Serena’s POV

The chains were gone when I woke up.

In their place: a thin tunic, a pair of worn boots, and a folded note left on the edge of the cot.

Be downstairs in five. Disobedience has consequences. —D

No signature. No apology. Just that elegant, slanted scrawl that made my stomach twist with hatred and something worse.

I stared at the iron-studded door for too long, debating escape. But where would I run? This wasn’t neutral territory. This was enemy land. And if the guards outside were anything like Damon, they’d track me before I could shift twice.

My pride rebelled, but my instincts whispered: survive first, rebel later.

I slipped the boots on and headed downstairs.

The pack house was nothing like the ceremonial halls I’d grown up in. It was rawstone, timber, and muscle. Warriors filled the corridors, eyes sharp, movements controlled. Some paused to glance at me. Most sneered.

“Is that the Grey girl?” one muttered.

“Alpha’s new slave,” another chuckled.

Their words pierced, but I didn’t flinch. I couldn’t afford to. Not now.

A towering woman stood at the foot of the kitchen hallway, arms crossed and expression grim.

“You’re late,” she snapped.

“I’m Serena.”

“I didn’t ask.” She shoved a broom into my hands. “You’re here to work. Alpha’s orders.”

So that’s what I was now. A servant.

The Luna-to-be turned maid.

I cleaned until my fingers ached, until the burn of humiliation numbed. I scrubbed floors and sliced meat, all while whispers followed me like ghosts taunts about my bloodline, about Victor, about being Damon’s property.

The worst part?

Damon never showed.

Not once.

Not until dusk fell, and I was called into his study.

I stood at the threshold, fists clenched at my sides.

He didn’t look up from the fire he was tending. “You disobeyed.”

“I came.”

“Late.”

My voice shook. “I’m not your prisoner.”

He turned then, slowly. His silver eyes gleamed in the firelight cold, unreadable. “You’re not?”

I swallowed. “This…this is barbaric. You’re punishing me for something my father did. For debts I never owed.”

Damon stepped forward, the fire casting shadows across his face. “Your father slaughtered my family. Burned my home. Left me to rot while his allies feasted on power.” His voice was low and lethal. “You think debts die with the generation that created them?”

“I didn’t know.”

“That doesn’t make you innocent.”

My anger flared. “And what makes you righteous? Kidnapping a girl in her wedding gown? Enslaving her to make a point?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he stared at me for a long moment. Then he reached out too fast.

I slapped him.

Silence followed.

His head turned slightly with the force, but he didn’t step back.

Then it happened.

For a fraction of a second, something inhuman flared behind his eyes. Not rage. Not surprise.

Possession.

A shadow of his wolf surfaced silent, primal, hungry.

My breath caught. His pupils dilated, his chest rose in a deep inhale.

Then, just as quickly, it was gone.

He stepped away, jaw clenched.

“I warned you,” he murmured.

“Do it,” I challenged. “Hit me. Throw me back in chains. Isn’t that what monsters do?”

Damon’s lips curled not in amusement this time, but in warning. “You think I’m the monster?” he said quietly. “Wait until my wolves find out I’ve brought the daughter of Victor Grey into my house.”

He didn’t need to say more. The pack’s hatred already clung to me like frostbite.

But I didn’t cower. Not this time.

“Let them come,” I whispered. “Let them try.”

He turned his back to me, his voice rough. “You have no idea what you’re tempting.”

I didn’t answer.

But for the first time, I saw it.

Behind all the fury and vengeance, Damon wasn’t just punishing me he was fighting something else.

Something darker. Something buried.

Or maybe… someone he couldn’t afford to want.

***

Damon’s POV

The slap still burned.

Not on my face. On something deeper. Something I’d buried so thoroughly I almost believed it was dead.

But it stirred the moment her palm hit my cheek.

Mate.

I growled, pacing the study like a caged animal.

She couldn’t be. She shouldn’t be.

And yet my wolf wouldn’t quiet. Every time I inhaled her scent, every time her eyes flared with fury instead of fear, it responded. Pulled.

Claim her.

No.

This wasn’t about claiming.

This was about revenge.

And if I had to chain my wolf and my heart in the same cage, so be it.

***

Serena’s POV

I couldn’t sleep.

The cot was cold. My hands still ached from cleaning. But it was the silence that unnerved me most.

Until it wasn’t silent anymore.

A growl echoed down the hall deep, guttural.

Then a crash.

I sat up, heart racing.

Another growl. And voices muffled, panicked.

Then footsteps. Rushed.

The door burst open.

A young warrior stumbled in, blood on his arm.

“You need to come. Now.”

I ran.

Down the stairs, through the corridor lit by moonlight, until I found them; four wolves surrounding me. Low-ranked, angry. Hungry for dominance.

One snarled. “You don’t belong here, Grey filth.”

I backed into the wall.

A claw slashed forward. I ducked. Another lunged.

Then..

A roar.

The kind that splits mountains.

Damon exploded through the corridor in full wolf form massive, black as night, eyes glowing silver. His growl shook the walls. His presence stilled the others like prey frozen under a hunter’s stare.

One whimpered. Another tried to run.

Too late.

Damon pinned the leader with a single swipe, claws digging into the stone beside his head. He didn’t bite. Didn’t kill.

But every threat in that hallway knew

She was under his protection.

And no one would touch her.

Not without facing the beast he barely kept leashed.