KAEL'S POV
Death tasted like copper and regret.
I'd been dying for three years—slowly, painfully, alone. The Fading crawled through my veins like liquid darkness, rotting me from the inside. Black marks spread across my skin, marking me as cursed. Untouchable.
My own pack exiled me when my mother and sister died from the same curse. They said I brought bad luck. That the Gods hated me.
Maybe they were right.
I collapsed against the tree, my leopard form too weak to hold. The shift back to human was agony. Blood poured from wounds that wouldn't heal. The black veins pulsed under my skin, spreading toward my heart.
This was it. Finally.
I'd die alone in the forest like the cursed thing I was.
Then I smelled her.
Wrong. Everything about her scent was wrong. Not wolf, not fox, not any beast I knew. She smelled like... nothing from this world. Like metal and strange flowers and something I had no words for.
Footsteps crunched through the moss. Light, hesitant.
A female.
My eyes cracked open. Through blurred vision, I saw her—small, dark-skinned, with wild black curls escaping a strange style. She wore a dress I'd never seen before, made of material that shimmered oddly.
But her eyes. Gods, her eyes. Warm brown, wide with fear and something else. Determination.
She dropped to her knees beside me.
"Please," I tried to say. My voice came out broken. "Help me."
I shouldn't have asked. Females fled from cursed males. Everyone did.
But she didn't run.
Her hands pressed against my chest. Soft, warm hands that shook but didn't pull away. She said something in a language I didn't understand—but her tone was clear. Soothing. Like she was trying to calm a wounded animal.
Maybe I was just a wounded animal.
Then her palms began to glow.
Golden light poured from her hands into my body. I gasped. It was like being struck by lightning, but instead of pain, there was... warmth. Healing. The black veins in my chest writhed, fighting against the light.
The light won.
I felt the Fading retreat. Actually retreat. For the first time in three years, the constant agony lessened. My wounds closed. The poison in my blood burned away.
She was healing me. Actually healing the unhealable curse.
Impossible.
I stared at her face—concentration etched in every feature, sweat beading on her forehead. She didn't even know what she was doing. I could see it in her confused expression. But she kept going anyway.
The light faded.
She yanked her hands back, breathing hard. I saw the mark on her palm—golden, glowing, shaped like an ancient symbol I knew from childhood stories.
The Lifebringer's mark.
My heart stopped for an entirely different reason.
Lifebringers were legends. Myths. Healers blessed by the Old Gods who could cure any sickness, any curse. They appeared once every few centuries when the world needed saving.
And one had just healed me.
But there was more. Something deeper.
The moment her light touched me, I felt it—the mate bond snapping into place like a chain around my soul. Golden threads connected her heart to mine. I could feel her emotions: confusion, fear, wonder.
She was mine. My mate. Given to me by the Gods themselves.
After everything I'd lost, they sent me her.
I tried to speak, to tell her, but my body had nothing left. Three years of fighting death caught up all at once. My vision darkened.
The last thing I saw was her brown eyes, wide with panic, as I collapsed.
I woke to chaos.
Snarling. Growling. The scent of blood and aggression.
My eyes snapped open. I was lying on moss, my head in someone's lap. Soft hands cradled my face.
Her. The Lifebringer. She was looking at something else, her body tense.
I forced myself to focus. Three of the Wolf Pack's patrol wolves circled us, heads low, protective. Good. They recognized what she was.
But beyond them, I heard voices. Male. Aggressive.
"The cursed one came this way."
My blood went cold. Ryder's hunters. The Wolf King had ordered my death months ago, claiming I'd spread the curse if I stayed in his territory. I'd been running ever since.
They'd finally found me.
"If he's still alive, we finish it."
I tried to sit up. My body screamed in protest but obeyed. The Lifebringer—my mate—jumped when I moved.
"You're awake!" she whispered.
I looked at her. Really looked. She was terrified but hadn't run. Hadn't left me to die. She'd stayed.
No one ever stayed.
"You shouldn't be here," I rasped. "Dangerous."
"Yeah, I'm getting that impression," she said. Her voice was sharp with fear but steady. Strong.
The hunters burst into the clearing.
Five of them. Wolf-shifters, halfway between human and beast. Claws out, eyes glowing.
Their leader spotted us and grinned. "There you are, cursed one. Time to—"
He stopped. His gaze locked onto my mate's palm.
The golden mark blazed bright in the darkness.
"Impossible," he breathed. "That mark. It can't be—"
"Kill her!" another hunter shouted. "Kill her NOW before she—"
The patrol wolves attacked.
Everything exploded. Wolves and hunters collided in a blur of teeth and claws. Blood sprayed across the moss.
My mate scrambled backward, dragging me with her. She was stronger than she looked.
"Can you fight?" she asked urgently.
I wanted to. Gods, I wanted to protect her. But my body was still weak, still recovering. I could barely stand.
"Not yet," I admitted. Shame burned through me. What kind of mate couldn't protect his female?
She looked at her glowing palm. "Then I guess it's up to me."
"No—don't—"
But she was already standing, placing herself between me and the fight. Between me and danger.
One of the hunters broke through the wolf line, charging straight for her.
"Female's mine!" he snarled.
She held up her palm.
The golden light exploded outward.
But this wasn't the gentle healing light from before. This was something else. Something violent. The light slammed into the hunter like a physical force, throwing him backward into a tree. He hit with a sickening crack and didn't get up.
My mate stared at her hand in shock.
The other hunters froze.
"What is she?" one whispered.
The leader's face twisted with fear and rage. "She's a threat! Kill them both!"
All four remaining hunters lunged at once.
The patrol wolves tried to intercept, but they were outnumbered. One wolf went down with a scream. Another fell seconds later.
My mate's mark flared brighter. I felt power building—massive, uncontrolled power that made the air crackle.
"I don't know how to control this!" she shouted.
The hunters were ten feet away. Five feet.
Her power reached critical mass.
I forced myself to my feet, every muscle protesting. I wouldn't let her face this alone.
"Together," I growled. I pressed my hand against her back, letting my own energy flow into her. Not much, but maybe enough to help her control the explosion building inside her.
She gasped. Our powers connected.
The golden light erupted.
It swept across the clearing like a tidal wave. The hunters screamed as it hit them, burning away their beast forms, forcing them back into weak human shapes. They collapsed, unconscious or worse.
Silence fell.
The light faded.
My mate swayed. I caught her before she could fall.
"What did we just do?" she whispered.
"Saved ourselves," I said.
But I knew the truth was more complicated. That power—combined like that—should have killed us both. Instead, it worked perfectly. Because we were mates. Our souls recognized each other.
She looked up at me. "Who are you?"
"Kael," I said. "And you're—"
"KAEL SNOWPAW!"
A new voice. Deep, commanding, furious.
We both turned.
Standing at the edge of the clearing was the last person I wanted to see.
Ryder Ironclaw. The Wolf King himself.
And he was staring at my mate like she was either salvation or the end of everything.