My Rogue Defied His Bond

The forest was silent except for my ragged breathing. Dawn light filtered through the trees as I knelt in the clearing, my body trembling. Today was my twentieth birthday—the day the pack healers had predicted would be my last.

"Come on," I whispered to the faint presence inside me. "Please."

My weak wolf stirred, barely a whisper compared to the roaring beasts that lived within normal werewolves. I'd spent my entire life as less-than, raised by rogues on the outskirts of Silver Moon territory, always knowing I was living on borrowed time.

The first crack of bone made me gasp. My spine arched as white-hot pain shot through my limbs. This wasn't the smooth transformation I'd witnessed in others—this was my body breaking, my weak wolf desperately trying to emerge but lacking the strength to complete the shift.

"I can't—" I choked, collapsing onto all fours. My vision blurred as tears streamed down my face. The healers were right. I wasn't going to survive this.

A strange whistling sound cut through the air above me. I looked up just as a body plummeted from the towering Alpha building that loomed over the forest edge. Before I could move, the figure crashed into me with bone-shattering force.

We tumbled together, my already broken body absorbing the impact. When we finally stopped rolling, I found myself pinned beneath a beautiful woman with long dark hair and vacant eyes. Blood trickled from her mouth, but somehow, she was still breathing.

"Olivia Bennett," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Remember my name."

Her hands gripped my wrists with surprising strength. A strange energy began to flow between us as she started chanting in the ancient wolf tongue. Horror dawned on me as I recognized the forbidden ritual—a wolf bond. She was transferring her essence to me.

"No," I gasped. "You'll die—"

"I'm already dying," she said, her eyes fluttering. "My wolf is strong. She'll save you." Her fingers dug painfully into my skin as the energy between us intensified. "One thing... promise me one thing."

I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe as her wolf—powerful and wild—poured into me, filling the hollow spaces where my weak wolf had been.

"Love him," she whispered. "Love Ethan. He needs you."

With those final words, the light faded from her eyes. The transfer completed with a surge of power that knocked me unconscious.

I awoke to the sterile scent of the pack healer's den. My body felt strange—stronger but foreign, as if I were wearing someone else's skin. Memories that weren't mine flickered through my mind: training with pack warriors, running through moonlit forests, watching a tall, imposing man from afar with longing that made my chest ache.

*Love him.*

The voice whispered through my mind, but it wasn't my own. It was hers—Olivia's. Her wolf stirred inside me, powerful and restless.

*Mate,* the wolf suddenly growled, her attention snapping toward the door seconds before it swung open.

He filled the doorway like a storm cloud—tall, broad-shouldered, with midnight-black hair and piercing silver eyes. Alpha Ethan Shaw of the Moonveil Pack. His aura hit me like a physical force, dominant and cold. His gaze swept over me, calculating and distant, but I saw the moment his wolf recognized what mine already knew.

Mate.

His nostrils flared, and for a split second, something like panic crossed his face before his expression hardened into stone.

"So you're the one," he said, his voice deep and devoid of warmth. "The rogue Olivia sacrificed herself for."

I couldn't speak. The wolf inside me—Olivia's wolf—was howling for him, straining toward her mate, while I remained frozen in confusion and fear.

"You will come to the pack house," he continued, his tone making it clear this wasn't a request. "You will be my Luna-in-waiting."

"I don't understand," I finally managed, my voice small.

His jaw tightened. "You carry Olivia's wolf, which means you carry her obligations to this pack. And to me." His eyes narrowed. "You are mine now. But make no mistake—this is not a love match. This is duty."

With those cold words, he turned and left, leaving me clutching the sheets, overwhelmed by the foreign wolf inside me and the weight of a dead woman's final wish.

*Love him,* Olivia's voice echoed again in my mind.

But how could I love a man who looked at me with such cold disdain? And more importantly—how could I love him for her when I didn't even know who I was anymore?