He was holding it now the way you held things that had become objects rather than information.The bond was — full.That was the only word for it. Conducting more than it had ever conducted, the joy and the terror and the love and the Alpha-calculation all running simultaneously through a channel that had been built for two and was now carrying the weight of three.“Say something,” I said.He looked up.“I don’t know what to say,” he sai

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 51

    ARIA’S POVMorgana taught the way she worked — without performance.No elaborate explanations, no theoretical frameworks delivered before practice. She watched me work first, for a full hour on the first morning, standing at the training yard’s edge while I ran through everything Marcus had built into me over the past weeks. The command work. The immunity applications. The white-gold light in its various expressions.She watched with the focused attention of someone reading a text they’d encountered before.Then she walked onto the yard.“You’re doing it from the front,” she said.I stopped. “What?”“Your power. You’re generating it from the front — from the chest, from the point of the bond, from wherever the emotional center lives.” She circled me slowly. “That’s where it feels most natural, so that’s where you draw it from. Yes?”“Yes,” I said.“It’s also the least efficient access point,” she said. “And the most easily disrupted. Hit you in the chest — magically, physically, emoti

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 50

    ARIA’S POVI picked up the letter.Vivian’s seal, intact. The wax the specific dark red of someone who’d chosen their color with intention and used it consistently for twenty years. I turned it over in my hands, feeling the dark magic residue in the paper — faint, old, the signature of something written months ago and held in reserve.Instructions for a contingency Vivian had hoped wouldn’t arrive and had planned for anyway.Because she was meticulous.I looked at Morgana.“Come inside,” I said.Kael’s hand found my arm. Not stopping — just present, the question in the touch.I know, I sent through the bond. I know she could be anything. I know.His hand dropped.The war room had become a room we lived in.Morgana sat across from me with twelve Lycan warriors positioned around the room’s edges, and Kael beside me, and Marcus at the door, and Reyna who had refused to leave with the expression of an Alpha who’d buried three warriors this morning and had significant opinions about what h

  • TOO FAT TO BE LUNA   CHAPTER 49

    DR. CHEN’S POVI had the archives open before the council chamber had fully cleared.Thirty-one years of practice, and the thing I’d learned most reliably was that panic was least useful in the first ten minutes after the information arrived, and most useful information was available to people who went looking for it immediately rather than waiting for the panic to subside.The council was still processing Celeste’s words.I was already in the library.The Lycan pack’s archive was three rooms deep and seventy years old, accumulated by four successive Lycan Kings who had understood that information was a resource like any other and required maintenance. Kael had added to it systematically since his coronation — texts from allied packs, neutral territories, the independent scholars who traded knowledge across pack lines.I went to the witch section.Not the combat records or the dark magic detection manuals — the structural texts. The ones that described how covens worked, how they orga

فصول أخرى
استكشاف وقراءة روايات جيدة مجانية
الوصول المجاني إلى عدد كبير من الروايات الجيدة على تطبيق GoodNovel. تنزيل الكتب التي تحبها وقراءتها كلما وأينما أردت
اقرأ الكتب مجانا في التطبيق
امسح الكود للقراءة على التطبيق
DMCA.com Protection Status