Chapter 1

Kidnapped During Escape

♠SYLVARA♠

“Smile, Sylvara. It’s your mating ceremony, not your funeral.”

Veyra’s whisper scraped against my ear like a taunt.

But it did feel like a funeral.

A funeral for my freedom.

The white dress was heavy, the veil suffocating. I couldn’t breathe, not with the knowledge that my uncle Alpha Fenrik, feared gang lord of the underworld packs had bartered me away like cattle. His ambitions demanded an alliance with another powerful wolf bloodline, and my hand was the price.

A collateral bride. A pawn.

“I can’t do this, Veyra.” My voice was a raw whisper, my throat tight with fury. “I can’t be mated to a stranger. Not while he still walks free.”

Her brows furrowed. “You mean—him?”

Yes. Him.

The wolf who slaughtered my parents under the silver moon when I was barely old enough to shift. The monster who turned me into an orphan and left me to be raised by a ruthless uncle with no kindness in his bones.

I had spent years sharpening my claws for this training, bleeding, waiting for the day I could sink my fangs into his throat. How could I stand here, pretending to vow forever, when vengeance burned in my blood?

“No.” I tore the veil from my head, my decision hardening like steel. “I won’t belong to anyone. Not until his blood stains my hands.”

Veyra paled, panic flashing in her hazel eyes. “Sylvara, the silver-clad enforcers are outside. You can’t just run. Your uncle will kill us both.”

A wild idea sparked inside me, reckless, dangerous, but the only way.

“Then you’ll take my place,” I hissed, already tugging at the laces of my gown.

“What?!” Her gasp was almost a howl.

“You’ll wear the dress. Hide beneath the veil. No one will know. By the time they drag you out there, I’ll be gone.”

“Sylvara—”

“Please. If you love me, help me. This is the only way.”

Her hands trembled as she reached for the gown, terror plain on her face. And still, she helped me. Because Veyra was more than a friend she was pack.

“Don’t you dare die,” she choked as I pulled on her simple bridesmaid dress. “If you die, I’ll drag you back and kill you again myself.”

A broken smile tugged at my lips. “I won’t die. Not until I rip his heart out.”

Not until I killed Darius Ashfang.

The monster of my nightmares. The wolf who had taken everything from me.

Slipping past the guards was easier than I expected; wolves rarely paid attention to the shadows they dismissed as harmless. Within minutes, I was outside the packhouse, flagging down a car. My pulse thundered in my ears.

“Where to, ma’am?” the driver asked, his voice a low rumble.

“Ashfang’s pack.” The words tasted like iron.

He chuckled. A sound that was too knowing. Too sharp.

“Same destination, then.”

I frowned, but before I could question him, dizziness struck me like a blow. My limbs grew heavy, my vision blurred. A bitter scent, nightshade poisoned the air.

“You—” I slurred, clawing weakly at the door. “Let me out—”

The last thing I saw was the driver’s grin, wicked and feral, before darkness swallowed me whole.

~~~~~

When I woke, the sheets beneath me were too soft. Too clean. Not my bed. Not any bed I’d known.

My head throbbed as fragments of memory cut through the haze. The car. The drug. The laughter.

Kidnapped.

I pushed myself upright, scanning the lavish room. Whoever had taken me wasn’t hiding me in a dungeon. They had placed me in a chamber fit for a queen—or a prisoner they wanted to keep alive.

“Where is this place?” I muttered, stumbling toward the window. I clawed at the latch, but it refused to budge. My heart pounded, fury clawing up my throat.

And then—

“Going somewhere?”

The voice froze me. Deep, dark, too familiar.

I turned, slowly, dreading what I already knew.

The man standing there was tall, broad-shouldered, his presence sucking the air from the room. His eyes glowed with predatory light, amber burning like wildfire. His scent iron and pine curled through me like poison.

A wolf I had dreamed of killing a thousand times.

“Darius Ashfang,” I whispered, my lips trembling, my claws itching to tear.

My sworn enemy.

The wolf I had trained my whole life to kill.

The wolf who had ripped my parents’ lives away.

And now the wolf who had me trapped in his den.