Page 36 of Moonmarked

“Thankyou.” She pressed her lips together and stretched them into a small smile.

“You…” I shook my head, tried to find words that might sound right for the moment, but there were none in my vocabulary. So, I just said, “I haveso manyquestions.”

Again, that smile. She sat down in front of me, crossed her legs and pulled the shirt up her thighs. “I’m sure you’re wondering who I am and…well, what the hell is happening.”

Laughter burst out of me accidentally. “Yes, yes, very muchyes!” I said, way too loudly, but I couldn’t help myself. There she was, a woman who had been a wolf just minutes ago, and she was older than me, I thought. She looked well into her twenties if I had to guess, not because her skin was any different from mine but because of those eyes. The way she looked. The way she held her shoulders.

“How about I tell you my story,” she told me. “It’s only fair, since you told me yours.”

I swallowed hard.Fuck, I did tell her who I am.But how was I supposed to know that she would actually understand and turn into a human?! I mean, I obviously knew whatwerewolfmeans, but I didn’t believe it. Not until I saw it with my own eyes.

Fuck, Nilah…

“Right, I um…I…” I didn’t know what the hell to even say now, and my cheeks were so hot I was afraid to even touch them.

But the woman said, “Your secret is safe with me, Nilah. I won’t tell a soul.”

I met her eyes again, gave my instincts a moment to pick up any hint of a lie. There was none.

“My name is Maera Thornevale, and I’m the last alpha in my lineage,” she continued. “My parents were hunted and killed for bearing a gene that makes our wolves…smaller than the average werewolf. I was raised away from myroots at their request, and I stayed away until I was of age and went back home to claim my pack.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered, and the words slipped from me by accident again, but she didn’t mind.

“Things didn’t go well for me, however. I was betrayed, knocked out, sold to the highest bidder in Mysthaven two full moons ago, where I thought I would meet my death.” She tilted her head to the side, and I could have sworn that I saw her when she was a wolf doing the same thing. The same movement with the same speed—and the same look in her eyes, too.

“Until you came along and fed me. Set me free.”

The words weighed heavy on my shoulders. “I thought…I thought you were an animal. A dog. I thought you were being used by the sorcerers.”

“I was. I was being used for a very long time,” she said. “And I was an animal, too. Not a dog, but a wolf, albeit one smaller in size.”

I laughed when she smiled—that might be an understatement, judging by the wolves those men had shifted into. Easily three times the size she had been.

“I know—it shocks a lot of people to hear it. It made my own pack not trust me when I went to them and told them who I was—which is the legitimate alpha of the Thornevale pack.”

My smile turned sad. “I know a thing or two about people not believing you when you tell the truth.” I’d suffered my whole life because of it—and not just me, but my family as well.

“I wasn’t raised as an alpha should be, and so when my pack did the Ritual of Thorns, it didn’t choose me because I wasn’t ready. You see, a true alpha is a vessel of the moon’s will, and she needs a catalyst to come into full power, tocommand a pack. I wasn’t there yet. I couldn’t make my claim, and the people threw me out—as was their right.”

I flinched. “Yeah, I’m sorry if I don’t really believe that. Don’t get me wrong—I have no clue what a Ritual of Thorns is or about moons or vessels, but your people should stand by you no matter what, and especially when you’re not ready. Especially when you need time and when you’re falling, and...” My eyes closed for a second. “I just mean they were dicks for throwing you out.”

For a moment there, Maera just looked at me, eyes unblinking, lips frozen into not fully a smile, and not fully a frown, either.

Then, she said, “I like that. They were dicks for throwing me out.”

They really were.

“So, what changed? I saw you just now—you saidbowand the wolves just…bowed. I had no idea wolves could bow, mind you, and I’m struggling to believe my own eyes. It was real, wasn’t it?” I said, so fast I barely breathed.

“Yes, of course it was. And wolves do bow when their alpha commands it.”

I raised my brows. “Meaning…”

“Meaningme.I’m their alpha, the rightful pack leader. My power was dormant until today because I wasn’t raised as I should have been, and I…”

She suddenly looked to the side for a moment, as if she didn’t want to utter the next words. She did, anyway.

“I didn’t really believe myself fit for the role, to be honest. I didn’t know this was my destiny until three years ago, and I didn’t believe I was worthy. Until you stepped in front of them for me. Protected me as if I was your own.”

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