Kira POV
"Hello, sister. Did you miss me?"
Maya's voice hit me like a punch to the gut. She looked exactly like me—same face, same height, same dark hair—but everything else was wrong. Her eyes were silver instead of green, and when she smiled, it was like looking at a beautiful figure. Cold and beautiful and empty.
"Maya?" I whispered, taking a step toward her.
"Stay back," Damon ordered, moving between us. "Something's not right about her."
He was right. The power rolling off Maya made my skin crawl. It felt like standing next to a bomb that could go off at any second.
"Oh, how rude," Maya said, tilting her head like a curious bird. "No one taught you manners in the ten years I was gone, Alpha Steele?"
"Where have you been?" I asked. "Who took you? Are you hurt?"
Maya laughed, and the sound made every dog in the courtyard flinch. "Hurt? Oh, sweet sister, I haven't been hurt. I've been taught."
"Educated in what?" Elder Vera asked carefully.
"In what I really am." Maya's silver eyes locked onto mine. "Did they tell you about the prophecy yet, Kira? About how we're going to save the world together?"
"They said you were the destroyer and I was the healer."
"How boring that sounds." Maya walked closer, ignoring Damon's growls. "They didn't tell you the fun part, did they?"
"What fun part?"
"The part where we get to choose which world we save." Her smile got wider and more scary. "The people have had their turn running things. Now it's time for wolves to take over totally."
My blood went cold. "You want to start a war between humans and wolves?"
"Not start one, silly. Finish one. The humans have been poisoning our woods, destroying our hunting grounds, building towns where our sacred places used to be. They need to be stopped."
"By killing them all?" Damon snarled.
Maya shrugged like she was talking the weather. "If that's what it takes. Though I guess some could be kept as pets. The pretty ones, maybe."
Horror washed over me. This wasn't my sister. This was someone else wearing her face.
"Maya, you don't mean that," I said desperately. "You can't mean that."
"Can't I?" She reached out to touch my cheek, and I felt power buzz under her fingers. "Poor Kira. Still so dumb after all these years. Still thinking everyone can be saved with kindness and herb tea."
"It's better than thinking everyone should die!"
"Is it?" Maya's face got serious. "Tell me, sister—how many rogues died of the Red Death while you were playing healer? How many children starved while you begged pack Alphas for scraps?"
Her words hit too close to home. I had tried to save everyone, but there were never enough supplies, never enough medicine, never enough time.
"At least I tried to help them," I shot back.
"And I'm going to help them too. By making a world where rogues don't have to beg for food or die of preventable diseases." Maya motioned around the backyard. "Look at this place. Clean water, warm houses, plenty of food. The pack dogs have everything while rogues have nothing. That's going to change."
"By destroying innocent people?"
"There are no innocent people, Kira. Only people with power and people without it." Maya's eyes flashed with silver fire. "I spent ten years learning that lesson the hard way."
"Who taught you?" Elder Vera stepped forward. "Who's been training you?"
Maya's smile turned wicked. "Wouldn't you like to know, old woman? Let's just say there are wolves much older and smarter than you who understand what needs to be done."
"The people who kidnapped you—"
"Rescued me," Maya corrected. "Saved me from a father who wanted to hide my power and a sister who would have held me back with her bleeding heart."
"I wouldn't have held you back!" I cried. "I would have helped you!"
"Would you have helped me kill the people who poisoned the river where we used to play? Would you have helped me burn down the companies that dumped chemicals in our drinking water?"
I stared at her in shock. "The river isn't poisoned. It's just—"
"Just what? Just the reason I got sick the night I supposedly drowned?" Maya's voice turned bitter. "Did you ever wonder why I was the one who fell in? Why you were fine but I started coughing up blood?"
My world turned. "What are you talking about?"
"The river was already dirty ten years ago, Kira. The people had been dumping toxic trash upstream for months. When I fell in and drank that water, it started killing me from the inside."
"But you didn't die—"
"Because the people who found me knew how to save dogs from human poisons. Because they'd been watching our family and waiting for the right time to act." Maya's face softened slightly. "They saved my life, sister. And they taught me how to save others."
"By committing genocide?" Damon spat.
Maya's attention moved to him, and her power flared. Several dogs stumbled backward.
"Careful, Alpha. You're talking about my family now." Her voice carried a warning that made the air itself feel dangerous. "The wolves who raised me might not appreciate your tone."
"Where are they now?" I asked.
"Close. Always close." Maya looked around the courtyard like she was seeing things the rest of us couldn't. "They're very excited to meet you, Kira. We've been planning this meeting for years."
"What reunion? What are you talking about?"
"The joining, of course. When the twin souls become one mind in two bodies. When we finally have enough power to fix this broken world."
Elder Vera made a choking sound. "That's not in any prophecy I've read."
"Then you haven't been reading the right books." Maya pulled a small leather notebook from her pocket. "My teachers showed me predictions your pack leaders never knew existed. Older facts. Darker truths."
She opened the book and read aloud: "'The twin souls shall join in mind and purpose, sharing power and will until they are as one. Together they shall cleanse the world of those who threaten the wolf kind, and build a new order that shall last a thousand years.'"
"That's not cleansing," I said. "That's extermination."
"Same thing, really." Maya closed the book. "But don't worry, sister. Once we're joined, you won't feel bad about it anymore. You'll understand that sometimes kindness means being rude to the right people."
"I'll never agree to that."
"You won't have a choice." Maya's smile turned hostile. "The joining isn't something you agree to, Kira. It's something that happens whether you want it or not."
Fear shot through me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the people who raised me have been very patient. Very careful. Very thorough in their plans." Maya raised her hand, and I saw something glinting in her palm. "Did you think it was a chance that you ended up here? That your mate mark appeared exactly when and where it did?"
My heart started racing. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying we've been leading your steps for months, dear sister. Making sure you'd be in the right place at the right time." She held up what looked like a small silver needle. "This is going to sting a bit."
Before I could move, before anyone could react, Maya lunged forward faster than any wolf should be able to move. The needle entered my neck, and fire shot through my veins.
"No!" Damon roared, but his voice sounded far away.
My vision blurred as whatever Maya had shot me with spread through my system. I tried to shift into my wolf form to fight it, but my body wouldn't listen.
"What did you do to me?" I gasped.
"Started the joining process." Maya caught me as I fell, her silver eyes the last thing I saw clearly. "Don't fight it, Kira. In a few hours, we'll share the same thoughts. The same goals. The same willingness to do what needs to be done."
"I won't let you turn me into a killer."
"You won't have a choice about that either." Maya's voice was almost gentle now. "The serum will make sure of it."
As darkness closed in around me, I heard her say one last frightening thing: "Sweet dreams, sister. When you wake up, you're going to help me burn the world."