Asha felt pain in her chest when she woke up. She gasped and quickly sat up, her heart clenched.
It felt like someone was pulling on her ribs with strings she couldn't see. As if you had eaten too much honey, the pain was both sharp and sweet.
She asked in a whisper, "What's going on?" The waterfall let light into her cave.
Even though she slept all night, her dreams were full of scary smiles and blue eyes. She kept hearing the strange man's words.
You'll feel the mate bond tomorrow. Asha's eyes got really big. Today was her birthday. She was eighteen.
The pulling feeling in her chest got stronger. It tugged her toward the cave mouth, like a fishing line reeling her in. She tried to ignore it, but it was impossible.
The pull was getting more powerful every second. She stumbled to her feet and pressed her hand to her heart.
"This is crazy." But even as she said it, she knew it was true. The mate bond. The magical connection that told werewolves who they were supposed to love forever.
And hers was busy. Asha walked to the waterfall and looked out at the trees. The pulling feeling pointed north, toward the mountains.
Somewhere out there, her mate was waiting. She could feel him like a warm fire on a cold night. Her hands shook as she touched the water.
For ten years, she had been alone. No friends, no family, no one who cared if she lived or died.
But now... "He's real," she breathed. "My mate is real." The bond tugged harder, making her take a step forward. Then another.
Her feet moved without her permission, following the invisible rope that joined her heart to his.
But then she remembered the stranger's warning. He will break your heart. He will choose another. Asha stopped walking.
Fear mixed with joy in her stomach, making her feel sick. What if the man was right? What if her mate rejected her?
She looked down at herself. Her clothes were torn and dirty. Her hair was tangled with leaves and sticks.
She smelled like the forest and hadn't had a real bath in months. "Who would want me like this?" she whispered.
But the bond didn't care what she looked like. It pulled and pulled, getting stronger with each breath. The need to find him was becoming hard to ignore.
Asha ran back into her cave and grabbed her few things. A stolen knife, some dried meat, a water bottle she had found.
Everything she owned fit in a small leather bag. She paused at the cave opening and looked back at her home.
For ten years, this had been her safe place. Her hiding spot from the world. But hiding time was over.
The bond yanked on her heart so hard she gasped. Her mate was calling to her without words, and she had to answer.
Asha stepped through the river and into the forest. The pulling sensation grew stronger instantly, like a compass pointing toward her destiny.
She started walking north, her bare feet silent on the forest floor.
As she walked, the strangest thing happened. The forest seemed to wake up around her. Birds sang louder. Flowers grew brighter.
Even the trees seemed to lean toward her as she passed. "What's going on?" she mumbled.
A rabbit hopped out of the trees and stopped right in front of her. It looked up at her with bright black eyes, then turned and started hopping north.
In the same way the bond was pulling her. More animals appeared. A fox. A deer. A family of rats.
All of them moving north, like they were showing her the way. Asha's heart raced. This wasn't normal. Animals didn't usually act like this around her.
But today, on her eighteenth birthday, everything felt different. The bond tugged harder, and she started running.
Her wolf speed kicked in, and she flew through the trees like a ghost. The animals ran with her, a parade of forest creatures all heading toward the same goal.
After an hour of running, Asha smelled something that made her stop dead. Pack smell. She was getting close to werewolf country.
Not just any area - this smelled like the strongest pack in the region. The one her father used to talk about in whispers. The Ashen Moon Pack. Fear shot through her.
She was a rogue dog, an outsider. If the pack found her on their land, they might kill her. Or worse - they might send her back to her father.
But the bond didn't care about her fears. It pulled her forward with a force that made her knees weak. He's in there, she realized.
My mate is in the Ashen Moon Pack. The animals had stopped following her. They sat at the edge of the pack area, watching her with knowing eyes.
As if they had done their job and now it was up to her. Asha took a deep breath and crossed the imaginary line into pack land.
The moment her feet touched Ashen Moon land, the world exploded with sensation. The bond roared to life, so strong it nearly knocked her over. Her mate was close. Very close.
She could feel his feelings now. Anger. Sadness. Loneliness that matched her own. And underneath it all, a power that made her shiver.
Alpha, her wolf whispered inside her head. Our mate is an Alpha. Asha's eyes got really big. The biggest pack in the region only had one Alpha.
She had heard stories about him. Damon Thorn, the most feared and respected boss in the werewolf world. Cold as winter, strong as a rock, and completely ruthless.
"No way," she breathed. "That can't be right." But the link didn't lie. It pulled her toward the center of the area, where the pack house stood like a fortress on a hill.
Asha's legs felt wobbly. How could someone like Damon Thorn be her mate? He was strong and important.
She was nobody. A rogue who lived in a cave. But as she got closer to the pack house, she felt something else through the bond.
Pain. Deep, terrible pain that made her want to cry. Her mate was hurting. All her fears disappeared. It didn't matter that he was an Alpha and she was nobody.
It didn't matter that he might reject her. The bond was yelling at her to help him, to take away his pain. Asha started running again.
The pack house got bigger and bigger as she neared. She could see wolves moving around the land, guards who would definitely stop her. But she didn't care anymore.
The bond was in control now, dragging her toward her fate. She was fifty feet from the pack house when she saw him. A man stood on the front porch, talking to another wolf.
He was tall with broad shoulders and dark hair. Sharp features and sharp blue eyes that seemed to see everything. The same man from the forest.
The one who had warned her about heartbreak. Asha's world shifted. The mystery stranger was her mate. Damon Thorn himself had come to her cave last night.
But why? Why would he tell her about himself? Their eyes met across the distance, and the link snapped into place like a rubber band.
Power crashed over her in waves, so strong she could barely breathe. Damon's face went totally blank.
No surprise, no joy, no praise. Just cold, empty looking. Then he turned his back on her and walked into the house. The bond screamed in pain, and Asha fell to her knees in the dirt.
The rejection hit her like a physical blow, making her gasp for air. But through the pain, she heard footsteps.
The other wolf was walking toward her, and he didn't look nice. "You're on pack land, rogue," he said, his voice hard as stone.
"State your business or leave." Asha looked up at him through tears she didn't remember shedding. "I'm here for my mate."
The wolf's eyes narrowed. "Your mate?" "Damon Thorn," she whispered. "The Alpha is my mate."
For a moment, the wolf looked shocked. Then his face turned to something that might have been pity.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "But the Alpha has already chosen his Luna." The words hit Asha like lightning. "What?" "She arrived this morning," the wolf continued.
"Beautiful brown hair, blue eyes. The Alpha seemed very... pleased with her." Asha's heart stopped beating. Blonde hair and blue eyes.
Just like... "What's her name?" she whispered. The wolf paused, then answered. "Lyra." The world went dead.
Even the birds stopped singing. Someone who looks just like the sister you think you killed. Damon's advice from last night suddenly made terrible sense.
He had picked someone else. Someone who looked exactly like Selene. But that was impossible. Selene was dead. Wasn't she?