Chapter 2 Mate

Lira pov

The plea cut off with a wet snap.

Alpha Kael. The name sent ice through my veins. Elder Garrick had told stories about Magnus Thorn's eldest son, the traitor prince exiled for challenging authority. Pack whispers claimed he'd died in the Northlands years ago.

Apparently they were wrong.

Another crash shook the ceiling. Plaster rained down as I huddled against stone walls. The silver chains burned hotter with my distress, leaving fresh marks on scarred wrists.

"Why now?" I murmured, speaking aloud because my own voice was the only comfort I had. "What did he come back for?"

Selwyn stirred again, more alert this time. Listen, my wolf whispered. Listen well.

Footsteps moved across the hall above, slower now, more deliberate. The killing was over, but something else was beginning. I strained to hear voices, pressing my ear against the cold stone wall, but the packhouse had gone eerily quiet except for the steady dripping that could only be blood seeping through floorboards.

A door slammed open somewhere upstairs, the sound echoing through the building like thunder.

"Where is she?" His voice was deep, commanding, carrying the unmistakable authority of an alpha who expected immediate answers.

"Alpha, we don't know what you" The response was cut short by what sounded like a hand closing around a throat.

"The girl. The one you keep hidden." His voice dropped to a dangerous growl. "I can smell her from here."

My heart stopped, my breath catching in my chest. They were talking about me. After twenty years of being the pack's dirty secret, someone was actually asking about my existence.

"There's no girl, Alpha Kael," came the panicked reply, words tumbling over each other. "Just prisoners in the cellar, but they're all"

The sickening crack of breaking bones cut off the speaker. When the voice continued, it was strained and desperate, barely above a whisper.

"Please! The Moonblood girl she's in the cellar, but she's dangerous! The prophecy"

"What prophecy?" The alpha's voice turned deadly quiet.

The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. Moonblood. I'd never heard that term, but something deep in my chest responded to it. Selwyn shifted, more alert than she'd been in months.

"The last of the Silvermoon line," the voice gasped. "Born during the eclipse twenty years ago. The elders said she'd bring ruin to all werewolf kind if she ever awakened her power. We kept her contained to make her weak."

"You kept a Moonblood captive for twenty years?" Pure rage filled the alpha's voice. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

I didn't understand what Moonblood meant, but I recognized his tone. Anger. Not at my existence, but at my treatment. For the first time in my life, someone sounded furious on my behalf.

My chains clinked as I shifted position. The burns on my wrists had become constant aches over the years, but tonight they felt different.

"She's wolfless," another voice protested. "We tested her repeatedly. She can't shift, shows no strength, nothing. Just a cursed human who brings bad luck—"

A growl rumbled through floorboards, so deep and menacing that I felt it in my bones. My wolf responded with a flutter of genuine awareness.

He's coming, Selwyn whispered. Our mate is coming.

"That's impossible," I breathed. "I'm wolfless. I can't have a mate."

You'll see, my wolf replied with certainty that made my pulse race.

"You tested her with silver," the alpha said, his voice rising in anger.

"We had to contain" The tearing of flesh cut off the explanation. Another body hit the floor hard enough to shake the ceiling.

"Anyone else want to explain why you've been torturing a Moonblood?"

Silence stretched. Then footsteps began moving toward the cellar stairs. Slow steps that seemed to count down seconds until my world changed forever.

I scrambled backward until the stone wall stopped my retreat. Silver shackles scraped against rock as my breath came in short pants. The approaching footsteps grew closer.

The cellar door at the top of stairs opened with its familiar rusty shriek.

Light spilled down wooden steps as I squinted against sudden brightness, raising chained hands to shield eyes that hadn't seen torchlight in weeks.

The footsteps began descending. Each step was unhurried, like the person had all the time in the world to reach me.

My wolf stirred strongly now, pacing back and forth with growing excitement.

He smells like home, Selwyn said.

"He smells like danger," I whispered back.

The best kind.

A shadow fell across my cell bars.