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 stench of suburban life hit me like a physical blow. Manicured lawns. Identical houses. Asphalt roads cutting through what was once wild territory. This was Fiddleback Pack land?


"This is wrong," I growled, my wolf Lykos bristling beneath my skin.


Deputy Marshal Rhys cleared his throat beside me. "High Alpha, the Fiddleback Pack has fully integrated with human society. They find it... beneficial."


I surveyed the sterile landscape with growing disgust. No scent markers. No hunting grounds. No wildness. Just a sanitized human suburb with perfect fences and regulation-height grass.


"Beneficial," I repeated, the word tasting foul on my tongue. "At what cost?"


Jax stepped up beside me, his expression equally troubled. "There's wealth here," he observed quietly. "More than a small pack should have."


I nodded in grim agreement. The houses were expensive. The cars parked in driveways were luxury models. Everything about this place reeked of unnatural prosperity.


Chapter 66 - The Sterile Den