The dense forest loomed ahead, the trees casting long shadows as Auren Elira made her way along an unfamiliar path. What should have been a peaceful camping trip with a newly joined community she'd met online had twisted into something far more unsettling. The others had scattered earlier in the day, and now—hours later—Auren found herself alone and lost, the sun already sinking beneath the horizon.
It wasn't her first time hiking through the woods, but something about this trail felt… wrong. As if the path she'd followed had vanished, like the trees that had covered it and swallowed by the forest itself. Her chest tightened as she pulled out her phone—no signal. None, for some time now.
Panic began to creep in, but she pushed it aside. She would find her way out, she had to.
But then, a voice called out to her from the shadows, low and commanding.
"Anyone who enters my territory will never leave."
Auren froze, her heart pounding. She didn't see anyone, but the words felt like they were spoken directly to her soul. She turned, trying to make sense of the dark silhouette standing at the edge of the trees. The man who appeared was tall, his features sharp and cold. His burning eyes seemed to see into Auren's heart—drawing him in, something deep within him stirring as if he had met this man before.
The stranger, a smirk playing on his lips, stepped closer, the air around him growing colder.
"I do not know why you are here," he said, "but you will not leave the same way you came."
Auren swallowed, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of this encounter. The man was dangerous, that much was clear.
Damian Thorne had been waiting for this moment.
Auren looked so much like someone he had known in another life—a woman bound to him by fate, by a golden thread of destiny that had bound their souls together for centuries. This was no coincidence. Auren's presence here, in his domain, was no coincidence. Damian had made sure of it.
Auren had entered a game he did not understand, a game that began long before he was born. And this time, Damian was determined to play by his own rules. The threads of destiny that had bound them together in past lives—twice before, in myth and empire—would not remain hidden this time. Not when he could finally see her again, even if it meant trapping her in his world.
The words formed silently in his mind, a vow threaded with centuries of longing and darkness:
You may have wandered here by accident, but you are mine now, Auren Elira. And no one who defies me shall ever leave untouched.