Chapter 1: The Trespasser’s Debt

" Please, just let me go," I rasped. My throat felt like I’d swallowed a sprinkle of dry beach. 

" Let you go?" 

Victor Blackwood did n’t move from his president by the fire. He did not have to. He was the Alpha King of the North; his presence alone was a physical weight pressing the air out of my lungs. He sat there, his frame too big for the cabinetwork, watching me with eyes that glowed a low, dangerous amber. 

" Elodie," he purred. The way he said my name felt like a mesh tightening." You broke into my house. You shifted on my land. You ran through my forestland like you possessed them. And now you suppose you can just walk out?" 

" Camille said" I glanced toward the stairs, my heart thumping a frantic meter against my caricatures." She said it was a gift. A weekend flight. I did not know this place was yours, Victor. I swear to God." 

" Fabricator." 

He stood up. It was not a jump; it was fluid, like a wolf deciding the deer had run far enough. He was broader than I flashed back , his shoulders literally blocking out the firelight. Six times had n’t softened him.However, that scar through his eyebrow made him look more like the cutthroat the rumors said he was, If anything. 

" I’m leaving," I said, my voice cracking. I turned for the heavy oak door, my fritters shaking as I reached for the handle. 

Thud. 

His hand slammed into the wood right next to my observance. The force of it rattled my teeth. He was so close I could feel the heat radiating off his casket, hitting my reverse in swells. He was n’t touching me, but I was trapped. 

" You have not changed a bit," he whizzed, his breath hot against my neck." Still the same slapdash. Still dragging my family into your mess. You suppose because you hid in the megacity for six times, I’d forget what you are? What you did?" 

I spun around, my reverse hitting the door." I did not do anything but love her like a family! You’re the bone

who banished me. You had me arrested! Is not that enough? I've nothing, Victor. No pack, no home." I swallowed hard, the verity tasting bitter." I do not indeed have a wolf presently." 

" No wolf?" He coiled his lip into a snicker." I smelled you in the forestland, Elodie. I smelled that pathetic white fur. You’re a wolf just a bottom- feeding one who thinks she can play house in my mountains." 

" Victor, please!" Camille’s voice drifted from the top of the stairs. She was pale, her hands gripped tight on the rail." It was my fault. I brought her then. I just wanted her to be happy for one day —" 

" Go to your room, Camille." Victor did not indeed look at her. 

" But" 

" Now!" 

The Alpha command hit like a physical blow. Camille squinched, a sob breaking from her throat as she turned and ran. The sound of her bedroom door slamming shut echoed through the hall, leaving me alone with a monster. 

The silence that followed was worse than the shouting. I could hear my own blood rushing in my cognizance. Victor stepped closer, forcing me to crane my neck back to look at him. He looked at me with pure hate, but commodity differently was shifting in his expression. His nostrils burned . He leaned down, his face dipping toward the crook of my neck. 

I set. My wolf the part of me I allowed

was dead, the part I’d kept buried under layers of trauma and megacity life suddenly slammed against the walls of my mind. She was not fighting. She was. purring. 

Mate. 

The word echoed in my soul like a gong. 

" No," I rumored, my hands coming up to push at his casket. It was like trying to move a slipup wall." No, no, no." 

Victor went rigid. I saw the exact moment the consummation hit him. His eyes did not just glow; they burned . The amber bled into a deep, bloody gold. He seized my wrists, cascading them to the door above my head. His grip was iron, bruising my skin incontinently. 

" The Moon Goddess is a cruel whine," he snarled, his voice a guttural scrape." You? A slapdash? A snake? My alternate chance?" 

" I do not want it!" I demurred at his pins, my eyes surcharging with gashes." Reject me! Do it right now! Rejection is a mercy compared to being near you!" 

" Reject you?" He laughed, a dark, jagged sound. He leaned in until our tips touched." You suppose it's that simple? I’ve been tracking this scent for three weeks, Elodie. I did not know it was you. I just knew there was a scent in the wind that made my wolf want to tear the world piecemeal. I allowed

I was going crazy." 

His hand moved from the door to my throat. He did not squeeze, but his thumb traced my jawline. It was a jealous, intimidating gesture. 

" You broke into my home," he rumored." You transgressed on sacred ground. In my pack, the penalty for a slapdash entering the nascence's house is death." 

" also kill me," I challenged, though my voice was pulsing." Get it over with." 

" Death is too easy for you." His hand slid down, his fritters entwining into the collar of my shirt." You owe me a debt, Elodie. A debt for the times you spent corrupting my family. A debt for every night I spent smelling you on the breath and wanting to kill the source of it." 

" I do not owe you a damn thing!" 

" You owe me everything." He leaned down, his lips brushing my earlobe. I abominated how my body betrayed me, how my knees went weak." You’re wolfless? Good. You’ll be easier to break. You are not going back to the megacity. You are not going anywhere." 

" You can not keep me then. Camille" 

" Camille will do as she's told, or she will find herself in a cell right next to you," he growled. He pulled back, his eyes surveying my face with a hunger that made me feel naked." My pack would demand your head if they knew what you were to me. A treacherous mate? They’d burn you alive." 

" So let me go! I’ll vanish. You’ll noway see me again." 

" No." He seized my chin, forcing me to look at the raw preoccupation in his eyes." You’re going to stay right then, in the dark. You’ll be my secret. My plaything." 

He did not stay for a response. He hooked an arm around my midriff and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of grain. 

" What the f**k! Put me down!" I thrashed, my fists beating against his gemstone-solid reverse." Victor! Let me go, you psychopath!" 

He did not say a word. He carried me up the stairs, past the door where Camille was crying, and demurred open the double doors to his master suite. The room was massive, dominated by a bed that looked more like a throne. 

He tossed me onto the mattress. Before I could scramble to the other side, he was over me, his heavy body cascading me into the silk wastes. He caught my hands, locking them above my head again. 

" By morning," he rumored, his eyes dark with a pledge of total ruin," you’re going to flash back exactly who you belong to. And you are going to supplicate me to noway let you leave." 

He reached for the buttons of his shirt. My heart pounded against my caricatures — not just from terror, but from the sickening, inarguable pull of the bond. 

" I detest you," I breathed. 

" Good," he said, his fritters fluttering the first button loose." detest is a much better energy than love." 

Just as he moved to press his lips to mine, the heavy silence of the house was shattered. A piercing, high-pitched alarm began to herald from the hallway the pack’s exigency signal. 

Victor set, his head snapping toward the door. 

" What now?" he growled, his grip on my wrists tensing. 

Someone pounded on the door." nascence! It’s the border! Someone just broke through the southern wards. and they’re carrying the Council’s crest." 

Victor’s face went pale, also red with fury. He looked down at me, his eyes darting between the door and my throat. The Council. If they set up me then a wolfless slapdash in the Alpha King’s bed — neither of us would make it to daylight. 

" Do not move," he commanded, his nascence voice wobbling through my bones.However, Elodie, I will not just lock you up," If you try to leave this room. I will make sure you noway walk again." 

He climbed off the bed, conforming his shirt as he stormed out, the cinch clicking forcefully behind him. I lay there for a alternate, heaving for air, before my eyes danced to the deck. 

The drop was twenty bases. The forestland were full of his guards. But staying then meant being a slave to a man who despised me. 

I climbed off the bed and ran to the window, but as I reached for the latch, a small piece of paper slid under the bedroom door. 

Run, Elodie. The reverse kitchen stairs. The guards are detracted. - C. 

Camille. My heart soared, also sank.However, Victor would destroy her, If I ran. But if I stayed, I was a dead woman walking. 

I looked at the door, also the window. also, I heard the sound of heavy thrills echoing in the hallway, heading straight for the room. Those were not Victor’s way. 

The handle turned.