Two weeks ago

(Two weeks ago before the present day)

“Running away from me already, little one?”

The voice was low and feral, vibrating through the forest's darkness.

Aria Ashbourne froze.

Her heart slammed violently against her ribs as the night pressed in around her, thick with shadows and the scent of damp earth. The pines loomed tall and endless, their branches thick that it covers the moonlight. Somewhere far behind her, an owl cried—and then fell silent.

She tightened her grip on the satchel clutched to her chest, fingers trembling. She had wandered too far. She knew that now. The herbs she’d come for—moonleaf —grew close to the border, but the deeper woods had always whispered danger. Everyone in her Ashgrove knew better than to cross into the deeper woods which is gossiped to be a wolf territory and to some just a myth.

Wolves lived here.

Not animals. Monsters wearing fur and flesh.

“I asked you a question,” the voice said again, closer this time. Amused. Dangerous.

Aria swallowed hard. “Who’s there?”

A low chuckle slid through the trees, curling around her spine like smoke. “What are you?.”

Something moved between the shadows—large, smooth, deliberate. Not the frantic scary run of preys, not the careless tread of man. This thing stalked.

Then he stepped into the moonlight.

Aria’s breath caught painfully in her throat.

He was tall. Too tall. Broad-shouldered, power carved into every line of his body as though violence itself had shaped him. Dark hair fell loosely across his forehead, framing eyes that burned molten gold—inhuman, luminous, predatory. Very familiar, a face I have seen in the library?

“Have we met?”

His hair covers a bit of his face and I can’t see but..

A man.

And something else.

His presence crushed the air from her lungs. He didn’t rush her. He didn’t need to. He looked at her like she already belonged to him.

“W-what do you want?” she whispered, backing into the rough bark of a tree.

His lips curved slowly, not quite a smile. “Everything.”

He crossed the distance in a heartbeat.

One moment he stood several feet away—the next, his body slammed hers against the tree, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs. His arm braced beside her head, his body caging her in completely.

She gasped, the satchel slipping from her fingers and hitting the ground.

Up close, his scent overwhelmed her—pine and smoke layered over something darker and intoxicating. It sank beneath her skin, coiling low in her belly.

“You smell it too,” he murmured, lowering his face until his lips hovered just above hers. His breath was hot, deliberate. “The pull.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered, even as heat pooled between her thighs, her pulse racing wildly.

“Liar.” He inhaled deeply along her jaw, growling softly. “Your scent’s driving me mad, little one. Sweet. Defiant. Just like it’s made for me.”

“But her scent is different, a wolf yet another underlying scent” he thought to himself

Her hands pressed uselessly against the bark behind her. When his hand slid down her hip, pinning her tighter, her body arched without permission.

Shame burned through her.

This was a stranger, possibly a monster no he’s indeed not human.

And her body wanted him.

“You don’t even know my name,” she said breathlessly.

His teeth grazed her throat, sending a violent shiver through her. “Kaelen Nightbane. Alpha of this pack. The only name you’ll ever need to remember.”

Fear twisted sharply in her gut.

The whispers were true.

The Beast of the Moon.

“You should run,” he murmured against her skin. “Because if you stay still, little one, I’ll ruin you right here against this tree.”

Her legs trembled. Every instinct screamed to flee—but her body refused to obey. She was trapped in his gravity, her breath shallow, her skin aching where he hadn’t even touched yet.

“Let me go,” she whispered.

His golden eyes locked onto hers, burning. “Say it again and mean it.”

She couldn’t.

Her lips parted, but no words came. His smile was pure predator’s triumph.

His hand slid upward, brushing her waist, her ribs—cupping the underside of her breast. Aria gasped as sensation tore straight through her core.

“That’s it,” he said roughly. “Feel it. Your body obviously can’t deny.”

His mouth crashed down on hers.

It wasn’t a kiss.

It was possession.

Hard. Hungry. Merciless.

His tongue pushed past her lips, demanding, devouring, stealing the breath from her lungs. Her body betrayed her completely, responding with desperate heat. Her hands rose, fisting in his shirt—not to push him away, but to hold on.

Kaelen growled in satisfaction.

His thigh slid between hers, spreading her open. A broken moan escaped her as her hips rocked instinctively against him.

“Fuck,” he moaned, tearing his mouth from hers, dragging his lips down her throat. “The way you taste… I could spend forever feeding on you.”

His teeth grazed the sensitive skin of her neck—not biting. The threat alone made her pulse race.

“Stop…” she whispered weakly, even as her body begged him closer.

“Your mouth says stop,” he murmured, hand slipping beneath her shirt, fingers tracing slow, deliberate paths across her stomach, “but your body begs me to take you.”

“I—I don’t know,” she admitted, breathless.

His palm closed over her breast, thumb brushing her nipple through thin fabric. She cried out softly as he kissed her again, deeper, rougher.

The forest vanished.

There was only him.

For one terrifying, blissful moment, she wanted to give in. To let him take her beneath the moon, against the tree, consequences be damned.

Then reason clawed its way back.

Summoning every shred of strength, she broke the kiss. “Please… stop.”

Kaelen froze.

For a long moment, his chest heaved against hers, his eyes burning with raw hunger. Then—slowly—he pulled back, though his hand lingered at her waist, thumb stroking lazy circles.

“You’re lucky I have restraint,” he muttered. “But don’t think this ends here. You’re mine.”

Her lips were swollen. Her body trembled.

Then his expression changed.

Sharp. Alert.

His head snapped toward the forest, nostrils flaring.

“Damn it.”

“What?” she whispered.

“You’re not safe.”

He cupped the back of her neck, grounding, steady. The touch sent a jolt through her—deeper than desire. Recognition flared inside her bones.

“You felt it,” he said quietly. “That pull.”

“I thought I was losing my mind.”

Before she could ask what that meant,

“Come” The moment his fingers wrapped around her wrist—

A pulse shot through both of them.

Silver light burst beneath their skin.

Aria gasped.

Kaelen jerked back as though struck by lightning.

On the inside of their wrists, a glowing crescent surrounded by delicate silver vines appeared beneath their skin.

It shimmered softly in the moonlight.

Beautiful.

Ancient.

Impossible.

Neither of them spoke.

Neither of them dared breathe.

The strange symbol glowed for only a few seconds before fading away as though it had never existed.

Aria stared at her wrist.

“I… what was that?”

Kaelen’s heart pounded harder than it had in years.

The Moonseal.

His grandfather’s stories flashed through his mind.

“If the Moon herself ever seals two souls before the mate bond awakens… protect her.”

“No…” he muttered to himself.

“It can’t be.”

“What can’t be?” Aria whispered.

He looked into her frightened eyes.

She had no idea.

She didn’t know what she was.

Or what the Moon had just declared.

“Go home,” he ordered. “Now.”

She ran.

Aria didn’t stop running until the lights of her village appeared through the trees.

She doubled over, struggling to catch her breath.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

“This isn’t real,” she whispered.

“It can’t be.”

She looked down at her wrist.

Nothing.

No silver crescent.

No glowing vines.

Only her own pale skin.

A shaky laugh escaped her lips.

“I imagined it…”

Of course she had.

She’d wandered too deep into the forest, frightened herself half to death, and dreamed the rest.

There was no impossibly handsome Alpha.

No glowing symbol.

No wolves tearing each other apart beneath the moon.

Just fear.

That’s all it had been.

Clutching her satchel tighter, Aria hurried toward the sanctuary she had always called home, convincing herself that by morning every memory would fade like a nightmare.

She never noticed the pair of crimson eyes watching her from the highest ridge beyond the forest after everything had calmed down.

Nor did she hear the dying whisper carried by the wind from the battlefield. Unaware she just entered the rival wolfs battle ground.

“The Moonborn…”

“…has awakened.”

Far beyond Nightbane’s borders, inside a fortress carved from black stone, a lone candle flickered.

An elderly witch’s eyes snapped open.

The tea in her hands shattered across the floor.

“No…”

Her voice trembled for the first time in decades.

“The Moonseal has returned.”

And that could only mean one thing

“They’ve found her.”

So will I.