Chapter 1

Calla's Pov

The blood red light made everything look utterly wrong. 

I stood in the ceremonial circle with forty other wolves my age, all of us waiting for the bond to choose. My hands wouldn't stop shaking and I tucked them behind my back where no one could see.

"It'll be fine," my best friend Maya whispered beside me. "The Moon goddess knows what she's doing."

I wasn't so sure. The witch blood in my veins made me different and it made me wrong. Every wolf here knew it and had bullied me because of it.

The priestess raised her arms. "Children of the Moon, bare your wrists."

I rolled up my sleeve. My skin looked pale under the red sky, the veins too visible. I held my breath as the priestess began the chant, her words older than any of us could understand.

I felt heat on my wrist. Although it wasn’t painful, it still prickled. I watched the mark appear, and the black lines formed a pattern on my wrist. It was the same pattern I’d dreamed about since I was twelve.

A mate mark. 

I closed my eyes and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling too hard. Just then, the pain hit. I gasped and bit the inside of my cheeks again, but it was from pain. My veins felt like it was on fire and my blood was boiling.

I felt my wolf surge forward, reaching for something. The bond pulled tight, a rope connecting me to—

"No." The word fell out of my mouth as I saw who it was connecting me to. "No, no, no." 

Luca Vale. He was staring at his own wrist with his face set in a frown. He had the kind of face that made girls stupid. He looked at me, and scoffed with unbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

His mark matched mine, they were perfect mirror images.

Our eyes met and I saw the past seven years of my life. I remembered his voice calling me "mutt" in the school hallway and his friends laughing when I couldn't shift as fast as the pure-bloods. 

"Calla?" Maya grabbed my arm. "What's wrong?"

I couldn’t answer because the bond was pulling me toward him. I felt his wolf inside my head, reaching for mine. 

Luca moved toward me too, and the crowd parted for him becaude…he’s Luca. He was Vale pack royalty. I was the half-breed they tolerated because my mother had Alpha blood. All through school, he’s bullied me, and called me all sorts of names.

Long story short. I didn’t like him one bit.

"Calla." He stopped in front of me. "We need to talk."

"We really don't." I started to say, doing my best to resist him.

"The bond—"

"I know what the bond says." My voice came out steadier than I felt. The pain in my wrist was spreading, crawling up my shoulder. He reached for me and I stepped back.

"Don't." I held up my marked wrist between us. "Don't touch me."

"You can't just refuse this," he said. The crowd had gone quiet. Everyone was watching us. "The Moongoddess chose. We're mates."

"The Moongoddess made a mistake."

His jaw clenched as he gave me the kind of look you give an errant child. "My father won't allow—"

"I don't care what your father allows. I will not be getting bonded to a bully, and truly a horrible person.”

"Do you know who you’re talking to? You can’t say no to me." He moved closer. “You can’t seriously still be annoyed about something that happened only at school, that’s—”

"You called me mutt." My throat felt tight. He wasn’t even trying to apologize. "You made sure everyone knew I didn't belong. You laughed when your friends said my mother must have slept with a warlock to have me."

He rubbed the back of his head. “That was not my finest joke and I’m sorry about that.” He sighed and lowered his voice so that only I could hear. “Come on, don’t embarrass me like this.”

The bond pressed harder, and my wolf whined, she was confused. She could feel his wolf, strong and desperate and wanting her. The biological pull was so strong I almost gave in.

Then I remembered his smile when Marcus Vale had suggested they test if witch blood burned differently than wolf blood. I straightened my spine. "I, Calla Thorne, daughter of Miranda Thorne, reject you, Luca Vale, as my mate."

"You can't." He grabbed my arm. "Calla, you can't—" People gasped and Luca looked like he wanted to scream. The bond shattered.

I'd heard stories about rejection, but none of them came close. Words could not describe how I felt. My wolf howled, the sound tearing through my head until I thought my skull would split. I hit my knees, gasping for air like I was drowning. The ground rushed up, and I heard someone scream.

Through the pain, I saw Luca fall too. His mark had turned completely black, spreading up his arm like poison, while mine burned dark red.

"What have you done?" The priestess's voice seemed far away. "Child, what have you done?"

Everything hurts. My wolf thrashed inside me, trying to reach for a bond that wasn't there anymore. 

Hands grabbed me before I knew it. Maya on one side, my mother on the other. They pulled me up, but my legs wouldn't hold me. I looked for Luca through the crowd. His father and brother had him, half-carrying him away. 

He turned his head, and our eyes met one last time. I saw rage in his eyes, and then my vision went dark at the edges, and I couldn't see anything at all.

"We have to get her to the healer," my mother called out. "Now!" She damn near screamed.

Some bonds, I thought as darkness took me, weren't meant to be kept, even if breaking them killed you.