I went back to five years ago… the first time I met him. I could still see back then. I used to love going out alone, exploring pack borders, climbing mountains like nothing could ever touch me.
And then I found him—lying in the middle of nowhere, deep in a dead mountain range, his leg twisted, his body burning with fever. An alpha, half-dead and alone.
I remember kneeling beside him, shaking. “Hey… can you hear me? Don’t die, okay? I’m not strong enough to drag a corpse down this mountain.”
He didn’t answer. So I stayed. I gave him everything I had—my food, my water, my medicine. I stayed awake for days, taking care of him like he was the only thing that mattered.
Three days later, he woke up.
And I… collapsed right after.
When I woke again, he was the one holding me, his wrist cut open, his blood pressed to my lips.
“Drink,” he said, hoarse but firm. “You’re not dying on me. Not after you saved me.”
I tried to push him away. “Are you crazy…? You’ll weaken yourself.”
He shook his head. “I’m an alpha. I can handle it. You can’t.”
He fed me his blood again and again until help came.
Later, when he chased me, when he refused to let me go, he would always say the same thing.
“We survived that place together. That kind of thing doesn’t happen twice. It means something, Chloe. It means we’re bound. Fate, past life, whatever you want to call it… I’m not letting you go.”
I believed him. I really did.
But then the dream twisted.
Everything blurred, and suddenly… it wasn’t me anymore.
I saw him throwing me toward a group of wild beasts, his face cold, choosing her over me without hesitation.
I screamed.
And woke up.
My head pounded. My body felt heavy. My hands and feet were tied, something rough covering my eyes. I couldn’t see anything again.
“Where… where am I?” I whispered.
Voices answered.
“Alpha Thornhill,” a man said, mocking, amused. “You really have some nerve. You crushed my pack, took our territory, left us with nothing. Did you really think I’d just let that go?”
Drake’s voice came low and dangerous. “Jakobi Corvo… rogue alpha. You kidnapped me? You’ve got guts. But you’re signing your own death warrant.”
Jakobi laughed, loud and unhinged. “Death? I already lost everything. If I die, I’ll drag you down with me. But killing you too fast… where’s the fun in that?”
Hands grabbed me, dragging me across the ground. Stones scraped my back and I bit down hard to keep from crying out.