I woke up screaming, my wrist on fire. No fires, thank God, but it might as well have been. I felt a skin fiery agonizing pain thatlanced down through my skin instantly.non stoplancing /cutting down on me,like cutting open with heated edge of a blade. My cot, in the tent next door, was burning tar beneath my back, and I sat clean and straight up from it, my hair — it was either red or brown, hard to tell, on the dark Iraqi floor — pasted to my damp forehead, my heart flung past itself. In the dim wash of moonlight I kept in my room at the Silverclaw pack's lodge, I saw it—a luminescent cres- cent symbol throbbing on my wrist, alive with muted light. I inhaled and reached for my arm, as if to pluck the pain off it. It had not vanished at once, and where I had sketched it the lead's silver touch burned. Today was my twenty first birthday, the birthday held by all werewolves in our pack where we all hoped we'd receive a mate mark. But this? This wasn't a gift. It felt like a warning.
I sat up and placed my feet on the floor, the cool wood sending goosebumps crawling up my legs. The silverclaw lands were old, the woods were thick and the mountains sharp in the silence of the darkest hue of dawn, and so was my mind. I'm a tracker — one of the best, if I do say so myself. I have been dodging the old ones' stilted rules, the whole "loyalty above all" deal, for a long time. I didn't kneel…always been kneeling and I wasn't about to start now, not even for a mark of magic. But I felt that sickening sensation in my stomach as I had to tug my leather jacket up my sleeve again to hide the thing. I wanted answers, and there was only one place to get them: the forbidden circle where the elders lapped up the sun, like sage, powerful cauliflowers.
Free, I crawled out of the lodge and hiked along the forest path, the snow crunching beneath my boots. If the open windows were any indication, it had rained over night, and there was the smell of pine and earth in the air; I thought I heard a wolf howl in the distance. "I love this place, it's our pack's home and in the rustle of each tree, I know them all. " She writes, but what shall we all do? And shall we ever regain lost ground if so many of our best are cut down?" But today she felt as if she were suffocating. The sacred circle wasn't far, a clearing with old circle of stones vibrating with pack history. The elders had gathered there, with sullen faces, as if they had been waiting for me. And in fact, it was the wiry old lady with the white-striped hair and eyes like chrome was that was standing in the middle of the wing, facing me down: Elder Mira. Alpha Torin was there, steel-blue eyes, enough to make you feel like you're committing a crime just by breathing. He was 35, and he ran the Silverclaws with the mechanized efficiency of a machine, and I'd never once made it onto his good side.
"Lila," Mira said in a low voice, as if the trees around them might have superior hearing. "Show us your wrist."
My heart skipped. How the hell did they know? I hadn't confided in anyone (not Jace, my brother, or Mara, my best friend). I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the faded crescent mark, looking more like worn silver than flesh, though it felt as if it were alive and pulsing. My jaw clamped in response. The elders gasped and Torin cast her a gaze black and murder-eyed.
"This is what we were afraid of," Mira said, leaning in. "The mark of the cursed Alpha."
"Cursed Alpha?" I broke, my voice too loud. What does that even mean? This is my mate mark, right?"
Mira's lips pressed into a thin line, and she glared at me as if I were a kid who'd just knocked over a priceless vase. "It is a mate mark, Lila. But it swears you to Kael Draven."
The name hit me like a punch. Kael Draven. The biggest scandal to ever hit the Silverclaw pack. He was their golden boy, once, the Alpha who waged wars with us, the now very real legend with his grey eyes and feral, brutish strength. I was only a child when he got exiled five years back as one of the ones who sold us out to Blackfang pack. They said a Blackfang witch placed a curse on him, that the instant he found his fated mate he would die. He was a ghost story we related round the campfire, a tale told to inspire loyalty. And my wrist was now screaming that I was bound to him.
"No way," I said, shaking my head. "Kael Draven's probably dead. And there, I am mate to no one — cursed or otherwise."
The look in Mira's eyes softened but there was no mercy in her voice. "The mark doesn't lie. It ties you to Kael. But the curse is real. If you meet him, it begins to kill him — and it could kill you, too."
My pulse roared in my ears. I wished I could laugh and tell them they were all mad, but now my head was stabbing far worse again, like it was daring me to argue its ache. "So what?" I said, my voice trembling but firm. "I just ignore it? Pretend it's not there? I am not going to let some fucking mark ruin my life."
Torin came forward and I could feel my skin prickling. "You don't have a choice, Lila. This bond threatens the pack. Them Blackfangs is flyin already, and they are ready for war. If they find out you're associated with Kael, they'll come for you — for us.
I clenched my fists, my nails pressing into my palms. "So you're gonna lock me up? Exile me like you did him?"
Torin didn't answer, which was an answer in itself. The elders eyed each other fearfully and Mira replied again. "Hide the mark, Lila. Don't even tell anyone.... Not Jace, certainly not Mara. "We'd have the Moon Goddess's rites to look at, but for now, you're a threat to us all.
My mind screamed, screamed to tear the mark from me, but I would not do that. I spun and marched back whence I'd come, and my head was still spinning. Me, a danger? I 'm Lila Thorn, the girl who has stalked rogues in the middle of a blizzard and never taken a step back from a fight. A mark, a curse, no Alpha thrown out, no, it was going to take me, rule me. Nevertheless, as I picked my way among the trees, there was a strange tug in my chest, a string stretching to some point far away.
I recoiled, my breath catching in my throat. Then it hit me — an image, as real as life and knocking the wind out of me. And a dark woods, darker than — and rough — and it was electric. A tall and ragged, gray-eyed man stood in the darkness, his eyes burning still with pain and power. Kael Draven. He gazed directly into my eyes, and I could feel him — his anger, his loneliness — as if it were my own. The vision faded, and I felt my target hurting like it couldn't speak.
"Lila?" Mara's voice snapped me back. She broke through the trees, her blonde hair gleaming in the morning sunshine as it did in the forest, her hazel eyes wide with alarm. "You okay? Look at you, as if you'd seen a ghost wolf."
And I covered the mark with my sleeve. "I'm fine," I lied, forcing a smile to appear even. Mara's been my best friend for as long as I can remember, make that since when we were born, but Mira's words played in my head. Tell no one. "Just… didn't sleep well."
Mara frowned and crossed her arms. "Bull. Is this about your birthday? The mate mark? Did you get one?"
My throat tightened. I despised lying to her but I just wasn't going to take the chance. "Nope," I replied with a tight smile. "I suppose the Moon Goddess isn't quite done with me yet."
She didn't believe me, I could tell, but she let it go. "Good. Blackfangs huntingyou down, last thing you want is a mate. It is high tension with Torin already."
I nodded, my mind elsewhere. The Blackfangs -- our enemies who hide within their spooky mountain lair. But their witch, Isolde, was a nightmare (in a bad way). If Kael was mixed up with them, if the mark was connected to him, I needed to know. "Am out for a walk," I said, cutting off Mara. "Need to clear my head."
"Lila, you soft head," she said, gripping my arm. "Torin's watching everyone."
I squirmed off of her, guilt knotting my gut. "I'm fine, Mara. Promise." But the further and further into the woods I marched, my mark searing with dread, I knew I was lying. I couldn't stay, just sit in this seat, waiting for the elders to figure out what to do with me. I had to find Kael, figure out this curse and stop it before it followed through on everything.
The trees closed in, air thicker as I neared neutral territory. My hunter instincts kicked in — every creak, every scent at high alert. Then I could sense it, a difference in the air I couldn't ever explain, a scent of pine and wild earth. My mark popped and he emerged from the darkness. Kael Draven, a stringy mass of scars and grayed leathers, just as he had appeared. My heart was racing, but I didn't move.
You don't belong here," he mumbled, his deep, husky voice hiding the threat underneath the words.
"And you should be my problem," I replied automatically, my dagger unsheathed. "But here we are. Kael Draven, so why does my life spin out of control because of you."
His eyes darkened, and he came nearer. "Go home, Lila. "You're my friend — and if you go with me, we're both dead."