The Lycan King's gaze burned into her, and Luna felt it in her bones. Her wolf howled beneath her skin, claws digging at her mind, teeth gnashing, fire surging through every vein.
"Enough hiding," he said, stepping closer, each movement deliberate, dominant. The air itself seemed to bend toward him. "You cannot run from what you are… or from me."
Luna's chest heaved. Her instincts screamed both terror and something darker—need. The wolf surged forward, untamed and hungry. Her legs shook as power erupted, raw and untethered.
A sudden pulse of energy radiated from her, shadows twisting and coiling, almost alive. The Alpha's sons shrank back, fear eating their bravado. But Luna barely noticed. All she could feel was him—every step, every word, every breath pulling at her very essence.
The Lycan King reached out, fingers brushing a strand of her hair, his touch searing. "You belong to me," he murmured, voice low and molten, and the wolf inside her recognized it instantly: a claim, not cruel—but absolute.
Luna stumbled, caught between fear and attraction, body and mind trembling. Her wolf circled, growling, approving, uniting with the King's power in a way she couldn't yet name.
Something in the world shifted. The sun dipped behind dark clouds, shadows deepened, and the air shimmered with raw, unspoken desire.
She was no longer just a girl in the yard. She was a wolf… and she was marked.
And the Lycan King was watching, patient, knowing, inevitable.