Chapter 2 The Alpha's Proposition

Mira ran for the back door.

She made it four steps before a hand caught her coat and yanked her behind the poetry shelf. A palm covered her mouth. The letter opener was already at his throat.

"Quiet," the man breathed. "Please."

Through the front window, the black cars stopped. Doors opened. Boots hit the wet pavement.

Mira pressed the blade harder against his skin. A thin line of red showed. He didn't move.

Outside, a flashlight swept across the glass. It passed over the CLOSED sign, over the dark shelves, over the empty counter. Someone tried the handle. The lock held.

"Nothing," a voice said. "Lights are off."

"He came this way," said another. "Check the alley."

Footsteps moved away. Engines idled for what felt like an hour. Then the cars rolled on, one by one, and the street went quiet.

The man lowered his hand slowly. Mira shoved him back and held the letter opener in front of her with both hands.

"Who are you?"

"Alpha Kaelen, of the Northern Pack." He touched his throat and looked at the blood on his fingers. "You're faster than I expected."

"You brought Enforcers to my door."

"I didn't bring them. I lost them twice before I got here. They're good." He wiped his hand on his coat. "Your lock is terrible, by the way."

"Get out of my shop."

"They'll come back. They always circle back."

Mira's pulse hammered. "So you've found the last monster. Congratulations. Do you want to drain me here, or drag me to your pack for a public execution?"

"I'm not here to kill you."

"That's what the last one said."

Kaelen's jaw tightened. "I came to offer you a job. One that needs your unique talents."

"My talents?" She laughed, short and sharp. "I'm good at hiding. I'm good at surviving. That's the whole list."

"You can unmake a mate bond." He said it flatly, like a fact. "You know it. I know it. The Empire knows it, which is why they burned every record of your kind. But I found one." He reached slowly into his coat. Mira lifted the blade again. "It's paper. Just paper."

He pulled out a folded file and set it on the counter between them. Then he stepped back, hands raised.

Mira didn't touch it. "What is that?"

"Open it."

She flipped the cover with the tip of the letter opener. Photos spilled across the wood. Men in expensive suits. Women beside them, pale, thin, staring at nothing. Each woman wore the same gold mark on her wrist, and each mark looked wrong. Too bright. Too sharp.

"Those are Alphas and their claimed mates," Kaelen said. "Every one of those women was taken by force. The marks aren't real bonds. They're copies. Someone figured out how to fake the ritual, and now the Empire uses it to control any pack that gets too strong."

Mira stared at the photos. Her stomach turned. "That's not possible. A bond has to be chosen. The moon decides."

"The moon doesn't decide anymore."

She looked up. His eyes were tired. Not angry, just tired, like a man who had been saying this to deaf ears for years.

"My pack is dying," he said. "Half my wolves are tied to people who don't love them, and the fake bonds are eating them from the inside. My sister is one of them. She's been getting weaker for two years."

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want sorry." He pointed at the photos. "I want you."

Mira stepped back. "No."

"You can break them."

"I can also die doing it. I've done it before." The words slipped out before she could stop them. Kaelen's head lifted, sharp. She cursed herself. "I mean, I've heard that's how it works."

"You remember," he said quietly. "Your past life. You remember it."

Her blood went cold.

"Don't," she whispered.

"I won't tell anyone. I'm not the Empire." He took a slow breath. "But I need you to understand something. You aren't just a weapon, Mira."

"How do you know my name?"

"It's on the sign outside."

She said nothing. Heat crawled up her neck.

"You can be a sword, or you can be a hunted animal," he said. "Right now you're hiding in a bookstore, waiting for them to find you. And they will. Tonight proved that. I wasn't the only one who tracked you here."

"What do you mean?"

Kaelen tapped the last photo in the file, the one at the very bottom. It showed this exact street, taken from a car, with the bookstore sign circled in red ink.

"That was taken three days ago," he said. "It was in an Enforcer's briefcase. I stole it."

Mira's knees nearly gave out.

"The Empire already knows where you are. They're just waiting for permission to move." He met her eyes. "Help me, and I'll hide you where they'll never look. I'll give you the one thing you've never had."

"And what's that?"

"A home."