The forest had always been Aria Winters' refuge.
When the world became too loud, when the ache of loneliness gnawed at her heart, she came here—to the quiet paths under the towering pines, where the moonlight spilled in silver pools across the ground. Tonight should have been no different. And yet, everything felt wrong.
The wind carried no comfort. It whispered secrets instead, brushing icy fingers against her skin. The night seemed thicker, heavier, as if the shadows themselves were watching her.
Aria clutched the strap of her worn satchel and tried to steady her breathing. It's fine, she told herself. You've walked this trail a hundred times. There's nothing here but trees.
But deep down, she knew that was a lie.
Her steps faltered when the silence broke. A growl—low, deep, and primal—rolled through the trees, vibrating in her bones.
Her pulse spiked. That was no dog. No ordinary creature could make the air tremble like that.
And then she saw it.
A wolf stepped out of the shadows.
Not just any wolf. He was enormous, towering above her, his shoulders broad and powerful beneath fur as dark as midnight. His golden eyes blazed in the pale moonlight, fierce and intelligent, pinning her where she stood.
Aria's breath stilled in her chest. She should have been terrified—and she was—but there was something else too. A strange pull in the pit of her stomach, a heat that spread through her veins as her gaze locked with his.
For a heartbeat, the world ceased to exist.
Her lips parted, the word escaping before she could stop it.
"Mate."
The wolf froze.
The forest went utterly silent, as though the earth itself understood the weight of her whisper. His eyes narrowed, flickering with something unreadable—shock, anger, hunger, or perhaps all three.
And then it happened.
Before her very eyes, the beast began to change. Bones shifted with sickening cracks, fur receded, muscles twisted. In the span of seconds, the terrifying wolf was gone.
In his place stood a man.
Tall, broad-shouldered, every line of him carved from power. His hair was black as the shadows around them, his skin bronzed and taut over corded muscle. But it was his eyes—those same golden eyes—that held her captive. Eyes that belonged to a predator, to a ruler, to a man who was more than a man.
Aria stumbled back, her breath catching.
"You—" Her voice broke. "What are you?"
The man's expression was hard, carved in stone, though something flickered in his gaze—recognition, unwilling and fierce. His voice, when it came, was deep and commanding, a growl barely restrained.
"You don't belong here."
The weight of his words pressed against her chest, but Aria couldn't move. Her heart thundered, every instinct screaming at her to run, yet something stronger kept her rooted. That invisible thread pulled tighter, binding her to him in ways she didn't understand.
For a single, fragile moment, she swore the world tilted, that destiny itself had shifted beneath her feet.
She didn't need anyone to tell her who he was. She already knew.
The Alpha.
And fate had just made him hers.
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