She was his very bestfriend when he was a child. He didn’t speak much, she spoke enough for the two of them. She wasn’t gentle or sweet or particularly kind, she was petulant and tempermental and he often had to snap at her to put an end to her whining. But he would not have another friend. Not the beta’s sons his father tried to force on him, not the sons of respected Alphas. And she would not allow it either. ‘You are mine, Xavier’ she would say. And that was that. And it was true. With his looming throne and the weight of his duties bearing on his shoulders, she was his reprieve. Then she was taken from him. Her family moved her away. She kicked and screamed of course, as was her way. But now that he is Alpha king of lycanthropy. Known for his cruelty, his coldness, his silence. He kills and fucks and drinks as he pleases. The girls he chooses are always brunette with brown eyes, he takes them from behind and imagines it is her. His obsession. When fate brings her return many years later, grown and gorgeous, he is not at all surprised when the mating bond clicks into place.