Chapter 1 The Public Execution

The sheets still smelled like him. Sandalwood, rain, and the musk of the most powerful Alpha in the region.

I lay in the center of the massively large bed, pain grazing the spots where plants had come in contact with his flesh, bruised by the ferocity of his need. Throwing the silk duvet to my chin, a shy smile adorned my lips. Kael had not treated me as Maya, daughter of the traitor. Kael had honored me completely as his counterpart. His equal. His mate.

The door whispered open.

My heart jolted as I sat up. "Kael?"

He stepped in, fully attired in his ceremonial black attire. The silver medals on his chest gleamed unwillingly into the foggy morn. He did not care to look at me, instead going straight to the mirror, where he busied himself adjusting his cuffs.

"Dress up for the Hunting day, they said. You are late&quoth;. It was a completely different tone from last night's tender whisper. Cold. Dead.

was my voice. "Kael?" I scrambled out of bed, wrapping the sheet around myself. "What is wrong? Your mother?"

Finally, he turned to face me, his amber eyes that had burned with lust for hours now filled with ice. "The Pack Gathering has started. You are late."

Role-play stuttered. "But... us..."

Last night was just a biological necessity," he interrupted.

And he was looking me right in the eyes: "My rut is beginning; you were there. Don't read into it, Maya."

The words slapped me physically. I froze. "A... necessity?"

Kael said, flat. "You are the daughter of a man who sold our secrets. Did you actually think I would Mate with you? That I would make you Luna?"

He laughed then, a harsh and barking sound. "Get dressed. And get out."

I should have run, then. I should have packed my bags and taken off. But I was dumb; I clung to a thread of hope that he was just stressed and that the pressure of becoming Alpha King today was beginning to eat away at him.

I was standing in the back of the Pack Square, hidden in the crowd, watching Kael walk up the stone dais. Thousands of wolves had erupted in cheers. He looked like a god of war.

"People of my land!" Kael's voice boomed through the crowd. "Today, I take the title of Alpha King. And the first thing I will do is to cleanse this pack from its rot."

His eyes scanned over the crowd. They landed on me.

"Maya," he called.

The crowd parted, and two guards dug their hands in my arms and yanked me forward. They hurled me into the dirt at the base of the stage. I peered upward, my vision hazy with tears.

"Kael, please," I whispered.

"Maya," he stated in proclamation, a voice bolstering so that all could hear. "For five years, we have kept you for the sake of pity. But a King cannot show pity to traitors."

He walked down, standing high above me. The bond between us sparked to life-painful, hot, and undeniable. He felt it too, I knew. I could see the muscles of his jaw tense.

"I, Alpha Kael," he proclaimed, "Reject you."

A gasp rolled over the crowd.

"I reject you as my mate. I reject you as my pack member. You are rogue. You are nothing."

It felt like a violent ripping of the very soul. I screeched from the pain: as if a serrated knife were being dragged across my still-beating heart. I fell into the mud gasping for breath.

"Get rid of her by the border," Kael said as he started walking away. "If she makes it back, kill her."

I woke up in the infirmary, not in the woods. Dr. Aris stood hovering over me, as pale as cold ashes.

"He... he rejected me," I wailed, curling into myself. "He killed the bond."

"Maya, listen to me!" Dr. Aris hissed, locking the door. "We don't have time for tears."

He pressed an ultrasound photograph into my hand.

"The bond is broken," he whispered urgently. "But the consequence remains."

I stared at the grainy image. A tiny sac. A flicker of life.

"You are pregnant," Aris continued. "And if Kael finds out that he rejected his own heir... or even worse, if his mother hears of it..."

"She'll kill it," I realized, fear now taking the place of sorrow.

"She's on her way here now," Aris warned. "Run, Maya. Run and never look back."

The doorknob rattled. "Open up!" It was Elena’s voice. "I know that little whore is in there!"