The word hung between them like fog—"curse."
Luna's breath hitched, but she didn't flinch. She wasn't the flinching type. Shuno watched her with unreadable eyes, like a wolf watching the moon through the bars of its cage.
"What curse?" she asked, folding her arms like armor. "Yours?"
He didn't answer immediately. Just turned, pacing slow circles around her like the predator he was.
"They say the first Alpha of my bloodline betrayed the moon goddess. Took power not gifted. Killed his own mate to keep it."
"That's... a bedtime story."
"Maybe. Or maybe a warning."
She raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. You're the last in that cursed line?"
Shuno's jaw flexed. "The only one left."
A silence cracked between them. Cold wind rushed through the trees, carrying dead leaves and old pain. Luna's instincts screamed to run—not because she feared him, but because she didn't. And that was somehow worse.
"And what do you want from me?" she asked.
"Nothing."
Lie. A lie so thick she could taste the bitterness in it.
"Then why call me to you?"
His gaze snapped to hers, hard as flint.
"Because I didn't call you."
"The bond did."
It wasn't just tension now. It was gravity.
She felt it in her chest, in her bones, in the pull between them. Every part of her wolf wanted to step closer. Just a little. Just once.
"We shouldn't be near each other," she said.
"We shouldn't even exist together," he replied, dead serious. "Yet here we are."
He turned away like he might vanish into the dark again.
And she hated it.
"Wait," she said, almost before she could stop herself.
He did. But didn't turn around.
"You want to run?" she asked. "Run from it all?"
"I have to." His voice was quieter now. "Because if I don't… I'll choose you."
Her chest squeezed. "And that's a bad thing?"
"It is if choosing you means killing everything else I've sworn to protect."
Boom. There it was. The classic Alpha dilemma. Duty vs. desire. Pack vs. mate. Survival vs. soul.
"I'm not asking to be chosen," she said, stepping toward him, voice like steel wrapped in silk. "I'm just asking for the truth."
He finally turned to face her fully. His face was shadowed, but his eyes—those damn amber infernos—were all too real.
"The truth is… I dreamt of you too. Long before you dreamt of me."
Her breath caught. "What?"
"Since I was thirteen. Every Blood Moon. Always the same girl. Always the same name. I tried to deny it. Burn the connection. I even had witches curse it shut."
"And?"
"Didn't work." He took a step toward her. "You kept coming back. Even when I tried to forget you, my soul remembered."
Her lips parted, breath shallow. "So what now?"
His answer was soft. Broken. Honest.
"Now? I try not to destroy the one thing that ever made me feel alive."
And then he did something she never expected.
He dropped to his knees.
Shuno. Alpha of Bloodshade. The monster, the myth, the cold-blooded legend—kneeling before her like she was holy.
"You're my mate, Luna."
Four words.
That's all it took to unravel the walls she'd spent years building.