The woods clawed at Ash as she ran.
Briars sliced open her bare arms, roots caught at her feet, but she didn't slow.Couldn't.The air behind her was thick with magic and fury — Selene's summons dragging like a net through the night.
Ash's lungs burned. Her heart thundered.The wolf inside her screamed to be free to make the covenant upon her become a reality.
Above the trees, the moon swelled, monstrous and red — the Blood Moon — an omen.
Ash stumbled into a clearing, chest heaving.
The moment her feet hit the open space, the ground shivered beneath her.
He was here.
Ash spun — too late.
Ronan emerged from the trees, his black cloak flaring behind him like wings, his eyes burning gold.
He moved like a predator — slow, sure, inevitable.
Ash backed away, hands trembling.
"Stay away," she gasped.
Ronan's lip curled in something almost like a smile — but there was nothing kind in it.
"I can't because my soul longs for you every night ever since I felt you closer in the palace".
The bond between them snapped taut — a golden thread pulling her toward him.
Ash fought it — gods, she fought it — but every instinct, every beat of her blood sang for him.
The Alpha.Her Alpha.
No. No. No.
"I'm an Omega," she whispered, voice breaking."You're not supposed to want me."
Ronan's nostrils flared. His voice, when he spoke, was ragged with hunger:
"You're mine."
Ash shook her head desperately.
But her body betrayed her — heat flooding her, need twisting low in her belly.
The moonlight thickened, wrapping around them like silk.
She could feel the change building under her skin — bones shifting, muscles tightening — the beast inside clawing for freedom.
Ronan stalked closer.
Ash stumbled back — and he moved faster than thought, pinning her against a tree, his hands braced on either side of her head.
The heat of him seared her.
His scent — wild, dark, devastating — filled her lungs.
Their breaths tangled.
Their bodies knew what their minds denied.
Ash's fingers curled into fists at her sides.
"You're going to ruin everything," she said hoarsely.
"I don't care," Ronan growled, voice shaking with restraint."Let it burn."
His mouth crashed down on hers.
Ash whimpered against him — part protest, part surrender — and then her hands were in his hair, dragging him closer, anchoring herself to the firestorm between them.
The kiss was violent. Desperate. Inevitable.
And then —
The shift took them both.
It wasn't clean. It wasn't beautiful.
It was wild.
It was devastating.
Their bodies shuddered — bones cracking, skin tearing, beasts erupting free.
Ash screamed — not in pain, but in some raw, primal ecstasy — as her form twisted, silver fur rippling down her spine.
Ronan roared — a sound that shook the trees — his Alpha wolf, black as midnight, bursting free in a shockwave of magic.
Ash crumpled to the earth, panting, her wolf form trembling.
Before she could move, Ronan's beast was there — pressing his massive body against hers, snarling low in his throat.
Not hurting.
Claiming.
Protecting.
Their wolves circled each other — a slow, feral dance — their instincts blazing through every muscle, every heartbeat.
Ash's smaller form bared her throat instinctively — a sign of submission.
But Ronan didn't bite.
Instead, he lowered his massive head and touched his forehead to hers.
A silent vow.
Ash's chest ached.
For the first time in her life, she wasn't invisible.
She was seen.Chosen.Desired.
But even as the bond blazed between them, the air shifted again — colder, sharper.
From the edge of the trees, Selene watched.
Her violet eyes burned with hatred.
Ash felt the sting of it like a blade between her ribs.
The new Luna Queen had seen everything.
And she would not forgive it.
Just like in her dreams.
The same clearing.The same blood-red moon overhead.The same devastating man stalking out of the trees, golden-eyed and hungry.
In the dreams, she had woken screaming.This time — there was no waking.
Only him.