Chapter 1 : The night my village burned

I was making bread when the bells began to ring.

At first I thought it was just a drill. Then I smelled smoke, and I heard people screaming, and I ran outside. Half of our village was already on fire.

Soldiers in black armor were pouring through the gate. Some of them were not even in human form. Huge wolves with red eyes ran between the houses and knocked down doors. "Search every house!" a voice shouted. "Find the silver mark! The Council wants it!"

I did not know what a silver mark was. I did not care. My mom was sick in bed, and my dad could not move fast because of his bad knee. I ran to their house.

I never made it. A soldier grabbed my hair and dragged me across the ground to the village square. He threw me down so hard that my teeth rattled.

Then I saw my parents.

They were kneeling in the dirt not far from me. My dad's lip was bleeding. My mom was still in her nightgown, and her hands were shaking. One of them held the little silver necklace at her throat, as if someone might take it. Two soldiers stood behind them with swords at their necks.

They were alive. That was all I could think. They were alive.

"Rian," my mom said in a tiny voice. "Please keep your head down."

"Mom, I have never kept my head down in my life."

"I know." She was crying now. "That is why I am begging you."

My dad tried to smile at me. It hurt him to do it. "Listen to your mother, son. Just this once."

I wanted to say yes. I really did. I wanted to be a good son for one night. But I was too angry to bend.

All the villagers were forced onto their knees around us. Old Mr. Tom was there, still holding the broom he had grabbed to fight the wolves. The baker's wife was praying with her eyes shut. The little twins from next door held each other's hands, and one of them had lost a shoe.

Everyone kept their heads low. I was the only one who still looked up.

A big black chariot rolled into the square. The wolves around it began to whine and back away, like dogs that smelled a storm. The soldiers stopped shouting. They did not wait for an order. They all dropped their eyes to the ground, one after another.

I did not need to ask who was coming.

"Kneel, human!" a soldier barked, and his boot hit my back. "Lower your eyes before your king!"

I coughed and tasted blood. I did not lower my eyes.

The door opened, and a man stepped out.

He was very tall, with black hair and a long black cloak. He did not hurry. He did not even look angry. The whole village was crying and burning around him, and his face stayed as calm as a frozen lake. That was the scariest part.

His eyes were silver. They moved over the crowd like he was counting us.

King Kael, the strongest Alpha in the land. The man who had just burned down my home.

Then he turned his head and looked right at me.

My heart jumped so hard it hurt. A smell reached me, pine trees after rain, and warm smoke, and it made my knees go weak. I had never smelled it before, but my body knew it. My body wanted to run toward it.

No, I thought. No way.

Every kid knows the old story. When a wolf meets the person the Moon made for him, he knows right away. It is called the Mate Bond.

Nobody in the square said a word. The king stood very still, and for one second his calm face broke, like he had forgotten how to breathe.

"The king found his mate," a soldier whispered.

"That human?" said another one.

King Kael walked toward me. He stopped right in front of me, held out his big hand with its sharp nails, and said in a low, even voice, "Come to me, little human."

He said it like I should say thank you.

I looked at his hand. I looked at my parents. I looked at the fire eating my bakery, the only place where I had ever been happy.

Then I laughed.

It just came out of me. I could not stop. The soldiers looked at each other like I had lost my mind.

"Are you serious?" I said. "You burn my house, you put swords on my parents, and now you want me to hold your hand? At least buy me dinner first."

His jaw moved. He did not smile.

"You feel it too," he said. "Do not fight it."

"Oh, I feel it. I feel sick."

I spat a mouthful of blood onto his boots.

Everyone gasped.

"Listen to me, Your Majesty," I said. My voice shook, but I kept going. "I reject you as my mate."

Pain exploded in my chest, like a hot iron pushed through my heart. I screamed and fell onto my hands. My fingers went numb. I could not feel the dirt under my palms anymore.

In front of me, the king bent over and coughed up blood. A lot of it. Then he dropped onto one knee in the dirt.

The Lycan King was kneeling. Nobody in the square could believe it.

I tried to stand, but my legs would not work. The pain was not only mine. It was his too. I could feel it, and I did not know how.

Slowly the king raised his head. Blood ran down his chin. His eyes had turned gold, and he was staring at me. I thought he would look angry. He looked afraid.

"Rian," he said. I had never told him my name. "What have you done? If the bond breaks completely, neither of us will survive."

Behind him, a thin man in gray robes stepped forward. He was smiling a little, like a man whose job had just become easy.

"Kill the human boy," he said softly. "Now."

All the swords turned toward me.

My dad screamed my name.