“She’s the Alpha’s daughter?”
The words filtered through the thick fog clouding Lily's head. They were faint at first—like echoes bouncing off stone.
“Looks like she hasn’t eaten in days.”
“She’s too small… can’t believe she’s the reason half our pack is dead.”
The voices sharpened, clearer now.
“She doesn’t even look like a wolf.”
“She doesn’t have one. She never shifted.”
Lily Brightpaw stirred weakly in the corner of the cell, her back pressed against the damp stone wall. Her body trembled, feverish and cold all at once. Chains clinked against her wrists as she tried to curl in on herself. Every inch of her ached. The wounds on her arms, legs, and back throbbed with every heartbeat.
“She’s just… broken.”
She didn’t need to understand every word. Their tone said enough.
The cell door screeched open.
The sudden light from the hallway burned her eyes. She flinched and tried to shield her face, but the guards were already on her. Rough hands grabbed her, nails digging into bruised flesh. Her bare feet scraped against the cold ground as they dragged her forward.
“Let’s move. Alpha wants her.”
Alpha Zayn Knightmoon.
The man her father once paraded through Thunder Paw territory in chains. The man her brother used to mock with laughter in his eyes.
The man who now ruled everything.
She didn’t fight. Couldn’t. Her limbs were too weak. Her throat, too dry. Her voice… gone.
The climb up from the dungeons was a blur of pain and flickering torchlights. By the time they reached the large doors to the Alpha’s quarters, Lily could barely stand.
They threw the doors open and shoved her inside.
She collapsed onto the cold stone floor, her wrists chained in silver cuffs.
Lily had been cold for days—maybe weeks. Time didn’t make sense anymore, not in the dark, not when her body ached all the time and her stomach never stopped growling. But when the guards dragged her up from the dungeon and shoved her into the bright, unfamiliar room, something shifted.
She blinked slowly, adjusting to the light. Everything looked too big, too clean. She felt like a shadow that had wandered somewhere it didn’t belong.
And then she saw him.
Zayn stood with his back to the door, facing the tall windows of his room. The moonlight poured in, cool and silent, spilling across the floor like spilled milk. He didn’t turn when the guards dragged her in. He knew who it was.
Lily Brightpaw.
The daughter of the man who’d ruined his life.
His fingers twitched at his sides, his jaw clenched. Even after all these years, the memories still felt raw—like they’d just happened yesterday.
The chains.
The collar around his neck.
The beatings.
The cold floors of Thunder Paw’s dungeons.
His mate’s screams.
He’d been the son of a proud Alpha once, the future leader of Obsidian Moon. And then, just like that, they were overrun—betrayed and slaughtered by Grayson Brightpaw.
He remembered watching his father bleed out on the ground. He remembered the smell of burnt fur. The crack of bones snapping. But nothing haunted him more than the death of his fated mate, Irene.
They tied her up. Tortured her. And when she was too weak to scream, they’d cut her open and ripped their unborn child from her belly.
The pain was unbearable. His wolf mourned for days inside him. He wished for death.
But Grayson never gave him that mercy.
Instead, he kept him alive. As an example. As entertainment.
Zayn learned to swallow pain. To bury rage. To bide his time.
Now everything fell into place.
He’d taken back his pack. Killed Grayson with his own hands. And now, here she was. The last piece of that cursed bloodline.
He turned slowly.
Then he caught a scent—and everything stopped.
Sweet. Delicate. Like wildflowers after rain. A scent he hadn’t smelled before, but it hit him hard. Familiar in a strange way. Comforting. Pure.
His chest tightened.
No!
No, this couldn’t be happening!
The bond slammed into him like a punch to the gut.
His wolf growled and surged forward inside him, snapping awake with one word echoing loud and clear in his head.
Mate!
His second chance mate.
Zayn’s breath caught. For a second, he just stared at her—broken, filthy, shaking on the floor like a leaf in the wind.
It didn’t make sense.
It wasn’t fair.
This girl—the daughter of the man who destroyed everything—she was his second chance?
He felt sick.
She looked up at him, wide-eyed. She smelled it too. Felt it. There was hope in her eyes, faint and fragile.
It made him furious.
“You?” he scoffed, voice rough and bitter.
He took a step closer. His wolf howled again in protest, fighting him, but Zayn shut him down.
“No,” he growled. “No, no, no—this can’t be. Of all the wolves the goddess chose for me, she chose you? ”
He wanted to laugh. Wanted to scream.
Instead, he looked her straight in the eye. He grabbed her chains, pulling her towards him.
“I, Zayn Knightmoon, reject you, Lily Brightpaw, as my mate.”
She dropped instantly, like she’d been shot. Her body folded in on itself. Blood spilled from her lips as she coughed and shook, clawing at the floor furiously.
He watched, unmoved.
“This is what rejection feels like,” he said, his voice cold and flat. “Now you know.”
She looked up, lips moving. No sound.
Zayn frowned. “You’re mute?”
Of course she was.
No voice. No wolf. Just weak, broken, and completely useless.
His stomach twisted.
Was this supposed to be fate?
He crouched in front of her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
“Your father ruined my life. He tortured my mate. Made me watch as they murdered my child. He used my people as slaves, and now the Moon Goddess has the nerve to tie me to you?”
She didn’t fight back. Didn’t even blink. Just cried.
Zayn stood, disgusted.
He walked to the corner of the room, opened the chest, and pulled out the only proof he had that vengeance was real.
Grayson’s severed head.
He tossed it toward her without a second thought.
It landed with a dull roll at her feet.
She gasped without sound, backing away fast, curling into herself like she wanted to disappear.
Good.
“Your father’s dead. Your brother is chained in the dungeons below. Your pack belongs to me now.”
Her lips moved again.
Why?
Zayn stepped forward and ripped the chains off her wrists.
“Because your bloodline deserves every bit of suffering I’ve endured—and more.”
He threw her onto the bed like she weighed nothing. She hit the mattress and stared up at him, eyes wide and terrified.
“Strip,” he said.
She didn’t move.
“I said strip!”
Her shaking hands went to her dress. She mouthed one word.
Please.
But he was done listening.
He climbed over her, pinned her wrists down, and leaned close.
“There’s no mercy here,” he said softly, venom in every word. “You’re going to pay for every life your father destroyed. Starting now.”
His wolf whimpered deep inside him, confused. Torn.
But Zayn didn’t care.
Lily Brightpaw might’ve been his mate.
But she was also the last reminder of everything he’d lost.
And he was going to break her—just like her family broke him.