She was sent as tribute to the ruthless Alpha King to pay for her father’s sins.
He took her to shatter her completely.
Instead she became the only soul who could save him and the only one he could never let go.
The iron gates of Blackwood Keep groaned open the sound echoing like a death knell across the frozen courtyard.
Hanna Hastings sat straight-backed on the wooden cart the biting winter wind slicing through her thin wool cloak.
She did not shiver.
She refused to give them the satisfaction.
Standing on the high stone steps was Alaric Sterling the Alpha King of the northern reaches.
He was a mountain of a man clad in dark furs and boiled leather his broad shoulders blocking out the meager sunlight.
A jagged faded scar cut across his jawline a permanent reminder of the rebellion led by Hanna’s father Lord William Hastings seven years ago.
Is this the tribute?
Alaric’s voice was a low guttural rumble that vibrated against the ancient stones of the keep.
His eyes a terrifying shade of molten amber locked onto Hanna.
There was no warmth in them only the cold calculating stare of an apex predator assessing its prey.
Lord William trembling and stripped of his former glory bowed so low his forehead nearly scraped the frost-covered cobblestones.
Yes your grace.
My eldest daughter Hanna.
As agreed.
Her life for the preservation of my house.
Hanna kept her chin high though her stomach twisted in a violent knot.
She was not here to be a Luna.
She was not here to be a bride.
She was a hostage a vessel for the Alpha King’s lingering wrath.
Alaric stepped down the stairs the heavy crunch of his boots sounding loud in the dead silence of the courtyard.
He stopped mere inches from her.
The scent of him pine needles wood smoke and the sharp metallic tang of fresh blood was overwhelming making the wolf deep inside her chest whimper in submission.
She is entirely too fragile Alaric sneered reaching out to grip her chin with rough calloused fingers.
He tilted her face side to side inspecting her like a mare at an auction.
But she will serve her purpose.
Take Lord William away.
If he crosses the border into my lands again mount his head on a pike.
That night Hanna was thrown into a sprawling drafty chamber in the highest tower of the keep.
There were no maids to brush her hair no warm fires lit in the hearth only a basin of freezing water and a massive heavy oak bed draped in dark furs.
When the heavy iron wrought door finally clicked open hours past midnight Hanna was standing by the narrow window looking out at the endless expanse of the snow-draped foreSt. Alaric stepped into the room shedding his heavy mantle.
In the dim light of the single candle his sheer size was suffocating.
He didn’t offer pleasantries.
He didn’t speak of the mating bond though the suffocating tension in the room screamed of it.
The Hastings bloodline was poison to him and he had sworn to break every remnant of it.
Take off your dress he commanded his tone leaving absolutely no room for defiance.
Hanna’s hands shook but she forced herself to obey letting the coarse fabric fall to the stone floor.
She stepped toward the bed her bare feet numb against the freezing stone.
That first night was not an act of passion.
It was a brutal display of conqueSt. Alaric was a storm of dominance pinning her down his kisses bruising and his grip unyielding.
He sought to strip away her pride to make her beg to force her to acknowledge that she belonged entirely to the man her father had tried to destroy.
Every touch was a calculated strike against her dignity.
He pushed her to the very edge of endurance his golden eyes flashing in the darkness as he searched her face for a tear a plea a surrender.
But Hanna bit her lip until it bled tasting copper in her mouth.
She arched into his punishing grip refusing to turn her face away refusing to let him see the terror that threatened to consume her.
When he finally rolled off her chest heaving the silence between them was heavier than lead.
You will break Hanna Alaric whispered to the shadows not bothering to pull the furs over her shivering form as he stood and dressed.
It is only a matter of time.
He left her alone in the agonizing cold.
This became their ritual.
Every night the door would open.
Every night the Alpha King would arrive with the winter chill clinging to his clothes demanding her absolute submission.
He was ruthless extracting his revenge through her exhaustion pushing her body to its absolute limits.
By day she was ignored by the pack left to wander the heavily guarded eastern wing like a ghoSt. Lady Catherine an elderly omega who brought Hanna her meager meals was the only one who looked at her with pity.
But even she dared not speak to the king’s prisoner.
For weeks Alaric broke her down physically.
Hanna lost weight dark circles bruising the skin under her eyes.
Yet the more he tried to shatter her spirit the more Alaric found himself frustrated by the hollow defiant stare she gave him every morning when he left her bed.
He was breaking her body but the core of her the fiercely proud Hastings spirit remained frustratingly intact.
The turning point came not with a roar but with a whisper.
Winter deepened burying Blackwood Keep beneath feet of impenetrable snow.
Hanna weakened by the relentless nights and the freezing drafts of her tower fell violently ill.
It started as a tremor in her hands and quickly spiraled into a raging fever.
It was a wolf fever a dangerous condition triggered when a wolf spirit is denied the natural progression of a true mate bond.
Despite Alaric’s denial their wolves recognized each other and the rejection was literally burning Hanna alive from the inside out.
That afternoon heavily cloaked and hiding her tremors Hanna had slipped down to the lower kitchens to fetch boiling water desperate for any warmth.
While hidden in the alcove behind the massive stone ovens she overheard a hushed hurried conversation.
The southern passes are blocked but Lord Henry’s mercenaries are already inside the outer wall a gruff voice muttered.
Hanna recognized it immediately.
Arthur the captain of the king’s guard.
And the Alpha?
Another voice asked laced with nervousness.
He dines in the great hall tonight.
We slip the wolfsbane into his goblet.
By the time he realizes he’s been poisoned his beast will be paralyzed.
Henry will take the throne and the Hastings girl will be sold to the fighting pits.
Hanna pressed her hand over her mouth her fever-bright eyes wide with terror.
Betrayal.
Mutiny from within his own trusted circle.
She managed to stagger back up the winding stairs to her tower her vision swimming her lungs burning with every breath.
She collapsed onto the furs of her bed her body convulsing.
She should let him die.
The thought echoed in her delirious mind.
If Alaric dies the debt is canceled.
I could escape during the chaos.
He has been nothing but a monster to me.
She remembered the bruises on her wrists the cold empty nights the sheer humiliation of her captivity.
Yet when the heavy oak door creaked open hours later Hanna’s heart hammered against her ribs.
Alaric stepped in his expression thunderous.
He had come for his nightly torment.
But as he approached the bed his wolf instantly surged to the surface sensing the distress.
What is this?
Alaric demanded his voice cracking slightly as he saw her pale sweat-drenched face.
He reached out and for the first time his touch was not a weapon.
His large hand brushed her forehead and he cursed violently at the blistering heat radiating from her skin.
Water Hanna gasped her voice barely a rasp.
Alaric didn’t shout for guards.
He didn’t order a servant.
The Alpha King himself rushed to the basin soaking a cloth and returning to her side.
He pressed the cold compress to her neck his amber eyes wide with a sudden unexplainable panic.
His inner beast was howling thrashing violently against the mental cages he had built.
Mate hurt dying.
Stay awake Hanna.
He ordered but the brutal edge of his voice was gone replaced by a desperate rough plea.
He climbed into the bed fully clothed pulling her shivering fragile body against his massive chest trying to use his own elevated Alpha body heat to regulate hers.
Hanna weakly clutched the front of his leather tunic.
The Great Hall the wine Alaric.
She breathed her eyes rolling back.
Hush I will fetch the healer.
He said shifting his weight to rise.
No.
She gripped his tunic with a sudden desperate strength that shocked them both.
Don’t.
Don’t drink the wine tonight.
Arthur Lord Henry wolfsbane they are coming for you.
Alaric froze.
The warmth of the room seemed to vanish in an instant replaced by a deadly terrifying stillness.
He looked down at the woman in his arms the daughter of his greatest enemy the woman he had subjected to relentless cruelty trying to break her into duSt. She held his life in her hands.
She could have stayed silent.
She could have let the poison take him securing her own freedom.
Instead she used her last ounce of strength to save him.
Hanna lost consciousness then going entirely limp against his cheSt.
When she woke the room was bathed in the soft golden light of dawn.
The freezing air of the tower was gone.
A massive fire roared in the hearth crackling merrily.
She was buried under layers of thick luxurious pelts and the scent of roasted meats and herbs filled the room.
Sitting in a heavy wooden chair beside the bed was Alaric.
His clothes were soaked in blood not his own.
His knuckles were bruised and his golden eyes were fixed on her with an intensity that made Hanna’s breath hitch.
The mutiny had been dealt with.
You are awake.
He murmured his voice a low rough velvet.
Arthur.
Hanna rasped her throat dry.
Dead.
Alaric stated flatly.
Henry is in the dungeons.
You saved my life.
Hanna looked away staring at the stone wall.
I didn’t do it for you.
I just I couldn’t let it happen.
Alaric stood slowly approaching the bed.
The dangerous predator was still there but the dynamic in the room had shifted on its axis.
He sat on the edge of the mattress reaching out.
Hanna instinctively flinched expecting the harsh grip she was accustomed to.
Instead Alaric’s hand gently cupped her cheek.
His thumb traced her jawline with a terrifying reverent tenderness.
I tried to break you.
He whispered his voice thick with a dark heavy emotion that bordered on obsession.
I tried to punish your father by destroying his blood but you are not your father Hanna.
He leaned down his face inches from hers his scent of cedar and smoke enveloping her completely.
You survived me.
He breathed his golden eyes flashing with a possessive fire that was far more dangerous than his previous cruelty.
And now now I find that I cannot breathe if you are not in my line of sight.
The punishment was over but as Alaric’s lips claimed hers this time not with violence but with a desperate consuming hunger Hanna realized a terrifying truth.
The Alpha King’s hatred had been a formidable thing but his obsession was going to be an entirely different kind of cage.
He was no longer trying to break her.
He was addicted to her.
And an addicted Alpha would burn the entire world to ash to keep what was his.
The cold drafty tower became a memory replaced by the suffocating opulence of the King’s own chambers.
Hanna was moved into the heart of Blackwood Keep surrounded by heavy velvet draperies roaring hearths and the constant intoxicating scent of cedar and wood smoke that belonged to Alaric.
He had stopped trying to break her.
Now his soul’s terrifying objective was to possess her completely.
He was a shadow that refused to leave her side.
When he held court Hanna was forced to sit on a smaller intricately carved chair at his right hand.
If a nobleman looked at her for a second too long Alaric’s low feral growl would echo through the Great Hall a blatant threat of violence.
He dismissed the servants who usually tended to the royal chambers insisting on brushing Hanna’s long dark hair himself.
His massive scarred hands moving with a reverent trembling gentleness that frightened her far more than his previous cruelty ever had.
But a gilded cage was still a cage.
The mate bond previously suffocated by Alaric’s sheer willpower and hatred was now fully unspooled binding them together with an invisible electric cord.
Hanna felt his emotions his possessive rage his deep-seated paranoia and an all-consuming desperate need for her affection.
It confused her mind.
Her body craved his touch her inner wolf purring whenever he entered the room.
But her human mind remembered the bruises and the freezing nights.
The precarious peace shattered with the arrival of the southern emissaries three weeks before the winter solstice.
The heavy courtyard gates swung open to admit a caravan flying the indigo banners of House Montgomery.
Leading the procession was Lord Silas Montgomery a cunning silver-haired Alpha who controlled the wealthy merchant routes of the southern valleys.
Riding beside him on a pristine white mare was his daughter Lady Beatrice.
Tall fiercely beautiful and bred for power.
Beatrice had been widely considered the unwritten betrothed of the Alpha King until Hanna Hastings had arrived.
From the window of the royal chambers Hanna watched them dismount.
Alaric stood behind her his chest pressed flush against her back his chin resting heavily on the crown of her head.
I do not like the Montgomerys.
Alaric murmured his arms wrapping around her waist like bands of steel.
Silas is a snake who hides behind his wealth.
Then why allow them inside your walls?
Hanna asked softly leaning back into his warmth despite her own reservations.
Keep your friends close and those who wish to slit your throat closer.
He replied pressing a possessive kiss to her neck.
They are here to test my strength after the rumors of Lord Henry’s mutiny.
They will find nothing but a united front.
You are my Luna Hanna.
Do not let Beatrice’s venom touch you.
But avoiding Beatrice proved impossible.
Two days later while Alaric was dealing with a border dispute in the war room Hanna sought refuge in the Keep’s vast dusty library.
She was reading a weathered tome on northern wolf lore when the heavy oak door clicked shut.
Beatrice stood there draped in luxurious emerald silk a predatory smile curving her lips.
So this is where the King keeps his little hostage hidden.
Beatrice purred trailing a gloved finger along the spine of a leather-bound book as she approached.
I must admit Hanna I expected someone with a bit more fire.
You look like a stiff breeze might shatter you.
Hanna closed her book slowly her spine stiffening.
She channeled the cold haughty demeanor her father had drilled into her since childhood.
If you have business with the King Lady Beatrice the war room is down the hall.
This library is for private study.
Beatrice laughed a harsh chiming sound.
Private study?
Oh you poor naive creature.
Do you truly believe Alaric looks at you and sees a mate?
He sees a trophy a way to publicly humiliate Lord William.
He broke you in and now he keeps you as a pet to show the realm that the great Hastings bloodline kneels at his feet.
You know nothing of what happens between us.
Hanna said though her heart hammered a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
Beatrice leaned closer her eyes flashing with malice.
I know far more than you little bird.
I know why your father truly sent you here.
Did you think Lord William gave up his favorite daughter just to buy peace?
Your father is a tactician.
He knew about Lord Henry’s mutiny.
In fact he helped fund it.
He sent you here as a distraction a Trojan horse.
If Alaric killed you the northern packs would view him as a tyrant who murders innocent women and they would turn on him.
If you survived well you were meant to leave the gates open for the real army.
The air in Hanna’s lungs vanished.
He expected me to die.
The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow.
Her father hadn’t sent her here to save their family.
He had sent her to be a martyr for his political ambitions.
And now Beatrice continued her smile widening into something truly monstrous my father Lord Silas is marching with Lord William.
The Montgomerys and the Hastings are united.
The northern reign ends tonight at the solstice feaSt.
Before Hanna could react Beatrice lunged.
A heavy iron candlestick swung through the air striking the side of Hanna’s head.
The world exploded into a shower of white sparks and Hanna crumpled to the stone floor the darkness rushing up to claim her.
Hanna awoke to the metallic tang of blood in her mouth and the distant chaotic roar of battle.
Her vision swam as she pushed herself up from the cold library floor.
The side of her face throbbed agonizingly warm blood trickling down her neck.
Panic seized her.
The solstice feaSt. Tonight.
She staggered to her feet her silken dress tearing as she caught it on the edge of a mahogany table.
She threw open the library doors and stumbled into the corridor.
The keep usually echoing with the boisterous laughter of the pack was filled with the horrific sounds of snarling wolves and the clash of steel.
Thick grayish-purple smoke drifted through the stone hallways carrying a scent that made Hanna’s stomach heave and her inner wolf whimper in agony.
Wolfsbane and silver ash.
Silas and William had poisoned the air itself to weaken Alaric’s forces.
Hanna forced her trembling legs to move navigating the winding corridors toward the great hall.
She didn’t care about her father’s betrayal anymore.
She didn’t care about the politics of the realm.
The mate bond roaring like an inferno in her chest pulled her relentlessly toward one single point in the universe Alaric.
He was in danger.
She burst through the heavy double doors of the great hall and the sight that greeted her made her blood run cold.
The grand feasting tables were overturned food and wine spilling across the flagstones like blood.
Bodies of northern guards and southern mercenaries littered the floor.
In the center of the room choked by the concentrated silver smoke billowing from the braziers fought Alaric.
He was in his half-shifted form a terrifying hybrid of man and beaSt. His claws dripped with crimson and his amber eyes glowed with murderous fury but he was surrounded.
A dozen heavily armored mercenaries circled him armed with silver-tipped spears.
Standing on the raised dais watching the slaughter with a look of supreme satisfaction were Lord Silas Montgomery and Hanna’s own father Lord William Hastings.
Yield Alaric!
Lord William shouted over the din his voice cracking with arrogant triumph.
Your pack is suppressed.
Your keep is mine.
Surrender the crown and I will make your death quick.
Alaric didn’t look at William.
As Hanna stepped into the hall his glowing golden eyes snapped to her.
He saw the blood covering the side of her face and a sound tore from his throat a roar so primal so devastatingly full of raw anguish that it shook the dust from the rafters.
The distraction cost him.
One of the mercenaries drove a silver-tipped spear right through the side of Alaric’s abdomen.
The alpha king fell to one knee coughing up dark blood the silver burning through his supernatural healing.
No!
Hanna screamed.
The sound of her own voice seemed to unlock something ancient and terrifying deep within her soul.
For months she had suppressed her inner wolf hiding it away to survive Alaric’s cruelty keeping herself small and human to avoid drawing the beast’s ire.
But seeing her mate bleeding on the floor brought low by the father who had sold her like cattle shattered the final mental barrier.
Hanna didn’t just shift she exploded.
The transformation was violent and instantaneous.
Where the fragile bruised human girl had stood a massive pure white timber wolf now crouched.
Her eyes did not glow with a submissive yellow but with the blinding piercing silver of a true luna.
She launched herself into the fray with the speed of a lightning strike.
The mercenaries caught entirely off guard by the sudden appearance of the white wolf had no time to raise their weapons.
Hanna tore through them a blur of white fur and snapping jaws.
She didn’t fight with the trained precision of a warrior.
She fought with the absolute unhinged savagery of a mate protecting her own.
She crushed the throat of the man who had speared Alaric tossing his body aside like a rag doll.
Alaric spurred by the magnificent terrifying sight of his mate fighting for him grabbed the shaft of the spear in his side.
With a guttural snarl he snapped the wood and ripped the silver blade out of his flesh.
The wound hissed and smoked but he surged to his feet throwing himself into the remaining mercenaries fighting back-to-back with the white wolf.
The tide turned in seconds.
Together the alpha and his true luna were an unstoppable bloody tempeSt. The mercenaries broke rank fleeing for the doors only to be cut down by Alaric’s arriving reinforcements who had finally cleared the smoke from the lower levels.
Realizing the battle was lost Lord Silas turned to flee but Alaric was faster.
The alpha king vaulted over an overturned table his claws extending and ripped Silas’s throat out before the southern lord could take three steps.
Only Lord William remained backing away toward the high-arched windows his face pale with absolute terror as the white wolf slowly stalked toward him.
Hanna shifted back to her human form standing naked and covered in the blood of her enemies amidst the ruin of the great hall.
Alaric immediately stepped behind her draping his heavy fur-lined cloak over her shoulders his massive hands resting possessively on her hips.
Hanna my daughter William stammered raising trembling hands.
I did what I had to do for our family for our legacy.
Hanna looked at the man who had raised her the man who had handed her over to a monster hoping the monster would kill her.
She felt no love no loyalty only the cold hard ice that she had learned from the king of the north.
You have no daughter here Lord William Hanna said her voice eerily calm echoing in the deadly silence of the hall.
She leaned back against Alaric’s solid chest feeling the heavy steady thumping of his heart.
You gave me to the monster of Blackwood Keep and you foolishly forgot that if you leave a girl in the dark long enough she learns to see with a monster’s eyes.
She didn’t look at Alaric.
She didn’t need to.
She simply whispered Kill him.
Alaric didn’t hesitate.
When it was over the great hall was dead silent save for the crackle of the hearth fires.
Alaric turned Hanna in his arMs. He was battered bleeding and surrounded by the corpses of his enemies but as he looked down at her his golden eyes held nothing but absolute terrifying devotion.
You are mine he rasped his thumb wiping a smear of blood from her cheek my queen my madness.
And you are mine Hanna replied gripping the collar of his ruined tunic pulling his lips down to hers.
It was a kiss sealed in blood and shadows.
He had broken her to pieces only to find that she was the one who held the power to put him back together.
They were beautifully violently ruined and they would rule the north forever.
