The moon was full, massive, and luminous in the ink-black sky. It hovered like a silent witness above the pine-covered hills surrounding the Midnight Howl Pack's territory. Every creature in the forest had gone still, as though they too were waiting for something to happen something ancient, sacred, and irreversible.
I stood alone in the woods, the wind curling around me like a cold warning. My arms were wrapped tightly around myself, not just for warmth, but for reassurance. Tonight was supposed to be the most important night of my life.
My eighteenth birthday.
The day my wolf was meant to awaken.
The day I'd find my fated mate.
The day everything in my life would finally make sense.
But even as I stood under the moonlight, surrounded by towering trees that had seen centuries pass, I felt nothing but anxiety. Not excitement. Not hope. Just a lingering fear that fate would pass me by again, like it always had.
My name is Aurora Blake, the girl no one noticed. The pack orphan. The weakling. The disappointment.
I had grown up on the fringes of the Midnight Howl Pack, watched but never embraced, tolerated but never loved. My parents died in a rogue attack when I was just five, and since then, I had been passed around between pack families like an unwanted burden.
Everyone whispered about me how I still hadn't shifted, how I couldn't hear my wolf, how I was clearly cursed or broken. I pretended not to care, but deep down, I did.
Because I believed them.
Until tonight.
Tonight, something felt… off. The air buzzed with an energy I couldn't explain. The moon's light felt heavier on my skin. My heart beat louder than usual, echoing in my ears like a war drum.
And then I smelled him.
Cedar. Ash. Ice. A storm waiting to break.
The scent hit me so hard, I staggered backward. It filled my lungs, burned down my throat, and settled deep into my core. It was overwhelming, addictive intoxicating.
My breath caught.
My knees weakened.
Because I knew that scent.
Every member of our pack did.
Lucian Storm.
Alpha of the Midnight Howl Pack.
The youngest Alpha in a hundred years. Strong. Ruthless. Cold. Feared by everyone, respected by all. Rumor had it he defeated the last Alpha in single combat at just nineteen. He was power personified, and he had never once looked in my direction.
Until now.
I turned slowly, and there he was, standing between two tall pines, half-bathed in moonlight. His eyes those piercing golden eyes locked with mine instantly.
And in that moment, my soul snapped.
It was like the world had gone quiet. The wind stilled. The trees held their breath. My heartbeat slowed to a single, thunderous beat.
Mate.
I felt the word resonate inside me not in my mind, but in my blood, my bones, my soul.
It wasn't a choice. It wasn't a thought. It was a truth.
And judging by the way Lucian's body stiffened, he felt it too.
His gaze darkened. His nostrils flared. His fists clenched at his sides.
He looked like a man staring at a ghost.
I took a tentative step forward, my lips parting. "Lucian..."
The name felt strange on my tongue too familiar, too forbidden.
He didn't answer. He didn't move. He just stared at me like the Moon Goddess herself had played a cruel joke on him.
"I…" My voice faltered, but I forced myself to keep speaking. "You feel it, don't you? The bond."
Finally, he spoke.
"No."
One word. Sharp. Cold. Brutal.
I flinched. "What?"
"I don't accept this."
He took a step toward me, towering, radiating raw power and dominance.
"I reject you," he said flatly.
The air left my lungs. My mouth opened in shock, but no sound came out. It was like someone had reached into my chest and crushed my heart with one hand.
"You can't..." I whispered, more to myself than to him.
"I can. And I do." His eyes were unreadable, emotionless. "You're not Luna material. You're weak. You've never shifted. You don't even have a wolf. The Moon Goddess made a mistake."
Every word hit me like a slap. My knees wobbled. I stumbled back, struggling to breathe.
"But the bond" I choked.
"It means nothing to me."
I felt my soul rip in half.
My wolf who had just barely begun to stir inside me after years of silence whimpered, confused and hurt. I could feel her pressing against my mind, desperate to understand why our mate was doing this.
I blinked back tears, swallowing the scream that burned in my throat. "You don't even know me."
Lucian's jaw tightened. "I don't need to. You're not fit to stand beside me."
With that, he turned and began to walk away.
Just like that.
Like I was trash tossed aside.
Like I hadn't just felt my world begin and end in the space of five minutes.
"Wait!" I called, my voice breaking.
He paused for a moment but didn't look back.
"You're rejecting me because I'm weak?" I spat, my anger rising through the heartbreak. "What kind of Alpha turns away from his fated mate out of pride?"
Lucian didn't answer. His body stiffened and then he vanished into the woods, swallowed by darkness.
And that's when the pain hit.
At first, it was subtle a twisting in my gut, a heat spreading across my spine.
Then it exploded.
My vision blurred. My body seized. I dropped to the forest floor, screaming as fire shot through every nerve. Bones cracked. Muscles stretched. Skin burned.
I was shifting.
My first shift.
Of all the moments it could have happened… it chose now. In the aftermath of the most painful moment of my life.
I clawed at the dirt, my fingers lengthening into claws. My body convulsed as fur erupted across my skin. My mouth reshaped. My spine twisted. I felt myself being torn apart and rebuilt all at once.
And through the agony, one thought echoed:
He rejected me.
When the shift was finally complete, I collapsed into the soil no longer human, but not fully wolf. Somewhere in between. My breathing was ragged. My vision flickered.
And then... a voice.
Not Lucian's.
Not my wolf's.
Something older. Something vast.
"You are mine now, child of moon and flame. You were never his to keep."
The words didn't come through ears or mind. They sank into my soul.
I looked up at the moon, glowing brighter than I had ever seen it. A warmth pulsed through me, comforting, powerful divine.
The pain was gone.
Replaced with something else.
Power.
A connection.
Clarity.
He may have rejected me.
But the Moon had just claimed me.
And this was only the beginning.