I awoke to screaming and my wrist on fire. No flames, thank God, but it could just as easily have been. I felt pain that burned through my skin, instantly and unrelentingly lancing down on me as if I were being cut open with the edge of a hot blade. My cot, in the next tent, felt like burning tar beneath my back, and I shot straight up, my hair — either red or brown, it was hard to tell on the Iraqi floor — pasted to my damp forehead, my heartbeat beside itself. In the dim light of my room in the Silverclaw pack's lodge, I saw it—a glowing cres- cent mark pulsing on my wrist, as if it were alive. I gasped and grabbed at my arm, trying to make the pain go away. It had not disappeared immediately, and its silver mark tingled where I had traced it. Today was my twenty first birthday, the birthday all werewolves in our pack waited for, wishing they would get a mate mark. But this? This wasn't a gift. It felt like a warning.
I sat up and set my feet on the floor, its cool wood sending shivers up my legs. The Silverclaw land, a land of rich forest and sharp mountains, was silent in the early hours of dawn, and so was my mind. I am a tracker—one of the best even, if I do say so myself. I have been dodging the stuffy rules of the elders, their big "loyalty above all" thing, for years. I did not kneel…ever had been one to kneel and wasn't going to start then, not even for a magical mark. But my stomach turned as I had to tug on my leather jacket again, concealing the thing up my sleeve. I wanted answers, and there was only one place to find them: the forbidden circle where the elders settled in, like wise, mighty cauliflowers.
I managed to extricate myself from the lodge and stepped out into the forest path, my boots crunching over the snow. The scent of pine and earth was in the air, and I thought I heard a distant wolf howl. I love this place—it's our pack's home and from the rustle of every tree, I know them all. " But today, she felt like she was suffocating. The sacred circle wasn't that far, a clearing circled by old stones that hummed with pack history. The elders had already assembled their faces grim as if they'd been waiting for me. It was the wiry old woman with silver-streaked hair and eyes like steel, Elder Mira, who stood in the middle of the wing, staring me down. Alpha Torin was there too, eyes piercing blue, enough to make you feel guilty for breathing. He was 35 and ran the Silverclaws with the mechanized efficiency of a machine, and I'd never made it on to his good side.
"Lila," Mira said, her voice low as if afraid the trees might overhear. "Show us your wrist."
My heart skipped. How the hell did they know? I hadn't confided in anyone — neither in Jace, my brother, nor in Mara, my best friend. I felt my jaw clench, but I rolled up my sleeve and displayed the crescent mark, now a faded silver but with the sensation it was alive and pulsing. The elders gasped, and Torin shot her a look dark and deadly-eyed.
"It's just as we were dreading," Mira murmured, moving closer. "The scar of the damned Alpha."
"Cursed Alpha?" I broke through, my voice far too loud. What does that even mean? This is my mate mark, right?"
Mira's mouth tightened, and she stared at me as if I were a child who had just shattered something priceless. "It is a mate mark, Lila. But it makes you an oath to Kael Draven."
The name hit me like a punch. Kael Draven. The most notorious scandal in the Silverclaw pack. He was their golden boy once, an Alpha who fought us through wars, his gray eyes and fierce, brute strength a myth. I was just a kid when he was exiled five years ago for being part of the one who sold us to Blackfang pack. They told him a Blackfang witch cursed him, that he'd die the moment he met his fated mate. He was a ghost story we told by the campfire, a warning to be loyal. And my wrist now screamed that I was tied to him.
"No way," I responded, shaking my head. "Kael Draven's probably dead. And there, I am no one's mate — cursed or otherwise."
The expression in Mira's eyes softened, but her words were like stone. "The mark doesn't lie. It ties you to Kael. But the curse is real. If you encounter him, his death starts—and it may take you with it."
My pulse roared in my ears. I wanted to laugh and tell them they were all mad, but then my forehead erupted into fire once more, as though it was trying to challenge me to dispute it. "So what?" I spoke, my voice shaking, but defiant. "I just ignore it? Pretend it's not there? I'm not going to let some mark ruin my life."
Torin advanced, his snarl raising the hair on my skin. "You don't have a choice, Lila. This bond threatens the pack. Those Blackfangs are already swooping, and ready for war. If they discover you are connected to Kael, they'll come after you — and us.
I balled my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms. "So you're gonna lock me up? Exile me like you did him?"
Torin didn't respond, but it was an answer in itself. The elders exchanged worried glances, and Mira said once more. "Hide the mark, Lila. Don't say anything to anyone — not to Jace, definitely not to Mara. "We will consult the Moon Goddess's rites, but for the time being, you're a danger to all of us.
I wanted to shout, to rip the mark from my skin, but I made myself nod instead. When I turned and stormed back the way I had come, my head was spinning. Me, a danger? I am Lila Thorn, the girl who has hunted rogues through blizzards, the girl who has never backed down from a fight. No mark, no curse, no exiled Alpha, it was going to rule me. All the same, as I wound my way through the trees, a strange pull gnawed at my chest, a string tied to something off in the distance.
I drew back, my breath catching in my throat. Then it came to me — an image, as vivid as life and taking the wind out of me. A dark forest, darker than, and coarse — and it felt electric. A man loomed in the shadows, tattered and gray-eyed and powerful, his eyes still burning with pain and power. Kael Draven. He looked directly at me, and I felt him — his anger, his loneliness — like it was mine. The vision disappeared, and I found my mark aching as if it struggled to form words.
"Lila?" Mara's voice snapped me back. She emerged from the trees, her blonde hair catching the morning light the way it used to in the forest, her hazel eyes wide with concern. "You okay? You look as though you've seen a spirit wolf."
I pulled my sleeve down over the mark. "I'm okay," I lied, fighting to smile evenly. Mara's been my best friend since we were born, but Mira's words echoed in my head. Tell no one. "Just… didn't sleep well."
Mara scowled and folded her arms. "Bull. Is this about your birthday? The mate mark? Did you get one?"
My throat tightened. I hated lying to her, but I simply couldn't take the risk. "Wrong," I said, forcing out a smile. "I guess the Moon Goddess isn't finished with me after all."
She didn't believe me, I could see that, but she dropped it. "Good. With the Blackfangs on the prowl, a mate's the last thing you want. Torin has everyone on edge as it is."
I nodded, my mind elsewhere. The Blackfangs — our enemies, lurking in their creepy mountain stronghold. Their witch, Isolde, was the very stuff of nightmares. If Kael was connected to them, if my mark was tied to him, I had to find out more. "Have stepped out for a walk," I said, interrupting Mara. "Need to clear my head."
"Lila, don't be a fool," she said, seizing my arm. "Torin's watching everyone."
I wriggled away, guilt coiling my gut. "I'm fine, Mara. Promise." But as I ventured deeper and deeper into the wood, my mark burning with foreboding, I knew I was lying. I couldnt keep sitting here, waiting for the elders to decide what to do with me. I needed to locate Kael, resolve this curse, and end it before it ruined everything.
The trees crowded around, the air denser as I entered neutral territory. My tracker instincts went to work — every little noise and every smell on high alert. Then I could feel it, a change in the air I could never describe, a smell of pine and wild earth. My mark burst and there he was, stepping from the shadows. Kael Draven, all scars and gray eyes, just like I saw. My heart was pounding, but I didn't budge.
You have no reason to be here," he growled out in his deep husky voice.
"And you shouldn't be my problem," I shot back, my dagger at the ready. "But here we are. Kael Draven, so how come my life is falling apart because of you."
His eyes went dark, and he stepped closer. "Go home, Lila. You're my friend— and if you come with me, we're both killed."