Chapter 1 -ONE-

Ingrid Point Of View.

The board of directors at Valerius Jewels thinks I'm a bitch. The elders of the Moon Stone pack think I'm an anomaly. Both are right, and frankly I don't give a damn.

I stood in my penthouse office, sixty floors above the glittering lights of Manhattan, watching my reflection in the floor to ceiling glass. I looked exactly like the Ice Queen the tabloids called me, hair pulled back into a spine chillingly tight bun, a black designer suit that cost more than most people's houses, and eyes that held the cold calculating shimmer of the diamonds I sold.

But beneath the silk and corporate armor, my wolf was pacing. She was restless, clawing at my ribs, sensing something in the air that the sensors in this high tech fortress couldn't detect.

"Alpha," a voice rumbled behind me.

I didn't turn. "Report, Marcus. And make it quick. I have a merger meeting in twenty minutes, and I haven't had enough espresso to deal with incompetence today."

Marcus, my Beta, a man who looked like he'd been carved out of a granite quarry stepped into the light closer to my side. "The sweep of the northern perimeter is complete. We caught a stray."

"A stray?" I arched my brow in annoyance. "You interrupted my morning for a mangy rogue?"

"Not just any rogue, Alpha," Marcus's voice dropped, a hint of genuine fear flickering in his scent. "It's him. The wolf slayer. Erebus."

The name hit me like a bucket of ice water. Erebus. The rogue who had turned four Alphas into decorative rugs over the last two years. He was like a ghost, a legend whispered by terrified pups around campfires. And he was in my territory.

The alpha power in my blood began to shimmer, a dark, heavy pressure that made the glass in the room vibrate."Where is he?!"

"In the holding cell downstairs. He's restrained. Silver laced shackles. Triple reinforced."

"Good," I said, walking toward the private elevator. "Let's go see if the monster lives up to the myth."

|•|

The basement of the Valerius building wasn't a parking garage. It was a high security vault. The air down here was thick with the smell of ozone and the sterile tang of silver. As the heavy steel doors slid open, a scent hit me.

It wasn't the smell of a dirty rogue, it was the scent of a thunderstorm breaking over a cedar forest, dark, primal and overwhelmingly masculine. My wolf stopped pacing inside my head, she went dead silent.

Mate.

The word echoed in the back of my mind like a soft dangerous whisper. I shoved it down into the darkest corner of my soul.

No.

Impossible.

The Moon Goddess might have a sick sense of humor, but she wouldn't pair the most powerful female Alpha in the realm with a common criminal.

Erebus was slumped in the center of the room, his arms held wide by chains anchored to the floor and ceiling. He was shirtless, his torso a map of jagged white scars and raw, fresh burns from the silver. His long, dark hair fell over his face, hiding his eyes.

"So," I said, my heels clicking a slow rhythm on the concrete. "The Great Wolf Slayer. You look a bit more....pathetic than the stories suggested."

He didn't move. He didn't even breathe.

"My guards want to kill you, Erebus," I continued, circling him. I stopped behind him, my gaze tracing the powerful muscles of his back. He was massive, even in his human form. "The council wants your head on a spike. And honestly?" I turned around to face him. "My schedule is very full. I'd love to get this over with."

Slowly, he lifted his head. His eyes were the color of molten gold, glowing with a terrifying unholy light. He didn't look like a prisoner, he looked like a god who was very bored with his worshippers. He didn't growl, he didn't beg either, he just looked at me and I felt a jolt of pure, white hot electricity shoot through my body, centering right between my thighs.

"Ingrid Valerius," he rasped. His voice sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass and dipped in honey. "The Ice Queen herself. You smell even better than the rumors said. Like winter and expensive sins.

I leaned in, my face inches from his, ignoring the way my heart was trying to kick its way out of my chest. "You're a rogue, Erebus. A stray. A murderer. You're lucky I haven't ripped your throat out yet."

"You won't," he said, a slow wicked smirk playing on his scarred lips. He leaned forward as far as the chains would allow, sniffing the air near my neck. "Because your wolf is screaming for me. She wants to be pinned under me. She wants to feel my teeth in her neck."

"Shut. Up," I grabbed his jaw, my claws extending slightly, marking his skin. "You're my prisoner. I own your life. I could sell you to the highest bidder or turn you into a science project in my R&D department."

"Then do it," he challenged, his eyes boring into mine. "But we both know why you're really down here. You didn't come to interrogate me. You came to see if the bond was real."

I stepped back, my breath hitching. I turned to Marcus, who was watching us with a confused, wary expression. "Leave us," I turned to the other guards. "All of you."

"Alpha," Marcus began, confusion evident in his tone. "It's not safe-"

"I said leave!" I barked, the command snapping through the room.

Marcus bowed his head alongside the other guards and retreated, the heavy doors thudding shut behind them.

I turned back to Erebus, letting the Ice Queen mask slip for just a second. "What do you want, Erebus? Why did you let them catch you? A man who kills Alphas doesn't get taken down by perimeter patrol."

Erebus let out a low, dark chuckle. He pulled against the chains, the silver burning his wrists, the scent of singed flesh filling the room but he didn't even flinch.

"I've spent years watching you from the shadows, Ingrid," he said, his voice dropping to a low, possessive rumble. "I've watched you build your empire. I've watched you break men twice your size. I've watched you starve yourself of the one thing your wolf needs."

He lunged forward, the chains snapping taut with a violent clang. He was so close I could feel the heat radiating off his scarred chest.

"I didn't get caught, little Alpha," he whispered, his golden eyes flaring. "I came to claim what's mine. I'm done being the ghost in your peripheral vision."

"You're a rogue," I hissed, even as my body leaned towards him of its own volition. "You're a death sentence."

"Then let's die together," he said. He looked at the heavy steel door, the back at me, his expression shifting from predatory to something shockingly, terrifyingly serious. "But first, let's give the council something real to scream about."

He took a deep breath, his muscles rippling. "I have a proposal for you, Ingrid. One that saves your empire and satisfies my hunger."

I narrowed my eyes in amusement. "And what could a rogue possibly offer a billionaire Alpha?"

Erebus smiled, a flash of white teeth and pure, unadulterated arrogance. "My hand in marriage, Alpha ingrid. Make me your king, and I'll give you the heads of every man on your board who's ever tried to undermine you. Deny me, and I'll burn this entire city to the ground just to see you dance in the embers."