CH1 Fated Resonance

Sienna Marlowe (POV)

Seattle's first snow of the year came down over the glass dome above the airport arrivals level.

I was wheeling my luggage out when my phone buzzed. Callum's message was short: Rest at the villa first. Something came up. Back later.

I stared at that last line for two seconds, then killed the screen.

Fine.

His fiancée had just wrapped a two-month exhibition tour through Europe, the wedding was three days away, and the groom couldn't be bothered to come to the airport.

Anyone else, I'd have blocked already.

But Callum was different. We'd known each other for years. I knew his temperament, and I knew where his limits were. There was nothing sweeping about it, no grand passion, but at least we suited each other.

I'd thought about what married life would look like. I'd keep running Moonlit Silver, he'd handle Voss affairs, we'd appear together when the family required it and stay out of each other's way the rest of the time.

A marriage like that could work, as long as both people were willing to work at it.

More importantly, I had to marry into the Voss family.

I'd found out that my mother, Cora, had left behind an inheritance before she died. Beyond the personal jewelry I already knew about, there were several pieces of Sacred Silver, along with the journals she'd kept in her lifetime.

Ordinary silver could only wound a werewolf. Sacred Silver was something else. The stories said it carried the Moon Goddess's blessing. It could be forged into weapons a werewolf was able to wield, or cast into a Mooncrown to receive the Moon Goddess's favor. One of the most precious materials in all of Lycan society.

But true Sacred Silver was vanishingly rare. Why did my mother have any? What was written in those journals?

I didn't know.

But they were among the few things she'd left behind in this world.

One way or another, I was getting them back.

The trouble was that after she died, the Voss family had invoked the name of the Aegis Council and taken the entire inheritance into custody, on the grounds that Sacred Silver was dangerous and required centralized oversight.

Over the years I'd gone to countless people, trying to get around the Vosses. The answer never changed: without high-level authorization from the Voss family, there was nothing anyone could do.

Not even for the dead woman's own daughter. Absurd enough to be funny.

Becoming the wife of the Voss heir was the fastest route to that clearance available to me.

I'd made it to the final step. This wedding could not go wrong.

By the time the car reached the Voss estate, the snow was falling thick.

The butler opened my door and bowed slightly. "Miss Sienna, Master Callum isn't back yet. Hot water and a late supper are ready for you."

"Thank you." I didn't ask where Callum had gone. I pulled my coat around me and stepped out, still running through the guest list I needed to confirm for the wedding, and then my foot slid out from under me.

My heel had caught a patch of thin ice. My balance was gone in an instant.

The pain I braced for never came.

A hand clamped around my wrist. An arm closed around my waist in the same motion. Something powerful held me steady, but momentum carried me straight into a man's chest.

A cold, clean scent flooded my senses. Cedar, fir, and the wet chill of moss on stone after rain.

Alpha.

And ranked absurdly high.

Just being held by him made my breath skip.

"Steady." The low voice came from above me.

I looked up without thinking, and a pair of eyes so dark grey they were nearly black caught mine.

Kieran Voss.

Callum's half brother.

Exiled by the Voss family at nineteen. Ten years later he came back to Seattle at the head of the Ashford Pack and took the city by force. Hardly anyone in Lycan society didn't know his name now, and the verdict on him was remarkably consistent. Dangerous. Cold-blooded. Not to be crossed.

I'd seen him a few times at banquets, from across a room. That was all.

Now he was far too close.

The arm at my waist was rigid and burning hot. I could feel the rhythm of his chest rising and falling.

In the instant our eyes met, Kieran's pupils contracted, and that habitual detachment of his split open like something had torn through it.

At the same moment my Wolf Spirit slammed into my consciousness.

My heart clenched hard.

The next second, the place at my waist where he'd touched me went up like a flame. A fine tremor ran up my spine to the back of my neck, and my knees went weak. Worse, his scent turned unbearably vivid.

Cedar. Fir.

Like a blizzard closing over me until there was nowhere left to go.

My Wolf Spirit didn't resist him at all. It was near frenzy, urging me over and over to get closer, closer still.

An answer landed in my head with no warning.

Fated Mate.

My pupils shrank.

Impossible. It couldn't be Kieran.

"Sienna." He said my name, voice pitched low. Those two syllables landed in my ear, and the back of my neck felt as though something had bitten it, lightly. My body shuddered before I could stop it.

Damn it.

I came back to myself all at once, planted both hands on his chest, and shoved.

Kieran let go.

I stumbled back two steps, my heel nearly skidding again. I didn't care how it looked. "You—"

The words stopped in my throat. Kieran didn't look surprised. Not in the slightest. He stood there with his eyes lowered on me, calm to the point of being frightening.

My stomach dropped. "You knew?"

Something moved behind his eyes. At last he spoke. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters." I stared him down.

Except my heart was still racing from the resonance, and my Wolf Spirit wouldn't stop churning somewhere deep in my mind.

I dug my nails into my palm and forced myself steady.

I could not lose my footing here. The engagement had come all the way to the final step. It had taken me this long to get within reach of what my mother left behind.

Nothing could go wrong now. Least of all because of a Fated Mate who'd surfaced out of nowhere.

I drew a breath and straightened my collar. When I spoke again my voice was level. "Forget what just happened."

Kieran's gaze darkened, degree by degree.

Then, after a moment, the faintest curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Forget it?"

He was smiling, and somehow it felt like a threat.

"Forget what?"

I frowned. "Kieran. You know exactly what I mean."

He started toward me.

I stepped back on instinct, my expression going cold. "Stop."

He didn't.

"Kieran." I retreated another step, holding his eyes in warning. "I'm Callum's fiancée. This isn't appropriate."

Kieran stopped at last. But his gaze stayed pinned on me.

"Not appropriate?"

My chest tightened with anger. "You're Callum's brother. If what just happened gets out, it does no good for you, for me, or for Callum."

The last trace of that curve vanished from his mouth.

I made it plainer. "So we treat it as though nothing happened."

The air went solid.

Kieran looked at me, his jaw tightening by increments. "Nothing happened."

The silent pressure rolling off him set my Wolf Spirit thrashing again, but I refused to look away.

After a long moment, he said my name quietly. "Sienna."

For some reason, the back of my neck prickled.

Then he asked, "You want to defy the Ancient Law?"

My breath caught.

The Ancient Law placed a Fated Mate's right of bonding above any political marriage between Packs. Of course I knew that. It was precisely why no one else could ever find out.

"All I know," I said, meeting his eyes, spacing out every word, "is that the wedding goes ahead in three days."

Kieran's jaw locked. "You want to marry Callum that badly?"

"Yes."

"You love him that much?"

I hesitated.

It lasted barely an instant, but Kieran saw it.

The cold he'd been holding back dissolved, and what replaced it was darker and far more dangerous. "Answer me."

"It's none of your business," I said flatly.

The moment the words left my mouth, he closed the distance.

My heart lurched. I backed away without thinking, until my spine hit the cold wall.

Nowhere left to go.

Kieran braced one hand beside my ear, sealing me in between him and the wall.

Cedar and fir came down over me, and my Wolf Spirit went wild.

My breathing fell apart. Every nerve I had felt magnified past reason. He wasn't touching me and I could still feel the heat of him, could hear my own heartbeat striking harder with every beat.

Too close.

His nose almost brushed the side of my face.

I raised my eyes to his.

There was nothing calm left in that dark grey.

His stare had gone unnervingly heavy, like a man who had already decided something, like a man on the verge of tearing through the last of his restraint.

His gaze traveled down and stopped on my mouth.

My breath stalled.

Kieran's throat worked, and he leaned in another inch.

The fated resonance spiked to its peak. My Wolf Spirit screamed at me to close the gap, and my body produced the ridiculous impulse to tilt my chin up and meet him.

No.

"Kieran." My voice came out tight. "Back off."

He didn't move.

His breath burned across my lips. "What are you afraid of?"

My heart slammed. I glared at him, furious and humiliated. "I told you to—"

"Sienna?" Callum's voice came from the far end of the corridor.

I went rigid, and everything spiraling out of control in me went out like a bucket of ice water had been thrown over it.

The footsteps were getting closer.

I shoved Kieran away hard and started toward the sound. Two steps in, unease came surging up out of nowhere.

I stopped short and looked back.

Kieran hadn't moved. Whatever had slipped its leash a moment ago was buried behind his eyes again, his face restored to its usual coolness. But his gaze was still locked on me, like a wolf that had finally confirmed where its prey was and would never let her run again.

I lowered my voice and spaced out each word. "Don't tell anyone."

Then I didn't dare linger. I turned and hurried toward Callum.