The Queen of Wolves

🌒 Chapter One: The Queen of Wolves

The scent of blood clung to the pine trees like a promise.

Raven wiped it from her blade, letting the dying rogue’s gurgling breath fade into the hush of the forest. Another fool thinking they could challenge her for the throne.

They never learn growled shadow.

“Alpha, the perimeter is clear.” Luca, her beta, approached, boots silent on the damp earth. His eyes flickered to the corpse. “Third one this month.”

She sheathed her blade, ignoring the burn in her arms, the blood splattered across her boots. “They’ll keep coming. Let them.”

She was Raven. Her wolf was shadow and she was the queen they all feared.

And that's the way she liked it.

She turned, her boots crunching against the frost-covered ground as she stalked through the pine forest, cold wind tugging strands of black hair from her braid. The moon hung low and swollen above, bathing the clearing in silver light, and her golden eyes glowed faintly as her wolf paced beneath her skin.

She closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of pine and cold earth, letting her wolf settle, feeling the deep, endless bond with her land and pack.

They feared her, and they respected her.

And that's how it needed to be.

As she turned to head back to the compound, the wind shifted, carrying a scent that made her body jolt, her wolf clawing inside her skin.

Sandalwood and rain purred shadow.

Raven snift the air ................... human she growled

Her wolf roared inside her, mate shadow howled

No raven shouted

Not now.

Not ever.

She couldn’t afford this, not with rogues clawing at the borders and the council watching for any weakness. But as the scent grew stronger, the world tilted, and for the first time in years, she felt something like fear.

Her golden eyes scanned the tree line, sharp and cold, seeking the source of the scent that was tearing her apart inside.

Then she saw him.

A figure stumbled into view, completely unaware of the predator watching him. Dark hair, storm gray eyes, confusion written across every inch of his human face. A worn leather satchel hung at his side, and he held a small lantern that flickered in the dark.

The scent hit her again, stronger, like lightning slicing down her spine.

MATE!!!!!!!!!!

Shadow howled, clawing at her ribs, demanding she shift, demanding she claim what was hers.

He looked up, meeting her gaze, and everything inside her went still.

“Oh,” he breathed, taking a step back, the lantern swinging in his grip.

She could feel the bond snap into place, the universe shifting, aligning them whether she wanted it or not, the air between them changed, pulling at her like a magnetic storm.

Shadows claws pricked at ravens hands as she stepped forward, her expression cold, controlled, even as the bond screamed at her to close the distance and take him.

“You’re human,” she said, her voice low, dangerous.

His storm gray eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. “And you’re… not.”

For a moment, the forest was silent, the moonlight filtering through the trees, the weight of fate pressing down on them so heavy it hurt to breathe.

She could kill him now. Reject him. Walk away.

Or she could let the mate bond take her, claim him, and let the world burn for daring to challenge them.

Her wolf wanted to lunge, to take, to taste.

But Raven was Alpha.

She would not bend to fate.

“Run,” she told him, voice steady, cold.

Because if he didn’t..................

She might just claim him.

And as he stumbled backward, she asked herself silently: What happens if he doesn’t run fast enough? What happens if she can’t let him go?