Chapter 1: Come to Me

Avira's POV

When I slid the black card across to the young man, his gaze dropped to it first, then quickly shifted to the side of my neck. There was no Alpha's mark there, no bite wound — only a red line left by a moonstone necklace pressing into skin. Half an hour ago, I had torn that necklace off with my own hands at the Black Pine Pack's Silver Moon Banquet. Caleb had wrapped his arms around his Omega lover in front of every elder and guest, letting all those eyes settle on me with pity and mockery. Three years. I had worn the title of future Luna, and still never received his mark.

"One hundred thousand," I said. "Stay with me tonight."

The lights in the border nightclub burned low, alcohol, perfume, pheromones, and restless music all bleeding into one. This place wasn't far from Black Pine territory — news traveled fast here, and dirty. I wanted dirty. I wanted a man, a graceless night of indulgence, something that would make Caleb wake up tomorrow and hear everyone talking: the Luna he refused to mark had gone and slept with another wolf in a nightclub.

"How would you like me to stay, miss?" He leaned closer, fingers testing the air as they brushed against the side of my knee, his voice dropping with the movement.

I reached up and hooked my fingers into his collar, pulling him down to kneel before me. When his scent drew near, the wolf inside me didn't stir at all. Good. No pull, no softening, no aftermath. I looked down at him, fingertips slowly releasing the glass. "Get on your knees first. You know where to start."

The young man's knees were just about to touch the floor when a hand reached over from the side and lifted the room card off the bar.

The hand was pale and slender, a faint scar running across the base of one finger. The young man followed that hand upward, the excitement draining from his face, his voice dropping several notes. "Lord Ashford."

I looked up.

Reign Ashford stood at my side. Alpha of the Greystone Pack, Caleb's ally in name, and the one man in the North who gave Black Pine the least face. He wore a black shirt with the top two buttons undone, jacket draped over one arm, grey-blue eyes resting on the room card. His tone was light, but left no room for argument.

"Get lost."

The young man didn't look at me again. He turned and pushed his way into the crowd, gone in an instant.

I picked up my glass, a faint chill pressed into the corner of my lips. "Lord Ashford. You've ruined my evening."

He was looking at me, and the back of my neck grew warm, though my voice stayed level. "Did Caleb send you?"

"He doesn't have the nerve," Reign said.

"Then why are you stopping me? I only want to find someone to sleep with tonight. I'm not trying to kill anyone."

Reign finally looked at me. The nightclub was thick with clashing pheromones, yet his scent cut through it all — clean, almost sharp. Fir trees, snow, tobacco, and the natural weight of a powerful Alpha's presence. I hated being controlled by Alphas. But when Reign drew near, the wolf inside me didn't bare her claws. She went quiet instead, the way something starved goes still when it finally catches the scent of what it was always meant to want.

"He never marked you," Reign said.

My fingers paused against the side of the glass. "The entire North knows that."

"Which is why I say he's an idiot."

I turned to look at him. Reign had moved closer. He didn't touch me — he only stopped just beside the skin behind my ear, his breath grazing the side of my neck like a kiss that hadn't quite fallen.

"You still carry his scent," he said.

I pulled at the corner of my mouth. "Does it disgust you?"

"It's faint. Almost gone." Reign's voice settled against the side of my ear. "But it's just enough for everyone to believe you still belong to him."

I wanted to step back. My body hesitated first. My wolf sank low inside Reign's breath, quiet in a way that was almost surrender. It was a more primal response, and a more humiliating one. I realized suddenly that I had come to the wrong person tonight. That young man could have embarrassed Caleb at most. Reign could drive him mad.

"Ashford," I said quietly. "Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes," Reign said, looking at me. "I'm holding back."

My phone buzzed at that moment. Caleb's name lit up the screen like a chain that had arrived too late.

I answered. Caleb's voice came through laced with anger he couldn't quite contain. "Where are you? Come back now. I can let tonight go."

"Let it go?" I looked at Reign, and the words struck me as absurd. "Caleb, what right do you have to let anything go?"

"You are Black Pine's future Luna."

"The moment you refused to mark me, I stopped being that."

The breathing on the other end of the line grew heavier. "Who's with you?"

I didn't answer. Reign took the phone from my hand, brought it to his ear, and kept his eyes on my face the whole time.

"It's me."

Caleb's muffled fury came through the receiver. I couldn't make out the words, only watched as the warmth in Reign's eyes slowly receded. "She doesn't carry your mark. The contract was never completed. Under ancient wolf law, she is free."

He paused for a few seconds, then said: "If you want to take her back, come yourself." The call ended.

I looked at him. "What do you want him to see?"

Reign took hold of my waist and lifted me down from the barstool. My palms pressed against his chest, and through the shirt I could feel the heat of his body and the beat of his heart. He didn't hold me too tightly, but just tightly enough that I couldn't pull away. That restraint was worse somehow — like a hunter drawing the rope taut without bothering to drag the prey in yet.

"I want him to see that you're done waiting for him," Reign said, lowering his head, his voice falling just beside my lips. "And I want him to see whose scent the woman he was too cowardly to mark is going to carry tonight."

My hand was still pressed to his chest, and through that thin layer of black fabric I could feel his heartbeat — heavy, steady, but far from calm. Reign didn't kiss me right away. He only stopped at the edge of my lips, close enough that the slightest tilt of my head would have brought them together. That distance was more torment than a real kiss would have been. I felt the cold fir scent rising from him, inch by inch, like a fire lit in the middle of a snowstorm — sharp and freezing, yet driving the air from my lungs in waves of heat.

"Are you waiting for me to beg?" I asked quietly.

Reign's fingertips pressed into my side through the thin fabric of my dress, a light but deliberate pressure. Just enough to draw my body half an inch closer into his. He looked down at me, and there was nothing gentlemanly in those grey-blue eyes — only desire held forcibly in check.

"I'm waiting for you to choose."

I grabbed his collar and closed the distance myself. When Reign kissed me, the bitterness of liquor and the scent of fir trees rushed into my breath at the same time. His hand tightened around my waist, my back met the bar, and the wolf inside me woke in that same instant.

Reign pulled back slightly, his breath brushing my lips. "Avira. Don't gamble with a mate bond out of spite."

"I'm not acting out of spite," I said, reaching up, fingertips brushing his collar, deliberately nudging the already-loose buttons further open. "I'm getting revenge."

I leaned close to his ear, my voice low enough that only the two of us could hear.

"Don't you want to help me?"

Those words severed the last of Reign's restraint. He kissed me again, and I was forced to grip his shoulders — then bit his lower lip when he began to pull away.

Reign's breath went noticeably heavier. His lips still against mine, he said quietly: "Caleb is going to lose his mind."

I looked at him. "Then let him."

Reign didn't look at the room around us again. He raised a hand to cradle the back of my neck and brought me back to his lips, but stopped just before the kiss landed. His canine teeth grazed the most sensitive point along the side of my neck — barely there, not breaking skin, yet enough to send the wolf in my blood into a restless stir. I could feel that he wanted to leave something there. I could also feel that he was waiting for me to say so out loud.

"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," he said, his voice already roughened.

I grabbed his tie and forced his head down, dragging my lips slowly along the line of his jaw. "Then you can teach me."

In the next moment, Reign lifted me back onto the barstool, both hands locked around my waist, and kissed me deeper than before. My knees pressed against either side of him, the hem of my dress sliding up with the movement, and every prying gaze in the nightclub stopped mattering. There was only the scent of fir trees and snow, only the hands pressing into my waist, and the force of something barely holding itself back from breaking free.

His kiss moved from my lips to behind my ear, stopping beside the red mark the moonstone necklace had left. When his canine teeth grazed my skin again, my fingers clenched sharply, nearly crushing the wrinkles into his shirt. Reign didn't bite down. He only pressed his lips there, as though staking a quiet claim over a territory he had not yet been given permission to take.

"You want me to help you get back at him?" he asked, his lips still at my neck.

My breath had come apart, but I lifted my chin and looked at him anyway. "You don't dare?"

Reign raised his eyes. The grey-blue of his irises had taken on the silver that only appeared in wolves when desire overtook them. His thumb moved slowly across my lips, flushed from being kissed, and the want in his gaze no longer made any effort to hide itself.

"If you want revenge, don't go looking for those small-time wolves."

His lips were descending again, and he left me with only two words.

"Come to me."