Chapter 2 DANE

I didn’t bother to turn around and look at my manipulative, murderous mate.

I’d finally f*cked her. It was all she’d been begging me for three years.

She’d never pull her claws out of me now.

The sex had been incredible. Better than I’d imagined. And Goddess, had I dreamed about touching her over the years. All that perfect skin, all that softness. And those huge, gorgeous lilac eyes, soft as her scent.

I hated her for it.

I had fought myself tooth and claw over the years to keep from touching her, to remind myself what she had done, what she was part of.

I could never forget the day I first met her.

Back then, I was twenty-one.

As the Alpha’s heir, I was the leader of the warriors who patrolled Blue Ridge pack land – the deep woods and mountains of Georgia—just south of the Tennessee state line.

I paced the top of an overgrown wall near the edge of Blue Ridge land in my wolf form. A sound came from the woods, like someone stumbling, lost and sick.

I scented blood and silver.

Then I heard her.

“Help…please…” She sounded weak and sad, like she didn’t expect anyone would ever save her.

I trotted through the forest, searching for her, pulled like a magnet. There was a new scent along with the metallic tang of silver and copper – lilacs.

I came around a tree and found her. Though the moon was dim, she’d fallen in a puddle of light. Her long, silvery hair was matted and tangled. Her white gown was shredded so that most of her body was visible. Streaks of blood covered her body.

From her scent, she was a wolf. One who’d been poisoned with silver and then beaten to within an inch of her life.

I shifted into a man and knelt by her side. She flinched and whimpered, but bit the sound back, trying to be strong.

The moment I smoothed her hair back from her face, my wolf howled wildly. There was something between me and this girl. A connection. I thought I heard her wolf….

But then it was gone. A wisp of smoke blown away on the wind.

I must have imagined it.

I put my hand in hers. “Shh. Tell me your name.”

She shivered and wept, but gripped my hand with desperate strength. “I–it’s…Ann… My wolf… I can’t feel her!”

I lifted her in my arms and stood. “Our pack has healers. I’ll take you to them.”

She looked up at me with big, bright eyes. “N–no! They’re going to…t–they…”

She passed out. There was so much silver in her, I could see it turning the delicate veins in her pale hands black.

If I didn’t act, she would die.

So, I turned my back on my post.

I walked away and left a hole in Blue Ridge’s defenses.

We were so strong; I didn’t think anyone would dare come against us.

I hadn’t counted on our enemy, the Reeds.

I didn’t realize that this girl was their daughter, Ann.

I didn’t know she was part of it.

Not until Blue Ridge was burning. Not until my parents and a quarter of my pack were dead.

Not until her father, Waylon Reed, forced us to kneel across from each other beneath the closed eye of the moon, a silver ribbon around our wrists like the marriage ceremony demanded.

With claws to the throat of my grandfather, who was the Alpha of our pack, and my little sister–my last remaining family–the Reeds forced me to marry their daughter. The fallen dream.

Complicit, conniving, manipulative Ann Reed. The reason my family was dead.

Staring into her strange eyes–a pale shade of lilac–I took her as my wife, my mate.

And I swore to destroy them all.

Broken Forest. The Reeds. Especially her.

My wolf paced restlessly in my mind, pulling me back to reality.

Today, my control snapped. I thought once would be enough, that I’d get my fill of her sweetness.

But I was wrong. Something about the way her fingers dug into my back when I claimed her, something about the way she called my name, it wrapped around my heart.

So f*cking dangerous. Just as dangerous as the first time I caught the scent of blood and silver.

I shook myself. My control was iron. She had to have visited some hag in the woods. Spiked my drink.

“I’m…I’m serious,” she said. “This is torture for both of us. Cutting our soul-bond would just sever our connection. We’d still be mated in the eyes of the Council, even if it doesn’t mean anything.”

Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I could feel the tension radiating off her body. Even though I didn’t give a sh*t about her, something about her words made unease wash over me.

Ann Reed was mine. We were bound together in suffering forever because of what she’d done, because of what the Council ruled.

The Council–a group of the oldest, most powerful Alphas and Lunas that ruled wolves all over the world–had declared our marriage necessary to keep the peace in the region.

I never accepted the decree.

But I was patient. I was still going to kill her for what she’d done to my pack. One day.

I’d wipe Broken Forest off the map.

I finished straightening my tie and turned to face her. She had the ribbon clenched in her hands. How cute of her to bring a prop. It probably wasn’t even a convincing fake.

I grabbed her chin with one hand and let my claws cut into her skin deep enough to draw blood.

She whimpered. She was so vulnerable. So d*mn helpless. My wolf wanted to claim her again, to bury myself in that softness.

If I didn’t know she was manipulating me… I might actually want her. Want to protect her, like I did that first night, when I thought I’d felt something between us.

I might develop cracks in my armor for her.

But she was the reason my parents were dead. She was the reason I could never be with the woman I loved.

She was the cause of all my weakness. All my grief.

“The Reeds aren’t getting anything from me, no matter how many empty threats you make.”

Could I be married to someone I wasn’t soul-bonded to? No wolf would want to live that way.

To my surprise, she jerked from my grasp, even though it left a cut. She wiped the blood dripping down her chin and shoved the thick silver ribbon in my face.

It glimmered with magic. When I grasped it, I could feel the power in it that connected us.

The ribbon was real.

I snatched it from her hand and stood to my full height.

“You’ve taken your little game too far,” I sneered. “You think I’d fall for this?”

If I cut this ribbon, my connection to her would snap. I wouldn’t be able to sense her anymore. What if she ran from me?

Then again, if we cut it, I wouldn’t have to feel what she felt anymore. At first, I’d thrived on her despair. It meant we despaired together. Lately, it just made me sick. Every time I hurt her feelings, I was the one who’d swallowed poison.

“You could be free,” she coaxed. “You could…be with Evelyn.”