The Beast in the Moonlight
The corridor still echoed with his voice long after he left.
"You belong to me."
Those words clung to Elena's skin like smoke she couldn't wash off. No matter how deep she breathed, they filled her chest until it hurt to exhale.
She'd stood there for minutes—maybe hours—pressed against the cold wall, her pulse still tripping wildly under her skin. Only when her knees threatened to give out did she force herself to move. The linens she'd dropped were forgotten on the floor.
She stumbled back to her room, heart hammering in her throat. The door shut behind her with a soft click, sealing her in, and the silence that followed felt suffocating.
The room smelled faintly of cedar his scent woven into the walls, into the sheets, as if the air itself belonged to him.
She wanted to scream. To rip the blankets apart. To run again. But what good was running when every path led back to him?
Elena sank onto the edge of her bed, clutching her knees to her chest. The memory of his eyes burned behind her eyelids dark gold, unreadable, yet filled with something that made her breath catch between fear and something she refused to name.
You belong to me.
The words replayed again and again until exhaustion finally dragged her into a restless sleep.
She woke to the sound of distant thunder.
Except it wasn't thunder.
The air itself vibrated. The floorboards beneath her bare feet trembled with faint, rhythmic pulses like footsteps, dozens of them, maybe more. Shouts echoed through the packhouse, sharp and urgent.
Something was wrong.
Elena jumped from bed and ran to the window. Below, the courtyard swarmed with movement. Warriors shifted into wolves, fur rippling under the moonlight as they sprinted toward the forest's edge. The alarm bell sounded once low, haunting and then silence.
Her fingers tightened on the window frame, heart pounding. She'd seen enough battles in her old pack to know what came next. Rogues. Blood. Death.
But what chilled her most was the scent that drifted in through the open glass thick, metallic, and wrong.
Then came the roar.
It ripped through the night like the world itself had been torn open. It wasn't the cry of a wolf it was deeper, older. Something primal and furious.
Elena's body went rigid.
Below, the forest erupted. Trees shook as shadows lunged from the treeline shapes she couldn't fully make out, twisting and snarling, their movements jagged and inhuman. The pack warriors met them head-on, claws and teeth flashing under the moonlight.
She could barely breathe as she watched.
And then… he moved.
Alpha Lorenzo.
He stood at the edge of the battlefield, calm amidst chaos. For a second, the moon caught his face the hard set of his jaw, the fire burning in his eyes and then his body shuddered.
The shift tore through him violently. Bones snapped, muscles stretched, and his human form vanished, replaced by something massive and terrible.
A wolf as black as midnight.
He was enormous,easily twice the size of any other wolf there. His fur absorbed the light, and when he lifted his head, his golden eyes glowed like fire against the dark.
When he howled, the ground trembled beneath her feet.
The rogues attacked first. But they never stood a chance.
Lorenzo moved like a storm,swift, brutal, and merciless. His claws shredded through fur and flesh alike. Every movement carried lethal precision. Blood splattered across the clearing, the scent of it sharp and metallic, making her stomach twist.
But even that wasn't the worst of it.
Because from the trees, something else emerged.
A creature that didn't belong to this world.
It crawled forward on limbs too long, its body rippling like liquid shadow, its eyes glowing red-hot. It wasn't wolf, wasn't man it was wrong. When it screeched, the sound pierced the air like shattered glass.
The pack faltered. Wolves stumbled, whimpering under the weight of the sound.
Every wolf… except him.
Lorenzo launched himself forward, colliding with the creature so hard the forest seemed to shake. The noise was unbearable with snarls, bone cracking, the thud of bodies hitting the ground.
The creature struck him, claws slicing across his chest. Blood spattered through the air, dark against the moonlight.
He didn't stop.
He didn't even slow down.
Elena's hands covered her mouth, trembling. She couldn't look away. Every instinct screamed to hide, to turn from the horror, but she couldn't. Something about him ,something about the ferocity in every movement held her captive.
He wasn't just fighting. He was unleashing.
It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.
With a savage snarl, Lorenzo slammed the creature into the earth. His jaws locked around its throat, tearing it open in one violent motion. The red glow in its eyes flickered, dimmed, and went out completely.
Silence fell.
Only the sound of ragged breathing filled the clearing.
Wolves limped back, their fur streaked with blood, but alive. The rogue threat was gone. The night was still again.
But Lorenzo didn't shift back.
He stood there, enormous and terrible, fur bristling, blood dripping from his muzzle. His chest heaved, each breath sharp and uneven. And then slowly his head lifted.
His eyes found her.
Even from across the distance, even through glass and shadows, she knew.
He felt her.
The bond between them flared so suddenly she gasped, heat coursing through her body like fire in her veins. His gaze pinned her where she stood golden, burning, alive with the same wild energy that had just slaughtered a monster.
She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
For a long, breathless moment, they just stared at each other , beast and girl, Alpha and mate.
And then he howled.
The sound split the sky, low and haunting, echoing through her bones. It wasn't just victory. It was a claim.
Elena stumbled back from the window, her breath shaky, tears blurring her vision.
This was the man fate had tied her to.
This was the beast who ruled the shadows.
And as his howl faded into the night, she finally understood the truth she'd been running from since the moment their eyes first met.
To love a man like Lorenzo was to love the darkness itself.
And sooner or later, the darkness always takes what it wants.