Chapter 1
When Love Turns Cold
Manon
“You’re utterly insane,” Lilah whispered, though her voice still carried enough heaviness to make the old, mould-stained walls tremble. Not enough, however, to shake me from the decision I had already made.
Her gaze darted toward the open hallway, searching for listening ears, before settling back on me. “Is death what you seek now?” The fury in her tone outweighed the concern. “I will not let you get yourself killed.”
Concern was a natural reaction, given that I had spent days speaking of, and planning, the one thing no wolf dared attempt within the Tynok pack.
I intended to challenge Alpha Maleek, the ruler of all who lived upon these cursed lands, Tarnilk.
I did not want to. Not truly. My mind screamed that it was foolish for a weak wolf like me to bare my teeth to his wrinkled face, but my heart refused to listen. My heart had already chosen.
Lilah wanted me to remain hidden within these chamber walls. To stay invincible since it was safer that way, but how could I? The Alpha had dragged Ceri, our closest friend, into his tent to have his way with her. She was just like us. A young female who had barely lived three and twenty years.
Like every female wolf, Ceri had fought to survive and cover her skin.
She had learned to protect herself from the hungry eyes of lustful males who stared as though they meant to strip us naked with their gaze alone, licking their lips as if already tasting us.
And just when she had gone longer than most without becoming a victim, Alpha Maleek claimed her for his selfish, rut-driven desires.
Doing nothing was no longer an option. “What would you have me do, Lilah?” I demanded. “Pretend it is fine? Pretend I do not hear Ceri screaming every moonlit night?” My voice fractured, tears warming my eyes as they prepared to spill.
Lilah’s gaze melted into a gentler green, like the stems of flowers hidden deep within the woods. “Your anger is one I know too well. But you cannot go against the Alpha King.”
I had heard those words too many times this week. My head throbbed from them.
“Do you forget where we are?” she continued. “We are wolves of the Tynok pack. And Ceri, she knew what would happen after that dance at the Fire Festival. She tempted him before everyone, and the Alpha chose her for the night.”
Tempted? She had danced fully covered.
“It was meant to be one night!” I cried, clutching my dark hair as I paced the room like a caged thing. And perhaps that was exactly what I was. What we all were.
“One full moon night, Lilah. But it has been a week. A full week, and she has not stepped out of that tent. Do you know what that means? We hear her screaming every night. Moon help me, I am sick of hearing it.”
Our breaths stilled as several pairs of boots thundered past the damp ground outside. The Alpha’s men. I did not breathe again until the sound faded.
Lilah exhaled shakily. “You know we cannot go against Alpha Maleek,” she whispered. “If he calls for any unmated female, she must answer. That has been the law since before your birth. This land is our fate.”
I despised that she was right.
In the brutal lands of Tarnilk, where most wolves were grateful for nothing more than a roof above their heads, it mattered little that our Alpha was old enough to be my father or Ceri’s. His hunger would never end.
Maleek was a shifter who believed every woman in the pack was born to serve him. Worse still were the mothers who raised their daughters to obey him without question.
The moment you left the warmth of the womb and stepped into the cold soil of Tarnilk, you became property.
Here, the men were almost as dangerous as the Alpha himself. Only a mate bond offered protection.
That bond had been my salvation, the only thing that kept Maleek’s greedy eyes from claiming me. But Ceri had no mate yet. Most of us did not.
A tired breath slipped from my lips. “I’m exhausted, Lilah.”
She saw it, the pain I could no longer hide. She stood beside the oak table my mate had promised to fix months ago, had he not been swallowed by the army. Lilah had always been the mother Ceri and I lacked. Though she was no older than us, she had always been the better among us.
Nodding, she said, “Let us hope she returns today. I will prepare the healing waters. She will be sore.” Her eyes closed before she whispered the rest. “If she survives him at all.”
Lifting her weed-stained skirts, she walked past me, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Through the window, the clash of swords rang out. The warriors were preparing for yet another war.
The males of Tarnilk had fought no fewer than ten battles this week alone, attacking places that would only draw the wrong kind of attention.
Alpha Maleek’s greed pushed him to claim more cities, steal more women, and earn us more enemies than we could afford. Our numbers were still few, though it was clear he meant to change that.
I could only pray his hunger would not drive him to raze cities under the Golden-Eye King’s rule. If the King of Galaris ever learned even fragments of what Maleek had done…
No.
I would not allow myself to think of it. The Alpha was not foolish enough to challenge the Lycan King.
If he did, we would all be dead. The innocent and the wicked alike.
Thinking of him alone sent cold shivers skating over my already aching skin.
Deciding it was best to help Lilah brew the healing herbs, in the hope that our friend would ever return, I turned toward the doorway. Before I could take a step, someone shifted the dark beaded curtains aside and stepped in.
My wolf leapt beneath my skin, bouncing with excitement, as the forest-rain scent of my mate flooded our nostrils. It made my peaks harden when they had no business doing so.
“You’ve arrived, my dearest…” My voice came out higher than usual.
He wiped a smear of thick blood from his cheek, probably from sparring and moved closer with a small smile tugging at his lips.
Pulling me into his large arms, his scent wrapped around me completely. “I missed you.”
His rough fingers traced my face, carrying the smell of iron with them as he pressed his mouth to mine. The taste of his heat melted into me instantly.
Pressing his hard body against mine, his tongue slid down my neck, licking the salt from my skin as his other hand fumbled with the waist band of his old cotton trousers.
“Xavian…” I gasped, rubbing my nipples against his chest. “Lilah needs me to help prepare the waters.”
“You still believe Ceri’s coming back?” He turned me around roughly and shoved me forward until my chest and stomach slammed against the oak table..the one still begging for repairs.
He lifted my skirts, exposing me to him. I tried to pull away, but he caught my neck and forced my head back onto the table, letting the tiny splinters bite into my skin.
“Don’t start with your—” Another gasp stole the rest of my words as I felt his length brush my entrance.
Weak beneath his touch, I still forced myself to speak. “Your negativity is not something I want to feed on today.”
His fingers dug into my hips. “She won’t be free,” he said, his length still gliding through my slick. “Maleek never lets go of the female he wants.”
Maybe he was right, but I didn’t want to think about it now, not with him stretching me open already. Sparks of the mate bond swelled into my blood, responding to his touch as his thrusts grew faster, while his tongue brushed my shoulders.
“Xavian,” I moaned, gripping the poor table for support, even though it desperately needed its own.
“Your sweet heat hugs my cock so well.” His breath ghosted over my ear as he drove into me harder, pressing my head deeper into the wood. I groaned, not from pleasure, but from the discomfort.
His tongue slid back to my neck and stayed there, no longer wandering around my skin like before.
My wolf went rigid, growling low inside my head, demanding that I paid attention despite his thickness filling me.
His teeth grazed my skin, and I knew exactly where this was headed.
“Xavian, no!” I shoved my hips back, forcing him away. His cock slipped from me, and he groaned at the abrupt loss.
As I pulled my skirts down, I stared at him, and at his fangs, still tucked beneath his gums.
Just as I suspected. He was about to mark me.
“It’s been months, Manon!” His voice rose. “Why won’t you let me mark you?”
“I’ve told you.” My voice rose to match his. “We’re already mated. I don’t need a mark to prove it.”
He dragged a hand over his face, pacing the room. “Do you know how it feels to tell everyone you’re my mate and have nothing to show for it? Everyone else’s mates are marked. You…” His jaw clenched. “You make me look like a fool.”
“So I’m an embarrassment now?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Then what, Xavian? Since when do you care what they think?”
There were reasons his mark didn’t sit on my neck, reasons I couldn’t even explain to myself.
My wolf wouldn’t let him mark me. If he did, I would fully belong to him. And goddess help me, I wanted that. I wanted it more than freedom itself, but my wolf refused, even though she loved him as fiercely as I did.
Stepping closer, I cupped his face. “I am yours. That is all that matters and that should be enough.”
His hands balled into fists. “Are you fucking someone else? Is that why you won’t let me mark you?”
The accusation hit hard enough to make my hands fall. “How dare you? If I were, you’d know.”
“I’d know if I had marked you,” he snapped. “So choose. Let me mark you… or watch me walk away.”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Nothing was going right. Why was he doing this?
“What is this?” I whispered. “Since when do you make threats?”
“Since I’m tired of begging for what’s mine.” His voice was as cold as the waters beneath the bridge.
He had never spoken to me like this before. “You’re giving me an ultimatum? Now? When Ceri—”
“I don’t care about Ceri!” he cut in. “She’s a lost cause. What matters is us. So how does this end, Manon?”
Anger surged in my chest. “How can you talk about her like that? She’s our friend!” Tears burned my eyes as they spilled over.
“Fuck you, Manon.”
