2. The Alpha Claims His Interest

 Leon

The first time I saw him move, I forgot how to breathe.

Humans audition at Luna Noir all the time. They come desperate, hungry, chasing quick money or trying to impress supernatural clientele they can’t begin to comprehend. They shake their hips, roll their bodies, and hope I find them useful enough to be thrown onstage. Most of them last a week, some a day, before they run screaming or get eaten alive by the predators who stalk my club.

But tonight…

Tonight was different.

I smelled him before I saw him.

A faint hint of vanilla, clean sweat… and something else. Something ancient, something buried deep beneath his human scent, so faint that my wolf stirred violently, trying to claw forward to get closer and that was why I decided to audition him myself.

I had been leaning back on my chair, bored out of my mind as the last dancer finished. I was ready to call it a night when the air shifted, literally shifted, as if something sacred had walked into my domain.

Then Edric stepped forward.

Human skin glowing in the soft amber lights. Chest rising nervously. Wide brown eyes that didn’t belong in a place like Luna Noir. He looked like prey, delicate and breakable… but my wolf didn’t see prey.

My wolf saw soulmate.

I gripped the armrests so hard that the wood cracked under my fingers.

The room fell silent, not because I demanded it, but because every supernatural creature present felt it. That spark. That snap of energy that prickled against the air like lightning.

Edric didn’t even realize what he had done. He simply stood there, hesitant, swallowing hard as if he was already regretting showing up.

I almost sent him away right there.

Not because I wanted to.

But because something inside me, the primal part, whispered:

If he dances, we will lose all control.

I should have listened.

He stepped onto the stage… and the world fell away.

He didn’t dance like the others. He moved like instinct itself was pulling invisible strings. Every twist of his hips. Every arch of his spine. Every trembling exhale. There was no technique yet every movement was perfection. He didn’t try to seduce anyone but every creature in the room was seduced.

Including me…. Especially me.

My wolf slammed against my chest, snarling, demanding to break free, to vault over the seats and drag Edric into my arms where no one could touch him.

Mine.

The word struck so hard my jaw locked. My nails elongated slightly, just the tips, a flash of claw before I forced them back. My eyes burned, shifting red-gold for a split second.

No human had ever made my wolf react like this.

Hell, no creature ever had.

The air tasted thick with his magic, human magic, yet not quite. Something forgotten. Buried. Lost bloodline? Forbidden ancestry? I couldn’t place it, but it was intoxicating.

Edric didn’t even notice the effect he caused.

His body moved like a confession. His hips traced circles that mirrored ancient rites. His hands trailed down his chest as if blessing his own skin. He wasn’t dancing for us.

He was dancing for something inside him.

 He was dancing for himself.

And I, Alpha of the strongest pack in the region, ruler of Luna Noir, feared by vampires and respected by fae and witches, stood frozen like an idiot watching a human boy bring my entire world to its knees.

Then the music stopped.

Edric blinked, breathless, dazed as if waking from a dream he didn’t know he had.

Silence devoured the room.

I rose slowly, forcing each step to remain controlled even though my wolf wanted to sprint. He looked up at me, eyes wide, hopeful, terrified. The scent of his nerves hit me so hard my vision swayed.

When I reached him, his breath hitched.

I lifted a hand and brushed a strand of hair from his forehead, an action so intimate that I should have stopped myself. But I couldn’t. The need to touch him roared through my veins.

His skin was warm. Too warm.

 Like his blood was calling to mine.

Interesting, indeed.

“Stay,” I told him. My voice came out lower, rougher, as if my wolf was speaking through me.

He started to protest. 

“I… I don’t…”

“You don’t get to question,” I cut him off sharply, because if I let him speak, I might have kissed him. “You belong here.” ..with me, though I didn't say that out loud.

He swallowed. The movement of his throat was hypnotic.

The word belong echoed through my mind.

 And my wolf whispered:

 He belongs to us.

That should have terrified me.

Instead, I welcomed it.

I circled him once, fighting the urge to scent-mark him in front of everyone. Around him, the air hummed with a soft glow, his aura responding to mine. He didn’t even know he was doing it. He was that untrained. That innocent.

That dangerous.

This boy could destroy me.

I should have walked away.

I didn’t.

Instead, I leaned close enough that my breath brushed his neck. He shivered violently, and the scent of his desire, weak but present, nearly broke my restraint.

“Start tomorrow,” I murmured. “You work for me.”

But that wasn’t enough.

Not even close.

As I walked away, every instinct screamed at me to turn back, take him home, lock him away where no predator could touch a single hair on his head.

I reached the hallway before I admitted the truth to myself.

Edric would not be a regular dancer.

 He would not entertain clients.

 He would not be touched, tipped, or flirted with.

 He would not step onto that stage like everyone else.

No.

Not him.

He would be kept separate. Hidden. Guarded.

Mine.

But I needed an excuse, something reasonable my staff wouldn’t question.

Exclusivity.

A private contract.

A dancer reserved for the Alpha alone.

I clenched my fists, breath shaking with the effort of controlling my wolf as I entered my office.

Cassian, my beta, looked up sharply from the desk across the room. “Leon? You look…”

“Don’t ask,” I growled, pacing like a caged animal.

“Is it the human?” He asked carefully.

My head snapped toward him. 

“He is not just a human.”

Cassian stiffened. 

“Leon. Please. You know what the council will say if…”

“I don’t care what the council says.”

 My voice was lethal, calm in that dangerous way that made even my closest packmates step back. “Edric stays. And he stays mine.”

Cassian blinked once. Twice. 

“Yours? Leon…”

I slammed my hand onto the desk, cracking it straight through the center.

Cassian shut up immediately.

I wasn’t proud of the loss of control.

 But I also didn’t regret it.

The wolf inside me was done pretending. Done hiding. Done waiting for the universe to hand us something sacred.

We had found him.

Edric.

My dancer.

 My awakening.

 My curse.

 My salvation.

I didn’t know exactly what he was yet, his scent was human, but something beneath it sang to my bloodline. Something old, forbidden, lost in history.

But I knew one thing for certain.

No vampire.

 No fae.

 No shifter.

 No creature, living or damned, would lay a finger on him.

Not while I breathed.

I sat down, forced myself to breathe, and drafted a new contract on the spot, one specially tailored to ensure Edric would be accessible only to me:

No client interaction.

 No touching.

 No private dances.

 No requests.

He would dance only when I allowed it.

 Only where I could see him.

 Only under my guard.

Was it possessive?

 Yes.

 Was it irrational?

 Painfully.

Did I care?

 Not even a little.

Because his dance had awakened something in me; a hunger, a recognition, a pull so deep it terrified even me. I had been alive long enough to know what that meant.

Soulbound.

 Destined.

 Marked by fate itself.

I should have rejected it.

 Rejected him.

But when I closed my eyes, I saw the sway of his hips.

 The tremble in his hands.

 The innocence in his gaze.

And I knew:

I would burn the world before I let anyone else have him.