TEASER

***

Note from the author:

Explicit sex. Forced and rough sex. Shape shifting. Vengeance and captivity. Dark erotica.

Can be triggering for some.

***

“Run, Girl! Run!” Marta’s voice was echoing in my ears. Her urgency. She had shown me the break in the border wall.

Where I can get through. And I needed out.

I never wanted to be part of this pack. But Edrick, the Asara Pack Alpha, had made me at the get. Despite that I was residing amongst humans. Nearly invisible as what I was. He’d known me as a wolf.

He had his two vicious sons drag me into Asara territory and I was forced to join their pack and become fated to be prey of one of the unbred males because I was considered one of the few ‘breedables.’

Females of mating age.

And in this ferocious pack, breedable she-wolves were easy prey for the males that became fiercely lustful under the Mating Moon. Willing to throwdown the nearest she-wolf and rut her into submission to sate their insane drive.

Like the malevolent wolves they are. I had never quite fit in with wolves. And I didn’t like their laws for their females.

Submit or be mounted until you do.

I was quite another creature.

***

I wanted out. I had been trying to find a way. And drinking Marta’s teas and listening to her ramble about the atrocities the male wolves would commit on a female under the Mating Moon, sometimes to the point of killing them, I’d decided I’d certainly not become one of them.

And the alpha’s two sons had been eyeing me for a while now. Following me and sniffing me out more frequently. I’d barely managed to escape indoors under the last two Mating Moons. Just missing their swiping paws trying to snag my clothes.

But the next one is coming soon. Too soon.

Then Lyra Lani matured into a breedable, and Draven had thankfully lost all interest in me. Following her and marking around her hut to indicate she’d soon be the next Alpha’s mate.

Draven wants her. Badly.

Now there was a male marking around myhut.

Draven’s younger brother, Alaric.

The virile young blonde was built for battle. With tousled hair dusted with darker sun-kissed shades and fierce blue eyes to accompany shoulders as wide as a wall and a chest thick enough, I certainly couldn’t reach around him. He was Draven’s guard and equally as feral as many of the other males that’d been inaugurated into the strange pack of collected riff raff.

Edrick had done a good job after the wolf plagues. Even I could admit that.

Finding females and hunting them until able to drag them back to join their pack. The Asara wolves.

Only the mated couples with valuable skills were permitted to join the camp. And the males had to be the most brutal and strong of what was out there roaming, to be permitted within the Asara Territory walls.

Protected from the NightHunter Pack’s murderous raids.

I was painfully aware there were packs out there worse then the Asara. Problem was, I had no desire to be part of any pack.

Edrick had found the most vicious males to ensure the wall would be protected, and that should anything happen to him, there’d be plenty able to accept the role of Alpha.

Edrick had been confident and wild enough to defend his territory and his sons, when challenged by those he let in. And any would-be challengers were soon banished from the walls to roam again in a world running rampant with plague and in immediate danger of being murdered by either King Detry’s wolf-hunting mages.

We all know how black-hearted those were. Barely human.

By the time the King’s Guild Commander was done training them, the mages were black-eyed and as ruthless as their mysterious Commander.

The one who exudes the black smoke.

We all knew of him.

And know what he hunts…Us.

***

Or the NightHunter raiding parties.

Or starve. That’d certainly not been my favorite part of being out on my own. Hunting was sparse unless one was willing to risk making a lot of noise or crossing open ground.

And the potential of being killed if they incidentally entered other claimed territories.

Today, was only a few days shy of the Mating Moon. And as I exited my hut this morning, I caught the hint of male marking around my hut and knew that smell.

Alaric.

He was claiming territory.

Then, a mere few hours ago, Alaric had knocked on the door to my hut.

When I’d opened it and saw the determined look on his face, I’d met him head on. Refusing to let him know he intimidated me. I was far too fierce for that.

I cower to no male. Man or wolf.

But Alaric was tall, and fierce, and right now his face was so hard it could’ve been carved from granite, looking down on me.

As if he doesn’t even know how to smile. Or he had some idea I was planning an escape.

His blue eyes set on me like bits of ice. “I’m giving you fair warning, Lara. In a few nights, I’m taking you for mate.”

The Hell you are!

“Mating me or taking me as a mate?” I asked wanting to ensure I understood. Stamping down my indignation enough to keep my emotion hidden. I didn’t want to tip him off as to the exact lengths I was willing to go to refuse him.

Though there’s no chance I was going to comply with either possibility.

“Take you as mine. Mate you and keep you.”

“Mark me, you mean?”

“Indeed, I do. And as you know when that fat pink moon rises, we’re barely able to control ourselves. I’ve enough respect for you Girl, to give you fair warning that I’ve designs on you.”

“And if I say no?” I crossed my arms over my chest and took an impudent stance.

Alaric eyed me. Putting his palms against the doorframe purposefully and leaning down to tower over me to invite. “Try.”

I intend to do more than try.

“I won’t be yours, Alaric.”

“We’ll see about that.” He dropped one hand from the doorframe and caught my bottom jaw. Holding it in place as he examined me. “I want you. And I’m going to have you. One way or another. I merely thought to give you time to come to terms with it.” He added as an afterthought. “Before I’m inside you.”

“We’re not complete animals.” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“But we are a pack and we do take mates like the creatures we are…At least those of us willing to admit what we are…”

He often implied I was a fool to prefer human company over pack company.

I’d never been raised with a distinct pack and had learned to blend with humans enough, I found it abhorrent to belong to a pack again.

Or to Alaric. I had better ideas.

I scoffed. Giving him a haughty smirk. “Good luck with that.”

“I won’t need luck. I’ll have you…”