Chapter 1 prologue - A Girl the Gods Forgot & A Wolf the Gods Damned

( Alenya & Thane)

( Alenya )

The first time magic tried to kill me, I was seven years old.

Not that anyone ever explained it that way. My mother called it an “accident,” even though normal accidents don’t involve a stranger chanting in a language that makes the trees shake.

I remember the cold. The forest floor covered in a layer of frost that hadn’t been there minutes before. The man behind me breathing hard, like he’d been chasing me for miles. The electric taste of magic building in the air.

And then, nothing.

Nothing but glittering fragments falling around me like broken stars. Magic that should’ve ripped me apart collapsed at my feet, harmless as dust.

My mother scooped me up before the man hit the ground. She never let go of me the entire night. Never told me who he was, or what he wanted, or why the spell broke like it struck a wall it didn’t expect.

We moved a week later.

Then again.

And again.

I learned not to ask questions.

I learned to pretend I was normal.

Soft. Curvy. Overlooked. The kind of girl people talked over, stepped around, underestimated without even thinking about it.

But normal girls didn’t make lightbulbs burst when they cried.

Normal girls didn’t walk straight through psychic wards as if they weren’t there.

Normal girls didn’t feel the world exhale when they touched it, as if it was terrified of them.

I’ve spent my whole life trying not to notice the strange things that happen around me. Trying not to attract attention. Trying not to stand out.

But fate, apparently, has a sick sense of humor.

Because the night everything shattered and the night I stepped into the world of Vaelora for the first time, I wasn’t supposed to be there at all.

I was just trying to deliver a forgotten phone.

I didn’t expect the sky to open.

I didn’t expect the ground to crack like something monstrous was trying to burst through.

And I definitely didn’t expect to see a man on his knees in the center of a stone courtyard, clawed hands buried in the ground as flames rippled beneath his skin like living magma.

He was beautiful in the way wild storms were beautiful and meant to be admired from a distance, not approached by someone with two working brain cells.

And yet I stepped closer.

Something, instinct, or maybe pulled me toward him with a force that stole my breath. He didn’t see me. Didn’t hear me. Didn’t seem aware of anything except the agony tearing through him.

The air around him warped.

Magic raged, violent and raw, howling like a wounded god.

And still, for reasons I can’t explain, I whispered, “Are you… okay?”

Obviously he wasn’t okay.

That was the moment he looked up, and the world held its breath.

Not metaphorically.

Literally.

The wind stopped. The trees stopped moving. Even the magic tearing the courtyard apart seemed to go still, hovering in the air like it didn’t know what to do.

His eyes locked on mine.

Black. Gold. Burning.

And then.....

Everything collapsed into silence.

Not peace.

Not calm.

Silence.

Like the universe had been screaming and only just realized I’d walked into the room.

He sucked in a ragged breath.

And the flames under his skin went out.

He stared at me with a desperation that made my heart drop to my shoes.

Then he said one word. A word that sounded like a prayer and a curse all at once:

“Mate.”

Oh.

Oh no.

No. No, no, no.

That was not happening.

I took a step back.

He took a step forward, hungry and wounded and so heartbreakingly relieved it made my chest crack open.

“Don’t run,” he rasped.

But running sounded like a wonderful idea.

So I ran.

I made it exactly two steps before the world blurred, and I slammed into a wall of heat and muscle and trembling strength as he appeared in front of me, faster than I could blink.

His hands caught my arms.

And when he touched me.....

Magic broke.

Power vanished.

The air around us rushed inward like I’d punched a hole in the world.

He sagged forward, chest heaving, forehead brushing mine as he tried to breathe a new kind of air and one that didn’t burn him alive.

“What are you?” he whispered.

I had no idea.

But from the look in his eyes, he did.

And somehow, that terrified me even more.

---------------------------------------------------

( Thane )

I’ve been dying for twenty years.

Most people don’t notice. They see the heir to the Raelthorn clan and the strongest wolfborn lineage in Vaelora. The demi-god prince forged from power and bloodline. The one who should one day lead half the realm.

What they don’t see is the god fragment inside me.

Feeding on me.

Hollowing me out one heartbeat at a time.

The thing wears me from the inside like a suit of flesh and bone. It thrashes against my ribs, claws at my spine, whispers in the back of my skull until I can’t sleep or eat or think without feeling its teeth.

Some days it pretends to be quiet.

Some days it wants to kill everything I love.

Tonight, it wanted me dead.

I barely made it to the training grounds before my legs gave out. The moment my knees hit stone, the fragment surged, ripping through my magic like wildfire. I felt my claws burst through my skin. Felt the power crawl up my throat. Felt the world begin to melt under my hands.

I don’t know how long I was screaming.

I don’t know how long I was gone.

But I know the exact moment she arrived.

It was like drowning.....

and then suddenly breathing.

I felt her before I saw her. A pocket of nothing in the air. A hole where magic should have been. A silence so absolute it cut through the god fragment mid-roar.

My head jerked up.

And there she was.

Small. Soft. Curved like a promise and shaking like a leaf in a storm she didn’t know she’d walked into.

Human.

But not.

Her presence sank into my skin and the fragment recoiled, baring its teeth like it had touched fire.

Then it went quiet.

Completely.

For the first time in years, my mind wasn’t full of static. The pain stopped. The screaming stopped. The burning stopped.

She stopped it.

See this trembling, wide-eyed girl in a worn sweater and jeans and silenced a god.

I staggered to my feet, every breath a revelation. My wolf surged to the surface so fast I nearly tipped forward.

The bond snapped into place with the force of a star being born.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

The word flooded me like a tidal wave.

I blurred forward, instincts overrunning sense, appearing in front of her before she could flee. She hit my chest with a startled sound, and my hands closed around her arms before I even realized I’d moved.

The moment I touched her, the fragment vanished completely.

Her skin was warm.

Her scent was sunlight and something sweet had hit like oxygen after drowning.

I didn’t mean to lean in.

Didn’t mean to breathe her in like she was the only thing keeping me alive.

But she was.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

Her eyes were too bright. Too scared. Too honest.

“Alenya,” she said, voice tremor-soft. “Alenya Vale. And I, I think you’ve got the wrong person.”

“No,” I breathed. “There is no wrong person.”

The universe doesn’t make mistakes this big.

She saved me.

She silenced a dying god.

And she woke something in me I thought I’d never feel again.

Destiny didn’t choose wrong.

It chose her.

And the entire realm would soon understand why.....

because the girl trembling in my arms wasn’t just my mate.

She was Null Blood.

A myth.

A weapon.

A miracle.

And the most dangerous thing the gods had ever feared.