Seraphina
The moon was too full.
Too bright.
Too alive.
It soaked my silver hair in its glow as I stepped deeper into the Blackthorne Forest—the place no sane person entered, especially not alone, and especially not on a full moon. But sanity had never been my strong suit.
Neither was self-preservation.
The trees whispered warnings, low and breathless. My boots crunched against dead leaves, but it was the sound behind me that made my spine stiffen—the rustle of something too large, too controlled to be an animal. It was watching me. Again.
I should've been afraid. I should've run.
Instead, my heart pounded… with anticipation.
I didn't come here to be safe. I came for answers.
The dreams. The fire under my skin. The way my body ached every time the moon rose. Something inside me had been awakening for weeks now, clawing to the surface, and I needed to know why.
And something—someone—was pulling me here.
Then I felt it.
Heat.
Not warmth. Not sunlight. Heat like molten metal on flesh, slamming into me from behind. I turned, and there he was.
A man.
No—a monster in human skin.
He stood beneath the moonlight like it bowed only for him. Broad shoulders, ink-black shirt stretched across a chest built like sin, silver tattoos curling up his arms and disappearing beneath his collar. His eyes... gods, those eyes. Silver. Bright. Unholy.
He looked at me like he already owned me.
And I couldn't move.
"What are you doing in my territory, little lamb?" he asked, voice like smoke and velvet.
His aura crashed into me, thick and suffocating. Alpha. That much was clear. But not just any Alpha. He was power incarnate. And my instincts screamed his name even if my lips didn't know it.
Kael Nightborne.
Alpha of the Nightfang Clan. The most feared male in the supernatural empire.
The one they called the Savage King.
"I was just… passing through," I lied, voice breathy, pathetic.
He took a step closer. Then another. Predatory, controlled. My back hit a tree before I realized I was moving.
He tilted his head. "Liar."
I swallowed hard. My heart was beating too fast, heat pooling low in my belly.
"I'm not here to cause trouble—"
"You already have."
He stopped right in front of me, close enough that I could smell him—smoke, cedar, and something darker. Forbidden.
He reached out and touched a strand of my hair, curling it around his fingers. "Do you know what silver hair means in my world, little lamb?"
I shook my head. Mistake.
His fingers slipped beneath my jaw, lifting my gaze to his. The contact sent a violent shiver through me. My skin tingled. My pulse stuttered.
"It means fate," he murmured. "It means prophecy. It means mine."
I gasped.
He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. "I've waited a long time to find you. And now that I have…"
His breath was fire against my neck.
"I'm never letting you go."
My knees almost buckled. I should've pushed him away. I should've screamed. But I didn't.
Because deep down, some part of me had wanted this. Had wanted him—without even knowing why.
"You don't even know me," I whispered.
He pulled back just enough to look at me, but didn't let go. "Don't I?" His voice dropped lower. "You think I haven't dreamed of you every damn full moon? You think I haven't felt you burning under my skin like a curse?"
He pressed a hand to my waist. I gasped again.
"My wolf knew you before I did," he growled. "And now that I've found you, no one—not the council, not the bloodlines, not the gods themselves—will take you from me."
I was trembling. Not from fear. From want.
"You don't have the right," I whispered, breath catching as his hand slid higher, hovering just beneath my breast. "You can't just claim me."
His smirk was all dark promise. "Oh, little lamb. I already have."
And then he kissed me.
Not gently. Not sweetly. No, Kael devoured me—mouth demanding, tongue tasting, like he'd starved for me in a thousand lifetimes. My back hit the tree hard as he pinned me there, every hard inch of him pressing against me.
My mind screamed danger.
But my body... melted.
His hand gripped my thigh, hoisting it over his hip. I gasped into his mouth. He groaned into mine, the sound so raw, so wrecked, it almost broke me.
And that's when I felt it.
A burning.
Not pain—but power. Surging between us like lightning. My skin lit up. My chest ached. Something ancient cracked open inside me, and I knew.
He was mine.
And I was his.
But fate isn't kind. And this obsession—this bond—was a curse.
Because I didn't just stumble into Kael's forest.
I was sent.
To kill him.