Morning came brittle and still, the storm having passed, washing the world clean but leaving it scarred. The snow sparkled white under a wan sun, but in me, all was fire. My head spun back over every moment of last night—the scream of battle, the sight of his shock of eyes, the impossible bond that had broken into my soul like a hammer.

But the daylight did not bring light. Only questions.

Breakfast at the Rivera compound was a darkened den of grumbled worries. My mother's glances flashed my way more than once, full of an unspoken worry. My father stiffly sat, his jaw clenched, reading dispatches of the battle on the borderlands, his expression unreadable.

."Elena," he at last spoke, his voice low but steel-edged. "You must be careful. The Luna will now be watching you." Luna—the Alpha's mate—the woman who ruled Kane's pack as totally as he did. Her name was loaded with weight, warning, and pain all together. She was strong and clever, and though I'd never seen her, I'd heard the stories. Stories of her rage if anyone dared cross Kane.

I looked at my dad, his purpose clear without words. Mating bond sacred, yes, but severing line of rival packs? That was taboo—deadly.

"Nobody can know," he went on harshly. "Not your mom, not the guards, nobody."

His wariness ingrained in me kept tight hold of the secret that now threatened to consume my existence.