The Sun Marked Luna

The silver chalice shattered against the stone floor, splashing dark elderberry wine over the hem of my threadbare dress.

"Useless wolfless pest," Lady Caelia hissed, her hand still raised from the strike. "Look at you. You're ruining the decorations."

I kept my chin down, pulling a damp rag from my apron pocket. "I'm sorry, Lady Caelia. I'll clean it immediately."

"You'd better," she sneered, her heels clicking away toward the high table where the elders sat. "The Awakening Ball starts in ten minutes. If Alpha Vance catches sight of an unranked servant dragging down the pack's image, he'll have you thrown to the perimeter guards for target practice."

I didn't answer. I knelt on the cold granite, soaking up the spilled wine.

Eighteen years old today. For normal pack members, the eighteenth birthday was the night your wolf awakened, the night the Moon Goddess revealed your destined mate. But I had no wolf. My inner beast had been silent my entire life, leaving me rankless-an outcast in the Silver Shadow Pack, surviving only on the table scraps of the wolves who despised me.

The heavy oak doors of the Great Hall suddenly slammed shut with a boom that rattled the stained-glass windows.

The chatter died instantly. A suffocating pressure washed over the room-an aura so dense, so heavy, it felt like the air itself had turned to lead.

"He's here," someone whispered in terror.

Alpha Malakar of the Bloodfang Pack.

He didn't walk into the hall; he commanded it. Standing well over six feet, wrapped in heavy leather and dark armor, he looked like a god of war carved from obsidian. Battle scars slashed across his sharp jaw, and his eyes-a glowing, dangerous amber-scanned the room with absolute disdain. Behind him stood six of his deadliest Enforcers, their hands resting on the pommels of their blades.

The Silver Shadow Pack bowed immediately. Even our ruthless leader, Alpha Vance, stiffened, stepping down from his dais to greet the warrior who had single-handedly annihilated three rogue packs in a single winter.

"Alpha Malakar," Vance said, forcing a tight smile. "We are honored by your presence."

Malakar didn't answer. He didn't even look at Vance.

His head snapped toward the corner of the room. Toward the overturned bucket. Toward the rag in my hands.

His amber eyes locked straight onto mine, and the air ripped out of my lungs.

A sudden, violent spark flared deep within my chest-a sensation so sharp and golden it felt like a flame consuming my blood. The scent of ozone, rain, and fresh pine hit my nose so intensely my knees buckled.

*Mate.*

The word echoed in my mind, even without a wolf to speak it.

The entire hall remained dead silent as Alpha Malakar ignored Alpha Vance, stepped past the line of high-ranking alpha daughters who had spent weeks preparing for his arrival, and walked directly toward me.

Each heavy bootstep rang out like a drumbeat. I scrambled backward until my spine hit the cold stone pillar behind me.

He stopped right in front of me. The terrifying Alpha of Bloodfang crouched down to my level, his amber eyes softening just a fraction, filled with a raw, ravenous possessiveness.

He reached out a gloved hand, gently cupping my chin, and growled a single word that shattered the silence of the hall:

"Mine."

"She is a wolfless servant!" Alpha Vance's voice thundered across the room, his blade clearing its sheath with a sharp metal scrape. "She belongs to Silver Shadow! You will not lay a hand on her!"

Alpha Malakar didn't even turn around. He rose slowly to his full, towering height, keeping himself positioned like a shield directly between Vance's blade and me.

"Draw that sword one inch higher, Vance," Malakar said, his low voice vibrating right through the stone floor, "and I tear your pack apart before the moon reaches the crest.''

The silence in the Great Hall was so thick you could hear the flicker of the torchfire.

Alpha Vance's face contorted with fury, his knuckles turning white around the hilt of his sword. "You cross into my territory on a truce, Malakar, and you dare claim a scrub servant? She has no wolf. She has no pack rank. She is *nothing*."

"She is mine," Malakar repeated. His voice wasn't a roar; it was a deadly, quiet promise that made every wolf in the room shiver. "And that makes her more valuable than your entire lineage."

Before Vance could take a step, Malakar moved.

He didn't draw a blade. He didn't shift into his wolf. He simply blurred across the floor with terrifying Alpha speed. A sickening *crack* echoed through the hall as Malakar's hand clamped around Vance's wrist, shattering the bone instantly. Vance gasped, dropping his sword to the stone floor.

The Silver Shadow guards drew their weapons, but Malakar's six Enforcers immediately bared their claws, releasing an oppressive aura that pinned the guards to the spot.

I couldn't move. My heart hammered against my ribs like a caged bird. The golden warmth in my chest-the bond-was pulling me toward Malakar, demanding that I touch him, that I seek shelter in his shadow. But panic held me frozen.

Malakar turned back to me, ignoring Vance groaning on the floor. He stepped closer, his fierce amber eyes searching my face. The sheer dominance radiating off him should have made me cower, but when he extended his hand, his touch was impossibly gentle.

"What is your name, little fire?" he asked softly.

"N-Nora," I whispered, my voice trembling.

"Nora," he murmured, testing the sound on his lips. "Get up."

I hesitated, glancing at Lady Caelia, who was pale as salt, and at the council elders trembling in the back. "I... I am not allowed to leave. I belong to Silver Shadow."

Malakar leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of my ear, sending an intoxicating shiver straight down my spine. The scent of rain and pine filled my senses, making my head spin.

"You belong to no one, Nora," he growled low. "Until tonight. Now, you come with me, or I slaughter every wolf in this room who ever made you bleed."

He reached out, offering his hand.

I looked at the pack that had beaten me, used me, and treated me like trash for eighteen years. Then I looked at the terrifying Alpha who had just brought them to their knees to claim me.

I placed my hand in his.

The moment our skin touched, a jolt of raw energy surged through my veins. Deep inside my dormant soul, something long asleep violently snapped awake. A wild, ancient roar echoed inside my mind-a wolf's howl, powerful and dark.

My eyes widened in shock. *I have a wolf?*

Malakar's grip tightened around my hand, a predatory smirk touching his lips as if he felt it too. He pulled me against his broad chest, wrapping a heavy dark cloak around my shivering shoulders.

"Bloodfang!" Malakar ordered, his voice booming as he carried me toward the heavy oak doors. "We leave!"

"Stop them!" Vance choked out from the floor, clutching his broken wrist. "She carries the blood of the-"

A thrown dagger from one of Malakar's Enforcers thudded into the floor an inch from Vance's face, cutting him off mid-sentence.

As the heavy doors slammed shut behind us, plunging the Great Hall into chaos, Malakar swept me into his arms and leaped into the dark, moonlit forest.

My heart pounded. I was leaving the only hell I'd ever known, bound to a ruthless monster who held my heart in his hands. But as his dark scent wrapped around me, one thought terrified me most of all:

Vance was about to say what I truly was... and Malakar already knew.

The forest passed by in a blur of obsidian leaves and silver moonlight.

Alpha Malakar carried me in his arms effortlessly as he sprinted through the dense treeline, his Enforcers forming a deadly, silent perimeter around us. Every leap he made over fallen logs and jagged rocks was smooth, his immense physical strength keeping me completely steady against his chest.

I kept my cheek pressed into the heavy leather of his jacket. The scent of rain, pine, and hot lightning wrapped around my senses like a velvet shield.

"You're quiet, little fire," Malakar's voice rumbled, vibrating directly through my ribs.

"I'm waiting to wake up," I admitted, my voice barely audible above the howling wind. "Or waiting for you to realize you took the wrong girl."

Malakar paused mid-stride, landing silently on a high cliff overlook. Below us, the torchlights of the Silver Shadow Pack burned like tiny embers in the valley.

He didn't put me down. Instead, he adjusted his grip, bringing my eyes level with his glowing amber gaze. The intensity in his face made my pulse race.

"There is no mistake, Nora," he said, his thumb tracing the bruised line of my jaw where Lady Caelia's wine glass had clipped me earlier. His touch was warm, sending tiny, electrifying currents across my skin. "I knew your scent before I even stepped foot into that pathetic hall."

"I don't have a wolf, Malakar," I whispered, the painful truth tasting like ash on my tongue. "I am rankless. I can't protect your pack, I can't give you strong heirs, and I-"

"Do not speak of yourself that way," he cut in sharply, his voice carrying an Alpha command so potent it made my chest ache. But his eyes were fiercely protective. "You felt it back there, didn't you? When our hands touched."

My heart skipped a beat.

The roar. The ancient, dark howl that had vibrated deep inside my soul the second his skin met mine.

Before I could answer, a blood-curdling screech echoed through the trees behind us.

The Enforcers immediately unsheathed their silver blades, forming a circle around us. From the shadows of the canopy, massive, twisted shapes began to descend-wolves, but wrong. Their fur was matted with black sap, their eyes glowing an unnatural, feverish purple.

*Shifted silver shadows,* warped by black magic. Vance had sent his tracking hounds, but they weren't trying to capture me.

They were hunting to kill.

"Protect the Luna!" the lead Enforcer barked, his claws extending.

Malakar set me down behind him on the edge of the cliff, drawing a massive, runic broadsword from his back in a single fluid motion. The black steel hummed with raw energy.

"Vance is desperate," Malakar growled, his eyes flashing dangerous gold as he stepped in front of me. "He'd rather destroy the bloodline than let Bloodfang hold the key to the ancient gates."

One of the shadow wolves lunged straight for my throat, bypassing Malakar entirely.

I threw my hands up in sheer panic.

Instead of teeth sinking into my neck, a violent wave of golden energy exploded from my palms. The blast shattered the night air, hurling the shadow wolf fifty feet into the stone cliff face, crushing it instantly.

Silence fell over the ridge. The remaining beasts recoiled in terror.

I stared at my trembling hands, which were now glowing with soft, ancient runes traced in gold under my skin.

Malakar turned his head, looking back at me with a slow, dark smile that sent a shiver straight down my spine.

"A wolfless pest?" he murmured, turning to face the remaining beasts with lethal calm. "No, little fire. You are an Empress."