She looks simultaneously older and more powerful than any of the others. I take a step toward her before I realize what I’m doing, then stand stock still as she turns her head toward me, studying me with ancient eyes.
Not me, I think.I’m not here to bond.
My feet feel frozen to the ground as she rises, padding slowly toward me, her massive feet striking the snow silently in her grace.
From the corner of my eye, I see the wolves and their riders still, as each of them notice her movement toward me.
“It’s Anassa,” whispers one of the men near me, his gaze as focused on the massive silver wolf as everyone else’s. “She never bonds. They say she’s been here for hundreds of years…”
She draws closer, steadily and confidently, and I can’t look away from her eyes. They shine like golden stars in the sky on the coldest evening of the year. Her gaze sears into me, and then suddenly my head seems like it’s being crushed, squeezed.
Not me, I don’t want to bond, I repeat in my mind.
Pain spikes and I yowl, falling to my knees, but never taking my eyes from Anassa.
The pressure in my head builds and my vision whites out. But in my mind, images swirl. Anassa, running in the moonlight, racing down the mountainside, faster than wind. A sun rising, rays blinding and beautiful. A crown, its metal glinting, then drenched in blood.
I cry out.
My senses undulate, as if my spirit has suddenly broken free of the confines of my body. I’m in the rock, sensing the vibrations of the thousands of creatures and plants that cling to my surface. I’m stretching upward, a pine tree, centuries old, reaching for the stars. I’m inside Anassa, my sense of smell almost painful in its keenness, the world a rich feast for my senses, its secrets laid open to me.
Sharp heat stabs behind my eyes, and then gradually fades, leaving behind a steady pulse of dull pain, surging in time with the beat of my heart.
The wound on my chest from the ice pick warms—andheals.
The direwolf’s breath is hot on my face, her massive presence above me. Unthinking, I fling out a hand, as if I can somehow stop her coming, stop this.
My hand hits silver fur, and like they have a mind of their own, my fingers close, grasping thick strands, pulling me up to stand.
The pain in my head slowly eases, and I blink, unsteady, clinging to the wolf’s fur as a lifeline.
What the fuck just happened?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
There’s still a disorienting ringing in my ears. The ground’s gone unsteady beneath my feet, my body numb from the biting wind andwhateverthat was. My mind starts to cling to miniscule details.
The way the direwolf’s coarse fur beneath my fingers turns soft deeper down. The intermittent sting of snow slicing my cheeks. The heavy, rhythmic sound of Anassa’s breathing.
A lock of my hair, tugged loose from my ties, whips past my gaze. It re-centers my focus.
Silver. All my dark hair has turned a luminous silver-white, the same color as Anassa.
My eyes slice back to Anassa and I untangle my hands from her fur as quickly as if she’d burned me. I know what the changed hair color means.
Bonded.
Muted horror floods my veins and I glance around at the other recruits in a panic. The younger woman nearest me has dark hair. Even in the insistent tug of the wind, I can see a silver streak in it. The rest of her hair is still black.
Heart rate escalating again, my eyes jump around to the other recruits. I blink rapidly, trying to focus my mind.
Regulate my breathing, first. That’s what Igor always taught me. In and out. Slow, to trick my body into believing nothing’s wrong.
Izabel is close, staring at me with wide eyes, a silver streak in her hair. Beyond her, across the mess of crushed snow and lingering recruits, is Venna, with her blue-black streak. The others… Henrey, a tawny color. That asshole Jonah, a sickening bloody red.
All of them have only a streak in their hair to mark their packs. I yank my hair out of my tie and pull it in front of me to confirm—and yes, it’s all changed, every fucking strand. I’m an anomaly.
I glance back to the massive, silver-white direwolf at my side. She’s stock still, assessing me.
