Everyone in Galathia Town knew Joseph Lewis as the unhinged crown wolf of the pack-the kind of guy who'd burn it all down just to light your way home.

For seven straight years, he'd been chasing me.

If some other wolf dared whisper sweet nothings my way, he'd show up swinging a rod , beating the poor sap half to death.

On my birthday he cleared out the entire island, then airlifted in roses and crammed them into every nook and cranny like it was some twisted floral apocalypse.

And that time I got snatched.

He rolled in solo, took ten brutal slashes across his body, and still dragged me out of there like I was the last bone in the yard.

Folks around town whispered that Joseph was a full-blown maniac, and I was the only antidote that could fix him.

But then, in our second year of being bound he crossed paths with this she-wolf.

She called herself a messenger from the "Enlightened One," sent to guide lost souls back to the path. And Joseph was the fool she had to save from the jaws of his own wild desires.

She urged him to cut me loose, to unbound from me for good.

Said I was bad luck wrapped in fur, that if he stuck with me, it'd end in pack ruin, with him left for dead without a single howl to mourn him.

First time she tried her "guidance," he sicced his enforcers on her, sliced her tendons clean, and dumped her crippled on the main drag like yesterday's trash.

Second round, she dragged her half-healed legs across town, begging him to shatter the bond, but he cracked her skull open with a whiskey bottle.

...

By the seventh go, she didn't waste words. Instead, she slipped him the strongest brew some mind-melting elixir. Then, with this tragic, world-weary look, she stripped down bare and threw herself on him.

For seven days and seven nights, her hoarse, broken cries echoed from that room like a ghost's lament.

After that, Joseph lost his damn mind over this she-wolf Zoe Hughes, so hell-bent on "enlightening" him.

He was hooked, feral, like she'd sunk her teeth into his soul.

Some wolves stuck up for me, muttering trash about Zoe behind her back.

Next morning a "gift" from Joseph showed up at my door: a fresh tongue, still dripping crimson.

At a pack gathering, some idiot wolf got handsy with Zoe right there in the open.

Joseph went full beast mode and gouged the guy's eyes out on the spot.

For her, he turned back into that bloodthirsty, rabid hound everyone feared.

But what gutted me? While he was out shielding her, he dragged my own blood into the mess-the one wolf who'd always had my back.

That one-eyed brute glared at me with pure venom, his scarred face twisted in rage.

"Gina, word is you and your pup brother are thick as thieves. You don't want that dim-witted little guy winding up in a ditch, do ya? Call Joseph!"

A phone smacked hard against my cheek from across the room.

Pain stung like hell, but I couldn't even flinch.

I looked up at my brother Shawn Lincoln, tied to that rickety chair like fresh kill.

The gash ran from his right shoulder clean to his belly button, blood gushing out like a busted faucet, soaking everything red.

Tears streamed down my face, veins bulging as I punched in the number I'd memorized like a prayer.

"Ring-"

Pick up, Joseph! God, please pick up!

"Dolly-"

I'm begging you! Answer the damn phone!

My legs gave out; I crumpled into a heap on the floor.

Just when despair clawed its way in deep, the line clicked alive.

"Joseph, I-"

"Gina, Joseph's made me a promise, he's done letting your temptations pull him under. He won't take your calls, so save your breath and stop dialing."

Click. Dead air.

My breath hitched, then stopped altogether. My face went ghost-white.

His good eye gleamed bloody red.

"Joseph started this debt, he owes me! Blame him if you want, for picking his sidepiece over you, his bound mate!"

With that, his hand flashed up.

A glint of cold steel shot straight for Shawn's eye socket.

"No!!!"

Splat. Warm blood sprayed across my face like rain from a slaughter.

By the time Joseph stormed in with Zoe on his arm, I was glued to the morgue door, refusing to budge.

The whole world had gone silent.

Joseph's lips pressed thin as he stepped close, reaching to haul me up.

"Gina-"

Slap!

My palm cracked across his jaw.

"Gina, come on, let's talk this out."

Slap!

The next one landed square on Zoe's smug face.

My eyes burned red, bloodshot and furious, locked on her like lasers.

I reared back for round three, but Joseph snagged my wrist.

"Enough! He's gone, Gina, your pup brother's cold. You gonna keep raging at a corpse? Making a scene like this? It's pathetic!"

I couldn't blink, just stared at the same face I'd memorized a thousand times.

But everything was all twisted now.

Joseph's got bipolar disorder, the kind that flips him from storm to sunshine in a heartbeat. He started as my patient, spilling his guts in sessions.

But day one he went full psycho, head-over-heels, chasing me like I was his moonlit destiny.

I wasn't about to tangle with a patient, let alone one wrestling demons in his head. No thanks.

Still, the stubborn wolf wedged himself into my life.

For me, he buckled down pills on time, therapy without a fight.

Once, a raging patient lunged at me out of nowhere.

Joseph didn't hesitate; he threw himself between us, blood pouring from his split scalp like a faucet.

I gawked, eyes wide as saucers. "Joseph, are you out of your mind?!"

Pale as death, he still patted me down, checking for scratches.

"Told you, I won't let a soul lay a paw on you."

That moment stuck with me, replaying like a scratched record.

He pulled more boneheaded stunts for me over the years, enough to make the pack swear I was his fated one, his lifeline.

Looking back now, believing that made me the biggest fool in the woods, naive as fresh snow.

My bloodshot eyes locked on him, and I unleashed a scream that ripped from my gut.

"Joseph, why the hell didn't you pick up?! Where were you when it all went down? You forget-Shawn's the reason your head's still screwed on straight?!"

It was him. All his fault.

If not for Joseph, if not for shielding him, Shawn never would've gotten nabbed, pumped full of those mind-wrecking drugs.

He'd been sharp as a fang once. Now? A shell, barely able to wipe his own tail.

Joseph dropped his gaze, but before he could spit out a word, Zoe stepped up. "Gina, Joseph's got big things ahead, pack-shaking stuff. Your pup dying for him? That's an honor, dying with purpose! If I'd been there sooner, I'd have taken the hit myself. But you? Holding this over him? After all the ways he chased you? How's that fair?!"

She beamed like she'd just dropped wisdom from the stars.

That flicker of regret in Joseph's eyes gone. In its place, pure awe as he swung his gaze to her.

Then he yanked her close, locking her in like treasure, and crushed his mouth to her painted lips in a deep, hungry kiss.

She melted against him with a little whimper,.

"Fool," he murmured against her, "if it'd been you? I'd have torn the world apart before letting it touch you."

My skull exploded.

Right there, with Shawn's body cooling on a slab, they groped and cooed like we weren't even in the room.

It was a slap to Shawn's memory, a gut-punch to me.

I shattered.

Grabbed anything in reach, trays, chairs, whatever-and hurled it at their feet in a frenzy. "Get out! Both of you, get the hell out!"

Joseph's face hardened to stone as he shoved Zoe behind him like a shield. "I'm not jawing with a lunatic. Cool off, then maybe we talk."

Tears soaked my hair, turning me into a drowned, snarling mess.

We had nothing left to say. Nothing.

I was done. I had to unbound from him, run until the moon swallowed me whole.

Everyone in Galathia Town knew Joseph Lewis as the unhinged crown wolf of the pack-the kind of guy who'd burn it all down just to light your way home.

For seven straight years, he'd been chasing me.

If some other wolf dared whisper sweet nothings my way, he'd show up swinging a rod , beating the poor sap half to death.

On my birthday he cleared out the entire island, then airlifted in roses and crammed them into every nook and cranny like it was some twisted floral apocalypse.

And that time I got snatched.

He rolled in solo, took ten brutal slashes across his body, and still dragged me out of there like I was the last bone in the yard.

Folks around town whispered that Joseph was a full-blown maniac, and I was the only antidote that could fix him.

But then, in our second year of being bound he crossed paths with this she-wolf.

She called herself a messenger from the "Enlightened One," sent to guide lost souls back to the path. And Joseph was the fool she had to save from the jaws of his own wild desires.

She urged him to cut me loose, to unbound from me for good.

Said I was bad luck wrapped in fur, that if he stuck with me, it'd end in pack ruin, with him left for dead without a single howl to mourn him.

First time she tried her "guidance," he sicced his enforcers on her, sliced her tendons clean, and dumped her crippled on the main drag like yesterday's trash.

Second round, she dragged her half-healed legs across town, begging him to shatter the bond, but he cracked her skull open with a whiskey bottle.

...

By the seventh go, she didn't waste words. Instead, she slipped him the strongest brew some mind-melting elixir. Then, with this tragic, world-weary look, she stripped down bare and threw herself on him.

For seven days and seven nights, her hoarse, broken cries echoed from that room like a ghost's lament.

After that, Joseph lost his damn mind over this she-wolf Zoe Hughes, so hell-bent on "enlightening" him.

He was hooked, feral, like she'd sunk her teeth into his soul.

Some wolves stuck up for me, muttering trash about Zoe behind her back.

Next morning a "gift" from Joseph showed up at my door: a fresh tongue, still dripping crimson.

At a pack gathering, some idiot wolf got handsy with Zoe right there in the open.

Joseph went full beast mode and gouged the guy's eyes out on the spot.

For her, he turned back into that bloodthirsty, rabid hound everyone feared.

But what gutted me? While he was out shielding her, he dragged my own blood into the mess-the one wolf who'd always had my back.

That one-eyed brute glared at me with pure venom, his scarred face twisted in rage.

"Gina, word is you and your pup brother are thick as thieves. You don't want that dim-witted little guy winding up in a ditch, do ya? Call Joseph!"

A phone smacked hard against my cheek from across the room.

Pain stung like hell, but I couldn't even flinch.

I looked up at my brother Shawn Lincoln, tied to that rickety chair like fresh kill.

The gash ran from his right shoulder clean to his belly button, blood gushing out like a busted faucet, soaking everything red.

Tears streamed down my face, veins bulging as I punched in the number I'd memorized like a prayer.

"Ring-"

Pick up, Joseph! God, please pick up!

"Dolly-"

I'm begging you! Answer the damn phone!

My legs gave out; I crumpled into a heap on the floor.

Just when despair clawed its way in deep, the line clicked alive.

"Joseph, I-"

"Gina, Joseph's made me a promise, he's done letting your temptations pull him under. He won't take your calls, so save your breath and stop dialing."

Click. Dead air.

My breath hitched, then stopped altogether. My face went ghost-white.

His good eye gleamed bloody red.

"Joseph started this debt, he owes me! Blame him if you want, for picking his sidepiece over you, his bound mate!"

With that, his hand flashed up.

A glint of cold steel shot straight for Shawn's eye socket.

"No!!!"

Splat. Warm blood sprayed across my face like rain from a slaughter.

By the time Joseph stormed in with Zoe on his arm, I was glued to the morgue door, refusing to budge.

The whole world had gone silent.

Joseph's lips pressed thin as he stepped close, reaching to haul me up.

"Gina-"

Slap!

My palm cracked across his jaw.

"Gina, come on, let's talk this out."

Slap!

The next one landed square on Zoe's smug face.

My eyes burned red, bloodshot and furious, locked on her like lasers.

I reared back for round three, but Joseph snagged my wrist.

"Enough! He's gone, Gina, your pup brother's cold. You gonna keep raging at a corpse? Making a scene like this? It's pathetic!"

I couldn't blink, just stared at the same face I'd memorized a thousand times.

But everything was all twisted now.

Joseph's got bipolar disorder, the kind that flips him from storm to sunshine in a heartbeat. He started as my patient, spilling his guts in sessions.

But day one he went full psycho, head-over-heels, chasing me like I was his moonlit destiny.

I wasn't about to tangle with a patient, let alone one wrestling demons in his head. No thanks.

Still, the stubborn wolf wedged himself into my life.

For me, he buckled down pills on time, therapy without a fight.

Once, a raging patient lunged at me out of nowhere.

Joseph didn't hesitate; he threw himself between us, blood pouring from his split scalp like a faucet.

I gawked, eyes wide as saucers. "Joseph, are you out of your mind?!"

Pale as death, he still patted me down, checking for scratches.

"Told you, I won't let a soul lay a paw on you."

That moment stuck with me, replaying like a scratched record.

He pulled more boneheaded stunts for me over the years, enough to make the pack swear I was his fated one, his lifeline.

Looking back now, believing that made me the biggest fool in the woods, naive as fresh snow.

My bloodshot eyes locked on him, and I unleashed a scream that ripped from my gut.

"Joseph, why the hell didn't you pick up?! Where were you when it all went down? You forget-Shawn's the reason your head's still screwed on straight?!"

It was him. All his fault.

If not for Joseph, if not for shielding him, Shawn never would've gotten nabbed, pumped full of those mind-wrecking drugs.

He'd been sharp as a fang once. Now? A shell, barely able to wipe his own tail.

Joseph dropped his gaze, but before he could spit out a word, Zoe stepped up. "Gina, Joseph's got big things ahead, pack-shaking stuff. Your pup dying for him? That's an honor, dying with purpose! If I'd been there sooner, I'd have taken the hit myself. But you? Holding this over him? After all the ways he chased you? How's that fair?!"

She beamed like she'd just dropped wisdom from the stars.

That flicker of regret in Joseph's eyes gone. In its place, pure awe as he swung his gaze to her.

Then he yanked her close, locking her in like treasure, and crushed his mouth to her painted lips in a deep, hungry kiss.

She melted against him with a little whimper,.

"Fool," he murmured against her, "if it'd been you? I'd have torn the world apart before letting it touch you."

My skull exploded.

Right there, with Shawn's body cooling on a slab, they groped and cooed like we weren't even in the room.

It was a slap to Shawn's memory, a gut-punch to me.

I shattered.

Grabbed anything in reach, trays, chairs, whatever-and hurled it at their feet in a frenzy. "Get out! Both of you, get the hell out!"

Joseph's face hardened to stone as he shoved Zoe behind him like a shield. "I'm not jawing with a lunatic. Cool off, then maybe we talk."

Tears soaked my hair, turning me into a drowned, snarling mess.

We had nothing left to say. Nothing.

I was done. I had to unbound from him, run until the moon swallowed me whole.

I couldn't even snag a proper resting spot for Shawn yet, so I had to stash him temporary-like in the healer's ward.

It killed me, but I forced my feet to turn, heading back to the house Shawn and I used to share.

Rifling through the old storage bin on autopilot, my fingers hit a folder tucked in the back.

Inside was a bond-shattering agreement, already scratched with Joseph's signature, plus a vow scrawled like ironclad law.

Shawn had shoved it at me months back, my eyes bugging out like I'd seen a ghost.

"Joseph's too wild, sis-his kind of love's a rollercoaster with no brakes. I don't want you crashing. Told him straight: if the fire's out for Gina, set her loose."

The papers were their bet, him and Joseph, high stakes, no take-backs.

I could picture it clear as day: Joseph signing with that cocky grin, betting the pack he'd never fold.

The folder crumpled in my fist like it owed me blood.

Once I'd lined up a plot under the pines, I clutched those papers and marched to the nearest law office.

The old wolf behind the desk took one look and waved me off like bad news. "Sorry, Gina. can't touch this."

My face froze mid-breath. "Can't? What's that supposed to mean?"

He wouldn't even meet my eyes. "Just... can't help ya, hon."

I bit my lip bloody and stormed out, hitting the next spot down the strip.

Same song, different howl: "No dice. We're out."

My temples throbbed like war drums.

No way every law wolf in Galathia Town was too chicken to cut me free from Joseph!

I'd barely cleared the door when my pocket buzzed, Joseph, of course, sniffing out the drama.

"Gina, quit the tantrum. Without my nod, no one's touching that scrap of nothing." His voice dripped easy mockery, like we were swapping barbs over brews.

I clenched my fists till my nails bit skin, rage boiling in my veins. "Why fight it? I'm handing you Zoe on a platter-shouldn't you be howling at the moon?"

But before he could fire back, Zoe's voice purred through the line. "Joseph, time for your centering breath."

"Right there, love." He flipped soft as butter-just like that.

Then, cool as ice, back to me: "Gina, we've run this trail together long enough-you know my enemies, the wolves who'd chew me up for scraps. Cut you loose? You'd be lucky to see sunrise. Shawn pulled me from the fire once; for that, and the old trails we blazed, even if the spark's gone... I'll keep you safe. Count on it."

Click. Silence.

I stood rooted, his words looping like a bad dream.

Acid burned my eyes; all I could do was laugh-bitter, broken.

We'd howled through storms side by side, and it boiled down to pity? Old favors?

Screw that. I didn't need his scraps.

Nails gouging the wall till they snapped, I snarled through gritted teeth.

No way I'd stay bound to the wolf who got my brother slaughtered!

I spun on my heel, set to grab Shawn from the healers and bolt.

But as I hit the hospital steps, my phone screamed again.

"Gina-bad news! That she-wolf Zoe? She swiped your pup's remains!"

Blood turned to ice in my veins. I shook so hard I nearly dropped the damn thing.

I gaped, mouth working, but no sound came.

"Heard her yapping on a call-something about the old warehouse up the road!"

"Thanks," I choked out, slamming the call and hailing a ride straight there.

I'd just hit the warehouse edge when it started-thwack, thwack-the sick rhythm of metal on meat, pounding into my ears.

My boots glued to the dirt; my chest seized like a trap.

Then I bolted, stumbling blind toward the noise.

The door flew open, and the sight hit me like a freight train-a raw, ripping scream tore from my throat, echoing off the rust and shadows.