CHAPTER 1 : BURNING ENCOUNTER
ALORAH'S POV
The hallway smelled of him.
I hated that I could tell.
It was the week before the exams, and students rushed past me in anxious clusters, books pressed to their chests, laughter echoing against the stone walls of Moon Supernatural Academy. Yet among all the scents paper, perfume, sweat, fear one scent cut through everything.
Storm and pine.
Dante Blackwood.
I didn’t have a wolf yet. I wasn’t even eighteen. I shouldn’t have been able to sense him this strongly… but I always did. And I hated him even more for it.
I walked to my locker, pretending not to notice the sudden silence behind me.
“Look,” a familiar voice drawled, dripping with mockery. “Our dearest untouchable little wolf is here.”
I didn’t turn around. I didn’t need to.
Only one person said those words like a crown of thorns instead of a nickname.
Dante Blackwood the man I despised most. My enemy. A curse in werewolf form to the earth.
Some days I wished I could just touch him… and watch him burn.
He had made my school life more miserable than my curse ever had.
I shut my locker harder than necessary and walked to class, his laughter trailing behind me like smoke.
Untouchable little pup.
The words dragged me back years .
~~Flashback
I was five when I learned what I was.
I had snuck out of the pack house, tiny feet racing toward the playground I wasn’t allowed to visit alone. I only wanted to play. Only wanted to feel normal.
Then another pup bumped into me.
The scream that followed was not mine alone.
Flames burst across our skin not real fire, but pain so sharp it felt like being torn apart from the inside. We were both burned, crying, confused. Neither of us had wolves yet to heal us.
Our parents came running. The healer was called. My mother held me tightly while scolding me through her tears.
“You must be careful, Alorha. You can get hurt… and you can hurt others.”
That day I learned the word curse.
~~
I am still untouchable. But I am not that helpless little pup anymore.
My parents made sure of that.
I trained. I learned combat, leadership, diplomacy. I studied pack laws while others studied fairy tales. If the Moon Goddess had cursed my skin, then I would sharpen my mind and strength.
Because I grew up dreaming about one thing to rule.
There was only one issue because of my curse i may never find a mate and, A Luna and an Alpha ruled together equals. That was the law of our world.
Without a mate, I could become nothing.
“Alorha? Where did you go?” Rays’ voice pulled me back.
I blinked and found him smiling beside me Rays, my best friend since childhood. Son of my father’s beta. Loyal, kind, always there.
I had overheard our mothers once, whispering in the courtyard.
If the curse is cured, Rays and Alorha should claim each other. The pack will remain stable.
Rays often joked, “Future Alpha and Luna, right?” He said it lightly, like destiny was a game.
But my heart never answered him, not once and I never understood why....
DANTE'S POV
I was standing in the hallway with my friends, laughter echoing around us.
A girl Hale, or Haxe, or something like that was in beside me I didn’t really remember her name. Soft waist. Feminine curves. She was pressed against me, and I was enjoying it.
Then she entered the hallway.
I didn’t see her at first.
I didn’t hear her either.
I sensed her.
It was ridiculous. Impossible, even. She didn’t have a wolf yet. She wasn’t eighteen. Without a wolf, no one carried a scent strong enough to be felt from across a hall.
And yet… there it was.
Her.
If I ever said this out loud, my friends would laugh me into madness. The powerful Blackwood Alpha heir losing his mind over a little pup without a wolf.
Sometimes I wondered if I was losing it.
The moment she stepped inside the college, my body reacted before my mind did. I loosened my grip on the girl in my arms without realizing it. Something inside me recoiled, irritated, restless.
Then I saw her.
And just like that, my mood was ruined. So I did what I always did. I made sure she felt bad too.
“Look,” I said loudly, my voice cutting through the noise. “Our little untouchable pup is here.”
She didn’t reply. That burned more than any insult she could have thrown at me. She acted like I wasn’t even there like I didn’t exist.
I clenched my jaw.
I followed her to class, watching her laugh with some stupid boy from her pack. The sight twisted something ugly in my chest.
Before I could think better of it, I opened my bottle and threw water straight at her.
She froze.
For a second, she just stood there, confused, shocked, droplets sliding down her hair and clothes. Laughter exploded around us.
Her little friend stepped forward, furious. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
I smirked. “I was scared she’d burn you down, little pup,” I said casually. “So I thought I’d cool her off.”
My eyes drifted back to her. And I froze.
Her white shirt had turned transparent from the water, clinging to her body. Pale, soft skin glowed beneath it, untouched and perfect. Her black bra was painfully visible.
She looked devastatingly breathtaking. My wolf surged to the surface without warning. Heat flooded my veins. My eyes glowed.
Fuck.
Next day after classes, I locked the girls’ washroom door and leaned against the wall outside, arms crossed, listening.
Silence for three seconds.
Then the rattling began.
“Blackwood!” her voice snapped from inside. “Open the door.”
I smirked. “You should thank me. I’m keeping the untouchable pup safe from the world.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“And you’re dramatic.”
We went back and forth like that insults, threats, sharp words thrown through a wooden door. She warned me twice. I laughed both times. There was something addictive about getting a reaction out of my, even if it was anger..
Especially if it was anger.
When the bell rang and the college slowly emptied, I finally pushed myself off the wall and left. I didn’t open the door. Someone else would. Or she’d figure it out. She always did.
I headed to the field and started football practice, running drills until sweat burned my eyes and my lungs felt like fire. It usually cleared my head.
Usually.
Half an hour later, while catching my breath, I saw her walking past the gates toward home.
I froze.
How did she get out?
The corridor had been nearly empty. No teachers, no students. The lock had been solid. I had checked it myself.
A strange thought slid into my mind.
Does she have powers?
Impossible. She didn’t even have a wolf yet.
I jogged after her, irritation mixing with curiosity. “Hey.”
She turned sharply, eyes blazing. Before I could say another word, she shoved me aside and continued walking.
And the world stopped.
No burn.
No pain.
No recoil.
Just… contact.
I stood there, stunned, the place where her hand had touched my chest still warm. She hadn’t even realized what she’d done. Neither of us had fallen. Neither of us had screamed.
Her curse should have reacted.
It always reacted.
My mind raced. Was she healed? Did the curse break?
Or… was it me?
I looked at my hand, then back at her retreating figure. Confusion twisted into something deeper something dangerous.
Why could she touch me?
ALORAH'S POV
By the time I reached the pack house, anger still burned under my skin like a second pulse.
Rays was already there, leaning against the stone railing near the entrance, waiting as he usually did when our schedules matched.
The moment he saw my expression, his brows pulled together. “What happened now?”
“Dante Blackwood happened,” I snapped, pushing past him. “He locked me in the girls’ washroom. Left me there when half the college was empty.”
Rays straightened instantly. “He what?”
“He stood outside the door and kept teasing me like it was some grand joke.” I clenched my fists, the memory still sharp. “He thinks everything is a game.”
Rays exhaled through his nose, jaw tightening. “He’s a jerk, Alorha. Everyone knows it. One day he’ll cross the wrong line.”
We walked inside together, the familiar scent of home wrapping around me cedarwood, cooked spices, warmth.
The pack house was alive as always, voices echoing softly through the long corridors. Dinner had already been laid out in the main hall.
Meals here were never small.
The Alpha sat at the head of the long wooden table my father, calm and observant as ever. Beside him was my mother, graceful but sharp-eyed. On one side sat Rays’ parents, the Beta and his wife, and on the other the Gamma’s family. It wasn’t just dinner; it was tradition. Leadership ate together, spoke together, decided together.
I slid into my seat, greeting everyone politely, forcing the irritation out of my tone. No one needed to hear about Dante tonight.
I wanted one peaceful hour.
Plates passed, conversations drifted from training schedules to harvest supplies, from healer rotations to festival preparations. The warmth of shared laughter softened the edges of my anger.
But peace in a pack never lasted long.
At the far end of the table, the elders’ voices grew lower, heavier.
“…the border patrol reported movement again,” Uncle Kilen my father's gamma said.
“Blackwood scouts,” Ray's father replied. “Too close this time.”
My fork paused mid-air.
The word Blackwood always carried weight. Power. Conflict. Pride sharpened into hostility over generations no one fully remembered the origin of anymore.
“They’re testing limits,” Uncle Kilen continued. “If this continues, it won’t remain silent tension.”
My father’s voice remained steady. “We do not provoke. But we do not yield either.”
Rays shifted slightly, sensing the change in atmosphere. Across the table, my mother’s gaze flickered toward father for a brief second protective, worried, unreadable.
The rivalry between Moonlight and Blackwood wasn’t new.
It was old as stone, old as the forests.
