Chapter 2 THE ALPHA'S QUESTION

I couldn't breathe.

He was standing right there. Close enough that I could see the flecks of gold in his amber eyes. Close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off his body like he was made of fire underneath his skin.

Alpha Ronan Greymane was looking at me like I was something impossible.

And I had no idea why.

"I asked you a question." His voice was low but it filled the entire kitchen. "Who are you?"

My mouth opened but nothing came out. Nineteen years of being invisible and now the most powerful Alpha in the eastern territories was staring at me like I held answers to questions I didn't understand.

Bette stepped forward, her head bowed in submission. "Alpha Greymane, forgive me. This is Seraphina. She works in the kitchens. She's... she's Hollow."

Something flickered across his face. Confusion maybe. Or disbelief.

"Hollow," he repeated slowly.

"She has no wolf," Bette continued, her voice trembling slightly. "She has never shifted. She was found as an infant at the edge of pack territory. No parents. No history. The previous Alpha allowed her to stay as a servant."

Ronan's eyes never left mine. Not once.

"Leave us," he said.

Bette hesitated. "Alpha, I..."

"Now."

The word cracked through the air like a whip. Bette flinched, bowed her head deeper, and hurried out of the kitchen. The door swung shut behind her and suddenly I was alone with him.

My heart was beating so fast I thought it might burst through my chest.

He took a step closer. Then another. Each step slow and deliberate like he was approaching a wild animal that might run.

"You're afraid," he said quietly.

It wasn't a question.

"Everyone is afraid of you," I whispered before I could stop myself.

Something shifted in his expression. Almost like amusement but not quite.

"Not like this." He stopped an arm's length away from me. "Your heart is racing. Your scent is..." He paused and his jaw tightened. "Your scent makes no sense."

I pressed my back harder against the wall. "I don't know what you mean."

"Neither do I." He tilted his head slightly, studying me the way a wolf studies prey. "You say you're Hollow. That you have no wolf."

"I don't."

"Then why do you smell like pack?"

The question hit me like cold water.

"What?"

"Every wolf carries a pack scent," he said slowly. "It's how we recognize each other. It's tied to our blood, our bonds, our wolves. A Hollow shouldn't have one. A Hollow should smell like nothing. Like human." His eyes narrowed. "You don't smell like nothing, Seraphina."

My name in his mouth sounded different. Heavier somehow.

"I don't understand," I said honestly.

"Neither do I." He was closer now. When had he moved? "And I don't like things I don't understand."

For a long moment neither of us spoke. The kitchen was silent except for my ragged breathing and the distant sounds of the pack outside.

Then he did something unexpected.

He reached out and took my hand.

His fingers were rough and warm and the moment his skin touched mine, something happened.

Heat exploded up my arm. Not painful but intense. Like lightning had struck the place where we connected and was now racing through my veins toward my heart.

I gasped.

He went completely still.

"What was that?" I breathed.

His amber eyes had changed. The gold flecks were brighter now, almost glowing. His grip on my hand tightened and I saw something move behind his expression. Something raw and wild and barely controlled.

"Impossible," he murmured.

"What's impossible? What's happening?"

He released my hand suddenly and stepped back. The loss of contact left me feeling cold and strangely empty.

"You're coming with me," he said.

"What? No. I... I have duties here. I..."

"I am the Alpha of the Bloodfang Pack." His voice was hard now. Commanding. "Every wolf in this territory answers to me. Every servant. Every Hollow." He stepped toward the door and paused without looking back. "You answer to me now, Seraphina. Pack your things. We leave within the hour."

"Leave for where?"

He turned his head just enough for me to see his profile. The scar on his jaw. The tension in his shoulders.

"My compound," he said quietly. "I need to figure out what you are. And I can't do that here."

Then he was gone.

I stood in the kitchen for a long time after he left.

My hand was still tingling where he had touched me. My heart was still racing. My mind was spinning with questions I had no answers to.

What had he felt when we touched?

What had I felt?

And why had his eyes changed like that?

Bette found me twenty minutes later, still standing in the same spot.

"You need to pack," she said gently. "His Beta is waiting."

"Bette..." I looked at her helplessly. "What's happening to me?"

She pulled me into a hug. It was the first time anyone had hugged me in years.

"I don't know, child," she whispered against my hair. "But whatever it is, maybe it's time you found out."

I didn't have much to pack.

A few worn dresses. A small wooden comb with broken teeth. A blanket so thin it barely kept out the cold.

And one thing I had never shown anyone.

A pendant.

It was silver and shaped like three things intertwined. A fang. A claw. And something that looked like a wing. I had been wearing it when they found me as an infant. It was the only connection I had to wherever I came from. To whoever had left me at the border of Thornmere.

I tucked it under my dress where it rested cold against my skin.

Then I walked out to meet my fate.

The Beta was waiting by a black carriage. He was tall and blonde with ice blue eyes that assessed me without warmth.

"You're the Hollow?" he asked flatly.

"Yes."

He looked me up and down like I was a puzzle with missing pieces.

"Get in."

I climbed into the carriage. The seats were leather and softer than anything I had ever sat on. The windows were tinted so dark I could barely see outside.

The Beta climbed in after me and sat across from me. He didn't speak.

The carriage lurched forward.

I watched the only home I had ever known disappear through the dark glass. The kitchens where I had scrubbed floors. The servant quarters where I had slept on a thin mat. The forest that had always called to something inside me.

Gone.

All of it gone.

And I was heading toward something unknown with a man who looked at me like I was either a miracle or a threat.

We traveled for hours. The Beta never spoke. I was too afraid to ask questions.

When the carriage finally stopped, night had fallen.

The door opened and cool air rushed in carrying the scent of pine and smoke and something else. Something wild. Something that made my blood feel strange in my veins.

I stepped out and looked up.

The Alpha's compound was massive. Stone walls rose three stories high. Torches burned along walkways. Wolves in human form patrolled the grounds, their eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.

This was not a home.

This was a fortress.

And standing at the entrance, waiting for me, was Ronan Greymane.

His amber eyes found mine immediately.

"Welcome to Greymane Hold," he said quietly.

I opened my mouth to respond but before I could speak, pain exploded through my chest.

Sharp. Blinding. Like something inside me was trying to tear its way out.

I screamed and collapsed to the ground.

The last thing I saw before darkness took me was Ronan's face above mine, his eyes wide with shock.

And the last thing I heard was his voice, rough with something I couldn't name.

"Her eyes... they're turning gold."