The night bled silver and crimson.
Selene Nightshade crouched among the burning ruins of her coven, the scent of ash and blood heavy in the air. Witches screamed, wolves howled, and fire devoured everything she had ever known. She should have fled, but her eyes were locked on the sky.
The moon hung low, swollen and red, as though it too had been wounded. Its light poured over the battlefield, cold yet merciless, illuminating death with cruel beauty.
The elders had warned of this night.
"When the cursed moon rises, witch and wolf shall meet. Bound not by choice, but by blood. Salvation or ruin, their union will shape the world."
And there, through the smoke, she saw him.
Lucian Blackthorn. The cursed Alpha. His silver eyes glowed with animal rage, his claws dripping with blood. He was everything the stories promised: ruthless, unstoppable, a monster wearing a man's skin. Yet when his gaze locked onto hers, something shifted.
The howls stilled.
The beast inside him faltered.
The moon's light bent toward them both.
Selene's heart thrashed in her chest.
He should have killed her, one more witch to slaughter, one more ember to snuff out. Instead, in that fleeting heartbeat, he spared her. And in that mercy lay a danger greater than death itself.
Because if the prophecy was true, then she was tied to him, her enemy, her curse, her undoing.
She should hate him. She should vow to end him.
But under the red moon, with his gaze searing into hers, Selene felt the unthinkable… a pull. A whisper in her blood.
The beginning of a bond forbidden by both their worlds.
The ashes of her coven fell like snow as she turned and fled into the night, the prophecy echoing in her ears. Ahead lay a path of shadows, one that would force her to choose: destroy the Alpha who ruined her people… or surrender to the Moonlit Transformation that could claim them both.
The witch.
The wolf.
The curse.
And a love written in moonlight.