CHAPTER ONE
The wine glass shattered against my kitchen floor three seconds before they broke down my door.
I stared at the red liquid spreading across the tiles, my wolf senses screaming danger before my human brain caught up. The bottle of cheap merlot I'd bought to celebrate surviving another Christmas alone suddenly seemed like a stupid idea.
The door exploded inward. Wood splintered. The frame cracked like bones breaking. I dove behind the counter as three massive shapes filled my doorway.
"Mira Castellanos." The voice was deep, familiar in the worst way. "Don't make this difficult."
Pike Dawson. Head enforcer of the Wolfram pack. The pack I'd left five years ago and sworn I'd never return to.
My apartment was small, barely four hundred square feet of freedom I'd scraped together working double shifts at the veterinary clinic. There was nowhere to run. The window led to a three-story drop. My fire escape had been broken for months.
I pressed my back against the cabinet, heart hammering. My wolf clawed at my insides, wanting to surface, wanting to fight. I shoved her down hard. She was the reason I'd survived the last three years, but she was also the reason I could never go back.
"We can do this easy or hard." Pike's boots crunched over broken wood. "Alpha's orders. You're coming home."
Home. The word twisted in my chest like a blade.
I hadn't had a home since Kade Wolfram stood in front of the entire pack and told me I wasn't strong enough to be his Luna. Since he'd looked at me with those cold gray eyes and said weak Omegas had no place at his side. Since he'd rejected our mate bond and walked away like I was nothing.
"I don't have a home," I said. My voice came out steadier than I felt. "And I'm not going anywhere with you."
Silence. Then footsteps, slow and deliberate, coming around the counter.
I bolted. My wolf gave me speed, and I made it to the door before Pike's hand locked around my arm. His grip was iron. I twisted, using his momentum against him, and drove my knee toward his ribs. He blocked it, but the surprise loosened his hold. I wrenched free and ran.
The hallway was dark. Christmas lights blinked from my neighbor's door. I could hear Mrs. Chen's television playing that same holiday movie she watched every year. Normal people doing normal things while my life shattered.
I made it four steps before someone grabbed me from behind.
This one was younger, faster. New pack member. He wrapped both arms around me, lifting me off my feet.
"Stop fighting." His growl was hot against my ear. "We don't want to hurt you."
My wolf surged. I felt her pushing at my skin, felt the familiar burn that meant my eyes were starting to change. I couldn't let her out. Not here. Not where they could see what I'd become.
I forced her down. It felt like swallowing glass.
"Let me go." My voice cracked. "Please. I've built a life here. I don't want to go back."
"Not your choice." Pike appeared in front of me. We'd been friends once, before everything fell apart. Before Kade destroyed me. "Alpha needs you."
"He rejected me." The words tasted like ash. "He made it very clear he didn't want me."
"Things have changed."
"I haven't."
Pike's jaw tightened. For a second, I thought I saw sympathy in his eyes. Then it was gone, buried under duty and loyalty.
"You have five minutes to pack," Pike said to the younger wolf holding me. "We leave before dawn."
"I'm not packing." My chest was tight. "You can't just take me. I have rights. Human laws."
"You're not human." Pike moved past me toward my bedroom. "And pack law supersedes everything else. You know that."
I did know that. It was one of the first things we learned as children. Pack law was absolute. If your Alpha commanded something, you obeyed or faced exile.
But I was already exiled. I'd exiled myself.
"Why?" The word came out broken. "Why does he want me back? He made it very clear I wasn't good enough."
Pike stopped in my bedroom doorway. When he looked back, something dark flickered across his face.
"The old Alpha is dying," he said quietly. "Kade has to take a mate by Christmas Day, or the pack goes to his brother."
My stomach dropped. "That's tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"And he chose me?" I couldn't keep the bitterness out. "The weak little Omega he rejected? What happened to all those strong she-wolves who were so much better?"
Pike didn't answer. He disappeared into my bedroom. I heard drawers opening, clothes being shoved into something.
The young enforcer's grip shifted. I felt something cold press against my neck. A syringe.
"Don't." I tried to pull away. "Please don't."
"Just something to keep you calm. We've got a long drive."
The needle pierced my skin. Liquid fire spread through my veins. My wolf howled in protest. I tried to fight it, tried to stay conscious, but whatever they'd given me was strong. Made for werewolves. Made to knock us out fast.
My vision blurred. Pike came back out carrying a duffel bag I recognized from the top of my closet. How long had they been watching me? How long had they known where I lived, what I did, how I'd built this small, quiet life?
"I'm sorry," Pike said. He actually sounded like he meant it. "But you're pack. You've always been pack. And the Alpha has called you home."
My legs gave out. The enforcer caught me easily, lifting me into his arms.
The last thing I saw before the darkness took me was my apartment door hanging broken on its hinges, and the wine still spreading across my kitchen floor.
