AUREN
The trees didn't whisper. They watched.Branches clawed at her coat like fingers, cold wind slicing across her skin as if the territory itself resented her presence.
Auren didn't slow her pace.
Her boots crunched frozen earth as she followed the Beta through the woods and toward the war hall. No one said a word. No one had since she crossed into Moonridge land.
This wasn't a ceremony.
It was a transaction.
She'd been promised before she was old enough to understand what that meant. Her father had called it protection. Her uncle had called it payment.
She called it what it was.
A sentence.
Moonridge had once been powerful,feared. But the fire that gutted its lands took more than buildings. It took blood. Sanity. Her.
The Alpha's first mate.
They said he hadn't spoken since.
And now she was being handed to him like a lamb to a wolf with nothing left to lose.
"Don't look him in the eyes," the Beta said as they reached the steps of the blackened hall. "Don't speak unless he speaks first."
He turned to her, gaze flat. "And whatever happens, don't run. He'll follow."
Before she could answer, before she could think, he shoved the heavy doors open.
And Auren stepped inside.
The air was heavier here. Thick. Oppressive. She felt it settle on her skin like a second weight, pressing down until her lungs tightened. The scent of ash and old pine clung to the walls, but there was something else beneath it, something deeper.
Him.
She didn't see him at first.
The torches on the wall barely lit the center of the chamber, but when her eyes adjusted, she caught the shape of him.
He wasn't sitting. He stood near the throne like a statue.
Tall. Still. Waiting.
His back was turned.
Bare skin carved with muscle and marked with dark, jagged tattoos. One pulsed faintly near the center of his spine, an irregular crescent shape, glowing just slightly beneath the ink, like it was alive.
She didn't mean to take a step forward.
But something pulled her. Like a thread in her gut winding tight.
He stiffened.
A single breath escaped him, sharp and audible. He turned slowly.
And Auren stopped breathing.
He was… massive.
Broad chest. Sharp jaw. Long, black hair falling wild around his face. His skin looked sun-worn, his hands rough, his eyes—
Golden.
Unnatural. Glowing. Locked on hers.
He didn't move. Didn't blink. Just stared like he'd waited a lifetime for this exact moment to arrive… and hated that it finally had.
She forced herself to stand tall. "Ronan?"
No answer.
Not even a flinch.
The silence stretched.
It should've made her feel safer. It didn't.
She stepped forward, hands at her sides. "You don't have to do this."
Still nothing.
Another step.
"I didn't come here to be—"
He moved.
Fast. Brutal.
In a blink, he closed the distance between them. One hand wrapped around her throat, not tight, not choking, but firm. Claiming.
Her back hit the cold stone wall before she even processed it. Her hands went to his chest on instinct, but the heat radiating off him stunned her.
His eyes narrowed.
He leaned in and breathed her in, slow, deep, primal.
And then he growled.
The sound rumbled through her bones. It wasn't human. It wasn't angry either. It was hungry. Possessive.
His nose grazed her skin, dragging up her neck, over her jaw. His lips didn't touch. Just his breath. Hot. Harsh.
She should've screamed.
Instead, she whispered, "What are you doing?"
He didn't answer.
But something cracked.
Not out loud.
Inside her.
Mate.
The word wasn't spoken. It thundered through her mind, deep and foreign and terrifyingly familiar.
Her breath caught. His thumb traced her jaw like a memory.
And just like that, it clicked.
His wolf had recognized her.
Fated. Bound. Irreversible.
"No," she breathed, heart racing. "No, this, this can't be real. You don't even know me."
A low, dangerous growl rolled out of his chest. She shoved at him, panic flaring in her ribs. "You don't get to choose this for me!"
His hand dropped, but he didn't move away.
He just stared.
Eyes glowing, chest rising like he was trying to hold himself back.
Auren turned and tried to put space between them, just a step, anything, but the moment she moved, she felt it.
Burning.
A shock of heat bloomed over her collarbone. She yelped, reaching for it—
A mark.
Glowing. Twisted. The same one that burned on his back.
Her skin lit from within. Branded.
Her knees gave slightly.
He didn't catch her.
He just watched.
She spun on him, voice shaking. "What did you do to me?!"
Still nothing. Not a word.
Only the wild storm behind those golden eyes.
He stepped forward again, slow this time.
No threat.
But not mercy, either.
He raised his hand.
And for a moment, she thought he might finally touch her face, or her hand, something human.
Instead, he pressed two fingers against her mark. The heat pulsed once more beneath her skin. Pain and something worse.
Need.
His lips parted. Just barely.
Then he spoke.
Not out loud.
In her mind.
Mine.
She gasped.
And then he turned his back and walked away.
Like he hadn't just ruined her world with one touch.
Like he hadn't just claimed her soul without a single goddamn word.