The first thing you learned about King Rhuval Ostergard was that monsters did not need claws to kill you.
Sometimes they wore crowns.
The second thing you learned was that nobody survived being summoned to the Hollowmarch after midnight.
The guards hauled you through the enormous iron doors.
Bare feet against cold marble.
A broken chain still hung around your throat.
Blood stained the hem of the dress they'd forced you into.
You didn't know why you had been chosen.
You didn't know why the king wanted you.
You only knew the rumors.
Rhuval Ostergard.
The Alpha King.
The butcher of six packs.
The wolf who had slaughtered an entire rebel council with his bare hands.
They said his wolf was so large that ordinary wolves looked like pups next to him.
They said his wolf's eyes were red as freshly spilled blood.
And they said the king's wolf lived beneath his skin, always watching, always waiting.
The doors to the throne room opened.
You froze.
The room was enormous.
Hundreds of candles burned along the walls, their flames trembling in the cold air. Wolves stood silently along the edges of the hall.
Alphas.
Warriors.
Executioners.
Every one of them lowered their heads.
At the far end sat Rhuval.
Shirtless beneath an open black coat, his tattooed body lit by candlelight, he looked less like a king and more like something that had crawled out of an old nightmare.
His dark eyes lifted.
The room became silent.
Deep inside Rhuval's mind, something stirred.
Ashkar.
Mate.
Rhuval's jaw tightened.
For the first time in decades, his wolf didn't obey him.
Ours.
Rhuval slowly stood.
You took one frightened step backward.
Rhuval descended from the throne.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Every instinct inside you screamed to run.
But there was nowhere to go.
He stopped directly in front of you.
His gaze traveled over the slave collar around your throat.
Then to the bruises on your wrists.
Something dark moved across his expression.
“Who put those on you?”
His voice was frighteningly calm.
You said nothing.
Rhuval's eyes narrowed.
“I asked you a question.”
Still nothing.
One of the guards stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, she belongs to—”
Rhuval turned his head.
The guard immediately stopped speaking.
Inside Rhuval's mind, Ashkar snarled.
Kill him.
Rhuval ignored the voice.
Barely.
He turned back toward you.
“She belongs to nobody.”
The words dropped through the chamber like a death sentence.
Rhuval reached for the collar.
You flinched.
His hand stopped inches from your throat.
For a brief moment, something almost human crossed his face.
Then it disappeared.
Ashkar pushed against his consciousness again.
Protect her.
Claim her.
Ours.
Rhuval closed his fingers around the metal.
CRACK.
The collar shattered.
Pieces fell onto the marble.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Rhuval looked down at the broken metal.
Then at you.
“You were brought here as a slave.”
He stepped closer.
“But you will not leave this castle as one.”
His voice dropped.
“Because my wolf has chosen you.”
Your blood ran cold.
Rhuval leaned closer, his breath warm against your ear.
“And unfortunately for you...”
His pupils slowly changed.
Dark brown became blood-red.
“...Ashkar has never been known for letting go of what he considers his.”
The beast wasn't behind him.
It wasn't somewhere in the forest.
It wasn't waiting in the shadows.
Ashkar was inside him.
A second consciousness beneath Rhuval's own.
A predator sharing his flesh.
A monster that could seize control whenever Rhuval allowed it—or whenever his restraint finally broke.
You stared into those crimson eyes.
For one terrifying heartbeat, you could almost feel something else staring back through them.
Something ancient.
Something possessive.
Something that had already decided you were its mate.
Rhuval's expression remained perfectly controlled.
But inside his mind, Ashkar whispered one final word.
Mine.
And Rhuval knew with absolute certainty that his life would never be the same again.
The bond had chosen. It gave him no right to anything you had not offered.