Kiera's POV
I scrambled backward across the grass, my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest.
The stranger didn't move, just watched me with those storm-gray eyes that seemed to see straight through my silver mask. His scarred body was coiled with tension, like a predator deciding whether to pounce.
"Easy," he said, his deep voice somehow both rough and gentle. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"Stay back," I managed, my voice shaking. My fingers clawed at the ground, searching for anything I could use as a weapon. "I don't know you. I don't want—"
"A mate?" His smile was sharp. "Yeah, I got that from the whole running-away-screaming thing."
My wolf whined inside me, confused and desperate. She wanted to move closer to him, wanted to accept the bond thrumming between us like a living heartbeat. But my human mind remembered pain. Remembered three rejections that nearly destroyed me.
I pushed myself to sitting, putting a few more feet between us. "Who are you?"
He tilted his head, studying me with unnerving focus. Then slowly, deliberately, he reached up and pulled off his own mask.
The blood moon painted his face in shades of red and shadow. Strong jaw, sharp cheekbones, that wicked scar cutting through his eyebrow. He looked like something carved from violence and survival.
And I knew that face. Every wolf in Silvercrest knew that face.
"Thorne Ravenclaw," he said quietly, watching my reaction.
My blood turned to ice.
Thorne Ravenclaw. The firstborn son who should have been Alpha. The one they said went feral during a territorial dispute. The one the Council exiled for being too dangerous, too unstable, too violent to control.
The mad wolf. The exile. The monster parents warned their children about.
"No," I whispered, horror flooding through me. "No, no, no."
Something flickered in his eyes. Pain, maybe. Or anger.
"Yeah, I get that a lot." His voice was flat now, empty of the warmth it had held seconds ago. "The mad exile. The dangerous one. The wolf even Alphas fear." He shifted his weight, muscles rippling under scarred skin. "Bet you're real thrilled the Moon Goddess matched you with me."
I couldn't speak. Couldn't think. The most dangerous wolf in the territory was my fated mate?
This had to be a mistake. A cosmic joke. The Moon Goddess's idea of punishment for some sin I didn't know I'd committed.
Thorne stood in one fluid motion, and I flinched backward instinctively.
He froze. His jaw clenched, and that flicker of pain in his eyes became something deeper, darker.
"I can smell your fear," he said quietly. "You're terrified of me."
"Everyone's terrified of you," I shot back, my voice high and sharp. "They say you went mad. That you attacked your own father. That you're unstable and violent and—"
"And what?" He took one step closer, his eyes flashing with sudden anger. "A monster? A beast? Yeah, I've heard all the stories. Most of them are lies." Another step. "Some aren't."
I scrambled to my feet, ready to run again.
"Don't." The word was a command, rough and desperate. "Please don't run from me again. I've been alone for five years, Kiera. Five years convinced I'd never have a mate because of what I am. And then you walked into these grounds smelling like moonlight and fire, and my wolf recognized you instantly."
"How do you know my name?"
"Everyone knows your name. The Beta's daughter with three rejections. The cursed girl invoking the Hunt." His expression softened just slightly. "But I knew you before that. Saw you at pack gatherings, always standing beside your father, always so careful and perfect." He paused. "I wondered what it would be like if you smiled for real instead of just being polite."
The observation was too intimate, too knowing. It made my chest tight.
"We're mates," he continued, taking another slow step forward. "The bond already snapped the moment our scents met. You felt it. I know you did."
I had felt it. That golden warmth flooding through me, that sense of rightness that terrified me more than anything.
"I don't want a mate," I said, my voice breaking. "I can't do this again. I can't let someone in just to have them throw me away when I become inconvenient."
"I'm not them."
"That's what they all said!" The words exploded out of me. "Damon said he loved me until he discovered my Oracle blood. Cade said he'd protect me until I refused to be his toy. Ryker said he'd give me a place in his pack until I learned he was using me." Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. "Why should you be any different?"
Thorne's eyes flashed silver-gold, the mark of a true mate bond activating. "Because I already know what you are. Oracle blood, prophetic visions, all of it. And I don't care."
I went very still. "How do you know about—"
"My mother was an Oracle." His voice went rough with old pain. "They killed her for it when I was eight. Made it look like a rogue attack." His hands clenched into fists. "That's why I was really exiled. I discovered the Council was still hunting Oracle bloodlines, killing them in secret. When I refused to help murder a twelve-year-old girl, my father declared me unfit for Alpha status and cast me out."
The world tilted beneath my feet.
"You saved a child?" The words came out barely above a whisper.
"And got branded a mad dog for my trouble." His smile was bitter. "But yeah. I saved her. Got her to the neutral territories where the Council couldn't reach her." He met my eyes. "I'd do it again. I'd save every Oracle wolf they tried to kill, including you."
Something cracked in my carefully constructed walls. This dangerous, scarred exile had risked everything to protect someone like me.
But I'd been wrong before. Been fooled by pretty words and false promises.
"The bond doesn't mean anything," I said desperately. "Damon had a bond with me too. He still rejected me."
"Damon's an idiot." Thorne's voice went hard. "And his bond with you wasn't fated. It was compatible, maybe strong, but not Moon-blessed." He gestured between us. "This? What we have? This is different. You feel the difference."
I did. The bond with Thorne burned hotter, brighter, more real than anything I'd felt with Damon. It terrified me.
"I'm not ready for this," I whispered.
"Neither am I." His honesty surprised me. "I've spent five years alone because it was easier than risking anyone getting close. Safer for them and for me." He took a breath. "But the Moon Goddess gave you to me anyway. So now I have a choice: let fear win, or fight for what's mine."
"I'm not yours—"
"You're MY MATE," he interrupted, his eyes blazing. "And I'm yours, whether you like it or not. The bond's real, Kiera. You can deny it, hide from it, run from it. But it won't change the truth."
"What truth?"
"That I'd burn down this entire territory before I'd reject you. That I'd fight every wolf here to keep you safe. That I—" He stopped abruptly, his head snapping toward the forest.
Then I heard it. Howls echoing through the darkness, converging on our location from multiple directions.
Thorne's expression turned murderous. "Your old Alphas. They're hunting you."
My stomach dropped. "How do you know?"
"I can smell their obsession from here. Damon's desperation, Cade's possessive rage, Ryker's cold calculation." He moved between me and the approaching sounds, his body a protective wall. "They're not here for the Hunt. They're here for you specifically."
More howls joined the first three, closer now.
"The Council sent watchers too," Thorne growled. "I can smell silver weapons."
Panic clawed up my throat. This was a trap. The Hunt, the sacred tradition, all of it was just a trap to capture or kill me.
Thorne turned to face me, his storm-gray eyes intense and serious. "You need to choose, Kiera. Right now."
"Choose what?"
"Them or me." He gestured toward the approaching howls. "Let them find you, try to negotiate or hide or run on your own. Or trust me." His jaw clenched. "I know you don't know me. I know I'm the last wolf you'd choose under normal circumstances. But those three Alphas will tear you apart fighting over you, and the Council will chain you in silver if they catch you."
"And you?"
"I'll get you out of here. Keep you safe until we figure out what to do next." His eyes flashed. "I won't force the bond on you. Won't demand you accept me. But I will protect you, whether you want me to or not. That's not negotiable."
The howls were getting closer. Through the trees, I could see torches flickering. Shapes moving through the darkness.
"KIERA!" Damon's voice boomed through the forest. "I know you're out there! We need to talk!"
"Come out, come out, little Oracle," Cade called, his voice sing-song and cruel. "Time to stop playing games."
Ryker's howl was wordless but clear: surrender or be hunted.
I looked at Thorne, this dangerous exile with secrets and scars, this male who terrified me and made my wolf sing with joy in equal measure.
Three Alphas who'd already destroyed me once.
Or one exile who'd saved an Oracle child at the cost of everything he had.
"If I choose you," I said shakily, "and you betray me like they did—"
"Then you have my permission to kill me yourself." His voice was absolutely serious. "But I won't betray you, Kiera. That's a promise I'll keep even if it kills me."
The first torch broke through the tree line. Damon's golden-brown wolf emerged from the shadows, his eyes locked on me.
I made my choice.
"You. I choose you."
Relief flashed across Thorne's face, followed by fierce determination. "Hold on tight."
He shifted partially, his body changing just enough to give him inhuman speed and strength. Then he grabbed my hand and ran, pulling me into the darkest part of the forest.
Behind us, Damon's roar of rage shattered the night.
And I was racing into the unknown with the most dangerous wolf in the territory.
My mate.
Moon Goddess help me, I'd either made the best decision of my life or signed my own death warrant.