Lenaleia

For six years, I was Hazel, girlfriend to the future Alpha, Julian. I thought we had forever, a cherished place in our werewolf pack, even as a human. Then Mate Hunt night ripped it all away. I woke up lost in the forest, only to find Julian with her – his true fated mate. His words hit harder than the forest floor: I was just a 'placeholder.' Six years together, and he tossed me aside, his fingers bruising my throat as he growled that I meant nothing. My world, my heart – shattered.

Left for dead, freezing and injured, a different kind of predator found me. A colossal black wolf, eyes glowing gold, big enough to swallow me whole. But instead of tearing me apart, he curled around me, a warm, terrifying shield against the biting cold. For a moment, I felt safe.

That safety vanished when my pack, my family, found us. The Alpha who raised me, Maxen, didn't see a survivor. He saw a disappointment. Turns out, he’d only taken me in hoping I’d magically become a werewolf like my mother – the fated mate who’d rejected him. When I couldn't shift, he cast me out, branding me an omega, the pack’s punching bag.

Now, I'm less than nothing, surviving on scraps and enduring their cruelty. What they don't know, what I don't know, is that my monstrous protector is no ordinary rogue. He's Lykos, the wolf of Kael, the Lycan King. And Lykos has decided I am his fated mate – a human. Kael is furious, but his wolf has a will of its own, dragging the King himself towards my abusive pack.

My old life is over. My only ally is a creature of legend. And the most feared Lycan in existence is on his way. Is he coming to save me, or is the King's arrival just another nightmare waiting to begin?

A King’s Curse, A Wolf’s Claim

The scent of her was fading from the room. With each passing hour, another molecule of Hazel's essence disappeared, replaced by the sterile emptiness that threatened to drive me insane.


I paced the length of her bedroom, my fingers twitching with the need to touch something—anything—that belonged to her. The pillow I'd been clutching had lost most of her scent already.


*You're unraveling,* Lykos observed, his voice unusually quiet in my mind.


"I am perfectly in control," I muttered aloud, though the crack in my voice betrayed me.


*Keep telling yourself that,* my wolf replied. *Maybe you'll eventually believe it.*


A soft knock at the door interrupted our internal argument. Without waiting for permission, Jax pushed the door open, his expression grim.


"The warlock is ready," he announced, stepping aside to reveal Silas, who hovered nervously in the hallway.


Chapter 41 - The Butterfly Compass