MATED TO NOTHING

CHAPTER 4:THE CASTING OUT

They did not let her leave quietly like she thought.

Ciara had assumed naively that that was how it was going to end,that the rejection would be the end of it. That Kael Draven would walk away to his empire of fear, and she would walk away to her mother's tent, and the world would continue spinning on its indifferent axis.

She had forgotten that wolves loved a spectacle.

"Stop her."

The voice came from somewhere in the crowd.A familiar female voice called out.Though Ciara couldn't place it,she kept walking. One foot in front of the other. The gray dress clung to her legs, damp with morning dew and something else,sweat maybe, or the strange black tinged fluid that had leaked from her pores during the night.

"Did you hear me? I said stop her."

Hands grabbed Ciara's arms. Not gently. Fingers dug into her biceps hard enough to bruise. She was turned around, shoved back toward the center of the circle, where a woman stood waiting.

The woman was tall,blonde and beautiful in the way wolves were beautiful.Sharp angles, hungry eyes, a mouth that smiled like a blade. She wore a dark green dress that matched her pack's colors, and on her chest, a pin that marked her as the daughter of an Alpha.

Mara's mother, Ciara realized. The Alpha of the Silvercrest pack.

She had never learned the woman's name. Had never needed to. In the hierarchy of wolves, names were for people who mattered. Ciara had never mattered.

"You're the one," the woman said. Not a question.

Ciara said nothing.

"The girl with no wolf. The healer's mistake." The woman circled her slowly, the way a predator circles wounded prey. "I heard the rumors, but I didn't believe them. I thought, surely, no one could be so empty."

The crowd laughed.

"Let me go," Ciara said. Her voice was steady. She was proud of that.

"Let you go?" The woman stopped in front of her. Tilted her head. "Why would I let you go? You're the most interesting thing that's happened at this gathering. An empty girl who somehow tricked the bond into choosing Kael Draven." Her smile widened. "Tell me how you did it. Did you use a spell? A potion? Some curse your mother brewed in her little hut?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Everyone does something."

"I didn't"

"Don't lie to me." The woman's hand shot out, grabbing Ciara's chin. Her nails were long and sharp. They pressed into Ciara's skin. "I can smell the magic on you. Old magic. The kind that gets people killed."

Ciara's heart slammed against her ribs. The pouch, she thought. The shredded pouch. The mark.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The woman's smile vanished. She released Ciara's chin and stepped back. Wiped her hand on her dress as if touching Ciara had soiled her.

"Search her," she said.

Two large male wolves stepped forward.They grabbed Ciara's arms again, held her still while a third one, a woman with quick, efficient hands patted her down.

They found nothing. Because the pouch was gone and the mark was under her dress and whatever magic was waking up inside her wasn't something you could hold in your hand.

But the woman with the quick hands paused at Ciara's collar and pulled the fabric aside.

The mark was visible now. Black against pale skin. Winding from her sternum to her collarbone, tendrils spreading like cracks in ice.

"What is that?" the woman asked.

Ciara didn't answer.

The blonde Alpha's daughter stepped closer. Looked at the mark. Her expression shifted from contempt to confusion to something else. Something that looked almost like fear.

"Get the Alpha," she said quietly. "Get Kael Draven."

They brought him back.

Of course they did. The crowd parted again, and Kael Draven walked through the gap, his silver eyes flat, his mouth a hard line. He looked like a man who had been summoned to deal with a problem he'd already solved.

"You called me back," he said to the blonde woman. "Why?"

"Look at her chest."

Kael's gaze flickered to Ciara. To the mark visible above her collar. To the black tendrils spreading across her skin.

For a moment something moved behind his eyes. Recognition and…Fear.

Then it was gone.

"It's a scar," he said.

"It's not a scar." The woman stepped closer to him. Lowered her voice, but not enough. Wolves had good hearing. "It's the prophecy mark. I've seen drawings in old texts. This is how they start."

"Prophecies are stories."

"This one isn't."

Kael looked at Ciara again. Longer this time. She held his gaze. Refused to look away. Refused to crumble. Refused to give him the satisfaction of her fear.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked the woman.

"I want you to finish what you started."

"I rejected her. The bond is broken."

"It's not broken." The woman pointed at Ciara's chest. "Look at it. It's still burning. Whatever she is, she's not done with you. And until she is, she's a danger to every pack here."

The crowd murmured,voices rising. Wolves who had been content to watch were now invested. Now afraid.

Good, Ciara thought wildly. Be afraid. I'm afraid too.

"She's right."

The voice came from the edge of the circle. Alpha Corin of Shadowfang. Her Alpha. The man who had ignored her for eighteen years.

He stepped forward. His face was pale. His hands were shaking.

"She's not one of us," Corin said. "She never was. Her mother came to us with a story of a mate who died, a pup who would be weak. We believed her. We took them in. We gave them shelter." He looked at Ciara.

"I didn't know," Ciara said.

"You knew something."

"I knew I was different. I don't know any other thing"

"Enough." Corin turned to Kael. "She's your bond and your responsibility. What do you want us to do with her?"

Kael was silent for a long moment.

The morning light had shifted. The shadows had shortened. Somewhere in the crowd, a baby started crying. No one comforted it.

"Cast her out," Kael said finally.

The words landed like stones.

"Cast her where?" someone asked.

"North. Into the unclaimed territories. Let the wild take her." Kael's voice was flat. Emotionless. "She has no pack. No territory. No protection. If she survives, she survives. If she doesn't…" He shrugged. "Then the problem solves itself."

Ciara's knees buckled. She caught herself.

"You can't do that," she said. "I haven't broken any laws. I haven't done anything"

"You exist," Kael said. "That's enough."

He turned away.

This time, he did not come back.

They gave her until noon.

Three hours. That was the grace period. Three hours to gather her things, say her goodbyes, walk out of the gathering grounds and into the forest.

After that, she was rogue. And rogues had no rights or protection. No promises of safe passage.

Anyone could kill her or take her. And no one would ask questions.

Ciara went in her mother's tent and packed a bag.

Not much. A change of clothes,a small knife, dull but yet better than nothing,a waterskin,a strip of dried meat that tasted like ash.

Lena watched her from the corner of the tent. Her bruised wrist was wrapped in fresh bandages. Her face was gray.

"You should come with me," Ciara said.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because if I go with you, they'll kill us both." Lena's voice was calm. The kind of calm that came after crying. "If I stay, I can send you supplies and Information."

"You'll be alone."

"I've been alone for eighteen years." Lena smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "I'll manage."

Ciara stopped packing. Turned to face her mother.

"Tell me the truth," she said. "All of it. About my father. About the mark. About what's happening to me."

Lena was quiet for a long moment. The tent was silent except for the distant noise of the gathering,wolves laughing,drinking and pretending that a girl wasn't being cast out because they were afraid of what she might become.

"Your father's name was Theron."

Ciara blinked. "That's Kael's Beta's name."

"It's a common name." Lena sat on the edge of the pallet. Her hands were folded in her lap. "He was not the same man. Your father was older. Much older. He came to Shadowfang when I was young,younger than you are now. He said he was a traveler. A trader. He said he was looking for something."

"What was he looking for?"

"Me." Lena's voice cracked. "He was looking for me. Because he'd dreamed of me. For years. Before I was born. Before my mother was born. His kind are the Fell, they dream things into existence."

Ciara sat down heavily on the other pallet. "The Fell. You mentioned them before."

"The Fell are what happens when wolves make bargains with the old things. The things that lived in this world before the moon, before the packs, before wolves learned to walk on two legs." Lena's voice dropped to a whisper. "They are not evil. Not exactly.And when they breed with wolves, the children are …"

"Me."

"Yes." Lena reached out. Took Ciara's hand. "You are the first in three generations. The first to survive birth. The first to carry the mark." She touched Ciara's chest, where the black tendrils pulsed beneath the gray dress. "The prophecy says that when the mark spreads to the heart, the hybrid awakens."

"When will that happen?"

Lena's eyes were wet. "Soon. Very soon."

Ciara pulled her hand away. Stood up. Picked up her bag.

"Thank you," she said. "For telling me."

"Ciara…"

"Thank you for finally telling me."

She walked to the tent flap. Paused with her hand on the canvas.

"I'm not going to die out there," she said without turning around. "I'm not going to let the wild take me. I'm not going to be the problem that solves itself."

"Then what are you going to be?"

Ciara looked back at her mother. At the gray hair,the tired eyes. The hands that had healed so many wolves and hidden so many secrets.

"I'm going to become what he fears," she said. "And then I'm going to make him watch."

She walked out of the tent.

She did not look back.