Chapter 1 - Winona
The Ancient Forest is burning.
Move.
I stand frozen before the horrific scene, my breath caught in my throat.
Move.
My feet are rooted in the lush grass, my eyes transfixed by the blue flames dancing and rippling before me before rising into the night sky.
Move!
With an ominous crack, a tree splits and crashes to the ground in a cloud of blue-tinged embers.
“Winnie?”
Behind me, a voice calls my name, but I can’t tear my gaze away from the unnaturally colored fire.
“Winona!”
The voice draws closer, familiar despite the note of panic I hear in it.
“For the Goddess’s sake, Winona! Get back here before you end up trapped by the flames!”
Trapped?
My wolf howls inside my mind, furious with me and my recklessness. Her anger hits me like an electric shock. Sensation rushes back into my body. I suck in a deep breath… and regret it almost immediately.
I cough, my eyes watering, and press my nose into the crook of my elbow, trying to protect myself from the harmful smoke surrounding me.
“Winnie!”
I spin around at the uncontrolled sob in Vivi’s voice. My gaze immediately locks with hers. Her beautiful green eyes are wide with fear for me. Her long blonde hair, pulled into a high ponytail, whips around her face in the suffocating air. Despite the heat pouring from the massive blaze, all color has drained from her face.
I’ve never seen my best friend so pale.
“Step back,” I order Vivi.
My first instinct is to protect her. I take a step toward her, determined to reach her and get her away from the fire.
“Watch out!”
Vivi screams and clamps both hands over her mouth to smother her cry of terror as a burning branch crashes down only a few feet from me in an explosion of sparks.
I immediately leap aside, my heart hammering against my ribs.
A second later, a violent gust tears through the blaze, raising a curtain of azure flames between Vivi and me. The wall of fire is so high, so thick, that I can no longer see the Beta behind it. Only her voice reaches me, desperately screaming my name.
Move, Winona. Move!
Breathing becomes harder and harder through the sleeve of my denim jacket as I look around, searching for another way out.
The Ancient Forest is unrecognizable, swallowed by the inferno.
Black spots cloud my vision, and my thoughts begin to dim as I stagger, my lungs burning. My strength abandons me in a fraction of a second, and my knees slam heavily into the ground. My upper body sways dangerously back and forth, my consciousness on the verge of surrender.
“Move…”
The word scrapes out of my throat, rough and hoarse, followed closely by a painful coughing fit.
For the Goddess’s sake, I am not going to die here.
Clenching my jaw, I grab the hilt of the dagger strapped to my belt. In one fluid motion, I draw the short blade from its sheath and drive it into my thigh.
Pain instantly slices through the fog smothering my mind, and I seize that moment of clarity to force myself painfully back onto my feet.
I am not going to die here.
“No!” Vivi’s voice reaches me again. “She’s innocent!”
I don’t have time to wonder what’s happening beyond the flames before a massive shape leaps straight through the wall of fire.
Golden eyes, like molten gold, lock onto me.
My body is too weak, my mind too slow…
I can’t react when the wolf’s jaws close around my waist and lift me in his powerful mouth. With a single jerk of his head, I’m hurled over the flames and land in the grass on the other side, rolling once before coming to a stop.
The impact knocks the air from my lungs, and my ribs hurt like hell, but despite everything, I know I’m alive.
I don’t even get the chance to take a deep breath.
An enormous paw lands on my chest and slams me brutally against the ground. Stars begin to dance across my vision. Between the smoke and the blood loss, I’m as harmless and weak as a newborn pup.
“She’s fucking innocent!” Vivi shouts somewhere in the distance. “Let her go!”
Above me, the wolf disappears, replaced by a male.
His hair is as black as his wolf’s fur, his eyes still glowing gold, while the paw pinning me down is replaced by a masculine hand closing around my throat.
“You’d better stay alive, female,” he growls, his face only inches from mine. “You don’t get to die until I have my answers.”
One of my hands closes around his wrist, trying uselessly to ease the pressure of his grip. My other hand slides as discreetly as possible down my body until my fingers reach the dagger still buried in my thigh.
In a heartbeat, the male’s free hand closes around my weapon. He yanks the blade from my flesh without the slightest hesitation and throws it somewhere behind him.
Despite myself, pain twists my features, and my lips pull back in a warning growl. In response, the male tightens his grip around my throat.
Not enough to choke me, but enough to make his message clear.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are,” the stranger grunts, bringing his face dangerously closer to mine. “This is my territory. And you? You’re in deep fucking shit.”
My nails break the skin of his wrist as I force the words out.
“I’m… your fucking… Luna…”
The male goes rigid.
His eyes, golden until now, return to their natural color—the one I noticed in the photographs my father showed me.
Steel gray flecked with green.
Confusion and anger burn in his gaze, but his grip around my throat doesn’t loosen in the slightest.
Apparently, the new Head Alpha, Wyatt, wasn’t informed of my arrival in Ivory Valley territory.
“Bullshit,” Wyatt snaps.
“About that, Wyatt,” a vaguely familiar voice cuts in.
“Head Alpha,” Wyatt corrects without taking his eyes off mine.
“…Head Alpha,” the newcomer amends, a note of irritation slipping into his icy voice. “The she-wolf is telling the truth.”
“Winona,” I manage between two labored breaths. “The she-wolf’s name is Winona.”
And I’m starting to get really pissed.
For the first time, Wyatt’s grip slowly loosens, and I draw in a deep, relieved breath.
He doesn’t remove his hand completely, though. His slightly calloused fingers brush the sensitive skin of my neck. The heat radiating from him almost rivals that of the inferno only a few yards away.
Without warning, the male above me leans down, his lips brushing close to my ear.
“I don’t know what my Council has been plotting behind my back, but make no mistake, female. You will never be my Luna.”
We’ll see about that.
