Chapter 1: Mate or Monster

Skye's POV

"The Hunt Festival is our most sacred tradition. Tonight, we celebrate our strength, our speed, our very nature as wolves." Alpha James began. His voice carried across the clearing. "Tonight, we hunt as our ancestors did. We prove ourselves worthy of our lineage."

Our breath formed clouds in the frigid Alaskan air as the entire Frostshadow Pack gathered around the massive bonfire.

Alpha James stood before us. His powerful frame was silhouetted against the flames. Leon, his son, stood at his right. He was tall and proud. Those piercing blue eyes that seemed to look through everyone.

Now, pack members began shifting around me. Human forms melted into powerful wolf shapes. Some were massive, like Leon's dark brown wolf. Others were smaller but no less intimidating.

Soon, the clearing contained only three groups. The elders who chose not to hunt. The children too young to participate. And me. The adult without a wolf.

"Skye," Alpha James approached. "Since this is your first Hunt Festival as an adult, you may use this."

He extended his arm, offering me a hunting rifle.

Whispers rippled through the remaining crowd. This was unprecedented. Weapons weren't typically allowed in the Hunt Festival.

"Thank you, Alpha," I said. I accepted the rifle with steady hands despite the humiliation burning in my chest.

"Good luck," he said, but his eyes held pity.

As the wolves disappeared into the forest, I felt the weight of sympathetic stares. They all believed I would fail. That I would return empty-handed.

I gripped the rifle tighter. I'll prove them wrong.

Midnight found me deep in the forest. I was alone with the rifle and my determination. The full moon illuminated the snow with an otherworldly glow. It turned the landscape into a sea of silver and shadow.

My breath formed crystals in the air as I tracked a snowshoe hare through the underbrush.

Not the most impressive prey, but it would be something. Better than returning empty-handed.

I positioned myself behind a fallen log. I sighted down the barrel as the hare paused to nibble at exposed bark. My finger tensed on the trigger.

Then it hit me. A scent so powerful it made me dizzy.

Pine and snow and something wild that I couldn't name. The smell invaded my senses. It was overwhelming in its intensity. I'd never experienced anything like it before. My nose had never been this sensitive.

My heart pounded against my ribs as realization dawned. This was what they'd described. This was what happened when you found your mate.

But this can't be happening.

Without my wolf, I shouldn't be able to detect a mate's scent. Yet here I was. I was drawn by an invisible thread I couldn't explain or resist.

The scent pulled me deeper into the forest. It led me away from the familiar hunting grounds of the Frostshadow Pack.

Perhaps this was a sign my wolf was finally coming.

The scent grew impossibly stronger. It made me dizzy with its intensity. I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself.

When I opened my eyes again, all thoughts of mates and wolves vanished in an instant.

I found no mate. Only a monster...

---

Not twenty feet away stood a massive grizzly bear, its breath visible in the cold night air.

In the moonlight, I could see the silver tips of its brown fur, the massive paws that could tear me apart with a single swipe.

I had wandered far from the pack's hunting area, far from any help. And without my wolf, I was just a human girl facing one of nature's most dangerous predators.

"Oh God, no..."

The bear dropped to all fours and took a step toward me.

I turned and bolted, my boots slipping on the snow-covered ground. Behind me, I heard the bear's huffing breath, the sound of its massive body crashing through the underbrush.

My foot caught on an exposed root hidden beneath the snow, and I went down hard.

The rifle—the gift from Alpha James that I'd nearly forgotten—tumbled into the snow beside me. As the bear's growl grew closer, my fingers closed around the cold metal of the gun.

Rolling onto my back, I raised the rifle with shaking hands.

I fired.

Once. Twice. Three times.

The reports echoed through the silent forest, each shot jolting through my arms. The bear roared, but kept coming.

I squeezed my eyes shut, certain I was about to die.

Then came a sound I hadn't expected—the bear's pained bellow, followed by a heavy thud.

Had I actually hit it? Had I brought down a grizzly bear?

My eyes snapped open. In the silver moonlight, I saw not just the fallen bear, but the massive brown wolf standing over it, fangs bared in a silent snarl. Blood matted the fur around its muzzle, evidence of its attack on the bear.

I knew that wolf.

"Leon," I whispered.

The wolf's head turned toward me, those blue eyes locking with mine.

I should have felt relieved. Grateful.

Leon had saved my life.

"Thank you, Leon!" I called out, pushing through the snow toward him. My voice cracked with emotion. "If you hadn't shown up, I would have been dead for sure. You'll definitely be the champion of this Hunt Festival!"

But as I approached, something in his ice-blue wolf eyes made me pause. There was no warmth there. Instead, his gaze was cold, almost... distant.

Before I could decipher his expression, Leon began to shift. The transformation was fluid and graceful—fur receding into skin, bones and muscles rearranging themselves under the pale moonlight.

I'd seen people shift before, of course, but something about watching Leon transform made heat rise to my cheeks.

Leon stood at least six-foot-two, his tall frame dominating the clearing. His golden hair, now tousled from the shift, caught the moonlight like spun silver. The defined muscles of his chest and abdomen rippled with each breath, testament to years of training and his Alpha bloodline.

No wonder Leon was the fantasy of nearly every girl in the pack. Even Maya, the most popular girl in our pack, knew he wasn’t her mate but still hovered around him like a moth to a flame.

Looking at him now, strong and completely naked, I finally lowered my gaze in embarrassment.

But it wasn't just my face burning; a strange heat stirred in my lower abdomen, a sensation I had never felt before. Warmth and dampness gathered between my legs.

That's when the scent hit me again—stronger, more intoxicating than before. Pine and snow and wildness, but now with another note. Something metallic. Blood.

Could he really be my mate?

I wondered, my heart racing as the scent enveloped me. Wait, something's different. This blood smell... it's not the bear's.

Slowly, I lifted my eyes back to Leon and froze in horror. There, on his left shoulder, was an unmistakable wound—a bullet hole that was slowly closing.

In my panic, I had shot wildly at the bear... and hit Leon instead.