Banished to freeze, she woke up trapped under a pile of massive wolves. They weren’t eating her; they were warming her
A nest. Her nest.
But the world was not going to leave them in peace.
From the edge of the woods, two miles away, a scout from the Stone River Pack lowered his binoculars. He had been sent by Marcus to find the Omega’s frozen corpse. Instead, he had just seen an Omega who wasn’t an Omega running with a pack of ten monstrous wolves led by a massive black Alpha.
And he had heard a howl that shook the ice from the trees. He turned and ran, his heart hammering with a terror far greater than any blizzard. He had to warn Alpha Marcus.
The reject was back, and she had brought an army.
The Stone River Pack was restless. In the three days since Amanda’s banishment, a pall had settled over the territory. The Unity Moon should have brought joy, a new Luna, a stronger pack. Instead, it had brought… nothing.
The hunts were failing. Deer that should have been plentiful were scarce. The blizzard had passed, but a deeper cold remained.
The pack members were irritable, snapping at each other. The atmosphere in the Great Hall was sour.
Alpha Marcus sat on his carved throne, a gnawing, unfamiliar feeling eating at his gut. Regret. He kept seeing her face. The shock. The disbelief.
The moment all the light in her eyes had died just before the guards dragged her out. It had been a mistake. He knew it now.
«You’re brooding, my love.» Beth’s voice cut through his thoughts. She was draped over the arm of his chair, her nails digging possessively into his shoulder. «You’re the Alpha. You did what was necessary.»
«She was a weakness. She was a child we were sworn to protect,» Marcus snapped, shrugging off her hand. He was surprised by his own venom.
Beth’s eyes narrowed. «She was a wolf-less leech, and now she’s gone. We should be celebrating.»
Marcus looked at his chosen mate. He had chosen her for her strength, her bloodline, her confidence. But now all he could see was a chilling cruelty.
He had thought her confidence was strength. He was beginning to see it was just arrogance. He had traded a quiet, harmless Omega for a sharp-tongued, power-hungry Luna who was already grating on his nerves.
«She… she was not a leech,» Liam, one of the guards who had exiled her, spoke up from his table. His voice was quiet, but it carried in the tense hall.
Marcus focused on him. «What did you say, Liam?»
Liam stood, his chair scraping loudly. His partner, Owen, looked terrified, but Liam’s face was set in grim resolve.
«I said, Alpha,» Liam repeated louder, «she wasn’t a leech. She mended my son’s boots when he tore them. She… she would sing to the pups in the nursery when their mothers were on patrol. She always took the last, smallest piece of meat. She never… she never hurt anyone.»
A murmur of agreement went through the hall. Others who had been too afraid to speak were nodding.
«She was weak!» Beth shrieked, her voice high and thin. «She was…»
The Great Hall doors burst open, slamming against the stone walls. The Scout, David, stumbled in. He was covered in snow, his face pale with terror.
«Alpha,» he gasped, collapsing. «Alpha, I… I saw…»
«Speak, man!» Marcus roared, leaping to his feet.
«It’s the Omega,» David panted. «Amanda! She… she’s not dead!»
A wave of relief, so strong it buckled his knees, hit Marcus. He covered it quickly. «She’s alive. Where? The border?»
«No, Alpha,» David said, his eyes wide with a feverish light. «The old human barn, in the valley.»
«She’s squatting in the valley,» Beth sneered. «Pathetic. Marcus, send the enforcers. End this.»
«She’s not alone,» David yelled, grabbing Marcus’s tunic. «You don’t understand, she… she’s with them.»
«With who? Rogues?»
«Worse. Ten of them. Massive. Bigger than… bigger than you, Alpha. One is solid black, scarred. Another is pure white.»
Marcus froze. The nursery rhymes. The old legends. A white wolf.
«And… Alpha, she shifted.»
The hall went utterly silent.
«She’s… her wolf. I’ve never seen anything like it,» David whispered, his voice cracking. «It’s… it’s white. Like the moon. It glows and… Alpha, I heard her howl. It… it didn’t sound like a wolf. It sounded like… a command.»
Marcus stumbled back, the implications crashing down on him. The failed hunts. The restless pack. The cold.
The Goddess was angry. He hadn’t just rejected an Omega. He had banished a deity.
«She’s a witch!» Beth shrieked, her face white with a different kind of terror. «She’s bewitched those rogues. She’s a dark creature. She’s come to destroy us. You must kill her, Marcus. You must lead the pack. Kill the witch!»
Her voice was the only sound. Marcus looked at the faces of his pack. They were confused. But more than that, they were afraid.
And fear was a weapon. He had a choice. He could admit his catastrophic mistake, grovel, and beg for forgiveness from a creature he had sentenced to death.
Or… he could fix his mistake. He could reclaim what was his. He was the Alpha. She was his pack, his blood, his territory.
«She hasn’t bewitched them,» Marcus said, his voice a low growl. His pride, his arrogance, his power roared back to life. «She has gathered an army of rogues to challenge us, a direct threat.»
He straightened, his Alpha presence flooding the room. «She is a traitor. David, Liam, Owen, gather the war pack. Twenty of our strongest. We go to the barn.»
«We will break this army of hers, and we will drag the Omega back. We will put her on trial for treason.»
«But Alpha,» Liam started, «her wolf…»
«Is a perversion!» Marcus snarled. «A trick. Get the warriors. We move in one hour.»
He had made his choice. He would not be the Alpha who lost his pack to a cowering Omega. He would be the Alpha who crushed a rebellion. He would bring Amanda back, whether she was breathing or not.
The barn was no longer a refuge. It was a war room. Ronan the Tracker had returned at a dead run, his red hair flying.
«They’re coming. Twenty of them. Full war pack. Marcus is leading.»
Amanda stood in the center of the barn, her new wolf thrumming just beneath her skin, a comforting, hot-blooded presence. She was no longer wearing the thin tunic of her rejection. Gabriel had sacrificed one of his own cloaks, and she had fashioned it into a more practical, if rugged, garment.
Fear, the cold, familiar companion of her entire life, tried to grip her. But the new hot anger was stronger.
«Let them come,» she said, and was surprised by the cold steel in her own voice.
«Amanda,» Caleb said, stepping to her side. His ten men were already in a defensive perimeter, a silent, deadly circle. «This is not your fight. Not yet. We can get you out. We can be gone before they arrive.»
Amanda looked at him. She looked at the ten men who had sacrificed everything to find her, who had warmed her when she was freezing, and who had given her back her very self.
«You’ve been running for me your whole lives,» she said, her voice clear. «You’ve been hunted, chased, and scorned. Because of me. Because of a prophecy.»
She stepped forward, her silver eyes sweeping over their faces. «The running stops. This is my territory. That is my old pack, and that is my mistake to face.»
«It wasn’t your mistake,» Finn, the youngest, said fiercely. «It was his.»
«He is my mistake to correct,» Amanda said.
She walked to the large barn doors and, with a strength she didn’t know she possessed, shoved them open.
The snow had stopped. The valley was silent, bathed in the sharp, blue light of dusk. And then they appeared.
Twenty-two wolves emerging from the tree line. They were in their shifted forms, a clear sign of aggression. They fanned out, surrounding the barn.
At their head was a large, gray-brown wolf that Amanda knew well. Marcus. He strode forward, his paws crunching in the snow, and shifted.
His human form was naked, but he seemed not to feel the cold. His face was a mask of thunderous rage.
«Omega,» he boomed, his voice echoing in the valley. «You are charged with treason. You have consorted with rogues and built an army against your true Alpha. Surrender now, and I may be lenient.»
From behind him, Beth, also in human form, stepped out, wrapped in a thick fur. «He’s too kind, Amanda. We should just burn the barn with you and your freaks inside.»
Caleb stepped up to stand beside Amanda. He was in his human form, but his power rolled off him in palpable waves.
«She is not an Omega,» Caleb said, his voice a low counterpoint to Marcus’s roar. «And you are not her Alpha.»
Marcus’s eyes widened as he took in Caleb. The size, the scars, the sheer primal dominance of the man. This was an Alpha. A true Alpha.
And then he saw Amanda. She was not the cowering, soot-stained girl he had banished. Her hair was clean and wild. Her eyes, which he’d always thought were a dull brown, were blazing with a silver light.
She was not afraid. She looked magnificent.
«Amanda,» he commanded, a note of desperation entering his voice. «This thing has bewitched you. Come home. I… I revoke the banishment. I will find a place for you.»
«A place?» Amanda asked, and her voice carried, sharp and clear as snapping ice. «What place, Marcus? The kitchens? The mending shed? The floor at your feet?»
«You are mine!» he roared, his control snapping. «You are Stone River!»
«I am nothing of yours,» Amanda said.
She held up her hand. On her palm, where Caleb had first grasped it, a faint, swirling silver mark had appeared. It looked like a crescent moon.
Caleb held up his own hand. A matching mark glowed on his skin.
«The Matriarch has chosen her mate,» Caleb stated. It was not a boast. It was a fact.
Marcus stared at the mark. The mating mark. The one he was supposed to have. The one that legend said only the Goddess herself could bestow.
Beth saw it, too, and she snapped.
«Liar!» she shrieked, her face contorting. «Witch, you stole him from me!»
Before anyone could react, Beth shifted. With a snarl, she launched herself not at Caleb, but at Amanda.
It was a fatal mistake. Caleb moved, but Amanda was faster. The world didn’t slow down; she sped up.
She didn’t dodge. She met the attack.
