Kira POV
The scream that woke me wasn't mine.
I shot up from the cold concrete floor, my heart pounding like a drum. Around me, twenty other homeless wolves scrambled awake in the abandoned building. Someone was screaming outside—high and frantic, like an animal caught in a trap.
"Shut up and go back to sleep," growled Marcus, the meanest of our group. But his bright eyes looked scared too.
I pressed my face against the broken window. In the starlight, I could see her—a girl about my age, running through the empty parking lot. Three big men chased her, and they weren't human. Even from here, I could smell their wolf scent.
Pack wolves. Hunting.
My stomach dropped. Today was my eighteenth birthday, which meant today I might finally get my mate mark. Pack wolves always came for rogues when new mates emerged. It was like they could smell us from miles away.
"Nobody move," whispered Sarah, our group's watch. "If we stay quiet, maybe they'll just take her and leave."
But I couldn't keep quiet. Not when I watched the girl trip and fall, her scream cutting through the night again. The guys were almost on her.
"We have to help," I said.
"Are you crazy?" Marcus snarled. "She's not our problem."
But she was my trouble. Because ten years ago, I couldn't save my sister Maya when she screamed just like that. Ten years ago, I watched my little sister disappear under the dark water while I stood on the shore like a coward.
"Why did she die but not you?"
My father's voice still rang in my head every single day. Those words had burned worse than when he put the hot iron against my neck, destroying my pack tattoo forever. Those words had chased me away from everything I'd ever known.
I touched the twisted scar on my throat. It hurt every time I swallowed, telling me that I wasn't an Alpha's daughter anymore. Just another nameless thief.
But I couldn't watch another girl die because I was too scared to move.
I grabbed the old pipe I used as a weapon and headed for the door.
"Don't be stupid, Kira," Sarah hissed. "You'll get us all killed."
Maybe. But I was already dead inside anyway.
I slipped out of the warehouse and ran toward the shouting. My bare feet slapped against cold pavement as I raced across the parking lot. The girl had stopped screaming, which was worse somehow.
When I reached the corner of the building, I peeked around. The three pack wolves had surrounded her. She was on the ground, blood on her face, not moving.
"Fresh mate mark," one of them said, taking the girl's wrist. "She'll do nicely."
Rage burst in my chest. These weren't hunters looking for dangerous rogues. They were kidnappers taking girls who'd just gotten their mate marks. Girls like me.
I should have been smarter. I should have run back to warn the others. Instead, I charged forward with my pipe raised high and brought it down on the nearest wolf's head as hard as I could.
He dropped like a rock.
"What the—" The second wolf spun around, but I was already swinging again. The pipe connected with his knee, and he howled in pain.
"Get her!" shouted the third one.
But I was fast. Faster than any of them expected from a skinny rogue girl. I dodged his grab and kicked him right between the legs. He doubled over, gasping.
"Run!" I yelled at the hurt girl. "Get out of here!"
She scrambled to her feet and disappeared into the darkness. Good.
Now I just had to get away before these idiots recovered.
I turned to run, but something slammed into my back. I hit the ground hard, tasting blood. Strong hands flipped me over, and suddenly I was looking up at the wolf I'd hit with the pipe. Blood streamed down his face, and his eyes glowed with anger.
"Stupid little rogue," he snarled. "You're going to pay for that."
His claws expanded, sharp as knives. I tried to roll away, but the other two wolves grabbed my arms and held me down.
This was it. This was how I died—on my eighteenth birthday, in a dirty parking lot, trying to save a stranger just like I'd failed to save Maya.
At least my father would finally be happy. He'd wanted me dead for ten years anyway.
The wolf raised his claws to slash my throat. I closed my eyes and waited.
Then fire burst across my chest.
Not claws—something else. Something that felt like fire and honey at the same time. I screamed, but not from pain. The feeling was too big, too impossible.
When I opened my eyes, all three wolves had stopped moving. They were looking at my chest with shock and fear.
"No way," one whispered.
I looked down and nearly fainted. There on my skin, shining silver in the moonlight, was a mate mark. But not just any mate mark—this one was huge and complex, covering my entire upper chest. Roses and thorns twisted together in a pattern so beautiful it took my breath away.
"That's not possible," the wolf with the bleeding head said. "Rogues don't get marks like that. Only—"
He never finished his sentence. A howl echoed across the parking lot, so strong it made the ground shake. Then another howl answered it, and another.
A whole pack was coming.
The three wolves who'd been about to kill me suddenly looked frightened. They dropped my arms and backed away.
"We need to go," one said. "Now."
"But the mark—" "I said NOW!"
They ran, fading into the night like shadows.
I lay on the cold sidewalk, staring at the impossible mark on my chest. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst. This couldn't be real. Rogues didn't get mate marks like this. Rogues barely got mate marks at all.
The howling was getting louder. A lot closer.
I struggled to my feet, my legs shaking like leaves. Whatever pack was coming, they'd be here in minutes. And when they saw my mark... I didn't know what would happen. But something deep in my bones told me that my life as an unnamed rogue was over forever.
The question was: would what came next be better or worse?
Heavy paws thundered against sidewalk in the distance. Getting closer every second.
I had to run. But where could I go that they wouldn't find me?
As if in answer to my question, a voice cut through the night air like a blade: "Find the girl with the Rose Mark. Bring her to me alive."
My blood turned to ice.
They weren't just coming for any rogue.
They were coming especially for me.