The night I first saw him, the moon was bleeding.
People say the blood moon is just a myth, a trick of light… Liars.
They've never felt their bones tremble beneath a sky that feels alive and hungry.
I have.
Five years ago, in the woods behind my boarding school, I felt claws rake across my shoulder, hot breath at my neck, and death closing in like a pair of jaws.
The monster that attacked me wanted to tear me apart.
But a bigger monster stopped him.
Silver eyes.
A massive wolf, bigger than any creature should be.
A growl that shook the world around me like thunder waking the dead.
A beast that marked me… then vanished.
I never saw him again.
Until today.
The glass doors of Blackthorn Tower hiss open, swallowing me into an air-conditioned world of marble floors, tall golden pillars, and the kind of silent power that makes your chest tighten. Each step echoes like a warning.
Like the building knows I don't belong here.
I clutch the envelope in my hand — my father's last remaining legal document — the only thing he left behind that wasn't swallowed by debt.
You can do this, Arielle.
I have to.
My father died defeated, drowning under loans and lawsuits. The empire he built from nothing became ashes, and Blackthorn Corporation swept in and bought everything — our lab, our home, even his patents.
And I want answers.
The receptionist doesn't even look up when she says, "Name?"
"Arielle Dane."
Her fingers freeze mid-type. She looks up sharply, eyes widening before she masks it with a stiff blink.
Why does everyone react like that?
"Mr. Blackthorn will see you," she says quickly. "Top floor. He's been expecting you."
Expecting me?
A cold prickle crawls up my neck.
I step into the elevator, and the doors slide shut with a soft thud that sounds too final — like a coffin lid.
As the elevator ascends, my pulse syncs with the soft hum of machinery. My skin tingles — the way it does when danger is near. Or when the strange warmth beneath my shoulder blade begins to stir.
The mark.
For years it slept quietly.
Why is it waking now?
The doors open to silence.
Not office silence — predatory silence.
No assistants. No ringing phones. Just a long hallway leading to a massive office framed by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
He stands with his back to me.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Perfect posture.
Dressed in a fitted black suit that hugs his powerful frame like it was tailored onto him.
"Mr. Blackthorn?" My voice cracks.
He turns.
My lungs stop working.
His face is dangerously beautiful — sharp jawline, dark hair, lips sculpted like temptation. But it's his eyes that paralyze me.
Silver.
Silver glowing faintly like moonlight trapped in ice.
Those eyes.
My legs go numb.
He steps toward me with slow, predatory calm — each movement precise, powerful, deliberate. Like a creature who has ruled his world for far too long.
"Arielle Dane," he says, and his voice is rich, deep, unforgettable. "Finally."
Finally?
"Do I… know you?" I whisper.
His eyes drop to my left shoulder — the spot where the mark hides beneath my blouse.
"It's been a long time," he murmurs. "Longer than you realize."
My heartbeat stumbles.
"What do you want from me?"
He stops inches away, close enough that I can feel heat radiating off him — unnatural, overwhelming, pulling me in.
Slowly, he lifts his hand.
I flinch — but he doesn't touch me.
His fingers hover just above my shoulder, trembling ever so slightly.
Like he's fighting himself.
Like touching me might break him.
Or unleash something he's barely holding back.
His voice lowers, velvet and dangerous.
"I saved your life once. And now the curse that binds us is waking again."
His eyes glow brighter. "I cannot survive without you."
My breath catches.
"And you," he whispers, "were born to be mine."
The floor tilts beneath me, reality bending.
"What are you?" I choke out.
Something flickers across his face — amusement, pain, hunger, all at once.
He smiles, slow and devastating.
"Not what, Arielle."
His silver eyes burn through every layer of my soul.
"Who."
He leans in, lips brushing my ear.
"I am the Alpha who marked you."
My vision blurs. I stumble back, clutching my shoulder as the mark burns — not heat, but fire, searing through me like fate awakening after a long sleep.
"No," I whisper. "That night… it wasn't real. It was a nightmare. A hallucination."
Lucian's expression darkens.
"You think I'm a dream?" he says softly. "Little one… the things I've done are no dreams."
"Stay away from me," I breathe.
But he steps closer, voice velvet and steel.
"I can't."
His wolf flickers in his eyes — alive, hungry, wild.
"We are bound," he says. "By blood. By destiny. By a curse older than your family name."
A chill runs through me.
Then his tone changes — sharper, dangerous.
"And now that I've found you again… I'm not letting you disappear."
Suddenly, the office doors slam open.
Two men in black suits rush in — breathless, tense, alarmed.
"Alpha—"
"Sir, the rogues—"
"They found her—"
Lucian's growl rips through the room, deep and thunderous — so powerful the windows tremble in their frames.
He steps in front of me. Shielding me with his body.
Like I am something precious.
Or something claimed.
His voice drops to a deadly calm, so controlled it's terrifying.
"No one touches my mate."
The word hits me like a blow.
Mate.
The world tilts, my knees weaken. My heart hammers so hard I swear he can hear it.
Lucian turns to me slowly, eyes burning with something ancient.
"You're not safe out there, Arielle," he says. "Not anymore."
He reaches for me — not gently, not softly — but like a man claiming what fate already decreed.
"From this moment on," he vows, "you stay where I can protect you."
My throat tightens.
Because the mark — the one I tried to pretend didn't exist, didn't matter —
begins to pulse in answer to him.
A deep, primal, terrifying connection.
Lucian's breath brushes my cheek as he leans closer, voice soft and devastating.
"You feel it," he whispers. "Don't lie."
The mark throbs again.
And for the first time since that night beneath the blood moon…
…the beast inside me answers him.