PROLOGUE
Pain shot up my left leg as a hot liquid caressed my skin. The need to scream in pain overwhelmed me but I bit down on my tongue, the taste of copper circling the inside of my mouth. Faint footsteps sounded in the dense woods of the Northern Province, without wasting any more of my time I started running with my damaged foot. Every time my left leg touched the ground pain shot through my leg eliciting a wince. I needed to run. I had to get away from them all before they found me.
The smell of fresh blood in the air was a sure way to alert them. I could hear them, could smell their menace in the air. Their need to draw blood and kill so palpable in the silent woods. Light from the moon illuminated the woods with a white faint glow.
"Running won't help you!" the cold smooth voice of Alaric Payne vibrated in the still night. I hurried my pace only to stop when someone appeared in front of me. The glinting black eyes of Conan Murray locked with mine. He took a step in my direction and I took one back.
Conan Murray was as worse as his friend, Alaric Payne. The two of them specialised in causing mayhem and hurt. There wasn't a day of peace at the Northern Province boarding school because of them.
"Don't run, little girl," he said in that husky tone of his. His face gave nothing away unlike his eyes which suggested this was his dose of entertainment.
"There you're," Alaric said behind my back. Turning to him, light glinted from the sword he was holding. I flinched and then saw Nora Brooks joining him. The smile on her face made a tear roll down my cheeks. Everything that's happening right now was because of her, I just knew it.
"Get this over with before someone discovers we're missing from the school," her overly sweet voice only made her despicable.
"She's right," Conan agreed with her.
"Kneel," Alaric said in his alpha tone. He wasn't an alpha yet but he had the blood running thick in his veins. At this school he was the king, and everyone else who wasn't in his circle mere peasants.
His command brought me to my knees without a fight. I was the weakest wolf of our park.
"Just look at you, and you desire to be my mate?" He mocked and talked like it was my fault I was his mate. Nora and Conan laughed as Alaric circled me. The sword in his hand gleamed.
"How can such a weakling be the next Luna?"
"I will leave and never come back," I said through chattering teeth. The only thing I could do to save myself was to just leave and never show myself to him again.
"And become a rogue?" he asked and I nodded in agreement.
"Oh dear, you know we hate rogues and you think I can make you one?" My eyes caught Nora's face as she snickered at me.
"Alaric," Conan warned behind my back.
"Relax future beta, no one will catch us and if they do they won't spit a word. After all, I call the shots here." The arrogance in his voice was so thick, well he was known for it.
"Enough of this playing around, if you can't do it then allow me," Nora stretched her arm reaching for the silver sword. If that got anywhere near me I was done for. Alaric was only able to hold it because of the wooden handle.
"Fine," he said, coming to my front.
"Look at me," he commanded and I did just that. His handsome face looked blurry with all the moisture in my eyes.
"No matter how unbearable the pain becomes don't move," that alpha tone boomed again freezing me in place. The hand gripping the sword moved and he brought the sharp point of it at the side of my cheek. He trailed it down, drawing blood, causing unimaginable pain.
"Don't scream," he said using that tone again. My mouth closed shut, teeth biting through my tongue again.
The fire continued to my neck, then to my cleavage the sword cutting through the cloth to my skin. My body vibrates with pain. The cutting edge of the sword stopped once it reached under my breast. Time stopped, my breathing stopped as I begged him to let me be.
He shook his head, his face twisted with pain. I was his mate, this was causing him agony as well. But this knowledge made me wonder how he was capable of hurting me like this, maybe it was the alpha in him. He knew rejection wouldn't sever the tie because of who he was but only death.
One minute his eyes were concerned, the next animosity bled through them and before I could even blink he drove the sword deep inside of my chest, piercing my heart. Pain exploded in my body causing me to shake. The effects of silver burning my flesh, my mouth opening but no sound ever came out. He drove it out and I collapsed to the dirt, the pain failing to keep me immobile like he said.
As the pain radiated through my body I heard indistinct voices murmuring and next someone picked me up, walked for a while and then I was falling, falling and falling until I heard the cracking of bones and a moment
later however long it was my world turned black.
