The First She

002

MAEVE

They closed in until their shoulders almost touched and the circle left me nowhere to look but at their boots.

"Shift."

I held still. My claws dug into the dirt. Shifting meant bare skin and bare skin meant they'd know in one look. I'd take their teeth before I gave them that.

One of them chuckled. "For his size, he looks like a pup who never finished growing. Stubborn, too." He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. The alpha isn't so merciful."

"On your feet, follow us."

Arguing would only get me bitten. I was surrounded, outnumbered and tired down to my bones. So I lifted my head. If I had to go, I'd go on my own four legs, with my chin up.

Wolves in the pack lined the path as we walked. They stood in doorways and along fences and the growls started low and followed me like a draft. I growled back, louder. No one got to bully me. Not here and not anywhere.

Then a door came into view, and a scent slipped out of it. Smoke and tobacco. Something warm underneath that tugged at my ribs.

My wolf shot upright inside me.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

My breath snagged as my paws stopped for half a step before a shove from behind got me moving again. What did that even mean? I didn't have time for it.

The door swung open and they pushed me into an office. Men sat all along a long table, but my eyes slid past every one of them to the man at the head.

He was tall, even sitting. Broad shoulders, dark hair, a jaw cut like it had been carved out of stone. My thoughts went blank. It was unfair for someone to look like that and be the kind of man who made a room go silent.

His nose flared. He turned his head, looked at me, then at his men.

"What filth did you drag into my office?"

"We found him near the border, Alpha," one of them said. "Hunting. He's a rogue, so we brought him in, he could be dangerous."

I wanted to look away but I couldn't. Showing fear was the one thing I refused to do, but lord, this man was terrifying. My legs shook and I locked them so no one would see.

He stood. The chair scraped back, and I stepped away before I even decided to. He came around the table unhurried, and stopped close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him. His nose flared again, and he breathed me in.

My heart hammered. Could he tell I was a female? Please, no. Please.

"You dared cross my border," he said, his voice low, "and hunt on it?"

He turned to his men. "Take him to the cell, I'll deal with him later."

Relief hit so hard my knees nearly gave. He didn't know. He had no idea what I was. Even so, my wolf strained toward him with every step they forced me to take, whining and stubborn, until the door shut between us. Traitor.

"Move."

A hand shoved my shoulder, and I moved. Behind me, someone muttered, "For his size, he's got a lot of arrogance."

Oh, you haven't seen anything yet.

The cell was cold and smelled of old iron. The door clanged shut and the lock turned with a sound I felt in my teeth.

"Shift."

I stayed exactly as I was.

The men traded a look. "You'll shift when the alpha comes to you himself," one said. "Until then, pray you survive it."

Their footsteps faded down the hall. The silence that followed was worse.

Noah. He'd be pacing by now, his bad hand tucked against his chest, staring at the trees and watching for me. He was all I had left. Since our parents died in hiding, it had only been the two of us in the bush. He'd guarded me every day because females were extinct. A virus had swept through and taken most of them, or that was what everyone said. I wanted so badly to believe I wasn't the last but I hadn't seen another in so long that the hope had worn thin.

If these men found out what I was, I was finished. They could do things to me I didn't want to picture, and my mind pictured them anyway. A shiver ran down my spine and stayed there.

A small whine slipped out before I could stop it. I clamped my jaw shut and pressed myself against the bars.

Think, Maeve. There had to be a way out.

Then I heard it. Footsteps, far down the hall. Loud and angry, getting louder.

And they were coming straight for me.