PROLOGUE
The woman gritted her teeth as another wave of pain started low in her back and radiated out. She whimpered, biting back the urge to yell with it. She only had to hold on a little bit longer. The cave was just ahead. If she could get there, everything would be okay.
She scraped her knuckles on the rocks, her fingernails tearing and breaking in the rocky soil. She pulled at the plants around her, their roots too shallow to hold her weight. Her foot slipped and she went down hard, right on top of her extended stomach.
She cried out in despair. She had to protect this baby. She was their future. Their last hope. Everything rode on her survival.
Her struggles brought her closer to the mouth of the cave, and she crawled the last of the way, into the entrance and onto the bed of furs she had piled in a corner for preparation for this.
She lay back, exhausted, trying to catch her breath before another wave of pain coursed through her. This one was accompanied by nausea, and she brought her hand to her mouth, willing to keep the bile down.
Her fiery red hair escaped the cloth wrapped around her head and plastered itself to her forehead. She was safe here, hidden, so she paid it no mind, focusing on her breathing.
Another wave of pain and nausea swelled through her, and she felt warm liquid coating her thighs. Her water was breaking. Good. The wave passed, but this one drained her strength, and she felt herself getting lightheaded.
No, no, no, she chanted. She reached down, putting her hand in the liquid, and brought it to her face. Even in the dim cave, she could make out the dark staining her fingers.
It wasn't her water, it was blood.
No! She had to hang on. She didn't know why the Goddess had abandoned her people, but she turned her face up and cried out anyway.
"Please, Mother. PLEASE! Save my baby." She knew she wasn't going to survive this. Being cut off from the Mother's Blessing so long had finally taken its toll. "Save my baby. I give its life to you."
She was losing her breath, panting to stay conscious. The next contraction brought pain she couldn't contain, and she screamed, the force of it tearing her throat. She needed to push. She needed to get this baby out.
She heard rustling at the entrance of the cave. She sobbed, trying to still her body, but if they were here, it was already too late. She slipped the rag off her head and wrapped it around her hand anyway, and picked up the blade she carried at her side, gripping it tightly in her fist.
A soft, white light entered with the woman. She couldn’t see who it was, or how many, but a primal growl rumbled in her throat from her fading wolf.
Stay with me a little longer, Nina, she whispered in her mind.
I’m with you to the end, Lyra, her wolf said. She sounded tired and strained, but she could feel her resolve.
“Lyra?” A familiar voice called.
“Mauve?” Lyra sobbed.
"Shh, I'm here, child," the woman said. She lit a small fire and pulled out a canteen, helping her take a sip. Her eyes glanced at the pregnant woman’s hair.
After a few sips, Lyra pushed the canteen away as another contraction came and went. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell you,” she panted.
“I already knew, girl,” the older woman said, unconcerned. “Now, we need to get this baby out. Do what I say.” The woman coaxed, comforted, and in the end, pushed her, and a healthy baby girl’s cries filled the cave.
"Please," the red-headed woman said weakly. "Save her.."
"Don't worry," the old woman assured her. "I'll make sure she’s safe."
The old Omega covered the young woman with a fur, her last breath spent with her plea. Mauve lovingly swaddled the baby.
"You, child, are going to turn this world upside down," she smiled with satisfaction, a glint of mischief in her eye.
21 YEARS LATER
The dark anger in her eyes lit a fire in me. We circled each other. She was good, her feet moving smoothly across the ground, while I, on the other hand, felt like I was stumbling. The smirk on her face let me know that she thought this was going to be all too easy.
She reminded me of a cat stalking its prey. If she had a tail, it would have been lashing back and forth.
The crowd that encircled us, that had been loud with cheers for her, was now silent, as if holding its breath in anticipation.
I couldn’t fight. Not really. I’d shirked off all of my combat training, naively believing I would never need it. I grit my jaw in determination, though.
I was done being pushed around.
I was done being laughed at and looked at with derision.
I was going to earn this pack’s respect, even if it killed me.
I felt the stirrings of something deeper as I focused on every person that betrayed me, and personified it into the girl across from me.
My mother.
My father.
My fiancé.
My ‘friends’.
My ‘pack’.
I felt that stirring move to my fingertips as whatever it was inside of me gathered in preparation. Beserker. Curse. The culmination of my decimated bloodline. I let it flow all through me.
My eyes flicked up to my supposed mate. He stood shirtless, watching us with his arms crossed against his chest, his tattoos and defined shoulders on proud display as he looked dispassionately on the scene before him.
I felt my wolf, Raina, jump in excitement at seeing him.
Focus, Raina, I admonished her. I understood, but her distraction wasn’t helping.
He was the Alpha of the Onyx Pack, and I wasn’t fighting her for him. I wasn’t going to be forced to prove myself to a man, just because the Moon Mother decreed we should be mates.
Let the others think what they will. If I won today, I would reject him. If I lost, well, then it didn’t matter, did it?
I met her with my own smirk. This was supposed to be a simple challenge, but I could see the desire for my death in her eyes.
She noticed me watching him and, with a snarl, charged towards me.
