Chapter 2

The rogues did not run at first. They were too many and too proud.

"This is Hollowmere land," the scarred one said. His voice shook only a little. "You have no right to give orders here, stranger."

The man in black did not answer. He stepped out of the trees, and the red moon fell across his shoulders. He was very tall, taller than Dorian by a full head. His hands hung loose at his sides. He looked calm, and that was the scariest part. He was calm like a storm that has all night to wait.

I could not see his face. The moon was behind him, and his face was only a dark shape.

"I will say it one time," he said. "Let her go."

A rogue on the left pulled a knife and ran at him. I screamed. The man caught the rogue's wrist in the air like he was catching a ball. There was a sharp crack, and the knife fell on the moss. Then the rogue was on the ground, holding his arm and crying.

After that, everything happened too fast for me to follow. A growl rolled out of the stranger's chest, so deep I felt it in my teeth. His eyes flashed gold in the dark. Two more rogues jumped at him and were thrown away like dolls. The scarred one stared with his mouth open.

"Wait," he said. "I know that smell. That is not a young buck. That is..."

He did not finish. He turned and ran, and the others ran after him, crashing through the reeds and breaking branches. In a few seconds, the sound of them was gone.

Then there was only silence, and the water, and the two of us.

I tried to stand up and failed. My legs were shaking too hard. The strange heat was still burning under my skin, and now it was worse. The man's scent filled the whole clearing. Cedar smoke and warm rain. Every breath I took made my head spin.

He started walking toward me.

One step. Two. With every step, the heat in my body grew heavier. My heart was racing, but not only from fear. I remember a cold thought passing through my mind. Had I just escaped one pack of predators only to meet a worse one?

He stopped in front of me and knelt down. Up close, I could see his hands. They were shaking. This huge man who had just thrown three rogues across the forest was shaking like a boy.

"Are you hurt?" His voice was low and rough.

"No," I whispered. "I think I am fine."

"Good." He let out a long breath. Then, so softly I almost missed it, he said one more word. "Mine."

It did not sound like a claim. It sounded like a man surprised by his own mouth.

My skin lit up. His hand came toward my cheek and stopped, a small distance away, as if he was afraid to touch.

"I do not know you," I said.

"I do not know you either." His thumb hovered near my face. "But something in me does. I am in heat, and you are too. I think you can feel it."

"I can." My voice cracked. "But I have no wolf. This should not happen to me."

"Then maybe the Goddess has a sense of humor." I thought I heard a smile in his voice. Then it turned serious. "Listen to me. I will not touch you unless you want me to. If you tell me to leave, I will walk into those trees and I will not look back. I swear it."

I stared at him.

In all my nineteen years, nobody had ever asked me what I wanted. My father gave orders. My stepmother gave punishments. Dorian gave plans. This stranger knelt in the dirt, burning up, and he waited for my answer.

Something inside me opened that I did not know could open.

"Don't leave," I said.

That was all it took.

He moved the last small distance, and his palm settled on my cheek. It was so warm. I leaned into it before I could stop myself. Then his mouth found mine.

I have read about kisses in stories. None of them were like that one. It felt like thunder after a long dry summer. Like every cold room in my life was suddenly lit. I grabbed his shoulders, not to push him away, but to hold on. I had no idea who he was, and I did not care.

I cannot tell the rest in order. I can only tell it in pieces.

I remember the soft moss under my back, and his coat laid down under me before I felt any cold. I remember how gentle his hands were, even though they were so strong. I remember him whispering in my ear that I was beautiful, that I was perfect, that he had waited his whole life without knowing it. Nobody had ever said that to me. I cried a little, and he kissed the tears away.

I remember the moon sliding behind a cloud, so the dark closed around us. I never saw his face. Not once. Only the shape of his shoulders, and the gold of his eyes when they opened.

I remember how safe I felt. That was the strangest part. I felt like I was exactly where I belonged.

Near the end, his mouth moved to my neck. There was a sharp sting, a flash of pain that made me gasp. Then sweetness poured through me like warm honey, and I forgot the pain altogether. Far away, a wolf howled, long and clear. And deep inside me, that quiet house stirred. Something stretched and yawned, like a creature waking from a very long sleep.

After that, I remember nothing but his arms.

I woke in the gray light before sunrise. Cold dew soaked the grass around us. The forest was silent, and the red moon was gone from the sky.

He lay behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, his breath slow against my hair. He was fast asleep. I turned my head slowly, trying to see him. But the mist was thick, and he had buried his face in my shoulder. I reached back and traced the line of his jaw with my fingertips. Strong. Sharp. A little rough with stubble.

Who are you? I wondered.

Whoever he was, he was massively strong. The rogues had been afraid of him. They had said something about his smell. That was not the kind of man who lived in a small pack. That was someone dangerous.

My heart sank as the sun's first light crept through the leaves.

I had been marked.

In Hollowmere, a girl who took a mark from a stranger without her Alpha's permission was guilty of treason. It did not matter if she was willing. It did not matter that it was Blood Moon Night. Our old laws were not kind. My father would not ask for my side of the story. He would drag me before the pack, and my mother would be punished for raising a shameful daughter.

And this man might not even be who I hoped. He might be a rogue himself. He might be anyone.

I had to go.

I slid out of his arms very slowly, holding my breath. He frowned in his sleep and reached for me, and my heart cracked a little. I waited until his hand went still. Then I pulled my coat on and bent down.

"Thank you for protecting me," I whispered against his cheek. "And thank you for showing me what it feels like to be wanted."

I walked away without looking back, because I knew that if I looked, I would stay.

My body ached in places I had never ached before. I blushed the whole way home, remembering what we had done. It was lovely. It was the best night of my life. And now it would have to be a secret that I carried alone forever.

When I reached the house, the lights were on, and the sound of laughter came through the walls. I stopped on the porch and listened. Glasses clinked. Someone was playing music.

"To Selene and our future Alpha," my father's voice boomed. "The Moon Goddess has blessed this family!"

"Think of the prestige this will bring to our daughter," my stepmother sang.

My father had never sounded so proud. Not once, in all my life, had he said a word like that about me.

I tiptoed around the side of the house and climbed the back stairs to my room. No one saw me. No one had even noticed that I was gone. I shut the door and leaned against it, and for a moment I almost laughed. All night, my whole family had been celebrating, and I had been somewhere else, with someone else, living a different life.

I needed to wash. My hair was full of leaves, and my clothes were torn. I went into the small bathroom next to my bedroom and turned on the light.

Then I pulled my coat off and looked in the mirror.

I stopped breathing.

There, on the curve of my neck, was a bite mark. It was deep red and perfectly round, bigger and darker than any mark I had ever seen. It pulsed softly, as if it had its own heartbeat.

Everyone would see it. There was no way to hide it.

I pressed my hand over it, my fingers shaking. If anyone found out, I was finished. I was dead.

The bathroom door flew open with a bang.

"I did not know you were home already, human."

Selene stood in the doorway. Her hair was messy and her lips were swollen from Dorian's kisses. She looked at my face, then at my hand, still pressed against my neck.

"What are you hiding?" she asked.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Please, Selene, get out."

She crossed the room in three steps. I tried to back away, but she caught my wrist and ripped my hand down.

For one long second, she said nothing.

Then her eyes landed on my neck, and a smile began to grow on her face. It was the happiest smile I had ever seen on her.