They say you never forget the moment you're claimed by an alpha
I just didn't expect mine to happen in front of his ex, his rival, and half a royal damn army.
I couldn't sleep. Not after what Seraphine said. Not after seeing my own reflection betray me those silver eyes, glowing like ancient fire.
I wasn't just Raven anymore.
I was something other. Something that made people bow and others want me dead.
So I did what any normal, half-awakened she-wolf with trauma and zero coping mechanisms would do.
I ran.
Not far. Just out into the woods behind the cabin. Barefoot, because shoes felt like a betrayal to my need to feel something real.
The forest air was sharp and cold, but it welcomed me like an old friend. The moon watched above, fat and pale, judging in that smug, lunar way.
Branches scratched at my arms. Leaves clung to my hair. And my heartbeat thumped in rhythm with something older beneath my skin.
Something that whispered: Run faster. Shift. Become.
But I wasn't ready for that.
Not yet.
Not without knowing who the hell I even was.
"Raven."
The voice snapped through the trees like thunder.
Low. Commanding.
Lucian.
Of course he followed me. Of course he found me.
Royal wolves had a way of always knowing where you were even when you didn't know where you stood.
I turned just in time to see him step into the moonlight, his eyes glowing faintly blue.
He wasn't wearing his usual royal coat tonight. Just a black shirt rolled to the elbows, dark pants, boots. Simpler. Less Prince Charming, more Prince of Darkness.
"Were you going to keep walking until you collapsed?" he asked, voice low but not unkind.
I shrugged. "Maybe."
He didn't smile. "The woods are dangerous at night."
"Then why did you follow me?"
His jaw ticked. "Because I had no intention of losing you."
Ugh. Why did that make my heart do somersaults? I crossed my arms, because letting him see the effect of those words? Not an option.
"You shouldn't say things like that," I muttered.
"Why not?"
"Because you don't mean them."
"I do."
I scoffed. "You don't even know me."
Lucian took a slow step forward. "I know enough."
"Oh, you know I'm part of some ancient bloodline. That makes me what, your royal duty? A glorified asset?"
"You think that's why I'm here?" he said, eyes narrowing. "You think I dragged you into my world because of politics?"
"Didn't you?"
He stepped closer. The air between us tightened like a string pulled taut.
"I claimed you, Raven. In front of Seraphine. In front of Kade. I made you mine under moonlight."
My heart tripped over itself.
"You said that to protect me," I whispered.
His voice dropped, dangerously low. "No. I said it because it's true."
I took a step back. He followed.
"You don't get to say things like that and expect me to just… accept it."
"Why not?" His gaze bored into mine. "You feel it too. I see it in your eyes every time I get close. You fight it, but you feel it."
I hated that he was right.
Hated that when he looked at me like that like I was the only thing in the world worth bleeding for I wanted to believe him.
"I'm not yours," I said, voice shaking.
He reached out, and his fingers brushed the side of my face. Gentle. Careful. Like I'd break.
"Then tell me to stop," he whispered.
I couldn't.
God help me I couldn't.
"I don't even know what this bond means," I said, the words spilling out fast, frantic. "Is it fate? Magic? Biology? I don't want to belong to someone just because the moon decided it."
Lucian's eyes softened, but his grip didn't.
"This isn't just moonlight, Raven. It's choice. And I'm choosing you."
Somehow that made it worse.
Because deep down, some wild, buried part of me wanted to choose him too.
But before I could respond before I could even breathe
The ground rumbled.
A pulse. A tremor.
And then howls.
Dozens of them.
High, sharp, feral.
Lucian stiffened. "They're here."
"Who ?"
Before he could answer, Kade exploded through the treeline like fury incarnate.
His chest was bare, marked with swirling black tattoos that shimmered with heat. His eyes glowed green, and his wolf was close right under the skin.
"They're coming for her," he growled. "Now."
Lucian moved instantly, stepping in front of me.
"Who?" I asked again.
Kade met my gaze. "Rogue alphas. They want to challenge the claim."
My blood went ice cold.
"You're saying… someone's coming to fight for me?"
"Not someone," Kade said grimly. "Multiple. And if they win… you're theirs."
Lucian's power pulsed outward like a storm.
"Let them come."
And just like that, the clearing lit up with golden eyes and snarling fangs—rogue wolves stepping into the moonlight, hunger in their eyes.
The moment the rogues stepped into the clearing, something ancient stirred inside me.
I couldn't name it. Couldn't control it. But I felt it rising like a tide, whispering things in a voice that sounded like mine, but older. Wilder.
Defend. Fight. Protect what's yours.
Lucian's body blocked mine entirely. His back was broad, shoulders tense, jaw locked in deadly silence.
Kade flanked us, already halfway to shifting. His skin shimmered with veins of black ink, the tattoos alive now, pulsing like veins of magic.
"Five," Kade muttered. "All armed. Half-shifted."
Lucian's voice was cold steel. "Rogues don't come this close to royal land unless they're desperate or stupid."
"Or both."
My hands trembled. Not from fear, exactly.
From knowing somehow that this moment was about me.
They weren't here for territory. Not for gold.
They were here to steal my claim.
I looked down at my palms, and they shimmered faintly with a silvery light.
"Why me?" I asked, too quietly.
Lucian didn't look back. "Because your blood calls to them. Because you're awakening."
Kade spoke over his shoulder. "And because you're unclaimed."
"I'm not"
Lucian turned then, eyes hard. "You are. Until the ritual is sealed, they can challenge me for you. And if they kill me"
"They get me," I finished, mouth dry.
Rage burned in my chest. Not fear. Fury.
I was not a trophy. Not a conquest. I didn't care what kind of wolf magic or royal tradition said otherwise.
"I didn't ask to be anyone's," I snapped.
Lucian didn't blink. "I know."
He reached into the satchel on his hip and pulled out a dagger long, silver-edged, engraved with runes I couldn't read.
He handed it to me without a word.
I stared at it. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Survive," he said.
That wasn't comforting.
But it was honest.
The first rogue lunged.
Lucian met him mid-air, his body transforming with a speed that defied logic. Bones cracked, muscles snapped, and suddenly he was massive black fur, glowing blue eyes, fangs like white daggers.
Kade followed, his shift different less clean, more violent. His wolf form was leaner, wilder, with dark fur streaked in red, eyes like green wildfire.
I stood frozen. Watching two beasts—no, two alphas fight for me like it was instinct.
Because it was.
The world blurred. Claws, blood, snarls, the sound of flesh hitting dirt and bones crunching under paw.
One of the rogues broke from the pack and came for me.
I didn't think. I moved.
The dagger felt weirdly familiar in my grip. Too natural. Like my body remembered something I didn't.
He lunged, fangs bared.
I ducked, slashed, turned.
He yelped, blood spraying from his side.
Then another was there grabbing me, pinning me to the ground, snarling in my face.
"You don't belong to him," he hissed. "You belong to the moon."
Before I could stab him, something slammed into him from the side—Kade.
He ripped the rogue off me, threw him into a tree, and shifted halfway back to human bare-chested, bloody, breathing hard.
"You okay?" he growled.
I nodded, even though my entire body was shaking.
Kade's green eyes scanned me. "You're tougher than you look."
"And you're softer than you act."
He smirked, wiped blood from his lip. "Don't go spreading that around."
I was still reeling from the sudden closeness his hand on my arm, his breath hot on my cheek when Lucian returned, his wolf form shifting back in a burst of blue-white light.
He was injured cut across the ribs, blood seeping into his shirt but standing tall. Alpha to the bone.
The clearing was littered with groaning rogues, broken and beaten.
Lucian looked between me and Kade, eyes unreadable.
"You protected her," he said.
"I'm not letting anyone take her," Kade said, voice rough. "Not even you."
The tension between them hit like a second wave.
Lucian stepped forward, towering over both of us.
"Then stay the hell out of my way."
"I'll stay out of your way," Kade snapped, "when she chooses you."
Lucian looked at me then.
Like really looked.
Eyes stormy. Voice low.
"Then choose."
The clearing went silent.
My heart pounded.
Not because I didn't know what I wanted.
Because I didn't know if I was allowed to want at all.
"I can't choose," I whispered.
The words dropped like glass between us.
Lucian's jaw ticked. "You'll have to. Sooner than you think."
Kade didn't say anything, but I felt the way his fingers curled into fists at his sides. Like he was holding himself back from something.
Or someone.
And honestly? I wasn't sure which one scared me more.
"I didn't ask to be claimed by anyone," I said, voice cracking. "I didn't come here to fall into some ancient bloodline ritual. I just wanted answers. About me. My family. The curse."
Lucian stepped closer. The air around him was thick with royal alpha power undeniable, intoxicating.
"You think this is just about a ritual?" he asked softly. "Your blood carries a legacy. A power that hasn't awakened in generations. That curse? It didn't just find you by accident, Raven. You were born into it."
My stomach turned. "And what being yours is the way to break it?"
Lucian's eyes darkened. "Being mine is the way to survive it."
Before I could fire back, Kade moved.
He didn't say a word. Just stepped between us and gently—almost reverently—touched my wrist.
"You don't have to belong to anyone to break it," he said. "You can fight it. On your own terms."
That wrecked me more than Lucian's prophecy-heavy declarations ever could.
Because Kade wasn't just offering protection.
He was offering freedom.
The three of us stood in that clearing, the carnage of battle behind us, the weight of something much bigger pressing down on my shoulders.
And I cracked.
Just a little.
"I don't know who I am anymore," I admitted, voice small. "Everything's happening too fast. The dreams, the power, this…this war between you."
Lucian's gaze softened. Just barely.
"Then let us help you remember."
I swallowed hard. "Both of you?"
Kade raised an eyebrow. "That's going to be messy."
Lucian looked like he wanted to argue.
But he didn't.
Instead, he gave me a single nod. "Until she chooses, she's under royal protection."
"And mine," Kade said firmly.
"Good," I muttered. "Maybe with two alphas breathing down my neck, I'll finally get some peace."
Neither of them smiled.
Figures.
We made it back to the academy just before sunrise. The guards tried to swarm us when they saw the blood, but Lucian waved them off with a single look that said try me and see what happens.
In my room, everything looked… smaller.
Like the world had grown while I was gone, and now this place couldn't contain it.
Lucian stood in the doorway. "Rest. We'll talk later."
Kade leaned against the window, arms crossed. "I'm not leaving."
I blinked. "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
Lucian stared him down. "You think I'm letting you sleep in her room?"
"Relax, crown boy. I'll stay on the balcony."
I looked between them. "You're both insane."
Lucian turned to me. "Just careful."
Kade winked. "And protective."
They left like that. One after the other. Not a word more.
And me?
I lay down on my bed, fully clothed, fully wrecked.
But I couldn't sleep.
Not with the image of Lucian's eyes in my mind.
Not with the memory of Kade's hand on my skin.
Not with the faint silver shimmer still glowing beneath my veins like a storm waiting to break.
That night, I dreamed again.
Only this time, I wasn't just watching.
I was her.
Standing in a moonlit temple. Wearing a crown of bone and flame. Blood dripping from my hands.
Lucian knelt before me, head bowed.
Kade stood behind me, sword in hand.
And I no, she raised her voice and said:
"Let the bloodline break. Let the heart decide."
And then….
Fire.
Everywhere.
Burning the temple, the wolves, the crown.
I woke up choking on smoke that wasn't real and tears I didn't understand.
Only to find someone in my room.
Lucian.
His silhouette was carved from moonlight, his shirt still stained with blood, his chest rising and falling like he'd just run here.
"I felt it," he said quietly. "The dream. You screamed."
My voice was barely there. "It wasn't a dream."
He came closer. Sat on the edge of the bed like he belonged there.
"It was a memory."
I nodded. "From who?"
Lucian looked down at his hands. "From you."
I shook my head. "I've never"
"You've lived before, Raven. That's what they're not telling you. The curse didn't begin with you. You're just the one strong enough to break it."
My breath caught. "You knew?"
"I've always known."
I stared at him, suddenly furious. "And you didn't say anything?!"
"I didn't want to scare you."
Too late.
My chest burned. "I need to know everything. No more secrets."
Lucian stood. "Then meet me in the crypt. Midnight."
"Why there?"
"Because that's where your past is buried."
He walked out without another word.
And I sat there.
Shaking.
Awake.
Claimed.
And completely, completely lost.