feral Oath(bxb)
Nikolas's POV)
The city had been my home for years, and I had no intention of leaving. My job at the hospital, my tiny apartment, the constant noise and movement it was all I knew. All I wanted to know.
But life had a way of ripping comfort away when you least expected it.
When my grandmother died, I didn't have time to process it. Between arranging the funeral, handling the legal mess she left behind, and working double shifts to keep myself from thinking, I barely had a moment to grieve.
Then my uncle showed up.
I hadn't seen him in years, but he looked exactly the same tall, imposing, with sharp eyes that always made me feel like a child again. He pulled me aside after the burial, gripping my shoulder a little too tightly.
"You can't stay here, Nikolas. It's time to come home."
Home? What home? My parents had died when I was too young to remember, and my uncle had sent me to live with my grandmother. I had no memories of whatever life came before. No connection to the place he called home.
"I have a job here," I told him. "My life is here."
He scoffed. "And what would your father think? Wasting your talents in some rundown hospital?"
I clenched my jaw. "He's not here to have an opinion."
That should have ended the conversation, but my uncle was persistent. "You don't want to know what really happened to them?" His voice dropped lower, his fingers tightening. "About the beast that killed them?"
I wanted to roll my eyes. I'd heard his stories before. Wild animals. Some vague, dramatic talk about beasts and monsters. It was easier to ignore him.
But a week later, I received my transfer papers.
I hadn't requested a transfer, and yet there it was—an official notice that I was being relocated to a private research facility. The name was unfamiliar.
Raventhorn Facility.
I called my uncle, demanding an explanation, but his response was simple. "You'll still be a nurse, just… working with something more important."
And somehow, I found myself leaving everything behind.
Raventhorn Facility wasn't like any hospital or research center I'd ever seen. It was deep in the woods, surrounded by thick, towering trees. The building itself was cold concrete walls, security checkpoints, and hallways that smelled of antiseptic and metal.
I was introduced to the other staff, most of them doctors and researchers. And then there were the hunters men who operated with military-like precision, dressed in tactical gear and always armed.
I told myself it was normal. That these wolves must have been part of some government research project on wildlife. That they were studying aggression, or conservation, or something logical.
And I convinced myself of that.
Until the night they brought him in.
I had been out with a group of hunters, sent to pick up supplies from a nearby outpost, when the call came through.
"We got him," a voice crackled over the radio. "Alpha male. Strong. Nearly tore three men apart."
The hunters exchanged looks, muttering among themselves.
"Took this long to catch him?" one of them grumbled. "Figures. He's the strongest one out there."
"What do they even do with them?" I asked, adjusting the strap of my bag.
The man beside me shrugged. "Test them. Study them. Doesn't matter. Orders are orders."
I didn't argue. It wasn't my business.
But when we got back, I saw him.
Not a wolf.
A man.
He was being dragged through the main hall, his hands bound in heavy metal restraints, a thick collar around his throat. He was shirtless, his skin streaked with dirt and blood, but his body was built like a weapon broad shoulders, solid muscle, raw strength barely restrained.
His hair was dark, damp from sweat, but it was his eyes that made me stop cold.
Gold. Burning.
Wild.
"What the hell?" I whispered.
One of the hunters laughed. "Didn't expect that, did you?"
"You're You're bringing in people now?" I demanded, my stomach twisting. "You said you were studying wolves!"
The hunter smirked. "We are."
