The wolf who told Asha about Lyra stepped back when footsteps thundered on the porch.
Damon Thorn walked out of the pack house like a storm made human. His blue eyes burned with anger, and power rolled off him in waves that made the air itself seem heavy.
Every wolf in sight dropped their heads and looked away. Except Asha. She stayed on her knees in the dirt, looking up at him.
The mate bond sang between them, but it felt wrong now. Like a beautiful song played on broken instruments.
"Rowan," Damon's voice was ice-cold. "Why is there a rogue on my land?" The wolf - Rowan - straightened up.
"She claims to be your mate, Alpha." Damon's laugh was sharp as broken glass.
"My mate?" He looked down at Asha like she was something nasty on his shoe. "This dirty, pathetic creature thinks she's worthy of me?"
Each word hit Asha like a slap. The link twisted in her chest, sending pain through every nerve. "Stand up," Damon ordered.
Asha's body responded before her mind could protest. The Alpha power in his voice was hard to resist. She rose to her feet, dirt falling from her torn clothes.
Damon circled her slowly, like a hunter studying prey. "Look at you. Filthy hair, rags for clothes, smelling like the wild.
You think you can walk onto my land and claim me?" "The bond doesn't lie," Asha whispered. Her voice came out smaller than she wanted. "The bond?"
Damon stopped right in front of her. "You feel that pull in your chest? That frantic need to be near me?" Asha nodded, not trusting her words. "Good," Damon said.
"Because I'm going to teach you what real power feels like."
He grabbed her chin with strong fingers, forcing her to look into his eyes. The moment their skin touched, the mate bond burst.
Fire raced through Asha's blood. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might burst. But Damon's eyes stayed cold as winter ice.
"I am Damon Thorn," he said slowly. "Alpha of the Ashen Moon Pack. I have killed rogues with my bare hands.
I have destroyed entire packs who dared to face me. Kings bow to me. Other Alphas fear to speak my name."
His grip tightened on her chin. "And you think you're worthy of being my Luna?"
Asha's wolf whimpered inside her head. The power coming off Damon was unlike anything she had ever felt. It pressed down on her like a rock, making it hard to breathe.
But underneath his cruelty, she felt something else. The same pain she had felt through the bond. Deep, terrible hurt that he hid behind walls of ice.
"I didn't choose this," she managed to say. "The bond chose us." "The bond," Damon repeated, his voice mocking.
"Do you know what I think of the bond?" He released her head and stepped back.
Then he did something that made Asha's world crumble. He called out toward the house. "Lyra! Come here, sweetheart."
A woman appeared in the doorway, and Asha's heart stopped. She looked exactly like Selene would have looked if she had lived. Long golden hair that caught the sunlight.
Bright blue eyes full of innocence. Soft traits that belonged on an angel. But this wasn't her sister. This was a stranger wearing Selene's face.
"Yes, Damon?" Lyra's voice was sweet as honey. Damon walked over and put his arm around her waist. Lyra smiled up at him with pure love.
"This is my chosen Luna," Damon stated loudly. "The woman I will marry. The only woman I will ever love." The mate bond screamed in pain.
Asha doubled over as pain tore through her chest. It felt like Damon had reached inside her and squeezed her heart until it burst.
"You see?" Damon continued, his voice pleasant as if he were talking the weather.
"I don't need some weak rogue. I have picked perfection."
Lyra looked at Asha with something that might have been pity. "She's so young," she said softly.
"And weak," Damon added. "Watch this." He released his Alpha power fully, letting it crash over Asha like a tsunami wave.
The force of it drove her to her knees again. Her vision went black around the edges.
She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but try not to pass out. "I could kill you right now," Damon said calmly.
"One push of my power and your heart would stop beating. That's how weak you are compared to me."
Asha gasped for air, trying to stay conscious. Through the bond, she felt his feelings clearly now.
The pain was still there, hidden deep. But on top of it was something else. Fear.
Damon Thorn, the most powerful Alpha in the world, was afraid of her. But why? "Get off my land," Damon ordered.
"If I see you here again, I'll kill you. That's not a threat - it's a promise." He turned to walk away, but Asha's voice stopped him.
"What happened to you?" Damon froze. His power flickered for just a moment.
"What did you say?" Asha struggled to her feet, the partner bond giving her strength.
"Something hurt you. Something made you this cold. I can feel it through our link." For just a second, Damon's mask slipped.
She saw raw pain flash across his face. Then the ice walls slammed back up. "You feel nothing," he snarled.
"Because there is nothing to feel." But Asha knew better now. The bond didn't lie, and it was telling her that Damon's violence was an act.
A cover to protect himself from something. "I'm not leaving," she said quietly. Every wolf around them gasped.
No one challenged Damon Thorn and lived. Damon's eyes blazed with rage. "What did you say?" "I said I'm not leaving." Asha's voice got stronger.
"You're my mate. The bond binds us whether you like it or not. And I'm going to find out why you're so scared of me."
The temperature around them seemed to drop ten degrees. Damon's power built like a storm about to break.
"Scared?" His voice was deadly quiet. "You think I'm scared of some insignificant rogue?"
"Yes," Asha said simply. "You're scared. That's why you're trying so hard to push me away."
Damon moved faster than lightning. One second he was ten feet away, the next he had her pressed against a tree, his hand around her throat.
"I could snap your neck," he whispered. "But you won't," Asha whispered back.
"Because deep down, you need me just as much as I need you." For a moment, they stared at each other.
The mate bond pulsed between them, hot and desperate and undeniable. Then Damon's grip loosened slightly. His thumb brushed over her pulse point, and she saw something flicker in his eyes.
Something that looked almost like sadness. "Alpha!" Rowan's words cut through the moment.
"We have a problem!" Damon stepped back instantly, his mask slamming into place. "What is it?"
"Scouts report activity on the eastern border. Large pack, moving this way fast. They're flying black flags."
Every wolf around them went rigid with fear. Even Lyra's face went pale. "Black flags?" Asha whispered.
"What does that mean?" Rowan looked at her with grim eyes. "It means someone has declared war on the Ashen Moon Pack."
Damon's laugh was cold as death itself. "Let them come. I'll paint the trees with their blood."
But through the mate bond, Asha felt his true feelings. This wasn't just any enemy coming. This was the enemy he had been waiting for.
The one he had been planning to fight his whole life. And somehow, Asha's arrival had started the attack. "Get inside," Damon told Lyra.
"Lock the doors and don't come out until I say." Lyra nodded and ran toward the house.
But as she passed Asha, she whispered something that made Asha's blood turn to ice. "He's not the only one with secrets, sister."
Then she was gone, leaving Asha looking after her in shock. Sister? The word rang in Asha's head as war drums began to sound in the distance.
The enemy was coming, her mate hated her, and the woman who looked like Selene had just called her sister. What was happening?
And why did she suddenly feel like she had walked into a trap that had been set long before she was born?