Chapter 1: The Contract

The first thing Seraphina Ashlyn noticed was the smell of blood.

Not fresh—old, metallic, soaked deep into the stone walls of the underground hall. It clung to the air like a warning, thick enough to taste. She curled her fingers into her thin coat, forcing herself not to gag as two armed guards shoved her forward.

“Move.”

She stumbled but didn’t fall. Falling would mean weakness, and weakness was a luxury she could no longer afford.

Chains rattled somewhere ahead. Torches flickered, casting monstrous shadows across the cavernous chamber. Seraphina lifted her chin, even as her heart hammered violently against her ribs.

This was not a courthouse.

This was not justice.

This was a sale.

At the center of the hall stood a long obsidian table etched with glowing runes. Behind it sat men and women whose eyes gleamed gold, silver, and red in the firelight. Werewolves. Alphas. Power incarnate.

And at the head of them—

He stood.

Darius Nightfang did not sit like the others.

He leaned against the stone dais, tall and immovable, dressed in black as if the shadows themselves had sworn allegiance to him. His dark hair fell carelessly across his forehead, his jaw rough with stubble, his presence so overwhelming that the room seemed to bend around him.

When his gaze lifted and locked onto hers, Seraphina felt it.

A pressure.

A weight.

A primal awareness that sank into her bones.

His eyes were not gold.

They were something darker. Something older.

The room fell silent.

“So,” Darius said, his voice low, unhurried. Dangerous. “This is the girl.”

Seraphina swallowed.

She had imagined monsters with claws and fangs, not a man who looked carved from sin and command. Not a man whose calm was far more terrifying than rage.

“She’s human,” one of the council members said dismissively. “Barely worth the debt.”

Human.

The word hit her harder than any insult.

Darius’s gaze swept over her slowly—not leering, not kind. Assessing. Like she was a blade he was deciding whether to use or discard.

“How much?” he asked.

Her stomach dropped.

This was real. Her father’s shaking hands. His debts. The men who had come in the night. The choice she had never been given.

The council elder slid a parchment across the table. “Her father owes a life-debt. Gambling. Theft. Repeated offenses.”

Seraphina clenched her jaw. She would not cry. Not here.

Darius picked up the parchment, skimmed it once, then tossed it back as if it bored him.

“And the terms?”

“A political marriage,” the elder said. “A contract bride.”

The word echoed in her head.

Bride.

Darius’s lips curved—not into a smile, but something colder. “You’re offering me a wife.”

“You need one,” the elder replied. “The council needs assurance. A Luna calms the packs.”

A muscle in Darius’s jaw flexed.

Seraphina felt it then—something sharp in the air. Anger, restrained so tightly it hummed.

“She won’t live,” Darius said flatly.

The hall went still.

Every Alpha knew the truth.

Every woman who had ever attempted to become Darius Nightfang’s mate had died before the bond completed. Some in days. Some in hours.

A curse.

Seraphina’s breath hitched.

The elder hesitated. “She doesn’t need to be a true mate. Only bound by contract.”

Darius’s gaze snapped back to her.

For a brief, terrifying moment, she thought he could see everything—her fear, her resolve, the silent promise she’d made to herself not to beg.

“You,” he said.

Her spine stiffened.

“Do you understand what you’re being offered?”

Offered.

As if this were anything but a death sentence wrapped in ink.

Seraphina lifted her chin. “I understand that my father lives if I sign.”

A murmur rippled through the hall.

Darius studied her, something unreadable flickering in his eyes.

“And if you don’t?”

She met his gaze without flinching. “Then he dies.”

Silence.

Then—unexpectedly—Darius laughed.

It was low, humorless, and sent a chill racing down her spine.

“You’re not begging,” he observed.

“I don’t beg,” Seraphina replied. “I endure.”

Something in the air shifted.

Darius stepped closer. One step. Then another. Each footfall echoed like a verdict. When he stopped in front of her, she had to fight the instinct to retreat.

He smelled like smoke and night and something wild beneath it all.

“You should know this,” he said quietly, so only she could hear. “This contract does not protect you from me.”

Her heart thundered.

“Good,” she whispered. “I’m not asking for protection.”

For the first time, something like surprise crossed his face.

The elder cleared his throat. “Alpha Nightfang, do you accept the terms?”

Darius straightened, turning back to the council. His voice was calm again. Controlled.

“I accept,” he said. “On one condition.”

The hall leaned in.

“She is mine,” Darius continued. “No council interference. No reassignment. No nullification. If she dies, she dies under my authority alone.”

Seraphina’s blood ran cold.

The elder nodded slowly. “Agreed.”

A quill was pressed into her hand.

The parchment glowed faintly, runes pulsing like a living thing. She stared at it, knowing that once she signed, there would be no undoing this.

Darius watched her, eyes dark and intent.

“Last chance,” he murmured. “Run.”

She thought of her father’s face. His tears. His shame.

She signed.

The parchment burned.

A sharp pain sliced across her palm, and blood spilled onto the contract. The runes flared violently, chains of light snapping into place around her wrist—then vanishing into her skin.

The bond sealed.

Darius sucked in a sharp breath.

For a split second, the entire room trembled.

Seraphina gasped as heat rushed through her veins—not pain, not pleasure, but something powerful. Awakening.

Darius stared at her hand.

Then slowly, dangerously, he smiled.

“Well,” he said softly, eyes glowing in the firelight. “That’s new.”

The elder frowned. “What is?”

“She should be dead,” Darius replied.

Seraphina’s heart pounded as his gaze locked onto hers again—no longer detached, no longer distant.

Possessive.

Interested.

“And yet,” he murmured, stepping closer, “my contract bride is still breathing.”

A shiver ran through her.

Darius leaned down, his voice brushing her ear like a promise and a threat all at once.

“This changes everything.”