Chapter
One
Iwake to darkness.
My head throbs, my limbs heavy, and everything smells like rot and silver. I’ve been unconscious for… hours? Days? Time has fractured into fragments of pain and silence. The only markers are the heavy footsteps of guards and sound of someone screaming their throat raw.
Rage crashes through me, white-hot and vicious. I’m the Beta of Shadowmist Pack, the first female beta ever. I don’t cower in the dark like a beaten dog.
I’m going to paint these walls with their blood.
My wolf snarls her agreement from somewhere deep inside, though I can feel her weakness beneath the silver’s poisonous burn. Let her conserve strength. When I break free—and I will break free—these bastards will learn exactly why you don’t cage a Shadowmist wolf.
I roll into a seat, groaning at my body’s protest. Silver cuffs burn around my wrists and ankles, the metal searing into already raw flesh. A matching collar sits heavy around my throat—thick, unforgiving, designed to keep me from shifting. My clothes are tornand filthy, what’s left of my tactical gear hanging in shreds. Blood has dried in my hair, crusted along a gash above my left temple.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here. Long enough for my skin to blister under silver. Long enough to feel the absence of my Alpha’s presence.
Zella betrayed us.
The memory slices through me with savage clarity.
Five years. Five years of sparring side by side in the combat hall. Of shared meals and long watches and late-night laughter under moonlight.
Five years of the bitch lying through her teeth.
She waited until we trusted her. Until Kitara trusted her. And then she fucked us.
Traitor,my wolf snarls from somewhere deep, her voice strained under silver’s grip.
I know,I answer softly.We’ll get our revenge.
She took the Alpha Female.
Ryker will find Kitara,I assure her.We need to concentrate on staying alive until we can get free.
That wound of failing to protect Kitara is raw. I feel it more than the silver around my wrists, more than the ache in my head. Kitara is more than my Alpha Female—she’s Shadowmist Pack’s future. And Zella took her. Delivered her straight into the hands of a man who’d carve the gift from her bones if it meant power.
Thaddeus, the Grand Alpha.
I let my head rest against the cold stone wall, forcing my breathing to slow.
Control. Always control. That’s how I lead. That’s how I survive.
The silver burns like an eternal fire against my skin, and my wolf curls tighter inside me. She’s trapped but not broken. Never broken.
Because my pack doesn’t break.
We endure. We adapt.
And we avenge.
Some beta I am, failing to see the threat that walked among us.
I can’t blame myself entirely though. After all, neither Ryker, my Alpha, nor Dane, my brother, saw Zella as a threat.
My brother. The thought of Dane sends a fresh wave of panic through my chest. Is he safe? Did he survive the ambush? The last thing I remember is the overwhelming force of Thaddeus’s men descending on us during what was supposed to be a peace summit. The ambush was perfectly coordinated. They knew exactly where we’d be, and exactly how to hurt us.
Frustrated at my helplessness, I pull against the silver restraints only to regret it as the metal sears deeper into my already raw flesh. The silver poisoning has weakened my wolf and me. If this lasts much longer, I’m worried our connection will sever.
