Chapter 3: I Burn for Her

Raven returned to his training room that night, but his mind wouldn’t stop replaying what had happened earlier.

He had tried to stay away from Selina, to keep as much distance as possible, because even seeing her face felt like his chest was being crushed. But his desire was always stronger than his logic.

He knew his feelings were wrong. Selina was the mate of Alaric, his own foolish cousin. Feelings like this were never supposed to exist.

His fist slammed into the punching bag with everything he had, the sound echoing through the empty room. Adrenaline and rage pumped through his veins like molten lava, burning everything inside him. Sweat dripped down his temples, but he didn’t stop. He kept punching, kicking, striking for three relentless hours.

He was furious. At Alaric. At Lyra, lying comatose. And more than anything, at the fact that Alaric had dared forbid anyone from calling Selina Luna, just for Lyra’s sake.

The bag jolted again as Raven drove his fist into it.

Selina.

Her name kept spinning through his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. Selina was too beautiful, too gentle, as warm as her name itself. But she wasn’t his. And Alaric, the one who had her, didn’t even know how to cherish her. His cousin didn’t deserve her.

Her big emerald eyes were burned into his memory, along with the soft smile she always offered to the pack members. Selina was too pure, too sincere.

The urge to claim her, the jealousy, the ache in his chest made it hard to breathe.

“You’re a coward,” Torren, the wolf inside him, hissed coldly. “Three hundred years of life, and she’s the only woman you’ve ever loved. Look at you now.”

Torren was angry. But that was fair, because Raven was furious too. At himself. At fate, which seemed to mock him cruelly.

Why Selina? Out of every she-wolf in the world, why did it have to be her? Why did he fall for the one woman destined to be Alaric’s mate?

Maybe the Moon Goddess enjoyed watching him suffer.

“I can’t take her from her rightful mate. She’s happy with him. If I did that, she’d hate me,” Raven muttered under his breath.

“We’ve done everything we can to keep her close, to keep her safe. And you’re still hiding,” Torren snarled. “You split the territory and handed over the Alpha title to your idiot cousin just because she’s his mate. Are you satisfied being the cousin of her husband? A stranger in her life? Pathetic.”

Torren’s harsh laughter echoed in his head, cutting deep.

Raven didn’t know why his wolf always felt at peace around Selina. Maybe their love wasn’t his alone. Or maybe fate was toying with them once again.

More than once, Raven had to force himself not to let his wolf take over, sneak into the pack house at night just to watch Selina sleep. He didn’t want to become some desperate predator ruled by desire.

Breathing heavily, Raven wiped his sweat with a towel and stepped into the shower. He stood under the water, letting it wash over his tense muscles.

The memory hit him again. The day Alaric’s brother and his brother’s mate were slaughtered by rogues on their way to the pack.

After that tragedy, Alaric’s father, the Alpha of Nightclaw Pack, had asked Raven to return and take over leadership. At first, he refused. But eventually, he came back. Alaric had been just a boy back then, not even eighteen, so it was Raven’s job to train him to one day become Alpha.

But everything changed when Selina entered his life.

The only reason he stayed was to be near her. He wanted to give her everything he could. That was why he had handed the Alpha title back to Alaric earlier than planned, even though Alaric wasn’t ready to lead.

Even though watching Selina stand beside his cousin shattered him inside, Raven only wanted one thing: for her to be happy.

“She’s too good, even for someone like me,” he whispered to Torren. The wolf went silent.

After his shower, Raven changed into clean clothes and stepped outside. A restless weight pressed against his chest, growing heavier by the second.

His feet moved on their own, taking him toward the old storage house. As always, his eyes drifted to Selina’s window. The room was dark. She must have already gone to bed. Selina always slept early. But the worry gnawed at him anyway.

The moment he stepped inside, that uneasy feeling turned into a suffocating pressure. Then he heard it: frantic noises from upstairs. Voices shouting his name, laced with panic and desperate pleas.

A man suddenly came stumbling down the stairs, his eyes wide with terror, tears streaking down his face. “Please... save our Luna. Alpha’s going to kill her.”

Raven didn’t wait for another word. He sprinted up the stairs and crashed through the door.

His blood turned to ice. Selina was slumped on the floor, covered in her own blood. Her clothes were torn, her arms carved with deep slashes across her shoulders and hands.

Then he saw it. Alaric, her own husband, pressing on her wounds as if trying to force more blood out of her body, mumbling under his breath, “Lyra... I’ll save you. Don’t leave me.”

A guttural growl tore out of Raven’s chest, echoing through the room.

“Alaric! Get away from her now!” His voice shook with raw fury.

In a blur, he yanked Selina out of Alaric’s grasp and, for the first time, smashed his fist into his cousin’s face, sending him crashing to the floor.

Raven pulled Selina into his arms. Her body was limp and pale, and he wasn’t even sure if she was still breathing.

His hands trembled violently, not just from anger but from the crushing fear wrapping around his heart. He had never felt this desperate before. Regret hit him like a blade.

“Selina... please hold on,” he whispered as her eyelids fluttered shut.

He was losing her.

Seeing several pack members frozen in shock by the door, Raven barked orders for them to help. They quickly secured Selina on his back, and as he shifted into his massive black wolf form, he bolted out of the building.

“Faster, Torren!” he roared in his mind. The wolf answered with a furious, terrified snarl and pushed them to run faster.

Raven felt Selina’s blood-soaked fingers clinging to his fur. He tried to keep his stride steady, to spare her any more pain. His teeth clenched as fury burned through him.

Within minutes, they reached the pack hospital.

The medical team rushed Selina into the ICU while Raven shifted back into his human form. A nurse handed him a sheet to wrap around himself, and he followed them inside, waiting anxiously.

The gods had spared her. He had saved Selina from death. But not her baby. Guilt consumed him when he realized he had failed to protect that small, precious life.

He knew Selina would be shattered when she woke. And worse, her condition was far more severe than he had ever imagined.

Raven boiled with rage at himself for ever trusting the so-called “mate bond” between Selina and Alaric. He had believed that bond would keep her safe. If not for the scars on her body or Alaric’s sudden change after Lyra woke, he might have still believed it.

He had thought Alaric treated her well. Or at least pretended to. That was why he had never tried to get close to Selina again. He thought it was enough just to see her living happily, even if he wasn’t part of her life.

But all of that shattered today.

He had seen it with his own eyes. The man who was supposed to be her mate had hurt her.

Raven couldn’t erase the image of her blood-soaked body, the deep wounds carved into her skin, the emptiness in her eyes.

And he kept asking himself why. Why had Alaric given his blood to Lyra? Was there something he didn’t know?

A nurse suddenly approached him and informed him that Alaric and Lyra had arrived.

Without a word, Raven walked to Selina’s bedside, looking down at her pale face. He reached out and brushed his fingers against her cheek. Her skin was as cold as ice.

“I swear I’ll make them pay for everything, Selina,” he whispered.