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 campground was silent save for the occasional hoot of an owl in the distance. Alpha Maxen stood rigid outside the RV, every muscle in his body tense with anticipation. His nostrils flared, drinking in the unmistakable scent of his mate that wafted through the thin metal walls.


She was so close. Just on the other side of that door.


"She's afraid," Silas murmured, his magical senses picking up on emotions Maxen couldn't detect. The warlock looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes from the tracking spell that had led them here.


He didn't need magic to tell him that. The memory of Hazel's face when she'd glimpsed him through the RV window—that flash of terror before she'd disappeared from view—told him everything.


*Be gentle,* Lykos urged within him. *We cannot win her back through force.*


Chapter 47 - The King at the Door