Chapter 1

Their eyes glowed gold and silver in the dark.

"Please," I choked. Copper filled my mouth. "Justin, you said we'd talk. You said—"

"I said a lot of things when I thought you were useful, Sia."

He leaned closer. Mint. Cold air. That smug smile he wore whenever he knew I couldn't fight back.

Justin looked perfect in his black ceremonial furs. Future Alpha. Pack favorite. My former fiancé.

"But the Polar Night doesn't care about usefulness," he said. "It cares about purity. And you? You're a stain."

"I didn't do anything!"

"You were born wrong. That's enough."

His grip tightened in my hair.

I glared up at him. "I'm your fiancée."

The pack went quiet.

Then Justin laughed.

"Fiancée? You actually believed that?"

His breath brushed my face. His eyes held no regret. Not even a little.

"I needed a placeholder until the real bloodline was sorted out," he said. "Now the bloodline has been found. The elders want a sacrifice. The woods want a sacrifice. And you're the only one nobody will miss."

"You promised me."

"I promised you a pretty title and a warm room. You got both. Don't be greedy."

My nails dug into the ice. "You swore you'd protect me."

"I was young."

"That was last week!"

His smile vanished.

For one second, I thought I'd finally reached him.

Then he shoved me forward.

My knees hit stone. Pain shot up my legs. The pack laughed as I caught myself, barefoot and bleeding, on the jagged ground.

Justin stepped behind me.

"Run, Sia."

I froze.

"What?"

"You heard me. Run. Give us a little sport before the woods take you."

"You're letting them hunt me?"

"I'm giving you a chance."

"You call this a chance?"

"If you make it to the center of the Forbidden Woods, I'll even let you scream for five minutes before the shadows tear you apart."

Marcus barked a laugh from the circle. "Generous of you, Alpha."

Justin lifted his chin. "Go."

I didn't wait for another order.

I ran.

Branches whipped my face. Thorns tore through my clothes and scratched my arms. My lungs burned before I reached the first line of trees.

Behind me, the pack erupted.

Boots pounded over frozen ground. Wolves snarled. Someone shouted my name like I was prey already caught.

"Don't lose her!" Marcus yelled.

"She's heading for the woods!"

"Let her go," Justin called. "She'll lead us where we need to go."

I heard that.

He wasn't hunting me for fun.

He wanted me to open the way.

The thought shoved more speed into my legs.

I ducked beneath a low branch and nearly fell. My ankle twisted, but I kept moving. I didn't have a wolf. No shift. No spark. No hidden power waiting to save me.

In the Silver Moon pack, that made me useless.

Tonight, it made me disposable.

"Sia!" Marcus shouted. "I can smell your fear!"

"Then choke on it!" I screamed back.

His growl answered me.

A gray blur crashed through the trees.

Marcus hit the ground on four legs, half-shifted and grinning through too many teeth. He lunged before I could turn.

Claws scraped across my shoulder.

I screamed and shoved away from him.

"Stop running!" he roared. "It only makes the kill sweeter!"

"Go to hell!"

"After you."

He sprang again.

I threw myself sideways. His claws struck the cedar behind me hard enough to crack the bark.

That tiny delay saved me.

I ran downhill.

The trees thinned as the ground dropped away. Gray rock replaced the underbrush. The air grew colder, heavier, carrying the sharp taste of old iron.

Behind me, Marcus cursed.

"You can't hide down there!"

I looked over my shoulder.

Big mistake.

My foot hit black ice.

The ground disappeared.

I slid down the ravine, screaming as rocks smashed into my hip and frozen roots caught at my clothes. I tried to grab anything—stone, branch, dirt—but the slope threw me farther and farther down.

Then I hit the bottom.

Hard.

For a few seconds, all I could hear was my own breath tearing out of me.

"Sia!" Justin's voice echoed from the rim. "Still alive?"

I forced myself to move.

My ankle screamed when I tried to stand. I dropped back onto the stone floor and crawled instead.

"Come out, little sacrifice," Justin called. "I'll make your death quick."

"You always were terrible at keeping promises," I shouted.

A pause.

Then Justin laughed.

"Still talking? Good. Marcus, bring her to me."

Something cold pressed beneath my palm.

I looked down.

It wasn't rock.

It was a massive black coffin sunk into the floor of the ravine. Thin runes covered the lidless stone, twisting under my hand like trapped snakes.

The cold traveled up my arm.

I tried to pull away.

My palm stayed stuck.

"No," I whispered. "No, no, no."

Brush snapped above me.

Marcus slid down the ravine, claws digging into the stone. He landed a few feet away and rose slowly, his gray fur rippling as he shifted back toward human form.

His smile made my stomach turn.

"Nowhere left to run."

"Stay back."

"Justin wants you dead."

Marcus took one step closer.

"But he didn't say I couldn't enjoy myself first."

"Touch me and I'll—"

"You'll what?"

He crouched in front of me.

His breath fogged between us. His claws flexed near my face.

"You don't have a wolf," he whispered. "You don't have a family. You don't even have a fiancé anymore. What exactly are you going to do?"

I looked at the coffin.

The runes pulsed beneath my hand.

"Maybe I'll wake whatever's inside."

Marcus laughed. "You think a rock is going to save you?"

"It's smarter than you."

His grin snapped shut.

He lunged.

I threw myself backward and slammed my trapped hand against the center of the coffin.

Heat ripped up my arm.

Then cold.

Not winter cold. Not ice. This went straight through the bone, turning my blood into glass.

I screamed and tried to yank free.

The stone held me.

Marcus stopped.

"What did you do?"

"I don't know!"

"Get away from it!"

"I'd love to!"

The ground bucked beneath us.

Marcus lost his balance and crashed onto one knee. Dust dropped from the ravine walls. The runes flared crimson, bright enough to paint the cave red.

"What the hell is happening?" he shouted.

"You tell me! You're the one who came down here!"

A deep hum rolled through the stone.

It grew louder.

The coffin shook beneath my hand.

Marcus scrambled backward. "Justin!"

"What's going on down there?" Justin yelled from above.

"Get your Alpha down here!" Marcus shouted. "Now!"

The lidless coffin cracked.

A hand burst from the darkness inside.

Long nails scraped over the obsidian rim. Pale skin. Red lines glowing beneath it.

Marcus made a sound I had never heard from him before.

Fear.

"No," he whispered. "That isn't real."

The hand tightened.

The rim split with a gunshot crack.

Two golden eyes opened inside the coffin.

The pressure crushed the air from my lungs. My ribs strained. My ears rang.

The figure rose in one smooth motion.

He was tall enough to block the crimson light behind him. Dark fabric hung from his shoulders, torn and stiff from centuries underground. Old scars marked the skin at his throat and hands, but I forced myself to look at his face instead.

That was worse.

His features were sharp, controlled, almost beautiful—if beauty could threaten to kill you without moving.

He looked at me.

Only me.

His gaze dropped to my hand, still fused to the coffin.

Then his mouth curved.

"A blood-tithe," he said.

His voice scraped through the cave, deep and rough from disuse.

"You're late with the payment, little thing."

I swallowed against a dry throat. "Who are you?"

He didn't answer.

He stepped closer.

Heat rolled off him, strange against the frozen air. His shadow covered my legs. When he bent toward me, his breath brushed my cheek.

My body locked up.

Not from fear alone.

His eyes moved over my face, studying every scrape and tear. His attention paused at my throat before returning to my eyes.

"Fresh," he murmured. "Desperate."

"I'm not a payment."

"You are now."

"I didn't agree to that."

His gaze sharpened. "You touched the seal."

"Because that idiot was trying to kill me!"

"Most sacrifices have an excuse."

"I'm not a sacrifice!"

Marcus roared and shifted fully.

The gray wolf launched himself at us.

"She belongs to the Silver Moon pack!"

The stranger didn't even turn his head.

He lifted one finger.

The wolf slammed into the cave wall.

The impact cracked stone. Marcus dropped hard and went still.

Silence rushed back in.

I stared at him.

One finger.

One tiny motion.

Marcus had chased me through the woods like I was helpless. This man had erased him without looking.

The stranger turned back.

"Your pack claims ownership?"

I forced my voice to work. "They tried to kill me."

"That wasn't my question."

"No. They don't own me."

He stepped closer until his knee brushed mine.

The heat coming off him seeped through my torn clothes. His hand rose and stopped beside my jaw, close enough for me to feel the warmth of his palm without touching me.

The pause felt worse than a threat.

"Say it again," he said.

I looked into those molten eyes.

"They don't own me."

His fingers closed around my jaw.

Not hard enough to hurt. Hard enough to keep my face turned toward him.

My breath caught.

His thumb brushed once across my lower lip, then stopped.

"You woke me," he said. "In my world, the one who wakes the King pays a price."

"King of what?"

"Everything beneath this mountain."

"That's not an answer."

A faint smile touched his mouth. "You're brave for someone bleeding on my seal."

"I'm terrified. I just don't like you enough to act polite."

His eyes narrowed.

For the first time, I saw interest there.

Not kindness. Not mercy.

Interest.

"Why did they hunt you?"

"Because Justin found a better bride."

"And you let him replace you?"

"I was busy being thrown into a ravine."

His thumb left my mouth. His hand slid to the side of my neck, warm against the cold skin there.

My pulse jumped beneath his fingers.

He noticed.

Of course he noticed.

"You want to live," he said.

"Obviously."

"Why?"

I glanced toward the ravine.

Justin's voice echoed from above. "Marcus! Answer me!"

I pictured him laughing while the pack watched me bleed.

Then I looked back at the King.

"I want to see them burn."

The King's smile turned dangerous.

"Good."

The runes flared again.

Pain sliced through my wrist.

I cried out and ripped my hand free. A jagged crimson mark burned across my skin, bright enough to glow through the blood.

"What did you do?"

The King straightened.

"I accepted your bargain."

"I didn't make a bargain!"

"You asked to survive."

"I asked to see them burn!"

"Then we'll start with the pack that brought you here."

He turned toward the cave entrance.

The howls outside had stopped.

The pack was close.

Justin called down, louder this time. Alpha power made his voice shake the stone.

"Sia! I know you're down there! Crawl out now, and I'll make your death quick!"

The King looked over his shoulder at me.

His golden eyes held a spark of amusement.

"Do you want to answer him?"

I pushed myself up, ignoring my ankle. "Yes."

His hand closed around my arm before I could take a step.

Heat flashed through me where his fingers touched. His grip wasn't painful, but it was absolute.

"Careful," he murmured. "The mark makes you mine to protect."

"It doesn't make me obedient."

"We'll see."

Justin shouted again. "Sia! Come out, or Marcus won't be the only one who suffers!"

I stepped beside the King, using his shoulder to steady myself.

"Tell him I'm not coming out alone."

The King's breath warmed the side of my face as he leaned close.

"No," he whispered. "Let me ask him."

He faced the ravine.

The crimson mark on my wrist pulsed between us.

Then the King called up, his voice carrying through the cave like a blade.

"Justin of Silver Moon. You came for a sacrifice."

The pack fell silent above us.

The King tightened his hold on my arm.

"But you found a queen instead."

Justin's power slammed down the ravine.

The King lifted one hand to meet it—and the stone beneath my feet split open before either force could strike...