The news spread faster than wildfire. By dawn, every pack in the region had heard whispers of it—the Shadowfang Alpha had claimed a mate, and not just anyone. He had marked the rejected Luna of the Bloodmoon Pack.
Selene.
Kael heard it first from a messenger who stumbled into his hall, breathless, his eyes wide with disbelief. At first Kael laughed in his face, a low, dangerous sound that made the young wolf tremble.
"Lies," Kael spat, his fists tightening on the arm of his throne. "You dare stand before me and spin such nonsense? Darius would never…" He trailed off, the words turning bitter in his throat. He remembered the girl's wide eyes, the way her lips had quivered the night he'd told her she was nothing to him. Weak. Worthless. Not fit to be his mate.
The messenger bowed so low his forehead touched the stone floor. "It is no lie, Alpha. I swear it. Warriors saw it themselves. The Shadowfang Alpha fought off Ironfang and, before the eyes of his entire pack, marked her. Marked Selene."
The name burned in Kael's ears. He dismissed the messenger with a growl, but the words would not leave him. Marked. The girl who had stood in front of him on her eighteenth birthday, trembling with hope, only for him to shred it apart before the whole pack.
His wolf snarled inside him. For days after, he had shoved down the unease that sometimes rose when he remembered her face. He told himself he had been right. A Luna needed to be strong, to match him in dominance. Selene had been too gentle, too fragile. Choosing her would have made him look weak. That was what he told himself.
But now she belonged to another Alpha.
His wolf howled with fury, the sound reverberating in his skull until Kael stood abruptly, knocking the throne's arm with such force it cracked. His guards exchanged uneasy glances but dared not speak. They could feel it, too—the storm rolling off their Alpha.
Kael's voice was low, rough. "Summon the council. Summon the warriors. Tonight, we prepare for war."
---
Far away, Selene sat in the Shadowfang stronghold, wrapped in blankets though her body burned as if fire lived beneath her skin. The mark throbbed at her neck, and no matter how many times she pressed her fingers against it, the sensation only grew sharper. She had not slept since Darius had bitten her.
Darius himself was not far, his presence constant. She could feel him through the bond, a tether she hadn't asked for yet could not escape. He paced the edge of the chamber, his dark hair falling over his eyes, his jaw hard as stone.
"You should rest," he said without looking at her.
"I can't," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "Every time I close my eyes, I see it again. The battle. Morwen. And… what you did."
His head turned at that, eyes glinting silver in the dim firelight. "I did what I had to do."
"You marked me," she said sharply, anger bubbling despite her exhaustion. "Without asking. Without giving me a choice."
For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he walked closer, each step deliberate, until he stood over her. He crouched so his eyes met hers, his gaze unwavering. "You think I wanted this? You think I planned to bind you to me in front of the entire pack? No, Selene. It was instinct. A choice made in blood. If I hadn't claimed you, Morwen would have torn you apart. That mark saved your life."
His voice dropped lower, almost a growl. "And it warns every wolf who sees it—you are under my protection. No one can touch you now."
Selene wanted to scream at him, to tell him he had stolen her freedom. But the words faltered on her tongue. Because even now, beneath her anger, she could feel it—the bond humming like a live wire between them, a steady pulse that kept her tethered to him. And worse, her heart betrayed her. Some part of her found comfort in it.
She hated that.
Before she could respond, a heavy knock sounded at the chamber door. One of Darius's lieutenants stepped in, his face grim. "Alpha. A raven came at dawn. The Bloodmoon Pack prepares for battle. Kael knows."
The silence stretched thick and suffocating.
Selene's chest tightened, and she gripped the blanket as if it could keep her safe. Kael. She hadn't heard his name in weeks, not since the night he had shattered her heart in front of everyone. She had tried to bury the memory, but now it returned sharper than ever. The look in his eyes when he'd rejected her. The laughter of the pack. The sting of humiliation.
Darius's expression hardened. "So it begins."
---
By nightfall, Kael's army marched. Torches lit the horizon as wolves in armor lined the fields outside Shadowfang territory. Their howls echoed, a chorus of rage that reached even the inner chambers of Darius's fortress.
Selene stood at a high window, her heart hammering. She could see him. Even from this distance, Kael's presence was undeniable, his tall frame striding before his warriors, his voice carrying commands with iron authority.
She remembered that voice. How once it had made her feel safe. How foolish she had been.
"Selene."
She turned to find Darius behind her. His hand brushed hers briefly, steadying her. His gaze followed hers to the field below. "He wants you back."
"I don't understand," she whispered. "He made it clear I was nothing to him. Why now?"
"Because another has what he threw away," Darius said, his tone sharp. "Kael's pride is wounded. He will not accept that I marked you. To him, this is a challenge."
Selene swallowed hard. Her chest ached, torn between old scars and new wounds.
The horns of war sounded.
---
The armies clashed in the valley that separated their lands. Steel rang, claws tore, and blood stained the earth. At the front, Kael fought with ferocity, his blade flashing under the moon. Every strike seemed fueled not only by battle-lust but by something darker—obsession.
When his eyes found Selene across the chaos, his movements grew even wilder. He cut down wolf after wolf, carving his way toward her.
Darius met him halfway. The two Alphas collided in a thunderous clash, their wolves surging beneath their skins. Snarls and strikes shook the ground, every blow fueled by power and hatred.
Selene's breath caught as she watched them. She could feel Darius through the bond, his focus razor-sharp, his determination burning. She could feel his pain, too, each wound echoing faintly in her own body.
Kael roared, his blade narrowly missing Darius's throat. "You dare mark what is mine?"
Darius shoved him back with a growl. "She was never yours. You cast her aside."
"She is mine!" Kael's voice cracked, raw with something more than rage. For the briefest moment, Selene saw it in his eyes—not just anger, but regret. The weight of a choice he now realized was wrong.
"Selene," Kael called, his voice breaking through the noise. "Come back to me. I was a fool. I should never have let you go."
The words sliced through her. She staggered, torn between the boy she had once dreamed of and the man who had saved her life when no one else had. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
Darius's gaze flicked to her, his jaw set. "Do you hear him?" he demanded of Kael. "He speaks of love now, when before he spat on her worth. She owes you nothing."
But Kael was relentless. "I regret it every day. I see your face every night, Selene. I cannot undo what I did, but I can beg. Come back. I will fight for you now."
Her heart twisted painfully. Part of her wanted to scream at him, to ask where this regret had been when she had fallen to her knees before him, begging. Another part whispered with cruel softness that he was her fated mate, the bond that nature itself had written.
Tears stung her eyes. She whispered into the night, "Why now, Kael? Why only now?"
The battle raged on, but her words carried across the field, sharp as any blade. Kael faltered, his chest heaving. "Because I was blind. And I will not let him take you."
Darius's snarl cut through the air, and the fight resumed with renewed savagery.
Selene could only stand frozen, caught between two worlds, two bonds, two truths that ripped her apart.
---
The night ended in blood and fire, but the war had only just begun. Kael had been forced back, his warriors retreating under the weight of Shadowfang's resistance. But his vow lingered, a warning that chilled Selene to the bone.
"This is not over," he had promised before the battlefield cleared. "I will have you, Selene. One way or another."
And as the moon sank low, Selene pressed her hand against the mark on her neck, her heart heavy.
For the first time, she realized the truth.
No matter how far she ran, no matter whom she chose, both Alphas would fight until one of them lay dead.
And she was the prize at the heart of it all.