Chapter 1 TOUCH

DARYL

"Bloody humans!" I cursed as one of the tourists rode past me on a bicycle. It was hard to keep my wolf down and ignore the human stench invading Eden.

"Calm down, Daryl," my sister, Ilana, said. "They will be gone before you know it. Besides, Father says this is all a business strategy. How else will the packs grow if we cannot form ties with the human world?"

"That's bullshit, and you know that, Ilana. We have enough. We don't need them to grow," I argued.

It was no news that I hated humans. If the story of how my mother died at the hands of a human Hunter was not enough for me to hate them, what else would be? Humans were weak, but their ruthlessness had wiped out even the strongest of us. It was why only a few people knew about our existence now and that Nevanda was a country combining all Eight Packs of Lycans, with King Ren, my Father, as the Alpha King. The City of Eden was the Royal seat.

As we walked through the park where the tourists lounged around, my eyes zoomed in on one of them; she was young, probably around my age. She sat reading on a bench, dark curls tied up carelessly. Even from a distance, her scent stirred something in me.

She was human, I could tell, but her scent did not disgust me. Instead, I yearned to taste her scent, to trace my lips along her pulse until my wolf quieted. I shook my head instantly at the thought. Humans were bad. They were dangerous.

"Are you okay?" Ilana asked.

"I. Am. Fine," I gritted out, already regretting my decision to come out of the palace today. My eyes dashed back to the space where I had seen the human, but she was not there anymore. She was not there?

"We should get going," Ilana told me and held on to my gloved hands, careful not to touch my bare skin like always.

We were already walking out when I heard the tiniest scream I had probably ever heard in all of my life. "Coming through!"

One minute I was standing alone, and the next I had that luscious body wrapped around me in a tight embrace and warm hands wrapped around my hands. I froze as warmth bloomed through my palms, wrong and right all at once.

Pause.

Replay.

My hands.

My bare hands!

I snapped out of my thoughts instantly and pushed away the girl, blocking out my wolf's protest at the loss of contact. What the fuck was wrong with my wolf?

I looked down at my hands and then at the girl who held the gloves. It was her, the same girl I had seen lying on a park bench.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered, handing my gloves back to me.

She sounded fine. Nothing was wrong with her. She did not die on the spot.

And she held my bare hands.

I stepped closer to the girl, my thoughts brimming with curiosity. This human touched me and she was perfectly fine.

"Daryl, let's go!" I heard Ilana shout. The latter did not even know what had just happened. With another last glance at the human girl, I raced after my sister.

•

"She touched me! I swear she did!"

"That's nonsense, Daryl. Nobody touches you and stays alive, you know that, right?"

Desperation clouded my face as I stared at my Father. "I can swear on my mother's grave that she touched my bare hands, Father!"

Alpha King Ren was taken aback at my outburst. "That is impossible."

"I thought so too, but I saw it, I saw her touch me," I insisted.

"Daryl, you should go for a run in the woods. Try to clear your head, it's been a while since you let your wolf out. And you have been getting weak, we cannot allow that now, can we?"

I narrowed my eyes on my Father. The old man had to always bring it back to me being weak. I knew they would not believe me, even Ilana was staring at me like I had grown two heads, but I knew what I saw… and felt. The girl touched me, something no human or supernatural could do because of my curse.

Yet she did it.

"I am not insane or desperate. I know she touched me," I muttered and walked out of my Father's quarters.

I clenched my fists, my claws extending and retracting as I tried to tamp down the urge to let my wolf out. I went for my favourite out of the array of cars parked in the Palace compound. It was a black Acura and it was my favourite car out of all the cars in the Palace. I climbed inside and took off at breakneck speed, barely missing passing traffic.

When I arrived at the woods, I let out my wolf and ran, my mind blanking at the thoughts of the hazel-eyed girl I had met at the park. Not like it was the slightest bit possible, but I tried to.

It was the sudden crinkling of the dried leaves that made me aware that I was not alone in the woods. I sniffed the air. Humans. I immediately shifted into my human form, which was a huge mistake on my part.

I whirled around, eyes clashing with the intruder. Her intoxicating scent teased my nostrils, just like the first time I had seen her. "Fuck!"

"Holy shit!" I heard her voice just as I felt a tingling in my head, and then she passed out.

She freaking passed out.

---

SORAYA

"How could you have been so careless, Daryl!"

"Well, I didn't know anyone was in the woods! I thought the woods were prohibited from the tourists?"

"Goddess, this is bad! This is bad, and you know it. She is going to die!"

"We are not going to tell anyone."

"Have you lost your mind! You know the penalty in this scenario is death and Father is the one who made the rules!"

Death? Was someone talking about death?

Two voices were what I heard. Two very unfamiliar voices, and even though they spoke in English, it felt like they were speaking gibberish.

I wanted so badly to open my eyes, but I stayed still and also tried to rack my brain as to what had brought me here.

Think, Raya, think.

"We will tell no one."

"But she knows."

"I know what to do, leave me to it."

"Da—"

"Leave me to it!"

I heard the door slam. Had they gone?

"I know you are awake, open your eyes."

What?

I snapped my eyes open in that instant, and when I did, I was met with a pair of mesmerising brown eyes. Brown? Or Gold? I blinked again and again, my eyes still fixated on the eyes of the stranger. His eyes were changing colours, and his gaze seemed to send a rush of warmth down my spine.

I blinked. It was at this point that my brain decided to boot and remind me why I was here in the first place.

I had blacked out after seeing... "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, finally accessing the owner of the changing eyes and coming face to face with the man who had transformed from a wolf to a man right in front of me.

Reminder! This man had changed from wolf to man. The reminder was like a dash of ice upon me and I started feeling faint again.

"Don't!" I heard his stern voice scold me. My eyes snapped open instantly, meeting his warm gaze once more. "Do not pass out on me again." His scowl made his handsome features sharper, fiercer. My pulse hammered.

“You—” My voice broke as I scrambled back into the bed. I wanted to sink through it, wake up in my hotel room, anywhere but here.

His eyes narrowed. “You saw, didn’t you?”

He couldn’t mean the transformation… right? But what else could he mean?

“ I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammered, my fingers knotting into the sheets.

His gaze flicked to my hands, then back to his. Slowly, he tugged off his glove and held out his bare palm. “Touch me.”

My breath froze. “What?”

“Touch my palm,” he said, voice low. “Prove to yourself this isn’t a dream.”

Wide-eyed, I stared at him. Every instinct screamed to run. I glanced toward the door.

“You can’t leave,” he said.

My heart thudded. Could he read my thoughts?

“I can’t read your thoughts,” he said flatly. “You just have a very readable face.”

Exactly what someone who could read thoughts would say.

“What are you?” I whispered.

He smirked, amused. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about where you are?”

I swallowed. “If I play along, maybe I’ll wake up.”

“So you think this is a dream?”

“No. I think too many fantasy books finally assailed me.”

“Really?” His grin deepened. “Then tell me—what do you think I am?”

“If I knew,” I shot back, “I wouldn’t be asking.”

“You switch from terrified to curious fast,” he mused.

Before I could reply, the door burst open.

“Daryl, are you insane?” The booming voice filled the room.

“Father,” Daryl snapped.

"Who are you people?" I burst out frantically.

The old man’s eyes cut to me, his expression colder than his son’s. “If you haven’t caught on, human, your foolishness is what will kill you.”

“So—so you’re wolves?” I blurted, my voice trembling.

“Werewolves. Or Lycans, precisely,” Daryl corrected.

King Ren gestured to the guard. “Seize her!”

“Don’t move, Alex,” Daryl growled.

“Do you want me to remind you who your King is, Daryl Ender?”

“You know I can kill your guard in a blink. Be careful with your next move, Father.”

The air vibrated with tension. My pulse pounded in my ears. Werewolves. And I was trapped between them.

“You dare defy me because of a human?” the King thundered.

“I will handle this on my terms. Stay out of it.”

King Ren’s glare darkened. “Then we’ll take her in for questioning.”

“I can do it myself.”

“That’s unfortunate. Because I don’t trust you.”

The King’s voice cut like a blade. “Seize her!”

The guard moved too fast to resist. His hands clamped on my arms, yanking me up.

“Father!” Daryl roared.

It was the last thing I heard before the darkness swallowed me whole.