Chapter 1: Prologue

I was going to die.

The thought accompanied by the cold air bit at my naked skin.

I opened my eyes as slowly as I could, feeling the air swirl around me but too tired to shiver. Where was I? What had happened?

I racked my brain as quickly as I could, trying to recall the events that had led me here. My eyes opened, and I took in the scenery: the thick trees, the darkened sky, the cold crisp leaves underneath my skin. It was nighttime; I’d been unconscious for several hours.

I tried to get to my feet, knowing inside me that there was an air of impending doom hovering in the air, but when I stood firmly on all four and my vision fully cleared, I realized I was in my wolf form. I tried to listen for any sound, maybe Emmett or Dalia was close by but all I could hear was crickets chirping away.

Fuck. Did the wolf hunters have them? My heart descended into panic. I needed to do something. If anything happened to them…

I made to move and a low growl tore out of me. What was that pain? I looked down. Blood surrounded me. Was that my blood? Then I saw it. My foot was bleeding. It came to me; I’d been caught in a wolf hunter’s trap and had forcefully torn my foot away, causing its sharp claws to drag into my skin.

It meant that I couldn’t walk, which meant I couldn’t get to my friends or my dad to warn them. The hunters were here and they were out for blood.

I heard a twig snap and my senses became alert. Since I was in my wolf form, I could only communicate to other wolves and not human. If that was a wolf hunter, I would be dead. I was too injured to move. This was it. This was how I was going to die, alone and separated from the rest of my family. My father, my betrothed, my friends, my grandmother, I would never see them again.

I wanted to cry. Slowly, I sank back unto the ground, changing back into my human form. Shutting my eyes, my nose pinched and I felt the moisture drip down my nose. The footsteps got louder and in no time, the hunter—the steps were too heavy to be a wolf’s—got closer.

I waited for the dagger to pierce my chest, waited for the darkness to overcome me but it never came.

Seconds later, a finger drifted down my arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake. I longed to open my eyes, yearned to see whose finger it was that awakened my skin and left a trail of fire but for some reason, I couldn’t.

“You’re so beautiful,” the voice, deep and soothing, murmured. My body jumped to life; my senses became alert.

That voice… I’d heard it before. Somewhere far, somewhere calm…

I snapped my eyes open and came face to face with the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my entire life. But no, that wasn’t what hit me the most.

His eyes were a striking green and he stared at me like he’d known me before, perhaps in some other life, some other universe. It was dark in the forest but I could see him clearly. A corner of his lips curled upward and I was almost compelled to return the action.

Then his gaze roamed over my naked form and I came back to earth, suddenly jerking away from him, especially since I had been right; he was holding a silver dagger and it was meant for me.

“Get away from me,” I cried, holding my arms to my chest and folding my legs under me in a sorry attempt to preserve what little shred of dignity I had left. “Please don’t kill me.”

Fear gripped me at the look in his eyes, rough, knowing, predatory. I was at his mercy and he knew it. “You don’t want to die?” he asked in a small voice, his digits circling the dagger he was holding.

I shook my head frantically, inching further from his prying gaze. It was weird that he didn’t seem dangerous but my father always told me that the worst wolf hunters were the ones who didn’t look like they knew how to kill.

“Beg,” he whispered.

“What?” I asked, stupefied.

“Beg me to spare your life.”

He was serious. The tears that ran down my face were warm, almost hot. I couldn’t fight back; I couldn’t do anything. That wasn’t true. Just like he’d said, I could beg for my life. Because I had to live. I had to go back and warn the rest of the pack about the danger that loomed ahead.

“Please.” My eyes drifted shut, shame filling me. “Please, don’t kill me. I don’t want to die.”

Here I was begging for my life, my heart in my throat, wondering what it was the moon goddess had in store for me and why Fate thought it was funny to play such a cruel trick on me.

No. What hit me the most was the fact that this man, this person who presently held my life in his hands and was about to take it, this wolf hunter... was my mate.