Kaya

Why the hell did I decide to go into the woods alone like this?

I know why. Danielle and Stone. But I don’t have the time to think about them right now. I have to find my way back home. I can’t let anger and betrayal hold me back, because there’s a pretty high price to not paying attention. The results are right in front of me—I’m lost in the woods with a huge brown wolf growling at me. I can only imagine what my uncle is going to say when he finds out about this.

If I survive tonight.

There are stories about the nights of the Gathering. About werewolves losing control of their wolves, losing their minds. About solo travelers being attacked in the shadows.

I could die out here.

“Get away from me!” I shout.

I’m ready to shift, defend myself, when I see another wolf ahead.

Black. Bigger. Giant.

The big bad monster I’ve always been warned about.

His scent, startlingly familiar, slams against my senses.

It all happens in seconds.

The brown wolf lunges toward me, but he’s not fast enough. The black wolf tackles him, the sound of their massive bodies colliding echoing in the woods. I stagger backward. They trash and tear into each other, and I realize what this means.

They are fighting over me.

They are fighting for a shot at claiming me.

Right now, we are nothing but animals.

Yet I’m not as scared as I should be. My first instinct, fueled by the black wolf’s familiar scent that seems to have wrapped around me like a rope, is to watch them. I want to see the black wolf eradicate his opponent. The idea of him winning sends a fierce wave of heat through my body. Desire. Not fear.

What…what the hell is wrong with me?

And now I am afraid.

I’ve never felt like this ever before, and it’s terrifying.

I shift and turn my back on them, breaking into a sprint.

The brutal sounds of their fighting fade as I race ahead. Time loses its meaning while I run, and after what feels like forever, I pause. I can’t just wander frantically in the forest—who knows who I’m going to run into next? I take deep breaths, my wolf panting. What the hell am I doing right now? Which way is the Nightstar compound? I should’ve paid more attention when we came here.

I look up at the night sky, hoping the moon could guide me. But I don’t know which way is north, and which way is south, and I don’t know because my uncle never wanted me to learn. I am always escorted on the rare occasion that I’m allowed out of the compound. “You’re the princess,” my uncle always says. “You don’t have to know these things.”

Well, look at me now.

My pulse drums in my ears as I gaze around the forest. It’s quiet, because I’m here, and all prey animals have hidden away. I am all alone.

I wish Stone were here.

Even if minutes ago he broke my heart into a million pieces, he would protect me. He would know where to go, what to do. He always does—it’s why my uncle always sends him off to travel for tasks for the pack. I used to feel proud of him in a way, even though this meant he’d be away from home all the time. I used to admire how capable he was—used to hope that since my uncle seems to hold him in high regard, all the pieces would fall into place once he and I got together tonight. Once I was certain that he was my mate.

The image of Dani on her knees in front of him flashes through my head.

I crush it.

How do I move on from this? What happens after your best friend backstabs you? What happens after the one person you ever thought was your mate betrays you like this? The stories about rejected mates are always heartbreaking, staggering. Horrifying. My earlier nausea returns, but I tell myself to get a grip. I can’t just sit here and feel sorry for myself. I have to decide which way to go, because standing here hoping for a miracle is not an option.

Right or left?

I take off to the left, taking in the scents and sounds of the forest. It’s quiet, still.

Until it’s not.

In the distance, there’s a howl.

Oh no…

I quicken my pace just as there’s another one—this one closer. I’m being tracked. I put in all the speed I can muster, running faster and faster until I get to a clearing. And then I dare a look behind my back. Something is moving behind the trees, a steady relentless shadow pursuing me.

I pick up the scent. Same scent that makes my wolf whimper.

The black wolf from earlier is tracking me, and now my brain can function enough to realize who he is. Who exactly. His scent was familiar, because it’s the man I ran into at the Gathering. The one with the scar on his face. My wolf howls that I stay put—that I should speak to the black wolf. That he’s clearly been looking for me, and I should see what he wants, and if what he wants is…if he wants me, then…

I want him to want me.

The thought is so jarring I feel like someone’s slapped me across the face.

I start to run again, only to hear the sound of branches cracking ahead of me. I gasp, stumbling to a halt. He can’t have moved that fast. When did he manage to surpass me? How quick is he? This can’t be, it’s—

When he emerges from the trees, my thoughts freeze.

He is ferocious, bloody. His wolf carries the same scar on its face. His eyes share that same intense look that pinned me alive earlier, when we were both human, and he grabbed me as I stumbled. His touch, the feeling of his heart beating under my palms—the memory is searing. In an instant, my wolf urges me to shift back into human. Shift and let him see me when I’m naked, vulnerable, and—

No.

NO.

This is a complete stranger. Everything about him screams danger.

I need to get away from him right the hell now.

His gruff voice in my head startles me.

Submit, he says through mindlink, and I—

I am stunned.

He has the audacity to ask me for something that may be even more intimate than sex when our kind is in wolf form. He wants my wolf to lower her defenses, let him come closer. Let him scent me as if he is dominant and I am submissive.

As if he is my Alpha.

He’s watching me as I watch him, and I want to laugh in his face. Considering my position in our pack, I’ve never had to submit to anyone. I’m not about to start now. Especially not to some random wolf.

I growl again as he steps toward me. His jaw is clenched, dripping blood, a real-life horror. But then his scent invades my nose all over again, and something in me seizes. My wolf whimpers and whines for me to move closer to him. Again and again, my wolf urges me toward him, and my brain cannot comprehend this instinct.

The sane part of me is fighting not to drown in all this volatile longing.

Why would I ever submit to you? I demand. How dare you? Do you have any idea who I am?

You’re mine, he says. A matter-of-fact authority grounds his words. It makes my breath hitch.

I snap the hell out of it long enough to say, Is this what you do? Just roam the woods and say shit like that to women you’ve never met before?

No, he simply says. Just you. You’re it for me.

My wolf thrashes violently. She needs a goddamn leash.

Gritting my teeth together, I say, You’re insane—who even are you?

He pauses. I think you know.

I continue facing him, walking backward. Never turn your back on an apex predator.

I have no idea what you’re talking about, I snap. I don’t know you—I’ve never seen you before tonight.

He’s still not moving. Yet what he says next hits me like an electric current.

You’re my mate.

My wolf howls at his words. As if every single puzzle piece has just fallen into place.

But—

This can’t be real. None of it. This man must be crazy. He’s gotten nuts because of the full moon, the Gathering—whatever the hell the stories say. And as for me, I already have a mate. Stone is my mate. Why else would I have waited for so long for him to reciprocate my feelings? Why else did I not ever look at another guy? Why else would Stone’s betrayal hurt so much?

I have a mate, I declare. And if he finds you—

The werewolf growls. If he were intense before, now he’s ablaze.

He’s not your mate, he declares. I am. And if this man tries to come between us, it will be a tragic mistake.

His voice is now laced with arrogance. Or perhaps it’s something else—another type of emotion. Certainty. This man is bigger than Stone in wolf form, but that doesn't always mean stronger.

I know I’m lying to myself.

He interrupts my thoughts. Are you going to submit?

My wolf whines. She wants me to roll over, show the soft skin of my underbelly. She begs for me to shift to my human form, drop to my knees, drop to the forest floor, and open my mouth for this complete stranger who dares speak to me like he’s the one in charge, and that’s… No. This is not how tonight was supposed to go.

I am not some domesticated bitch in heat.

Screw you, I snap. And then, I scoff, You want me to submit? You’ll have to make me.

Turning my back on him, I break into a sprint. His voice in my head, deeper this time, makes my entire body tingle.

Then I will.