Chapter 1

The scent of burning pine filled the air of the Blood Moon pack house.

Seraphina stood in the center of the grand hall, her breathing heavy, her fists clenched tightly at her sides.

The white marble floor beneath her boots was scorched black.

Whispers rippled through the gathered crowd of wolves, heavy with fear and disgust.

They looked at her as if she was a monster, a freak of nature.

Ordinary werewolves shifted into wolves.

They possessed brute strength and heightened senses.

They did not cause the air around them to boil with heat.

"Look at her hands," someone whispered from the back.

"That is not the work of the Moon Goddess.

She is cursed."

Seraphina did not look at them.

Her eyes were locked onto Alpha Drake, the man standing on the raised dais at the end of the hall.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp golden eyes that usually held a fierce warmth.

But tonight, those eyes were ice cold.

He looked down at her with complete detachment.

Drake was the future leader of the Blood Moon pack, and until an hour ago, he was also her destined mate.

The pull in her chest was undeniable, a painful tugging that demanded she submit to him.

But the anger burning in her veins was much stronger.

"Seraphina," Drake’s voice echoed through the hall, deep and absolute.

He stepped down from the dais, his heavy footsteps the only sound in the room.

"The pack cannot accept a female who carries the fire of demons.

You are a threat to our people.

Your very presence risks the safety of the territory."

"I did not ask for this power, Drake," Seraphina said, her voice remarkably steady despite the terror thumping against her ribs.

"It woke up when I turned eighteen.

It is a gift, not a curse."

"It is an abomination," Drake snapped, stopping five feet away from her.

The rejection in his gaze was like a physical blow to her chest.

"A true Alpha female is a source of life for the pack, not destruction.

I cannot, and will not, lead beside a freak." He took a deep breath, his chest expanding as he uttered the words that would alter her life forever.

"I, Alpha Drake of the Blood Moon pack, reject you, Seraphina, as my mate and future Luna."

A sharp, agonizng pain sliced through Seraphina’s heart.

The mate bond snapped, leaving a hollow, bleeding ache in her soul.

She stumbled back a step, gasping for air as the rejection took hold.

The crowd gasped, some smiling in satisfaction, others turning away in shame.

Drake watched her, waiting for her to drop to her knees and beg.

That was what rejected females did.

They cried.

They pleaded for a place in the pack, even as an omega.

But Seraphina felt the pain in her chest morphing into something else.

Something hot.

Something dangerous.

"You think you are throwing away a curse," Seraphina whispered, looking up.

Her blue eyes were suddenly rimmed with a dangerous, glowing orange line.

"But you are throwing away the only thing that could have made this pack invincible."

Small sparks drifted from her fingertips, catching the edge of the long velvet curtains hanging near the windows.

Within seconds, a bright wall of fire erupted behind her, cutting her off from the pack.

The wolves screamed, scrambling backward as the intense heat pushed them away.

Drake shifted his stance, his inner wolf growling at the threat, but before he could move, Seraphina turned around and sprinted out of the side exit, leaving the Blood Moon pack house burning in her wake.

Fifty miles away, near the jagged cliffs of the Dark Sea pack territory, a different kind of chaos was unfolding.

Talia stood on the rocky shore, the freezing wind whipping her long dark hair across her face.

Rain poured down in sheets, but it didn't bother her.

In fact, the water seemed to dance around her, avoiding her skin as if it respected her presence.

Behind her, Alpha Caspian stood with his arms crossed, his face twisted in absolute disgust.

Several high-ranking warriors surrounded them, their hands resting on the hilts of their silver blades.

"You flooded the northern storehouses, Talia," Caspian said, his voice cutting through the roar of the ocean waves.

He was a calculative man, always thinking of resources and power.

"Your uncontrolled anomalies have destroyed half our winter rations.

The elders are right.

You are not a wolf.

You are a sea witch masquerading in a shifter's skin."

"The pipes burst because your builders used cheap iron, Caspian!" Talia yelled back, her voice echoing over the thunder.

"I didn't cause the flood.

I tried to stop the water from drowning the lower quarters!"

"Enough!" Caspian barked, stepping forward.

His alpha aura flared, a heavy pressure meant to force every lower-ranking wolf to their knees.

But Talia remained standing, her jaw set, her dark blue eyes reflecting the raging sea behind her.

His aura had no effect on her, and that lack of control terrified him more than her powers did.

"A female should be compliant.

You are wild, dangerous, and broken.

I will not have my lineage tainted by a freak who commands the tides."

Talia felt a cold dread settle in her stomach.

She knew what was coming.

She had felt the mate bond click into place three months ago, but Caspian had hidden it, ashamed that his destined mate wasn't a perfect, submissive high-born wolf.

"I, Alpha Caspian of the Dark Sea pack, reject you, Talia, as my mate," he declared, his voice cold and final.

"You are hereby banished from these lands.

If you are seen within our borders after tonight, my warriors will hunt you down like the rogue you are."