Chapter 1 – The Alpha Who Marked Me

The first thing I felt was heat.

Not the soft kind that coaxed you from sleep—but a burning warmth that crawled across my skin like wildfire. It started at the base of my neck and pulsed into my shoulders, dull and aching, like something deep inside me had been torn open and stitched together again—wrongly.

My body felt heavy. Foreign.

I tried to move, but my limbs didn’t obey. They ached. My fingers twitched against something soft—sheets. Luxurious ones. Smooth, almost silk-like. Beneath me, the mattress cradled my frame as though I was royalty.

But I wasn't royalty.

And this wasn't my bed.

Panic slithered through me, cold and fast, even as my body burned.

I tried to open my eyes. Light stabbed through the darkness, forcing them shut again. The air around me felt thick, laced with something sharp—earthy, masculine, wild. The scent settled over me like a cloak, unrelenting.

Smoke.

Cedarwood.

Leather.

And something else.

Something... male.

That scent—it coiled around my senses, grounding me, claiming me. I didn’t know how or why, but it felt like it was meant to be there.

No.

Wrong.

It wasn’t supposed to be there. None of this was supposed to be happening.

My throat tightened. I forced my eyes open again, slower this time, letting the blurry world sharpen bit by bit.

The ceiling above me was made of heavy, wooden beams—dark, polished, sturdy. They hung low, casting long shadows from the soft firelight flickering in the far corner of the room. There was a hearth, and it was alive with embers, throwing warmth into the otherwise dim space.

It wasn’t familiar.

Nothing was.

My heart pounded harder now, like it wanted to tear its way out of my chest. I sat up, ignoring the protests of my sore body. Every muscle screamed, but I couldn’t stay still. Not when everything in me shouted that something was wrong.

That’s when I saw it.

The mark.

Just above my collarbone. Raw. Red. Twin crescents pressed into my flesh—wounds still healing, still oozing the dull throb of something unnatural.

Something sacred.

Something irreversible.

My breath caught in my throat. My hand trembled as it hovered over the mark, not daring to touch it. Not yet.

I knew what it was.

Even if I didn’t know who I was.

A mate mark.

Someone had claimed me.

My stomach twisted violently. A cold sweat broke out along my spine as nausea rolled through me.

Who?

Why?

How could someone mark me when I didn’t even remember my own name?

A shiver ran down my back, despite the fire’s warmth. I clutched the blanket to my chest like it could shield me from what was already inside my body—woven into my skin and soul.

The door creaked.

I froze, the sound slicing through the silence like a blade.

Then he entered.

Tall.

Broad-shouldered.

Dressed in black from neck to boots, like he had no need for color—only shadows.

And yet, his eyes caught the firelight like gold catching the sun. Golden. Piercing. Not just watching—but seeing.

I couldn't breathe.

His presence filled the room, not with words or movement—but with weight. He didn’t need to growl or bare his teeth. His power was woven into the air itself. It pressed on my lungs, on my bones. My wolf—wherever she hid inside me—stirred.

Not in fear.

In recognition.

But I didn’t know him.

“You’re awake,” he said, voice low and rough like gravel dragged across stone.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came. My lips were dry. My tongue felt foreign.

“Where…” I swallowed hard, forcing the words out. “Where am I?”

He didn’t blink. “Shadowfang territory.”

The name meant nothing to me. Just another word. Another wall of fog I couldn’t see past.

“I don’t—” My hand flew to my neck, to the mark. My voice trembled. “Who… who did this?”

“I did.” The words left his mouth without hesitation. Calm. Blunt. Cold.

My chest tightened.

“You... marked me?”

“Yes.”

One word. One syllable. But it felt like it shattered whatever fragile foundation I had.

“Why?”

A pause stretched between us. He tilted his head slightly, gaze unreadable. But something flickered behind his golden eyes.

“You were dying.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You were shifting too fast,” he said. “Half-wolf, half-human. You were caught between both forms, and your body was rejecting the change. You were bleeding out. Bones breaking. Cells ripping apart. You’d have been dead in minutes.”

My stomach lurched.

“You… saved me?”

“I claimed you,” he corrected, voice hard. “There’s a difference.”

I flinched.

A fresh wave of heat pulsed from the mark, like it was reacting to his voice—to him. I hated how my body responded. Hated how the scent of him dug into my senses, making it harder to think.

Something primal inside me recognized him.

But my mind—my memories—were a blank slate.

A hole.

“I don’t know who I am,” I whispered, barely able to admit it.

His eyes didn’t change. But something in his jaw tensed. “No. You don’t.”

“You know?”

He didn’t nod, but he stepped closer.

“We found something with you. A pendant. Silver. Carved with moonstone. The crest was clear—it belonged to Moonveil.”

Moonveil.

The word hit me like a blow to the chest. Not pain—but pressure. Searing, ancient pressure. My hands trembled.

“I don’t remember that.”

“You will,” he said, too certain.

“I wish you’d let me die,” I whispered, not out of melodrama—but because it was easier than this. Easier than waking up in a stranger’s bed, claimed by someone whose name I didn’t know.

His eyes flickered.

“I tried.”

His voice was like ice. But I heard it—the falter. The slip.

He didn’t mean it.

Or if he did… he regretted it.

“You’re Alpha,” I said suddenly, the realization hitting me like instinct more than logic. “I can feel it. You… the room bends around you.”

He said nothing.

He didn’t have to.

It was the truth.

I could feel his power, humming under my skin like a current. His presence was a storm—silent but full of thunder.

He stepped closer again, and I shrank back just slightly, more out of caution than fear. He wasn’t going to hurt me.

I knew that somehow.

His eyes dropped to the mark on my collarbone.

“You begged me,” he said, voice quieter now, a hint of something human bleeding into the Alpha coldness. “You said you didn’t want to die. You said you’d rather be mine than be nothing.”

My throat tightened.

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“I do.”

He was watching me again. Not like a hunter watches prey—but like something precious. Something dangerous.

Something he didn’t ask for—but couldn’t let go.

My wolf stirred again, this time stronger. She didn’t want to run. She wanted to crawl toward him.

I hated her for it.

“I didn’t choose this,” I said, voice sharp.

“Neither did I.”

That stopped me.

The air between us crackled—charged, electric. Something unspoken passed between us, a mix of pain, fate, and fury.

“You think I wanted this?” he asked, almost to himself now. “You think I wanted to mark a Moonveil? To bring one of them into my pack, under my roof? I should’ve killed you.”

“Then why didn’t you?” I snapped.

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he turned toward the door, his black-clad figure already retreating.

“You’ll stay here,” he said flatly. “Until we know who you are, and why you crossed our lands. No one enters. No one touches you.”

He paused.

“Except me.”

The words were soft.

But the weight behind them—undeniable.

I shivered.

“That sounds like a prison,” I whispered.

“It is.”

He reached the door. His hand lingered on the handle. But he didn’t look back.

“You’re under Alpha law now,” he said, voice low, final. “And mine.”

The door clicked shut.

And I was alone again.

With nothing but the firelight, the scent of him still clinging to the air, and the mark seared into my flesh like a silent vow.

I curled in on myself slowly, blanket clutched to my chest, heart still racing like it had somewhere to run.

But there was nowhere left to go.

No name.

No memory.

Only a mark.

Only him.

Rael.

Shadowfang.

The Alpha who claimed me.

The one my blood called an enemy.

But fate… fate had already chosen him.

And now, I belonged to the Alpha who marked me.