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Chapter One

Clara's POV

**3 months ago**

Not everyone imagines a knight in shining armor. I am obsessed with the idea of finding a mate. It's every werewolf girl's dream: turn 20, find my soulmate, and live happily ever after.

"Frank, you can't be serious!" I exclaim, anger boiling up inside me. I stare at the man who has raised me my whole life. His eyes avoid mine, guilt flickering across his face.

Clutching the letter in my trembling hand, I can't believe what I'm reading. Sold? To a ruthless Lycan King? It has to be some sick joke, a nightmare I will wake up from any moment.

But the words on the page remain stubbornly real.

"I'm sorry, Clara," Frank mumbles, his voice almost a whisper. "It's for the best. The Lycan King promised he'd take care of you."

Take care of me? Anger burns through my veins, replacing the shock. "You had no right to make this decision for me! I'm not some pawn to be traded away! I was going to find a mate tonight, Frank. How could you do this to me?"

"Come on, Clara, we both know any mate would reject you. You're a foster child. Every wolf seeks a mate who's from a powerful, influential family. I'm doing you a favor."

I feel my head spin. I know Frank is cruel, but this? Before I can respond, the door slams open. A shadow casts on the floor as someone walks in. Immediately, Frank drops to his knees, overwhelmed by the power of this man.

I look up, and in front of me stands a tall man, broad shoulders with an aura full of authority that makes me feel the urge to submit.

"Clara," he says, his voice emanating such dominance that I have to clench my thighs.

"Who... who are you?" I ask. Why would Frank bow to a stranger? This man is different. No Alpha has the power to make a normal wolf feel so weak and helpless. But he can.

When I look into his eyes, it's like a spell. My wolf stirs restlessly inside me. It's him.

My mate.

What? How? My mate is the Lycan King? Ruthless, powerful, and he has bought me. In a fit to escape this monstrosity of a deal, I make a move, jolting past him and toward the door, but he catches me. His hand wraps around my waist, pulling me back as I slam onto his heated body.

I gasp, overwhelmed by the sensation of his hands on my body.

"Easy there, little one," he whispers against my neck, causing me to shiver. "I'm not about to lose you when I just bought you."

He looks into my eyes. I want to look away, but I can't. He owns me—my soul, my body. Is this what it feels like to have a mate as powerful as him?

All my life, I've been taught how powerful and dangerous Lycans are. Every werewolf knows to stay away from them. There are only two Lycan Kings: one in the north and one ruling the south. Each has the power to kill any werewolf without much effort. Yet, one of them is my mate.

"Please, this man is not my father. You've got this all wrong."

"I don't think so, Clara." He smirks, gripping my jaw and forcing me to look at him. "You belong to me. Kneel."

His words are infinite over me. It's a spell, and I can't stop myself. I get on my knees, bowing my head. He puts a hand over my head, playing with my hair. Fuck! Why do I like it?

No, no, no, Clara. Fight it. He can't just treat you like an animal.

"Let me go!" I muster all my courage. I try to stand up, but I can't do so fully—not with his power over me.

"You're stubborn. That's fun," he says with a smirk, watching me with amusement. I make a move to try and run, but he picks me up as if I weigh nothing. I'm hauled over his shoulder as he walks me outside to where his Porsche is parked. All this time, I kick and thrash in his grip, demanding to be released. He throws me into the passenger seat and grabs my ankle. Before I know it, there's a clicking sound as he secures a cuffed chain around my leg.

"NO! What is the meaning of this?" I shout as I struggle, pulling against the chain that seems to be bolted into the car.

"Unlike you, I'm keeping my promise, pet," he lets out in a serious tone. "You behave like an animal; you get treated like one."

"No, no. Please let me go. I'll do whatever you want."

"It's simple. Submit to me completely, and maybe one day I'll consider letting you go. Before that happens, see the chain around your ankle? It means one thing." He pauses, watching my face. A dreadful feeling creeps in as I look at him. "Clara Bennet, you've been branded. You're now my property. It's nice to meet you. I am Lycan King Aleron Baker."

**Present Day**

Three months can change everything. Three months of chains, of submission, of falling deeper into a trap I never saw coming. I'd gotten used to the weight of metal around my ankles, the cold bite of restraints that marked me as property. But what I couldn't get used to was how my heart betrayed me, how it yearned for a monster who saw me as nothing more than a possession.

"He's cursed, you know," Ivyone says one evening while tending to my bruised ankles. She's been my only friend here, the only one who shows me kindness in this gilded prison.

"Cursed?" I look up, curious despite myself.

"The Moon Goddess herself cursed him. He led a massacre against an innocent village, slaughtering everyone including her chosen high priestess. His punishment?" She pauses, her eyes meeting mine. "He will never know love, never find his true mate. He's destined to be alone."

My heart stops. "But that's impossible. He... he's my mate. I feel it."

Ivyone's face pales. "Oh, Clara..." She takes my hands in hers, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You're not the first to believe that. There was another before you, a girl named Marina. She claimed the same thing."

"What happened to her?" I ask, though something in me already knows the answer.

"She couldn't bear it when she found out the truth. When she saw him with others, when she realized she meant nothing to him. She..." Ivyone's voice breaks. "They found her body in the river. The chains were still on her ankles."

The world spins around me. All this time, I thought I was special. I thought our connection was real, that beneath his cruelty lay something deeper. But I was just another toy, another possession to be used and discarded.

That night, I heard noises from his chambers. Following the sounds, I find myself outside his door, my hand raised to knock. Before I can, the door swings open.

There he stands, my supposed mate, with another woman draped across him. She's beautiful, powerful – an Alpha's daughter named Lucia. Their scents mingle together in a way that makes me sick.

"What are you doing here, pet?" Aleron's voice is cold, amused. "Missing your chains?"

"I thought..." The words die in my throat as Lucia laughs, her hands possessively trailing across his chest.

"You thought what? That you were special?" She sneers. "You're just another slave, another plaything for our king."

I look at Aleron, searching for any sign that this isn't true, that our connection means something. But his eyes are empty, holding nothing but cruel entertainment at my pain.

"Get out of my sight," he commands, already turning back to Lucia. "Unless you want to watch?"

I run. Through the halls that have been my prison, past the guards who see me as less than nothing. Ivyone catches me at my chamber door, her eyes wide with understanding.

"Clara, don't—"

"Did you know?" I demand, tears streaming down my face. "Did you know he was bringing her here?"

"He always brings others," she whispers. "It's what he does. What he's always done."

In that moment, everything becomes clear. The curse isn't just his – it's become mine too. Every moment of tenderness, every touch that felt like destiny, it was all a lie. And if I stay, I'll end up like Marina, another ghost haunting these halls, another victim of a man who can never love.

I gather what little I own, my hands shaking but determined. When Ivyone tries to stop me, tries to warn me about the consequences, I make a choice I never thought I'd have to make.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, before pushing her aside with strength I didn't know I had. She hits the wall hard enough to stun her, and guilt floods my heart. But I can't stay. I won't become another Marina.

As I run into the night, during the chaos of the Lunar Moon celebrations, I feel the phantom weight of chains on my ankles. But for the first time in three months, I'm truly free. Free from the physical bonds that marked me as property, and free from the emotional chains that bound me to a man who never saw me as anything more than a possession.

The Moon Goddess cursed Aleron to never know love. But she didn't curse me to die trying to prove otherwise.

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