Bound to My Enemy

The moon hung low and red over the forest, swollen like an omen. Its glow bled through the twisted canopy of trees, casting a warlike hue across the rugged terrain of Blood Fang territory. It was a cursed kind of beauty - the kind that warned you not to look too long.

Selene Nightshade didn't look up. She didn't believe in omens - only in revenge.

Crouched in the shadows, cloaked in black and silence, she studied the patrol routes of the enemy pack. She had memorized their movements days ago, watching them from the ridge like a predator stalking its prey. The fortress walls loomed in the distance, etched with symbols of dominance and blood. They were more than stone - they were a declaration. A legacy of power. A graveyard of her people.

She gripped the silver dagger strapped to her thigh, its hilt worn from years of practice, its blade sharp enough to slit the throat of an Alpha. Her fingers trembled, not from fear - but from restraint. Tonight was not about slaughter. Not yet.

Infiltrate. Gather intel. Remain unseen. That was the mission. The kill would come later.

Her mother's voice echoed in her mind, cold and sharp as the night air:

"Don't die for your vengeance. Live for it."

Selene's jaw clenched.

She moved.

Silent as a shadow, she slid between trees, her body low, her steps measured. Her heartbeat synced with the rhythm of the forest, every breath calculated. She was born a rogue, but raised a weapon - a ghost in enemy lands.

She reached the outer perimeter of the Blood Fang fortress just as the guards rotated. Slipping through a gap in the stone, she crouched behind a crumbling wall and exhaled slowly. Her target was inside. The Alpha.

Kael Draven.

His name burned her throat every time she thought it. The man who led the massacre that took her father. The one who left her pack in ashes and her bloodline in ruin.

Now fate had given her the chance to strike him from within.

A twig snapped behind her.

She froze.

Too late.

A shadow dropped beside her, fast as lightning - tall, broad, wolf-strong. He grabbed her arm and twisted, yanking her to her feet and slamming her against the stone wall with inhuman speed.

Her dagger clattered to the ground.

Gold eyes locked with hers - piercing, lethal, and far too close.

"Who the hell are you?" he growled.

The voice was deep. Controlled. But there was a flicker beneath it. Confusion? Recognition?

Selene's lungs squeezed. Her lips parted.

And then it happened.

A searing burn ignited in her chest - spreading from her heart to her bones like wildfire. Her vision blurred as the scent of him slammed into her: pine, smoke, and something darker. Her knees weakened.

No. No, no, no...

The man's eyes widened too. He stumbled back a step, one hand gripping his chest.

The bond.

The sacred, cursed mate bond.

"Moon curse me..." he whispered. "You're my-"

"Don't say it," she snapped, eyes wild. "Don't you dare."

She stumbled to grab her dagger, but he didn't move. He just stared at her - stunned. Broken. As if the world had shifted beneath his feet.

Selene's heart pounded like a war drum.

This was not the plan. This wasn't vengeance. This was a nightmare.

She didn't come here to find her mate.

She came to kill him.