The forest at night belonged to him.
Kaelen moved through the trees with a predator's ease, every step silent despite the thick carpet of wet needles and slick earth. The storm had passed hours ago, but its breath lingered in the branches, dripping water in steady ticks that echoed like heartbeats in the silence. His wolf prowled beneath his skin, restless, prowling, hungry. It had been pacing for weeks now, unsettled without reason, and tonight its agitation sharpened to a knife's edge.
He told himself it was nothing. Instinct often sharpened when rogues pressed against the edges of Blackridge territory. They'd driven a small band south last month, but the pack's borders were never safe for long. Wolves without an Alpha, or worse, those who turned feral, were always sniffing for weakness. Kaelen gave them none. His rule was iron, his control absolute, and the pack thrived under his command. That was the way it had to be.
The way it had always been.
And yet, tonight, the unease in his chest didn't feel like the threat of rogues. It felt older. Deeper.
His ears caught the faint crunch of gravel long before the smell of rubber and gasoline drifted into the trees. A car on the mountain road. Unusual at this hour—locals knew better than to drive the switchbacks after midnight. It had to be an outsider, some foolish human testing fate on the most dangerous stretch of asphalt in the county.
Kaelen's lip curled. Humans didn't belong in his mountains after dark. The forest didn't belong to them.
The engine hummed faintly, lights slicing through the fog, but then—
A shriek of tires. A metallic scream. The sound of something heavy colliding, rending, breaking.
Kaelen froze, his wolf surging up so fast it burned through his veins. Not curiosity. Not alarm. Instinct. A pull so visceral he staggered, pressing a hand against the nearest tree to steady himself.
And then the scent hit him.
Blood.
But not just any blood.
Human, yes—but laced with something impossible. Something that sang through him like wildfire, burning away every layer of control he had ever built. His lungs seized. His heart hammered once, twice, before steadying into a punishing rhythm that shook him to his core. The bond.
No.
He spun away from the road, desperate to outrun it, to force it back into silence, but the tether had already snapped taut between his soul and the source of that scent. Denial meant nothing. Fate had already spoken.
His mate.
The word slammed into him like a blow, and Kaelen nearly snarled aloud. For years he had evaded this possibility, convincing himself that the Goddess would never saddle him with such a weakness. Alphas couldn't afford bonds. Bonds made them soft, vulnerable, distracted. He had clawed his way to leadership by refusing every weakness, every indulgence. Now, after everything, fate dared to put this chain around his neck.
Rage boiled in him, so sharp it blurred his vision. His wolf howled inside his mind, not in anger but in exultation, the sound raw and hungry. Ours. Finally, ours.
"Damn you," Kaelen hissed into the dark. He didn't know whether the words were for the wolf, the Goddess, or himself.
But his body was already moving, instincts dragging him toward the crash site with feral urgency. Branches whipped against his arms as he vaulted fallen logs, clearing ground faster than a human eye could follow. The pull only grew stronger with each step, tightening in his chest until it hurt to breathe.
When he broke through the last line of trees, the scent nearly overwhelmed him.
Gasoline. Oil. Burning rubber. Blood.
And beneath it all, the thread of her.
The wreck sat skewed against the guardrail, metal twisted and smoking. Shattered glass littered the asphalt like ice. The car's hood was crumpled in on itself, steam hissing into the air. The acrid tang burned Kaelen's nostrils, but the other scent cut through it, rich and undeniable. He could taste it on his tongue, feel it in his marrow.
She was inside.
His vision sharpened, his wolf rising so close to the surface his hands trembled with claws threatening to break skin. He forced the change back with brutal will, though every part of him wanted to rip the door off its hinges with teeth and drag her into the night.
Step by step, he approached.
The windshield was fractured, a spiderweb of cracks. Through it, he glimpsed her.
A woman.
She was slumped against the seatbelt, hair spilled forward across her face, skin pale in the dim glow of the dashboard. Blood traced a thin line from her temple, dripping down her cheek. Her chest rose and fell shallowly. Alive.
The wolf inside him surged against his ribs with such violence Kaelen had to brace himself. His jaw clenched until his teeth ached. Every instinct screamed to take her, shield her, claim her. The bond burned so fiercely it was nearly blinding.
But he didn't move. Not yet.
Kaelen stared at her, fury and awe warring within him. This fragile, bleeding human. This was what fate thought fit for him? An Alpha who had broken every challenger, who had clawed order from chaos, now shackled to a creature that wouldn't last a day among wolves? He wanted to laugh, but the sound caught in his throat and turned to a snarl.
Still, he couldn't leave her.
Cursing under his breath, he strode to the driver's side. The door was crushed inward, the frame bent. He wrapped his hands around the edge, metal biting into his palms, and tore. With a screech, it gave way. Smoke billowed out, carrying the thick perfume of her blood. His wolf nearly drove him to his knees with the force of its hunger, but Kaelen held. Barely.
She stirred faintly at the noise, a soft groan escaping her lips. The sound pierced him, sharp as a blade.
"Stay still," he muttered, though she couldn't hear him. His voice came out low, rough, dangerous. He bent and slid one arm beneath her legs, the other behind her back. She was lighter than he expected, fragile bones wrapped in soft flesh, and when her head lolled against his shoulder, the bond blazed so hot he thought it might sear him from the inside out.
The wolf exulted. Ours.
Kaelen's teeth ground together.
He carried her from the wreck with effortless strength, crossing to the shadowed edge of the road. The fog pressed thick around them, but the moon broke through above, painting her features in silver light. She looked otherworldly, as though she belonged to the night itself, and something deep inside him whispered that she did.
That only made him angrier.
He crouched against a fallen log and lowered her carefully onto the moss, his hands reluctant to let go even as his mind screamed at him to release her. Her breathing hitched, shallow but steady. Her pulse fluttered at her throat, quick and delicate. He could hear it as clearly as if it were his own.
"Damn you," he whispered again, softer this time, the words shaking. "Damn this bond. Damn you for being mine."
Her eyelids fluttered. For a heartbeat, silver eyes stared back at him through the haze of blood loss. Not her own—he realized with a jolt it was a reflection of his. She was too dazed to know what she'd seen, and a moment later her lashes sank shut again.
Kaelen sucked in a ragged breath, dragging a hand through his hair. The wolf was silent now, satisfied simply to be near her, humming in the depths of his soul like a predator at rest. But Kaelen's thoughts spun.
He couldn't keep her.
The pack would never accept it. An Alpha tied to a human was weakness made flesh. The Blood Pact itself might intervene, branding him unfit to lead. And worse, if his enemies discovered her existence, she would become a weapon against him. They would hunt her, torture her, use her until he broke. The bond made her the sharpest blade at his throat.
No. He wouldn't allow it.
He would save her, yes. She was his responsibility now, no matter how he raged against it. But he would not give in. He would not chain himself to a fate that threatened everything he had built.
His hands closed around her once more, gentler than he intended. He rose with her in his arms, the weight of her body far lighter than the burden settling in his chest. The forest closed around them as he carried her into the dark, his wolf humming with triumph, his mind locked in battle.
She was his mate. Fate had spoken.
But Kaelen Blackridge would not bow.
Not to fate. Not to the Goddess. Not even to the bond that burned like fire in his veins.
And as he vanished into the trees, the vow took root in him like steel:
He would keep her alive.
He would keep her safe.
But he would never—never—let her destroy him.