The Forbidden One

  Chapter One Off-limits. I was off-limits.  I turned to see the three guys I'd known all my life turn their backs on me with their silence and downcast eyes. They couldn't even look at me.  Cowards.  I looked at Maude's eyes, gray and rimmed with grief for me.  "I will leave," I tell her and the room is still. This was not the evening I expected to have. I had been called to a dinner with the pack and found the Alpha, Sig, had come into Colorado to check our status. He was pleased until he saw me. "You do not have to leave," he assured in a voice so calm and low it was barely audible.  "I have no future here," I gesture to the small pack gathered around us. They came to see the great Sig, the Alpha who would assign a Beta but instead he was telling us I didn't belong here with them. I wasn't one of them. I could barely breathe. "You have family," he rose and acknowledged Maude, my grandmother, and caretaker since my parents were murdered. "But you aren't of our line so you will not find a mate here." Maybe I didn't need a mate. Maybe I didn't want a mate. Why didn't anyone ever think of that? "I'm not seeking a mate." I raise up my chin at him.  Sig doesn't say anything at first. Always calm unless needing to act, he is well into his forties and slim. His eyes crest the moon in the firelight and his smile flashes lighting. The room itself tenses under my words, but he isn't bothered.  "I'm sorry Reilly," he said. "I know this is a surprise to you." "This doesn't make sense," Maude rubbed my arm and stared at Sig. "She's, my granddaughter. How is she not one of us?" "I don't know," Sig looked at me, and I felt the intensity of his silver eyes as they saw my disconnect to the pack. "We will talk about this more later." That was it. Everyone breathed out and sat quietly at the table. Utensils softly brushed across porcelain and the fire licked at the log, cracking it under its sharp bite. I stood alone. Maude pulled on my arm gently for me to sit down. Her eyes pleading. I didn't want to disappoint her, but I didn't belong. Sig said I was not really part of this pack and was off-limits. I didn't have a status. I was useless. I would be treated as such.  I looked across the table and Sabe dared to lock eyes with me. She creased a brow mirroring my frustration and looked to Sig. He was eating slowly and ignoring me.  It would be dealt with later.  Mark, Tobias, and Cress, all dug into their steak more intently than necessary. I'd spent all my childhood running around with them, teasing and being teased by - to the point of tears at times and now they wouldn't look at me. Fine. I stepped back, careful not to trip on my chair and I turned my back to the room. I could hear the scuffle of a guard next to Sig. Sig's words quieted the room. "Let her go." I held it together until I was outside. Only the woods and the moon witnessing my break down. Tears were fire kisses on my skin and my hurt closed my throat as I gasped to breathe. I don't belong here. What did it mean? My parents? My future? I went to the quiet clearing I had found refuge in most of my teen life. I collapsed in the clearing and the ground absorbed my torment. I pushed my anger and hurt out, feeling the drain flow from my limbs. All was quiet now. I laid in silence and inhaled the wet woods and crisp air as winter was starting to roll in.   I tensed. I was being watched now. They were quiet but the ground my ear was pressed upon echoed their steps. Human.   I sat up and watched the direction they were coming from. My night eyes illumined the woods, and I could see the deer in the distance, a fox sniffing around a tree, and even the owl as it ate its prey just on the edge of the forest. I couldn't see the human. . . or wolf.  I was on my feet, heart racing. A hunter?  Hunters of neighboring packs seeking to challenge Alpha's to the dearth to claim their members weren't common, but they were the only ones I was aware of that could sneak up on a wolf. I licked my lips and frowned at the dark. "I know you're out there. I can hear you." A tall dark-haired male stepped from the trees, practically peeling himself from the camouflage of the forest, trees unwound around him and the brush pulled away. "Who are you?" I asked.  "I think I would rather know who you are?" He started walking around me, tall and angular form. I could feel intensity move from him and slide across my skin.  "I'm with the Sig's Pack," I tell him. I was with Sig's pack. Sig was well-known enough to send up a warning flag for any outsider. "How can that be?" he asked, and his voice came from behind me, tracing my ear as his whisper chilled my neck. I turned around, claws out, and swiped at the air. Nothing. "You can transform parts of yourself," he said from above me. I looked around again, fear replaced with annoyance. I wasn't a toy. "Show yourself!" I called out. "I'm not talking to a ghost." "Do you know who you are talking to?"  "A rude asshole," I retort.  The laughter surprised me. It floated down and circled me. I had no idea where he was.  "I'm Maddox," he said.  "Are you a hunter?" I asked.  "Yes, but what am I hunting?" Maddox asked.  "Sig's pack is strong. He'll tear you apart." I tell him still wishing he'd come out of hiding. I wanted to see him materialize again. I hadn't seen a wolf do that. I had never met a hunter. If I lived, I needed to tell the others what I witnessed. "Sig's pack isn't what called me here."  "Who called you here?"  "The scent, the promise of my mate."