A day before her mating ceremony, Daphne couldn’t sleep. She went to find Hunter, her intended, her future mate, the alpha who had promised to make her his. She found him instead in the arms of Jade, moaning her name, gripping her tightly. He didn’t even notice Daphne enter.
It wasn’t the first time she’d caught them. It was the fourth. The first time, weeks into their courtship, she’d turned a blind eye. He’d sworn Jade was just a friend going through a hard time.
The second time, he’d chased after her, drunk, promising it would never happen again. She’d believed him because her pack needed him. Her sister, Diana, their beloved alpha, lay in a mysterious coma, and Daphne, only a beta, couldn’t protect their small pack alone. The union with Hunter was supposed to save them.
This time, Hunter didn’t stop. He met her eyes, glazed with pleasure, and just kept touching Jade. He didn’t care anymore if she watched. Daphne understood then that she had been a fool.
In the morning, hours before the ceremony, she confessed everything to her childhood friend Laura. Laura just laughed. “You’re a fool if you think he’s ever going to stop sleeping around. He’s an alpha.
You can’t refuse an alpha. They refuse you, not the other way around. Besides, you’ll see, he is very good in bed. ”
The ceremony itself was a blur of white gown and watchful eyes.
Hunter swore fidelity, and she ground her teeth and swore it back. But when his teeth grazed her neck for the mating bite, she jumped away, gasping. Everyone stared. “I need a moment,” she whispered, and fled.
Inside her bridal chamber, her heart raced with more than just betrayal. Diana had always been wary of Hunter, though she never said why. Diana had rejected his courtship… and then she fell ill. Daphne heard Hunter’s voice echoing outside her door, and Jade’s plaintive tone.
Something pulled her up the stairs. “Why did you have to tell her about the baby? ” Hunter growled. “I told you, I thought she knew.
Liar. You couldn’t wait until after I mated with her. ”
“I need this pack, Jade. The power they have.
”
“You know I disagree. We could have taken them by force. But you had to go and try to get with the sister. ”
“So this is about Diana then?
You were obsessed with Diana. Is that why you poisoned her? ”
Daphne’s heart stopped. Poisoned.
Jade had poisoned Diana. Hunter wanted her pack, and Jade wanted Hunter. They’d orchestrated everything. Daphne burst back into her room.
She shifted, not into a wolf, but into her bird form, and threw herself out the window, soaring into the sky. She flew until an arrow pierced her wing. Then another grazed her. She was being hunted.
She crashed through the trees, hitting the forest floor hard. She pulled the arrow from her arm as footsteps approached, and her consciousness faded. She woke in the softest bed she’d ever felt, surrounded by impossible beauty. A magnificent castle, with gardens blooming in eternal, golden light that never changed.
It felt like a dream. A perfect, peaceful dream where she could forget the world. She explored the magnificent dining hall, feasted on food more delicious than anything she’d known, and felt a strange sense of belonging. But her animal instincts were tense.
The flowers had no scent. The food… she later learned, was only an illusion. She found the room of mirrors and saw Hunter, commanding his pack to find her. Then she saw Diana, standing behind her own reflection, tall and proud.
“Sister, I’m the eldest. It’s my role to worry about you. ” Daphne felt a wave of relief so strong it hurt. But before she could say more, a large hand covered her mouth, and a deep, cool voice whispered in her ear not to turn around.
She was compelled to obey. Her body moved against her will as the man, who called himself Gray, led her out of the castle. He told her he was sorry for shooting her, that he’d been hunting for food. He warned her that the castle was dangerous, that the food was an illusion that wouldn’t sustain her, and that he was a danger himself.
Despite her pleas to stay, he forced her through the gates. When she was finally free to turn around, the castle was gone. Daphne wandered the woods. She found her father and Hunter, who had tracked her down.
Hunter moved to mark her, to force her to be his. Her own father stood by as Hunter cornered her against a tree. Just as Hunter’s teeth were about to touch her skin, a familiar cold voice commanded, “Freeze. ”
Hunter’s eyes went wide.
He couldn’t move. Daphne couldn’t either. She felt an icy hand take hers. “Come with me,” the voice said.
Hunter growled threats, promising revenge. The voice simply replied, “You can try. ”
Gray led her back to the castle. He explained the curse that had been his companion for centuries.
The castle, created by a demon-bound magician, granted his wish for a hidden, beautiful home that would be his sanctuary. But the price was his greatest treasure: the ability to be around others without cursing them. Anyone who looked upon his face would fall irrevocably, obsessively in love with him, and wither away if he didn’t return their feelings. Daphne stayed.
They established a routine. He stayed hidden in his room while she explored, and she wore a blindfold when he was near. He brought her real food, and she, in turn, drew him pictures of the castle from the sky, sketches she left for him in the drawing room. “Can you make more?
” he wrote. And so she did. Days turned into weeks. They developed a strange, tender bond.
He told her stories, and she fell in love with his mind, his kindness, his voice. It was enough. But then she saw the mirror again. Hunter was gone, replaced by Jade as the new alpha.
But Hunter’s lies had taken root. He had convinced her pack that she had poisoned Diana, that she had tried to harm Jade and her unborn child. Her father had been among the crowd cheering for her capture. She had no one.
She was alone. Overwhelmed with despair, she stopped eating. She stopped moving. Gray came to her, blindfolding her, sitting by her side.
He played a game with her, telling her stories to coax her into eating a single bite. He told her a story about a man who had lost everything, and he kept her alive. When she told him she wanted to rescue Diana, he didn’t hesitate. With Adrien’s guidance, they knew the poison had to be given daily.
If she could get Diana away from Jade, her sister would wake up. Daphne snuck back to her pack, shifted, and carried her unconscious sister out of the pack house. It was a brutal, exhausting journey, but Gray met her by their designated tree, his presence a balm for her soul. They returned to the castle, and Gray placed Diana safely in a bed.
Soon, her sister would wake. But Hunter had followed them. He burst into the castle, enraged. Gray had no power over him anymore.
Hunter had wished on Adrien, the magician, for the means to destroy Gray. He had lost his title, his power, everything, to make this wish. And now he was here, holding a gemstone, ready to kill him. Gray’s only defense was his curse.
As Hunter lunged, Gray tore off his own cloak, exposing his face. Hunter froze, his rage dissolving into a dazed, obsessive love. The fight was over. Hunter was now a prisoner of his own desire for Gray.
Diana woke up. She was furious about Hunter, but she agreed to take him back to her pack, to force a confession. Daphne made Gray promise to meet her by their tree in two weeks. She had to settle things with her pack first.
Back at the pack house, Jade had taken over Hunter’s pack. She agreed to a truce. Diana wanted Daphne to stay, to help lead their pack. But Daphne knew her place was no longer here.
She left, promising to return to Gray. She waited by their tree for two weeks. She knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to tell him she loved him, that she didn’t need to see him.
But Gray never came. She waited, desperate. She realized the only way to find him was to make a wish of her own. She went to Adrien’s shop, drenched and desperate.
He warned her of the price, but she didn’t care. She wished for the ability to find Gray. Adrien granted her wish. The price was the castle itself.
It would begin to disintegrate, and she had to get Gray out before it vanished completely, taking him with it. Daphne flew faster than she ever had. She found the castle crumbling into black dust. Inside, the room of mirrors was a shattered void.
And there he was, his beautiful, pale face illuminated by the dying light. She saw him. She didn’t fall under the curse. “It’s too late, I already saw you.
It’s fine, because I already love you. ”
She begged him to come with her. She told him Diana’s secret, that if he drank her alpha blood, he could become mortal and lose his curse. She held him, told him he wasn’t alone, that he had her now.
He let her pull him from the collapsing castle. In the end, they emerged into the forest, the castle gone as if it had never been. Gray was rendered mortal, left without his vampiric powers and his curse. Daphne took his cold, once-immortal hand.
They had a new dream to build together, an ordinary one.
