The Alpha's Vengeance Bride

Chapter 2: The Edge of Extinction

The borders of the Silver Dawn were marked by an iron fence that hummed with a low-level silver frequency. It kept rogues out. People like me. As I stepped through the gate the hum died, replaced by a silence that felt like a weight.

I was officially a Rogue.

In the werewolf world a wolf without a pack is a wolf walking.. I wasn't even a wolf. I was a girl with a broken heart and a thin cloak stepping into a forest where the trees grew crooked and the moonlight couldn't reach the floor.

The Dead Lands.

The ground beneath my slippers turned from soft pine needles to jagged shale and grey mud. The air here smelled of sulfur, damp earth and something metallic like blood.

Thump-thump.

The ache in my chest flared. Even though Kael had snapped the bond I was starting to feel the " fever". It's when your body mourns a soul-piece that's been ripped away. My skin felt too tight. My blood felt like it was simmering.

"Don't cry, " I whispered. "If you cry you'll lose your breath. If you lose your breath you die."

I walked for hours guided by the distant angry red glow of the Obsidian Volcanoes to the north. That was the territory of the Cursed King, a place where the Silver Dawns elite warriors feared to tread.. I had nowhere else to go. To the east lay the cities where I'd be a freak; to the west the endless sea.

A twig snapped behind me.

I froze. My heart gave a lurch. I didn't have a wolf's hearing. The sound was loud enough for my human ears to catch. It wasn't the step of a fox or the heavy plod of a bear. It was rhythmic. Deliberate.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

I didn't run. Running triggers the instinct. Instead I slowly reached into my dress. Pulled out a small paring knife. It was pathetic. It was all I had.

"I know you're there " I called out my voice trembling.

A low guttural growl vibrated through the air. A wolf emerged from behind a thicket of thorns. It was massive, its fur matted with burrs and dried mud, its eyes glowing a yellow.

A Rogue. A true one. Lost to the madness of the moon.

The beast lunged.

I threw myself to the side, the shale tearing through my palms. I scrambled to my feet holding the knife out. The wolf skidded, turning with a snarl that sprayed smelling saliva across my face.

I closed my eyes bracing for the impact. I waited for the end of the girl who was never enough.

Instead a sound like a thunderclap shook the ground.

It wasn't a bark or a howl. It was a roar. A sound primal and laden with dominant Alpha energy that my knees buckled. The Rogue wolf didn't just stop; it whimpered, its yellow eyes wide with terror as it scrambled backward.

Then he stepped out of the shadows.

He wasn't in wolf form. He was larger than any man I'd ever seen. He wore leather boots and dark trousers, his chest bare. His skin was a map of scars but it was his face that stopped my breath.

A jagged scar ran from his temple down to his jaw slicing through his eyebrow. Yet it didn't mar his beauty. His eyes weren't yellow or blue. They were the color of obsidian. Dark, swirling and filled with a pain that made my heartbreak look small.

This was Alpha Silas. The Cursed King.

He didn't look at the Rogue. He looked at me. As his gaze locked onto mine the simmering fever in my blood cooled. The silence in my head, the one I'd lived with my life, was suddenly filled with a low hum that felt like a shield.

Silas took a step toward me. The Rogue wolf fled.

"You're bleeding, " Silas said. His voice was deep and vibrated in my bones.

"I... I can handle it " I stammered, clutching my knife tighter.

He glanced at the blade, a flicker of something crossing his dark eyes. "With that? You'd have luck tickling a rogue to death."

He stepped closer entering my space. The scent of him hit me like a wave. Sandalwood, rain and a dark musk. He stopped inches away, his frame casting a shadow that swallowed me whole.

"You have no wolf, " he noted. ". Yet... The noise in my head... It's gone."

He reached out his large hand hovering near my neck. I should have been terrified. I should have run.. For the first time, in my nineteen years the world felt steady.

"Who are you birds?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. ". Why do you smell like a broken bond and a forbidden throne?”