Chapter 1
Amara had always believed she was unremarkable. That is, until the night everything crumbled. The night the moon was high and full, the winds spoke her doom, and Damon, the Alpha, turned her down in front of the pack.
When he turned away from her, the ground under her feet shattered wide apart. There had been no forewarning or mild preparation. It was as if the cosmos had cooperated to make her anguish as intense and awful as possible. Her heart had been broken, the weight of betrayal settling deep into her chest as if she were suffocating from the world's brutality.
Amara's eyes, wide with amazement, followed Damon's departing form as he returned to the center of the Bloodstone Pack. She stood paralyzed, unable to process what had just occurred. The rejection and coldness in his speech continued to resonate in her ears. "You are not my mate."
These were the last words he'd said to her.
It did not make sense. A mate link couldn't simply be severed. The attraction between them had been unmistakable. The raw and intense bond was meant to tie them together forever. But Damon had dumped her like an unwanted item.
The pack's whispers filled the air, their voices full of bewilderment, judgment, and gossip. She could feel their eyes on her: cold, calculating, and condemning. She didn't care. She couldn't care. The world around her had disintegrated, and all she wanted was to go.
With a nervous breath, Amara turned and ran into the jungle. The woods enveloped her, their branches scratching at her flesh, as if they, too, wanted to keep her back. The night seemed colder and darker as she fled farther into the forest, away from the pack and everything. Her pulse was racing, the searing pain of rejection still fresh in her chest.
She did not glance back.
Years have passed since the terrible night. Amara, at twenty-four, had made a life for herself outside of the Bloodstone Pack's shadow. She lived in a tiny, peaceful town on the outskirts of a forest, far enough from pack territory that no one would bother to seek for her. The tranquility of her new existence was something she had longed for since that night of rejection, and its simplicity provided a weird relief.
Her mornings were spent in the dusty hallways of the local library, stacking books, rearranging shelves, and assisting the odd interested reader. It was a simple existence, but it was her own.
Despite the serenity she had discovered, something always remained. Damon's rejection haunted her, no matter how far she fled or how much time had gone. Her heart, however damaged, hurt at the remembrance of him. The tie, that horrible, unbreakable bond, still held her to him, even after he broke it in the most horrific manner conceivable.
She'd heard rumors, of course. She had heard the news in the murmurs of travelers passing through town. Damon had matured into a more formidable Alpha. His pack was prospering, with unrivaled power, but the Alpha's gaze was never as brilliant or fierce as it had been when it latched on her all those years ago.
But Amara had learned to disregard the murmurs. She was finished with that existence. I'm done with the blood, politics, and heartache. She had moved on, or so she believed.
The calm buzz of the library was interrupted as the door banged open. Amara looked up, surprised. A person stood in the doorway, casting a lengthy shadow on the wood floor. It was a towering, intimidating guy with eyes that blazed with a passion she hadn't felt in years. Her breath caught, and her heart skipped a beat.
Damon.
His eyes met hers, and everything stopped. The world around them faded away, leaving just the pull of the bond—stronger, sharper, and irrefutable. But it was no longer the naïve attraction of their first encounter. No, this was different. This was painful. This was broken.
"Amara," Damon's voice was low and raspy with passion, but there was no warmth there. The Alpha remained still, his eyes searching her face with need and remorse. "We need to talk."
The words struck Amara like a blow in the stomach. Talk? After everything, after years of quiet, after the shattered link, did he want to talk?
Her fingers curled on the table edge in front of her. She had spent countless hours thinking about what this moment may be like. The confrontation, the rage, the anguish. But now that it was here, she could only feel cold, hollow skepticism.
"You have no right to be here," she managed to murmur, her voice quivering despite her best attempts to sound confident.
Damon moved forward, the smell of the forest and the pack engulfing him like a suffocating cloud. It was the perfume she had once desired, but now it reminded her of all she had lost.
"I know," he said, his voice raspy. "I understand I don't have a right. "I... I had no choice."
The words struck her harder than she anticipated. Had he never had a choice?
She rose up and backed away from him as if attempting to escape the gravity of the situation. But the relationship drew her in, and the weight suffocated her. Her heart hurt and her pulse quickened. She hadn't known how much she'd buried behind layers of time and distance. The history she had buried was returning to haunt her, and she had nowhere to escape.
"Don't," she whispered, her voice becoming firmer, but the tremble in her palms betrayed her. "Do not tell me you are come to explain. You rejected me. You left me alone. There is nothing you can say to make it go away."
Damon's expression wavered. He resembled a guy bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. He moved closer, but she quickly lifted her hand, palm out, as if to keep him at a distance.
"I didn't leave you because I wanted to," he said, his voice heavy with passion. "I rejected you to keep you safe, Amara. I could not explain the curse from something more terrible than you could have imagined. You were not secure with me. You—"
"I don't care!" Amara interjected, her voice rising. "I do not care why. You broke me. You destroyed me in front of the others. And now you expect me to forgive you? To slip back into your arms as if nothing happened?"
Damon's face contorted in agony. "I did not intend to harm you. "I never intended to hurt you."
His words lingered in the air, heavy with the unspoken. But as he continued, everything became clearer. This was not about love. This was about something worse.
Before Amara could answer, there was an unexpected crash. A surge of wind rushed through the library, shattering the windows and shifting the environment in an instant.
A figure emerged at the doorway, shadowy, scary, and dark.
