CAITLYN

Blood.

Ash-gray eyes.

That was all I could register as I pressed my hands against the boy’s chest, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. A thick, jagged branch had pierced his side, and his face was pale, almost ghostly.

“Please, just hold on,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Help! Somebody, please!” My voice shattered through the empty woods, desperate, raw.

I wasn’t supposed to be there. My parents had warned me about these woods, whispering tales of danger, of creatures lurking in shadows. But I didn’t listen.

I never did.

And this time, my defiance paid off.

I had barely crossed the border when I saw him. A boy, maybe my age, lying pinned beneath a fallen log. His face was blood-streaked, his eyes flickering closed. Heart pounding, I lifted the log just enough to pull him free, and with a surge of adrenaline, I dragged him out.

He coughed, his eyes opening just barely, locking onto mine. Gray, stormy, as if clouds were trapped inside his irises and then the words left his lips, shaky and low, “One day, I’ll make you mine.”

Those were the only words he ever said to me. One damning sentence that I had no idea would ruin my life.

And that was the first and last time I ever saw him after by a miracle, some men showed up taking him away.

Ten years passed since then, life moved on, and he became just a memory— the boy with the beautiful ash gray eyes that I saved.

Until now.

Now, blood was coating my fingers again, staining them as I knelt by my fiancé, Michael, trying desperately to wake him but it was useless. He lay lifeless, eyes staring blankly, blood pooling beneath us.

Everything had happened so fast.

My mating ceremony— the day that was supposed to be the happiest day of my life turning into a complete nightmare; all because of him.

The elder’s voice still echoed in my mind, announcing Michael to mark me and the next seconds, he was ripped off me thrown across the hall just as the chaos and screams erupted.

Then I saw him.

The boy I had saved a lifetime ago. Only he was no boy now. He was a man who radiated power, tall and cold, his face chiseled like stone, eyes just as ash-gray, just as piercing, locking on me, just before he slashed Michael across his chest.

I could still hear my screen echo off the wall and then I realized he was gone. Michael was gone and with the tears flowing down my cheeks, I finally looked up at him, my voice breaking as I forced the words out, “Why… you… you killed him.”

He took a step closer, unhurried, each movement deliberate, powerful, and dangerous. Everything around us was chaos—people screamed, the scent of blood thick in the air, and yet, he moved as if none of it mattered, as if he was untouchable.

I wanted to run.

I wanted to fight, but I was rooted to the ground, my entire world crashing around me.

After what felt like an eternity, he spoke, his voice a deadly caress. “He tried to mark what was mine.” His eyes burned into me, unyielding. “No one but me touches you, Caitlyn.”

My head spun, trying to piece together what had just happened. Michael lay dead at my feet, killed by this stranger—no, this man I had saved, who had been a memory and was now claiming me.

His eyes held mine, unwavering, relentless. He leaned in close, his voice a dark promise. “You saved me once and I swore I’d make you mine. That day has come.”

That was all it took for my instinct to fire to life, and I staggered back, desperate to escape but he moved faster, his hand reaching out, capturing me in an iron grip. The second his fingers brushed my skin, the world seemed to freeze, and a shiver jolted through me.

I gasped, my eyes widening in shock.

No. This couldn’t be happening.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face before his lips curled into a slow, lethal smile. “Even fate agrees with me.”

I pulled away from him falling right on Michael’s blood trying to force my wolf who had gotten over the shock and was now stirring restlessly in my head.

This has to be some kind of twisted cruel joke because this psychopath who had just killed the man I loved even though we were not predestined for each could not be him.

He couldn’t be my…

His smile deepened, and his eyes gleamed with possession as my wolf cemented my fate with the one word I refused to believe.

“Mate.”

CAITLYN

The scream tore from my throat before I could stop it, my body instinctively scrambling backward, desperate to escape the horrific scene unfolding before me.

This had been my life for the past three years.

A life forced upon me by the man who I learnt was Derek Thane—the Alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the country and, even more chilling, the CEO of a multibillion-dollar empire.

He had threatened my family to force me into a marriage I would never want, locking me away in his mansion as if I were some prized trophy in his distorted view of love.

He’d done everything to win my affection, going as far as firing all the servants because I only spoke to them, taking the responsibility of doing everything for me but all I felt was hatred even as my wolf stirred within me, craving the bond he sought, I refused to mate with a psychopath like him.

The realization of his cruelty sank deeper into my bones as he stood over the man he had just ripped apart with his claws.

The intruder, curious about what Derek kept hidden, had broken into the mansion and now he was dead.

I fought back the bile rising in my throat, forcing my eyes away from the severed hands and the empty eye sockets of the lifeless body sprawled on the floor.

Derek spoke, breaking the silence as if he hadn’t just dismembered a man right in front of me. “If you keep pushing me, Caitlyn, you’ll witness far worse.”

“There are thousands of women who would kill to be in my position,” My voice cracked, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I don’t want this—please, just let me go.”

He dismissed my pleas like they were nothing. “Clean yourself up. There will be consequences if I return to find you a mess.”

With that, he turned his back and walked away, leaving me in the aftermath of his brutality. I don’t know how long I sat there, wishing for an end to this nightmare, until I forced myself to crawl over the dismembered body and stumbled toward the shower.

The water did little to wash away the pain and as I put on my clothes, I tried to gather my thoughts when I heard voices drifting in from the hallway.

“Are you sure we should be up here? Mr. Thane specifically said this mansion was off-limits,” one voice trembled.

“Oh, please.” Another voice, sultry and confident, interrupted. “Derek practically worships the ground I walk on. He won’t mind. Besides, he keeps visiting this place four times a week. I want to see what he keeps hidden here.”

My stomach twisted with dread. Not one, but two people had snuck in this time, and it wouldn’t end well for them when Derek found out. Part of me was curious about the woman’s confidence, but that was irrelevant right now; they had to leave or risk losing their lives.

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I stepped outside the door.

The moment the door closed, their heads whipped around. My breath caught in my throat when my eyes landed on the woman in the middle and it took me a moment to realize there were three of them, not two—because she looked exactly like me.

“Oh my goodness, this is desperation on another level,” one of them said, breaking the stunned silence. “She made herself look just like you, Lydia.”

I blinked in disbelief.

My lookalike—Lydia—smiled, her eyes glinting with malice as she stepped forward. “It never ceases to amaze me how pathetic some women can be. You thought you could get a number of surgeries to look like me and sneak up here to try to steal my man?”

What the hell was happening?

I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but right now, I needed them to leave.

“Look, I don’t know who you are or how you managed to get in here,” I forced my voice to remain steady. “But you have to leave. If Derek comes back and finds you here, you won’t like what—“

My words were abruptly cut off when Lydia lunged forward, claws extending, slicing across my face. My eyes widened in shock as she stepped closer, her expression twisted in hatred. “Don’t you ever say his name, you cheap whore, coming in here thinking you can replace me. I’ll show you what happens to sluts who try to take my place.”

My wolf surged to the surface, ready to retaliate, but I wasn’t fast enough. Lydia struck again, knocking me to the ground.

“I am Derek’s destined love, and you pathetic slut will suffer for trying to imitate me,” she taunted, and with a swift motion, she turned to her friends. “Strip her.”

I struggled to shift, but the attacks came fast and furious. The other two women clawed at my clothes, vowing to make an example out of anyone who dared to challenge Lydia’s claim.

Consciousness began to slip away as I gasped for breath, fighting through the pain then I screamed. “I am Derek’s mate!”

The beating halted. Lydia stepped closer, her face twisted in rage and disgust. “You really are pathetic,” she spat. With a flick of her hair, she revealed a mark on her neck. “I am Derek’s mate, and in two days, we will have an official mating ceremony.”

It suddenly clicked into place. His obsession had festered so deep that, since I refused to love him, he had sought out an almost perfect lookalike, feeding her lies in the hope that I would accept him if he threatened to replace me.

His madness had no bounds.

“You are nothing,” Lydia sneered, raising her claws. I braced myself too weak to move as they came down, striking my chest, and the last thing I saw was her face, a sick reminder of the twisted world I was trapped in.

Then everything faded to black.

DEREK

I was thirteen years old when I first drew blood.

And that was the day my parents labeled me with what they considered a “disability.” But even at that age, I knew better. I saw it for what it truly was—a compulsion that gave me power.

That gave me freedom.

I always knew I was different. I didn’t view the world the way other kids did. My mind moved too fast, processing things others couldn’t see, things others wouldn’t dare acknowledge and that was why, when my father forced me to attend a Christmas party hosted by an Alpha who had threatened him, I seized the opportunity. I attacked the Alpha’s son, leaving a scar to remind him that my family was powerful.

We didn’t take likely to threats.

But that act, what I thought was loyalty, what I thought would make my parents proud, was the very thing that made them see me for what I was. Dangerous. My father looked at me as if he had birthed a monster, and my mother’s eyes held a fear she could never quite hide.

So I tried to end it two years later.

Though maybe if I was gone, they could breathe a little easier but fate had other plans, and in that darkness, in the depths of my own despair, I first saw her face. Caitlyn. She saved me, and in doing so, imprinted herself on my wolf. From that moment, she was my light in a world that had only ever shown me darkness.

I spent years trying to make myself better for her. To prove that I was worthy. I became a multibillionaire, worked my way to the top, showed my father I could handle the pack. I just needed a little more time before I claimed her but she went ahead and tried to mate with someone else, shattering every plan I had for us.

Caitlyn was mine.

And my obsession with her, something I’d nurtured and guarded all these years, knew no bounds. I had a thousand demons clawing at my insides, demons I tried to cage because of her but as I stood here, frozen, staring at the scene in front of me, I knew the last of my restraint was slipping.

My eyes moved from where a couple of women had just fled from to Lydia to Caitlyn’s unconscious form on the floor. The question left my lips in a low, deadly whisper, “What the hell happened here?”

Lydia stepped forward, a plastic smile stretched across her face. “Derek, you’re back. You wouldn’t believe what happened. This imposter,” she sneered, pointing at Caitlyn, “snuck in here, trying to pretend to be me.”

Irritation flared in me. This mess was my fault. Caitlyn’s relentless hatred toward me had driven me to find a look-alike, someone to fill the void. Lydia had been my distraction, someone I could project my fantasies onto. I’d gone so far as to mark her, an accident fueled by a desperate need to pretend she was Caitlyn and now she flaunted that mark as if it was a ticket for us to get married.

Not that I had cared for before because it would never happen and soon enough, once I made Caityn fully mine, she would be discarded.

My wolf stirred, clawing beneath my skin, furious. I fixed Lydia with a glare that could turn stone to dust. “I specifically told you not to step foot in this house. Not only did you disobey, but you dared to touch what’s mine.”

Fear flickered in Lydia’s eyes, quickly masked. She straightened, her voice trembling as she insisted, “Derek, I don’t know what she’s told you, but it’s me, Lydia. You marked me. I’m the one who belongs to you.”

In a blur, my hand shot out, wrapping around her throat. “The moment you disobeyed me, you became worthless,” I hissed, tightening my grip just enough to remind her of her place. “I’ll spare you, only because I was foolish enough to involve myself with you in the first place. But you have five seconds to disappear from my sight.”

I released her, and she stumbled back, gasping for air.

“Five.”

She scrambled to her feet, her face pale as she turned to run. I watched her, my voice low, lethal. “Tell those who helped you that they now have twenty-four hours to live. And if I ever see you again…”

I let the threat hang in the air, satisfaction coursing through me as her eyes flashed from fear to hatred. She turned and fled, leaving a trail of bitterness behind her.

The urge to unleash my anger, to let my wolf loose and tear through everyone who had dared to touch Caitlyn, surged within me but I forced it down telling myself all in due time just like the mark on Lydia would fade and soon she would be nothing. I took a breath, steadying myself, and knelt to lift Caitlyn’s unconscious form into my arms, carrying her to her room.

Hours passed as I stood by the window, waiting. I watched the sun dip below the horizon, casting shadows across the room, until a faint stir behind me caught my attention. I turned, and our eyes met. She froze, and I could feel the tension radiating from her. For three years, I’d kept her hidden, tried to protect her from this world and from myself.

This was the consequence of my choices.

I moved closer, making sure my tone left no room for arguments, “Tomorrow, I’m going to announce you to the world as my fiancée.”

Her eyes widened, surprise flickering across her face.

Before she could respond, I added, “And three days from now, you and I are getting married, then I am going to claim you as my mate.”