Kira's POV
The wolf lunges at me before I can scream.
I dodge left, heart hammering, but it's just a pup chasing fireflies. Not trying to kill me. Not yet.
Sorry! A young mother grabs her child. Her eyes meet mine, then drop fast like she's seen something obscene. She pulls her pup away like I'm poison.
Because to her, I am.
I turn toward the full moon ceremony in the pack clearing. A hundred wolves celebrate under silver light dancing, laughing, howling like they belong here. Like they're safe.
They have no idea what's coming.
I don't belong anywhere. Five years I've lived in Bloodmoon Pack territory. Five years in this cottage at the edge of everything. I'm twenty-three years old, and I've never been invited to a ceremony. Never been wanted.
The moon mark on my shoulder burns hot under my shirt hotter than usual tonight. I press my hand against it, trying to make it stop. It never does. But tonight, feels different. Wrong.
Cursed. Moonmarked. Abomination.
I should go inside, lock the door, hide like I always do. But something keeps me here, watching from the shadows. Some instinct screaming that everything is about to change.
Then I see him.
Kieran Bloodmoon stands at the ceremony's center. He's massive all muscle and Alpha power. Scars cross his arms like a roadmap of violence. Gold eyes that could freeze you with a single look.
The Alpha who bought me. The monster who saved me.
Five years ago, I stood on an auction block in chains. My father had been executed three days before. I had nothing left but a curse mark and a death sentence hanging over my head.
Then a voice cut through the crowd. Five million.
That voice belonged to the man before me now Kieran Bloodmoon, the executioner who'd slaughtered my pack's allies without mercy. Who'd made widows and orphans in a single night.
He bought me as a breeder. Five million for strong pups.
But he never touched me.
Five years, and he's never laid a hand on me except to unlock my chains that first night. He gave me this cottage, brings food weekly, checks I'm alive. Then leaves without a word.
We have a mate bond. I felt it snap into place when he touched my wrist at the auction silver and gold light exploding between us like a supernova.
Impossible. Wrong. A curse on top of a curse.
The bond pulls at me now, like an invisible rope yanking me toward him. Five years of fighting this. Five years of wanting someone I should hate. Someone whose hands are stained with the blood of people I loved.
His head turns slowly. Deliberately. Like he knew I was watching all along.
Our eyes meet.
The bond flares so hot I gasp, stumbling backward. Every nerve lights up. The mate bond doesn't care that he killed my friends. It just wants him. Needs him. Burns for him.
I break eye contact first. I always do.
Beautiful night, isn't it?
I spin, heart racing. Elena, the pack healer, stands there like a ghost. One of the few who doesn't look at me like I'm diseased.
I guess, I say carefully. Everyone has an angle.
Your mark must be singing tonight. She smiles sadly, knowingly. The full moon always makes them restless.
I touch my shoulder instinctively. How did you
I've seen moon marks before. She lowers her voice, glancing around nervously. They're not curses, child. They're blessings. The Moon Goddess marks her chosen ones.
Chosen for what? To be hunted like animals?
Chosen for greatness. Her eyes hold secrets. Dangerous secrets. That's why he bought you. Not for breeding. To save your life.
My breath catches. What?
Screams erupt from the ceremony.
Three wolves in black uniforms storm in Council warriors, moving with military precision. Behind them walks Elder Cassius, head of the Northern Council. Silver hair. Dead eyes.
The man who ordered my father's execution. Who watched him die and smiled?
Wolves drop to their knees like puppets with cut strings. Even Kieran bows his head, though I see his jaw clench with barely contained rage.
Cassius scans the crowd with those dead eyes. Searching for something. Someone.
Me.
Routine inspection, his voice carries across the suddenly silent clearing. I've heard disturbing rumors about a certain acquisition Alpha Kieran made five years ago.
My heart stops beating.
He's here for me. He's always been coming for me.
A moonmarked wolf, living among decent wolves. Surely that's just a vicious rumor. Cassius walks closer to my hiding spot, each step deliberates. Predatory. Because we all know what the Council does with marked ones.
Executes them. Publicly. As warnings.
I should run. My feet won't move. It's like I'm chained to this spot, watching my own death approach.
Of course, if someone were harbouring a marked wolf, that would be treason against the Council. His voice drops to something deadly. The whole pack would be punished. Every man, woman, and child.
He turns with theatrical precision. His eyes lock on mine through the darkness.
He sees me. He's always seen me.
A slow smile spreads across his face the smile of a hunter who's finally cornered his prey.
Well, well. Kira Ashwood. I wondered where you'd disappeared to after the auction. He tilts his head. Did you really think you could hide forever?
Every wolf stares at me now. Horror. Disgust. Fear. Some look ready to tear me apart themselves.
Kieran moves forward, but warriors block him with silver weapons drawn.
Alpha Bloodmoon, you're under investigation for harbouring a moonmarked criminal. The girl comes with me. Cassius's smile widens into something grotesque. Unless you'd prefer we evaluate your entire pack's loyalty? I have time. We could start with the children.
The threat hangs in the air like poison gas. Give me up, or watch your pack burn.
Kieran's eyes meet mine across the distance. The mate bond screams between us his rage, his helplessness, his desperate need to protect me.
But he's trapped. We both are.
And I'm dead.
Two warriors walk toward me, silver chains clinking ominously.
I step back, my spine hitting a tree. Nowhere left to run.
My moon mark erupts with searing heat hotter than it's ever been. Like liquid fire under my skin, spreading, consuming.
Power explodes out of me in a silver shockwave.
The force hits like a bomb. Every wolf including the Council warriors drops to their knees, gasping. Some clutch their chests. Others scream. The ground cracks beneath them.
Everyone except Cassius.
He stands there, untouched, staring at me with something I've never seen in those dead eyes.
Fear.
Impossible, he whispers, his voice actually shaking. That much power from an untrained mark you're not just moonmarked.
The world tilts sideways.
My vision blurs. Can't breathe. The power is too much, burning me from the inside out.
Everything goes black.
But in that last moment before unconsciousness takes me, I hear Cassius's voice, distant and distorted:
Bring her to me. Alive. Whatever she is, she's far more valuable than I thought. And far more dangerous.
Then nothing.
Only darkness.
And the sensation of falling into an abyss with no bottom.