Chapter 1
The lighting rig fell while thirteen million people watched me live.
Three seconds earlier, a troll had typed that I was nothing without auto-tune. I cut the backing track, hit the high note clean, and lifted one middle finger at the camera.
"Hear that? Stay mad."
Then metal screamed above me.
I looked up just in time to see an entire row of lights coming down. The crowd screamed. The stage vanished.
When I opened my eyes, a wolf's bloody muzzle was inches from my face.
I stopped breathing.
The thing was enormous. Black fur clotted with blood. Fangs slick with it.
Gold eyes fixed on me with the kind of focus that made prey realize it had already been chosen.
Slowly, I reached for my pocket.
My phone was still there. Eleven percent battery. No signal.
My livestream had died.
Perfect. I had gone from singer with thirteen million followers to an unattended buffet for a wolf.
I looked at the blood between its teeth and forced my voice not to shake.
"Quick question. I am mostly caffeine and bad decisions. You can do better."
The wolf did not bite.
It lowered its massive head and pressed its nose against my throat. Hot breath slipped beneath my collar. Every hair on my arms rose.
I shoved at its skull.
"Personal space, Cujo. We have not even been introduced."
The wolf froze.
Its gold eyes lifted to mine, and for one impossible second, it looked offended. I used the opening to slide backward.
My palm landed in something warm and wet.
Blood.
Not a little blood.
I turned my head and found three bodies in the grass less than thirty feet away. Men in leather armor. Knives still in their hands.
One had a chest crushed inward as if a truck had hit him.
I looked back at the wolf.
One giant paw dripped red.
I carefully removed my hand from its head.
"Forget I called you Cujo."
A low sound rolled through its chest. It sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Footsteps crashed through the trees.
"He's wounded!" a man shouted.
"The Black Wolf is ahead. Don't let Kael Varyn get away!"
The animal turned at once and put its body between me and the voices. Its back arched. Black fur spiked along its spine.
The growl in its throat shook my ribs.
Four men burst through the brush. The leader had a scar splitting one side of his face and a silver cuff around his arm.
He saw the wolf and drew his sword.
"Kael Varyn. You are done running."
I stared at the wolf's broad back.
It had a name?
Then the scarred man saw me.
His sword stopped midair. The others stared at my face, my bare hands, my throat. The scarred man's lips parted.
"Human?"
"Impossible," one of the younger men breathed. "Humans died out three hundred years ago."
I backed up a step.
"Wrong girl. I am just looking for the nearest hospital and maybe a very large can of bear spray."
"Pure human," the scarred man said, his eyes turning bright with greed. "A living pure human."
The black wolf moved, blocking me completely.
"Do not kill her," the man ordered. "Take her alive. Take her to the Northern Pack."
Cold slid down my spine.
I did not know where I was, but these men had already decided where I belonged.
So I ran.
I got three steps.
Bone cracked behind me. I looked back and watched the black wolf crush the scarred man's chest beneath one enormous paw.
The other men changed.
Their nails stretched into claws. Fur tore across their cheeks. Their eyes went animal-bright.
They were wolves.
One lunged toward me.
"Grab her!"
I sprinted.
A hard arm locked around my waist. The ground disappeared.
"Put me down!" I screamed.
The wolf was gone.
A man had me thrown over one shoulder instead.
He was huge. Bare-chested. Black hair falling into a scar that ran from his left brow toward his temple.
Every inch of his skin carried old battle marks.
And his eyes were gold.
Kael.
The wolf was Kael.
A blade swung for his back. He did not look around. One hand stayed firm beneath my thighs while the other snapped out, caught the attacker's wrist, and broke it with a sharp twist.
He kicked the screaming man away.
"Be quiet," Kael said.
I punched his back as hard as I could.
"You are carrying me like luggage and telling me to be quiet? Put me down."
His grip tightened.
"If you want to live, stop moving."
I grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked.
Kael stopped so abruptly I almost slid off his shoulder. He looked back at me, gold eyes narrowed.
"Let go."
"Put me down first."
The men were closing in. Kael said nothing. He ran.
He took me through a waterfall and into a cave hidden behind it. The moment my boots hit the floor, I stumbled back, grabbed a stone, and raised it.
Kael saw the stone.
For one flash of time, his body locked up. His hand lifted as if he had learned long ago what happened when people threw things at him.
Then the moment vanished.
"Do not come closer," I warned.
He came closer.
I threw the stone.
He tilted his head. It shattered against the wall.
"You are not afraid of me?" he asked.
My pulse hammered hard enough to hurt.
"I am terrified. Terrified people can still throw rocks."
He closed the distance in one step. His palm hit the wall beside my head. His body shut off every exit.
Kael lowered his face to my throat.
I braced one hand against his chest.
"Do all werewolves greet women by sniffing their necks?"
He inhaled deeply.
His pupils narrowed into gold slits.
"Human," he said.
"I know."
"Pure human."
Kael's palm stayed on the wall.
"Still know. Also, I have a name. Evie."
Silver light flared beneath his skin.
I looked down.
A crescent mark bloomed over his heart, bright enough to turn the cave walls white. Kael stared at it as though someone had shoved a knife between his ribs.
Then he looked at me.
The expression in his eyes was worse than hunger.
It was certainty.
"Mate," he said.
I went still.
"What does that mean?"
He leaned closer. There was nowhere left for me to go.
"The Moon Goddess chose you for me."
I understood exactly enough to hate it.
My palm cracked across his face.
The sound rang through the cave.
Kael's head turned. A thin line of blood touched his mouth.
I pointed at my own chest.
"Then tell your Moon Goddess to pick someone else. I do not agree."
Slowly, Kael faced me again.
I expected rage.
He smiled instead.
Small. Dangerous.
He wiped the blood from his lip.
"Fine," he murmured. "Then I will make you choose me."