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

I pace the length of the gas station parking lot, each step echoing my frantic heartbeat. The asphalt beneath my feet does little to ground me as my mind replays the image of Hazel's pale face, the machines beeping, her life hanging by a thread.


Because of me. Because of what I did to her.


My fists clench at my sides. The hospital security had escorted me out—four men with trembling hands and false bravado. They'd called the police. As if human law enforcement could contain me. I'd left only because staying would have meant bodies on the floor, and that wouldn't help Hazel.


"She's alive," I remind myself, the words a desperate mantra. "She's breathing."


Lykos, my wolf, speaks with unusual clarity in my mind. For once, he isn't urging violence but restraint.


"I didn't know that would happen," I growl out loud, earning a concerned glance from a man pumping gas nearby. I bare my teeth, and he scurries into his car.


Chapter 63 - The King's Caged Fury