Chapter 8
The forest goes quiet in the wrong way. The birds call as they vanish, leaving the trees. Even the bugs quiet.
Then my wolf, the one who barely speaks to me, decided to make an announcement in my brain.
She’s here.
Ziron pulled back. I looked into the woods around us. We both heard footsteps. We both saw silver shapes moving between the trees. Moonlight made eyes sparkle, fur shimmer.
Wolves. Moonblood wolves.
My stomach tightened in fear. Terror, really. These wolves had destroyed my home, killed my family, and they were here for me. Everything in me wanted to run, but I was done running. Running hadn’t saved my family. It wouldn’t save me now.
The wolves move from between the trees into the light. They have their teeth bared, growling threateningly, challenging us to shift and fight them. Of course, they didn’t know what we couldn’t. Ziron and I were stuck in fleshy human forms.
The pack separated, spreading out with practiced ease. The biggest wolf was in the center.
Then she stepped forward.
She was… gods.
Her wolf is tall, taller than any alpha wolf I’d ever seen. She was built like violence given flesh. Her wolf had broad shoulders, fearsome claws and shining teeth.
She shifts then, standing as the silver fur ripples off her body, turning to soft pale skin. Her paws turned to hands and arms that were thick with muscle. Her hind legs turned to thick thighs. Her bones rolled and reshaped in a way that should have terrified me.
It didn’t.
She straightened, completely naked after the shift and unapologetically human. The moonlight hit her dark hair. Her beautifully deep eyes met mine. And something inside me snapped.
She was a woman. A very large, very muscular, very female Alpha.
That by itself was surprising. Alphas were male, they were always male and had to choose a female, a Luna, to rule alongside them. That was the rule in every pack. I’d never seen a female Alpha. I hadn’t known such a thing existed.
But here she stood, real and terrifyingly beautiful.
Her bare skin is marked with scars from old battles. Her dark hair hung loose around her shoulders, wild as the forest itself. And her eyes…
God, her eyes.
They locked onto mine like they’d been searching for me all along.
And the moment our gazes met, I knew.
Mate.
Heat flooded my veins, my skin buzzing like I’d been struck by lightning. Every instinct I’d ever lacked, every hollow place inside me suddenly made sense.
I was staring at my fated mate.
She was an Alpha. And a Moonblood. And a woman.
I had never looked at a woman like this. Never even questioned my attraction. Boys had been fine. Expected. This? Was nothing like that.
This was hunger and want and…
My wolf purred, shameless and certain.
She’s ours.