1

RACHELLE’S POV

The metallic tang of blood was the only thing reminding me I was still alive. I sprinted at breakneck speed, my feet slamming brutally against the forest’s twisted roots while my lungs burned as if I’d swallowed live coals.

"You damn slut! You won't get away!" the warriors’ shouts echoed behind me, Walter’s men howling with mocking laughter.

"Bastards!" I screamed, the sound tearing through my raw throat.

Those animals weren't hunting me to kill me, not yet. They wanted to see how long the pack’s "jewel" could endure before she shattered in the mud.

Only hours ago, I was the protected prize of a dark kingdom. Walter, the Alpha of the Night Sky pack, had kept me in a gilded cage for fifteen years, ever since my parents vanished in the war against his kin.

He always told me my beauty was a gift from the Ancestors, that my blood was sacred. He dressed me in silks and fed me grand promises, only to use me as the final payment for a debt I never owed.

"Catch the traitor! Don't let her cross the line!" Michael’s roar, Walter’s lead general, made me stumble.

"Ahhh!" I shrieked as I hit the cold mire face-first.

I couldn't stop. Without even standing, I dragged myself forward, feeling the filth seep through my tattered clothes. Suddenly, the ground vanished.

A massive drop-off, several meters deep, loomed right in front of me. Shit! I struggled to my feet, leaning heavily against a jagged trunk.

In that moment, the moonlight filtering through the canopy revealed exactly what Walter was so desperate to sell.

Even smeared with dirt and tears, my face retained an almost surreal symmetry; high cheekbones and lush, full lips that now trembled with fury.

My hair, a golden cascade tangled with thorns, spilled over my shoulders and swept down past my hips, framing amber eyes that burned with a fire Walter could never extinguish.

My torn tunic left the deep curve of my breasts exposed, heaving with every erratic breath, while my wide hips and prominent curves, once my pride, now felt like a heavy burden, making me feel vulnerable in the heat of the chase.

Inside, I was a beauty already dead.

"Damn it, Rachelle, we have to move," my wolf’s deep voice growled in my mind. "If they catch us, they’ll hand us over to the darkness!"

I listened to her while scanning my surroundings. There was no escape. The fall would kill me, and the woods were crawling with Walter’s shadows.

Before I could move, a guttural roar erupted from the trees, followed by a dark aura that withered everything in its path.

"Where do you think you’re going, little bitch?" Michael stepped into the light, wearing a sickening smirk that told me his intentions went far beyond duty.

"Let me go! I promise I'll disappear!" I spat, spraying blood at his feet.

His eyes, now clouded with pure lust, raked over me from head to toe. He licked his lips, closing the distance with slow, predatory steps. I backed away without hesitation, until my heels grazed the very edge of the abyss.

"Walter gave me permission to 'inspect the merchandise' before handing it over to the Dark World," he insinuated, taking another step. "But thinking about it... it would be a shame for something so perfect to go to waste without me tasting it first."

A wave of pure loathing crashed over me. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer; I simply took another step back. The wind from the chasm whipped against my face as my body shook with panic.

"I’d rather die than let your filthy hands touch me!" I finally snarled.

Michael let out a violent growl and lunged. But just as his massive, half-shifted frame was about to seize me, I spun around and threw myself into the shadowed abyss, the boundary of the Eclipse territory.

"You crazy bitch, you're dead!" Michael’s scream rang in my ears, fading with every meter I fell. "You’ve entered Derek’s lands! No one comes out of there alive!"

In an instant, the air changed. The sweet scent of pine vanished, replaced by the smell of cold steel and something far more primal.

The world fell into a deathly silence as the fall felt eternal. The wind battered every muscle of my body while I watched Michael on the ledge above, his eyes wide with shock. The fear on his face gave me one final second of glory.

I knew I was going to die. This was the end.

***

I didn't know how much time had passed, but when I finally forced my eyes open, every inch of my body screamed in agony.

For a split second, I was certain I had crossed into the afterlife. But as my vision blurred into focus, I realized I was still at the bottom of the abyss.

Towering pines loomed over me like silent sentinels, and to my shock, I could feel my wounds already beginning to knit back together.

"Where are we? Why aren't we dead?" I whispered to my wolf.

"We are in forbidden territory," she hissed back, her voice a low, vibrating warning. "I can smell danger. It’s everywhere."

"Dammit... can you shift? We have to get out of here..." I pleaded.

But my words died in the air as a series of sharp snaps echoed through the undergrowth. Shit, shit. I scrambled to push myself up, but a jagged moan of pain escaped my lips, pinning me back down.

I expected a beast of the darkness to emerge from the trees, but what materialized was far worse. A shadow, denser than the night itself, took shape before me.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I looked up at the man. Fear draped over every fiber of my being, paralyzing my strength and forcing me to crawl backward like a cornered animal.

"Well, well..." A voice rumbled, so deep it made my spine vibrate.

Slowly, I lifted my gaze. God. This wasn't just a man; he was a mountain of raw muscle and absolute authority.

He looked down at me from an imposing height, his torso encased in black leather armor. He radiated a physical heat so intense it felt like the mud on my skin was drying instantly.

His eyes, gray and cold as forged steel, raked over every curve of my body with an intensity that made me feel more naked than my tattered clothes ever could.

Desperate, I reached for a nearby trunk and tried to haul myself up. But the moment my feet touched the ground, my legs buckled. I pitched forward, bracing for the impact of the forest floor.

The blow never came. Instead, his massive hand shot out like a striking cobra, wrapping around my throat with a brutality that stole my breath.

My eyes widened at the contact. A jolt of electricity, violent and electric, surged through me, seizing control of my entire body. Before I could even process the sensation, he let out a guttural growl and shoved me back, slamming my spine against the rough bark of the tree.

"Ahhh!" I cried out as pain flared through my back.

His other hand slid down to my waist, his fingers digging into my hip with a force that wrung a moan of pain from my throat, and a spark of something else I refused to acknowledge. His claws nearly breached my skin as he stared at me with an intensity I had never seen in a man before

"And what do we have here?" His voice was a deep baritone of pure masculinity and power. "A little golden intruder in my territory..."

My heart skipped a beat. His territory? My mind raced. This man... this was Derek, the Alpha of the Eclipse. An irrational terror struck my nerves like lightning.

I shook my head violently, my hands coming up to strike his iron-hard chest. "Let me go! Let me go!" I managed to choke out through my ragged breathing.

Despite my struggles, Derek only pinned me harder against the trunk, letting out a dark, mocking laugh. "Let you go? Oh no, little pup."

Then, he leaned in, burying his face in the crook of my neck. I froze as he inhaled deeply against my skin, letting his scorching breath burn me to my very core.

"You smell of fear, of repressed heat... and of Walter’s Fortress," he whispered, a sound that made every inch of my skin crawl.

The hand around my throat tightened, not to kill me, but to force my submission. I tried to strike his chest again, but with a guttural growl, Derek pressed his body flush against mine. I gasped as I felt the undeniable, rigid length of him bruising against my belly.

What the hell? Was this man actually…

I didn't even have time to finish the thought. I hiked my leg up, ready to drive my knee into his groin, but a strange, foreign force inside me paralyzed my muscles.

"This man... he smells delicious... he is the Eclipse we need!" my wolf purred with a lewd, rhythmic hunger.

"What are you talking about? This is Derek! He’s the most dangerous wolf in the world! He’s going to torture us!" I roared inside my mind.

But how had I missed it? His arms were massive columns of solid muscle, veins branching like rivers beneath sun-hardened skin.

Dark tattoos began at his fists and climbed his arms until they vanished beneath his leather armor, reappearing on his neck as obsidian runes that seemed to pulse with every breath he took.

He was the living image of a god of war and ruin.