Awakening Before the King

Maya’s POV

The cold had vanished.

The first thing I felt was not pain, but an overwhelming warmth, deeper than anything I had felt in years. My senses returned slowly, emerging from the horrible darkness into which I had fallen. The second thing I noticed was the softness. I was no longer lying on the hard, frozen snow of the rogue lands. Now I was lying on a very comfortable mattress, covered with silk sheets that felt like a caress against my sensitive skin.

I tried to move, but a weak groan escaped my lips. The pain in my chest, the living wound left by the bond Hunter had broken, was still there, but it no longer burned like an uncontrollable fire. It felt muted, numbed by a strange scent of sandalwood, amber, and mint that floated through the air.

It was such a dense and magnetic scent that my inner wolf, who had been on the verge of death, gave a small, trembling stir.

I opened my eyes with difficulty, blinking at the soft golden light that illuminated the room. The place was gigantic. The walls were made of polished stone and dark wood, decorated with fine pelts and wrought-iron chandeliers. It was not a refugee’s cabin. This looked like the chamber of a castle.

“Don’t move yet, little wolf. Your wounds are only just beginning to heal. Stay still.”

A deep, baritone voice with a vibration so powerful that it echoed through my bones resonated from the back of the room.

I startled, clutching the sheets against my chest as I looked toward the direction of the voice. From the shadows near a large window, an imposing figure stepped forward.

My breath caught completely.

The man walking toward the bed was the most imposing man I had ever seen in my life. He was astonishingly tall, with broad shoulders and massive muscles visible beneath his unbuttoned black silk shirt. His face looked as though it had been sculpted by the gods: a strong, sharp jaw, dark hair slightly tousled, and storm-gray eyes so piercing that I felt they could read every one of my secrets. A faint scar crossed his left cheekbone, giving him a dangerous and wild appearance.

His Alpha presence was overwhelming. It was such crushing energy that my former Alpha, Hunter, would have looked like a puppy standing beside him.

Panic overtook me instinctively. I tried to crawl backward, searching for the headboard to protect myself. I was in a stranger’s territory, defenseless and weak. I expected him to yell at me, to look at me with the same disgust as always, or to order me out of his sight.

“Easy,” he said, stopping two steps away from the bed when he noticed my terror. He raised his hands in a strangely peaceful gesture for someone with so much power. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe here.”

“Who… Who are you? Where am I?”

The man’s gray eyes traveled over my face, lingering on my cracked lips before moving down to the sheets covering my body. There was no contempt in his gaze. There was an unreadable intensity, a mixture of curiosity and something much deeper that made me swallow hard.

“You’re in the Blood Moon Pack’s fortress. My patrols found you freezing on the border of the rogue lands. You were only minutes away from the rejection bond completely shutting down your heart.”

My eyes filled with tears as I remembered the public humiliation, Hunter’s cruel words, and the pack’s laughter. I lowered my head, letting my hair fall over my face, feeling miserable and exposed.

“They should just let me go…” I whispered, with tears on the verge of appearing again. “I’m useless. My Alpha rejected me because I’m a disgrace. He said that a she-wolf with my body, soft and slow, could never be a Luna.”

I expected the Alpha before me to nod or mock me. After all, that was the law of the wolf world: the strong rule, the weak and defective are cast aside.

Instead, I heard a low, dangerous growl that made the room’s windows vibrate. The air grew heavy with the Alpha’s sudden fury. I shrank where I was, frightened, but he was not looking at me with anger. His gray eyes flashed like lightning.

“The filthy Alpha who did this to you is a bastard who deserves nothing of the territory he has,” the man said. Deadly venom ran through his voice. “Rejecting a Goddess-given mate out of pure vanity… is sacrilege. And cowardice. He is not a real Alpha.”

He walked closer slowly, and this time, I did not move. He sat on the edge of the mattress. The weight of his body shifted the bed, forcing me closer to him. He simply extended one large hand, with long, strong fingers, and with a gentleness that did not match his size, placed two fingers beneath my chin to make me lift my gaze.

The moment his skin touched mine, the entire world seemed to explode.

An electric, burning, overwhelming current traveled from my chin through my entire body. It was not the pain of the broken bond; it was a wave of pure warmth, golden sparks that instantly ignited my inner wolf. My wolf, who had been asleep and weakened, lifted her head and let out a howl of absolute recognition. His scent of sandalwood and storm became intoxicating.

He felt it too. I watched as his gray eyes completely dilated, turning almost black as his wolf took control. His breathing grew heavy, and his fingers pressed against my chin with subtle possessiveness.

A crooked smile appeared on his face.

“It seems the Moon Goddess has a very interesting sense of humor. My name is Lawrence, little wolf. I am the Lycan King of these lands.”

He leaned a little closer to me, trapping me completely beneath his scent and his imposing figure.

“And whoever the heartless idiot was who let you go has just made the biggest mistake of his miserable life. Because I don’t usually share my treasures, and you, Maya… have just become mine.”