They say no human walks into Crimson Fang territory and lives.
I did.
And I wasn't supposed to.
My skin was torn. Blood — mine and not mine — dried on my arms. My dress, once white, was nothing more than shredded cloth clinging to my shivering body. The night wind bit into me like tiny knives, but I kept walking. Barefoot. Alone.
The trees watched in silence, their branches twisted like claws. I should have been afraid. I should have cried. I should have begged someone, anyone, to save me.
But fear died in me a long time ago.
The night I stopped being human.
Two hours earlier, I was just another forgotten girl in the border village — invisible, unwanted, unclaimed. Just a girl who served beer in a tavern and avoided her foster father's fists.
No one knew my real name.
No one knew my real blood.
Including me.
Until the letter came.
Smuggled under a loaf of bread by an old woman who couldn't even meet my eyes. It smelled of herbs and secrets. Written in a language that made my head throb just to read.
"Come to the river when the moon is full. Cross the border. You'll find the truth. But beware… the Alpha will smell you before you see him."
I didn't understand it.
I followed it anyway.
Because deep inside me, something had always whispered — you're not one of them. Not truly.
And that whisper had teeth.
That's how I ended up in the forest, in the middle of forbidden territory, holding a bloodstained dagger and facing a creature out of nightmares.
He emerged from the shadows without a sound — tall, shirtless, covered in old scars and new blood. His eyes glowed like molten gold, piercing through the dark and straight into me.
I should've screamed.
Instead, I met his gaze.
And for a single, endless second, the world stood still.
Everything inside me recoiled. Everything inside me reached.
It made no sense.
Why would my heart stutter in fear — and longing?
Why would my body ache like it knew him?
And why didn't he kill me?
He had every right. Every reason.
But he didn't.
"You crossed the river," he said. His voice was deep and gravelly, a sound that could command armies. Or end lives.
"Yes," I replied, my voice dry, cracked, but steady.
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. "You smell like them… but not quite."
"I'm not one of you."
"No," he said slowly. "You're something worse."
Something worse?
I didn't flinch. "Then kill me."
I meant it.
I needed him to.
Because if he didn't… I was going to do something stupid. Like stare into his eyes again and wonder why they made me feel like I belonged.
He took a step forward. Then another.
I gripped my dagger tighter.
He stopped barely a foot away, his eyes locked on mine. I could feel the heat radiating from his body. Smell the scent of earth, blood, and something uniquely… him.
His hand reached up — slowly, like I was a wild thing — and brushed my hair away from my cheek. His fingers were rough. His touch, surprisingly gentle.
I forgot how to breathe.
"I should rip your throat out," he whispered.
"Then do it," I whispered back.
But he didn't.
He just stared at me — and for a second, he looked… haunted.
Like he recognized me.
Like he hated that he did.
That's when the howls started. Close. Too close.
He snapped his head toward the sound, curse under his breath, then looked at me like I was the cause of every sin he'd ever committed.
"You shouldn't be here," he growled.
"I know."
"If they find you—"
"Then let them."
He stepped back. For the first time, I saw uncertainty in his eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't fully know myself.
Not yet.
But I was going to find out — even if I had to walk through hell to get there.
And he… was the fire.
Now, I walked again — alone — deeper into the forest I wasn't meant to survive.
Every step was agony, but I didn't stop.
I couldn't.
I didn't come this far to run.
Let me tell you something about being hunted: the moment you run, you lose.
That's what they expect. For humans to panic. To scream. To be weak.
But I wasn't weak.
Not anymore.
I was fire wrapped in flesh. I was rage buried beneath bruises. I was vengeance sharpened into a blade.
They killed my mother.
They lied about my father.
They called me nothing.
So I came to remind them:
Even nothing can burn a kingdom down.
A shadow moved behind me.
I froze.
Not because I was scared — but because I knew who it was.
Him.
He stepped out of the dark like it belonged to him. Moonlight touched his face, and gods help me… he looked like he was carved by storms.
Beautiful. Brutal.
Broken.
"You're bleeding," he said.
"I noticed."
He stepped closer. "They'll smell you."
"Then I guess I'll die."
He exhaled sharply. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because someone has to."
His jaw clenched. "You're going to get yourself killed."
"Maybe that's the point."
He looked at me then — really looked — and something flickered in his eyes.
Recognition.
Not of who I was…
But of what I was to him.
"You're mine," he said before he could stop himself.
My heart stuttered.
"What?"
"You don't feel it?" His voice dropped, low and rough.
I shook my head, but my body betrayed me. My pulse quickened. My skin tingled where his eyes touched. My throat dried.
"I don't know what I feel," I lied.
He stepped even closer. I could feel the heat of his chest, hear the low growl rumbling in his throat.
"I should kill you," he said again, softer this time.
"But you won't."
His eyes met mine — glowing, golden, dangerous.
"No," he said. "I won't."
And I knew, in that moment, something terrible had happened.
A line had been crossed.
A bond had awakened.
A war had begun.
Because the Alpha didn't just spare me.
He claimed me.
And the entire pack would burn for it.