Born beneath an omen-lit sky, Layla is no ordinary wolf. She is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy—a child blessed by the Moon Goddess with the power to heal, resurrect, and stand undefeated. But such power comes at a cost.  

Her birth shakes the foundations of the White Shen Pack, a territory ruled by treachery. Her father, Alpha Rhys, and his lover, Luna Catherine, fear what she might become. To protect their rule, they orchestrate the massacre of those who know the prophecy, leaving Layla’s mother, Maelis, cursed with a wasting sickness. Thought dead at birth, Layla is hidden away, cast into a life of cruelty and deception.  

Years later, she is nothing more than a shadow in her own pack—a girl ridiculed for her inability to shift, despised by the very people who should have protected her. The only light in her world is Kain, the Beta’s son, her first love and the boy who once saved her from years of torment. But love, too, becomes a weapon when Kain betrays her in the worst way—murdering her siblings and delivering her to her enemies.  

As punishment for crimes she did not commit, Layla is thrown into darkness, her fate sealed when she is offered as a gift to the most feared rogue in existence—the cursed Beast King.  

For two thousand years, the Beast King has sought a way to break the Moon Goddess’s wrath, his soul trapped in a monstrous body, his humanity slipping away. When Layla is thrown before him, he senses something he has never encountered before: a power strong enough to shatter his curse… or doom them both.  

But Layla is not a girl to be broken. She has her own vengeance to claim, her own past to uncover, and the Beast King may just be the key to it all.  

Bound by fate and cursed by the past, Layla and the Beast King must navigate a world that seeks to control them, betrayals that run deeper than blood, and a prophecy that threatens to consume them both.  

Will she rise as the weapon they tried to forge, or will she become the force that shatters their world?

They say the worst kind of betrayal is the one you never see coming. But what they don't tell you is how it doesn't hit like thunder. No. It comes softly—like a whisper.


The warmth of his embrace, the scent of pine and snow that always meant safety—gone.


At first, I didn't panic. I thought maybe he stepped out. Maybe he'd gone to find food or clothes or something—anything. My body was sore, but sated. My mind still floating somewhere between the burning high of heat and the gentle lull of his hands.


I stretched, pulling his blanket tighter around me. For a moment, I believe I was still safe.


I crept out of the room, quiet as the ghost they'd turned me into. I followed the sound—soft at first, then clearer. My bare feet whispered against the floorboards as I reached the door just slightly ajar.


Her shrill voice rang out, followed by Kain's low, amused chuckle.


"She begged you?" she said, giggling. "Like actually begged?"


"On her knees," Kain replied with a smirk I could hear but couldn't see. "Crying. Pleading. She said she needed me. She called me her only one."


Laughter exploded between them like firecrackers in my ears.


"She really thought you'd leave the pack for her?" Felissa snorted. "That useless little thing?"


"She was never the threat," Kain muttered. "Her mother was. Her siblings maybe. But her?" A pause. "She's just... heat and delusions."


The words struck me like blades. One after the other. No time to breathe between the cuts.


He knew I loved him. Trusted him. He knew what I'd been through. And 


"I did what I had to do," Kain continued. "They wanted a clean path to the title. Her brother and sister stood in the way. They were too loyal to Maelis. Too protective. I gave them wolfsbane in their food the night before the attack. Enough to weaken them. Then I..."


"I slit the boy's throat myself," he said, his tone low, almost bored. "The girl ran. She cried, Layla's name, I think. I caught her by the stream. She fought hard, I'll give her that."


Felissa laughed again, and I swear it echoed inside my skull.


I stumbled back, hand clamped over my mouth to keep the scream from bursting out. I bumped into a table. Something fell. Crashed.


I don't remember if I was barefoot or clothed. I don't remember if the tears blurred my sight or if my vision simply fractured on its own. I ran until my lungs burned, until my legs buckled and I dropped to the earth, dry heaving, screaming without sound.


The pain was... unbearable. Like something inside me snapped—no, shattered—and all that remained was the howl of something ancient and furious and wrong.


I stayed in the woods that night, curled beneath a tree, shaking uncontrollably.


Chapter 18 - The Betrayal III :Knife Beneath the Rose