Kira POV
"Hello, little thief. We finally meet."
The words hit me like ice water. I tried to sit up, but my head spun and pain shot through my ribs. Blood was still dripping from where his men had hurt me, but that wasn't why I felt sick.
It was him. The monster from my dreams was my mate.
Alpha Damon Steele. The Iron Alpha. The man who'd been hunting me for six months.
"You," I whispered, my voice shaking. "You're the one who killed Marcus and Sarah."
His cold blue eyes didn't even blink. "They were stealing from my area. I was protecting my pack." Protecting his pack. That's what he called murder.
Six months ago, I'd been living happily with a group of rogues in the forest. We weren't hurting anyone. We just wanted to be left alone. But Damon's troops found us anyway. They said we were "trespassing" and "stealing resources."
Marcus had tried to explain that we were just collecting berries and catching fish. Sarah had begged them to let us leave quietly.
Damon had given one order: "Kill them all."
I'd only escaped because I'd been out getting water when the attack happened. When I came back, everyone I cared about was dead. Torn apart like they were animals instead of people.
All because of him.
And now the Moon Goddess thought we should be mates?
"This has to be a mistake," I said, trying to scoot away from him. "The mark is wrong. It has to be."
He laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Trust me, little thief, I want this even less than you do."
The mate bond was already trying to work its magic. Even though I hated him, part of me wanted to move closer instead of farther away. Part of me noticed how strong he looked, how his presence made my wolf feel safe.
That part of me was stupid and needed to shut up.
"I have a name," I said through hard teeth.
"Do you? Because for the past six months, all I've heard about is a nameless rogue who frees my prisoners and takes my supplies. A ghost who disappears every time my warriors get close."
He was right. I had been stealing from his pack. But not for fun or money. I stole medical supplies for sick rogues who couldn't pay doctors. I freed prisoners who were being beaten for "crimes" like being hungry or lost.
I stole from him because he was cruel and his pack was cruel, and someone had to help the people he hurt.
"Your prisoners were innocent," I said.
"My prisoners were trespassers and crooks. Just like you."
"Your area covers half the state! Where are rogues supposed to go?"
"Not my problem."
I wanted to punch him in his beautiful, heartless face. But I was too weak, and he was too strong, and hitting your mate was probably not a good way to start things off.
Even if he deserved it.
"What happens now?" I asked.
He studied me like I was a bug he'd found on his shoe. "Now you come with me. Pack law says I can't reject a mate bond without cause."
"What about the cause that we hate each other?"
"Hate isn't legally good enough." His smile was sharp as a knife. "But don't worry. I'm very creative. I'll find a reason soon enough."
My heart sank. He was going to take me to his pack and look for reasons to get rid of me. Maybe he'd say I was dangerous, or mentally sick, or not pure enough to be Luna.
Or maybe he'd just have an accident happen to me.
"I won't go," I said.
"You don't have a choice."
"I can run."
"And I can catch you. We both know how that story ends. "
He was right again. I'd been running from his hunters for months, and they'd finally trapped me. I was tired and hurt and alone. Even if I got away today, he'd just keep chasing me until I couldn't run anymore.
"Why?" I asked. "Why do you hate rogues so much? We're not all bad."
For just a second, something flickered in his eyes. Something that looked almost like pain. But then his face went cold again.
"Because rogues killed someone I loved," he said softly. "And I don't forget. Ever."
The way he said it made my chest hurt. Not just because of the mate bond, but because I understood that kind of pain. I'd lost people too.
But that didn't give him the right to hurt innocent dogs.
"I'm sorry someone you loved got killed," I said. "But that doesn't make it okay to murder families who are just trying to survive."
"It does to me."
A loud crash echoed through the building. We both turned to see his soldiers dragging out more rogues—wolves I'd been sleeping next to just an hour ago. Some of them were crying. All of them looked frightened.
"What are you doing to them?" I asked.
"Taking them back to face justice for their crimes."
"What crimes? Being homeless?"
"Trespassing. Theft. Existing without pack permission."
I watched him give orders to separate the men from the women and children. Watched him point out which ones looked best and which ones looked weakest. Watched him divide up people like they were objects instead of wolves with feelings and families and goals.
This was the man the Moon Goddess wanted me to love.
This monster who saw rogues as less than dirt.
But as I looked at him, the mate mark on my chest started burning hotter. The bond was getting stronger every second, trying to make me see him as perfect and wonderful and worthy of loyalty.
I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let wonderful feelings make me forget what he'd done.
I had to stay strong. I had to remember that he was my enemy, no matter what my heart wanted to feel.
"Alpha," one of his troops called out. "We found something you need to see."
The warrior was holding a small notebook—my journal, where I kept information about pack movements and guard schedules. Information I'd used to free prisoners and escape capture.
Damon took the book and flipped through it. With each page, his face got darker and more dangerous.
"Well, well," he said eventually. "It looks like my little mate is even more troublesome than I thought."
"What do you mean?"
He held up a page covered with my handwriting. "According to this, you haven't just been stealing goods and freeing prisoners. You've been planning something much bigger."
My blood turned to ice. That page was from weeks ago, when I'd been angry and stupid and desperate. I'd written down a crazy idea and then forgotten all about it.
But now he was reading it out loud.
"Plans to enter the Steele Pack main house. Maps of guard movements. Security flaws. Meeting times with other rebel groups."
He looked at me with eyes like winter storms.
"You weren't just stealing from me, little thief. You were going to destroy my entire pack."