Have We Met Somewhere Before?

Aurora's POV

My name is Aurora Thome. In seven days I will become the Luna of Moonshadow Pack.

I never thought I would smell it again — that scent I believed I'd wiped clean out of memory — at the pack assembly before the bonding rite.

Cold cedar laced with blood, a pressure rolling up out of the dark moon. Cold enough to set your bones shaking.

The horn cup trembled in my hand. The berry wine nearly spilled.

"Aurora. Come here."

Alpha Cedric, my intended, beckoned from the far end of the long table, his hand gentle in the air.

"This is Alpha Kaelen — my younger brother. He holds Dark Moon Pack now."

Dark Moon sits out in the middle of nowhere, a small branch pack under Moonshadow's thumb. On this continent, Moonshadow is the strongest of them all.

But I know what Kaelen has made of Dark Moon. It must have grown formidable. Formidable enough that no one can afford to ignore it.

I raised my head. Kaelen Blackwood sat at the side of the wolf-king's seat, his black wolf eyes steeped in moonlight, brimming with a dim gold.

He turned the cup slowly in his fingers, lifted his gaze to me, and let one corner of his mouth curl.

"Haven't we met somewhere before?"

My tail nearly forced its way out.

Don't panic.

Six years ago I formed a soul bond with Kaelen. His mark is on me.

Unless Kaelen dies, or unless I hold it down for a while with a scent-blocker off the black market, that mark never comes off.

And Moonshadow's law is carved into the stone at the altar. Its first article: a Luna candidate must pass seven days of pack bloodline review, to prove her blood is pure and her mark singular. A rogue found carrying another Alpha's mark is turned over to the pack for judgment, and the sentence is death. Light case, death. Heavy case, death.

This is not a tale invented to frighten children.

To be found carrying another Alpha's mark is to be declared unclean.

A candidate was caught once. The next day they bound her to the altar and tore her apart in front of everyone, in full wolf form.

The whole pack came to watch. I was small then, standing at the very back of the crowd, and I remember the smell of that blood hanging in the air for three full days.

To become Moonshadow's Luna, I spent three years taking scent-blockers without a break, burying everything from my black-market past.

I don't know what the seven days of review actually cover. But if I survive them, the title of Luna will shield me.

Until then, I cannot let Kaelen destroy me.

I forced my face still, looked at Kaelen, and lowered my head. "I must have a common face. People say that to me all the time."

Kaelen laughed softly and rose, closing the distance.

His Alpha scent wrapped around me and turned my legs to water.

"Is that so? There's nothing common about you."

He bent his head and spoke only loud enough for me to hear. "Your mouth says you don't remember. Your body doesn't lie."

He was right. If Kaelen shifted in front of the pack and let his scent loose, the mark on me would answer, and every one of them would know whose I had once been.

Kaelen can ruin me at any moment.

I stood up abruptly. "Forgive me — I'm not feeling well."

I left the feast quickly and hid in the privy at the end of the stone corridor. The instant the door shut, my heart hammered hard enough to break through my ribs.

I never thought I would see Kaelen again.

What shook me more was this: he is Cedric's own brother.

Years ago, in the black market, I was bound to Kaelen. That bond was never my choice.

Because of it, when we come close, the mark triggers an instinctive response. The nearer we are, the harder the Alpha's pull.

Black-market drugs let me keep the mark's traces barely covered, but the deep bond can't be rooted out. On ordinary days I can hold it down. Bring me near Kaelen, or throw my emotions off, and the disturbance surfaces again — I run hot, my legs weaken, the back of my neck stings, and I start to slick whether I want to or not.

A werewolf's nose is far sharper than a human's. The moment Kaelen appeared, my buried past could be dragged into the light.

I have to strike first. Otherwise the secret comes out in front of everyone, sooner or later.

"Aurora. I can't believe you didn't even change your name. Three years I searched this whole continent and never found a trace of you."

While I was thinking, Kaelen had slipped into the privy without my noticing and stood behind me, watching me through the mirror.

The bond lets him sense the violent swing of my emotions. He had simply said my thought out loud.

I spun to run and landed straight in his arms.

"So tell me. How should I punish you?"

"Whatever you want — anything I can give, I'll agree to it." I fought to keep my voice level, fought to look anywhere but his eyes. "But you have to cover for me these seven days. Don't let anyone find out you marked me."

He looked at me, the amusement in those gold wolf eyes deepening. He took my chin, turned my face up to his.

"And what if I'd rather let Cedric know that his Luna is the little bitch I fucked for three years? Hm?"

He leaned into my face on purpose, dropped his voice at my ear, and his breath carried his scent, working on every nerve I had.

"Want to guess whether he'd cover for you? Whether Moonshadow would acknowledge you as Luna?"

I knew he held my fate locked in his hands. I reached out, gripped his arm, and drew his broad palm over my backside.

"Help me. Please?"

Something puzzled flickered through those deep wolf eyes, but he played along and squeezed hard twice, then lifted me off my feet.

Kaelen was the same as ever. He remembered what I liked, what undid me fastest.

He hoisted me up onto the stone table. The cold against my skin told me my underwear was already gone — I hadn't noticed him pull it off.

In a daze his long fingers reached into the thicket between my legs and toyed at the entrance to my cunt, shallow then deep, then shallow again.

The sudden touch left my whole body numb and tingling.

He was the same as before. He knew exactly how to make me sink, and fast.

"Mmph—" I groaned before I could stop myself.

Terrified Cedric might hear, I clamped my mouth shut.

"What's wrong? Afraid to make noise now? Same as ever — a few strokes and you can't take it. You're soaking down there."

As he spoke he flicked at my cunt again and again, but only pressed, never truly pushing in.

The more he held back, the more unbearable the itch. It was agony.

I wanted to cry out, but I was afraid Cedric would hear. I had to press it all down.

Kaelen grew bolder and started pinching my breasts. Maybe too hard — the pain cleared my head.

"Kaelen. If you won't help me hide what happened between us, I'll call people in right now and say you tried to humiliate me, and have them throw you out of Moonshadow this instant. You didn't come here only to find me. Did you, Alpha Kaelen?"

As head of Dark Moon Pack he carries plenty of duties. He can't afford a stain. Threaten him with that and he'd have to weigh the cost — he wouldn't dare wreck both my life and his own.

But I never expected him to half-shift. With the mark driving me, I lost all control and pressed myself closer to him. He didn't pull away. He drove into my cunt just as he used to. The sudden fullness sent me into a panic.

"Ah!" I couldn't hold it in and screamed.

"Aurora? Is something wrong? Do you need help?" Cedric knocked on the door, his voice anxious.