THE AWAKENING

Cassandra struggled to be free, but the grip holding her felt like iron bands clamped around her thighs.

“Let me go!” she screamed like a banshee, rising up to claw at his face with her nails but her efforts were met with steely silence as they ran through the night.

The cold air burned her face and she began to shiver.

They entered what looked like a cave and were immediately enveloped in inky darkness but her captor navigated the tricky twists and turns as if they were traveling a lighted path.

They emerged in a large cavern where he finally set her down with little finesse or grace. She landed on her rear with a squeak of pain but he paid her little heed as he was too busy building a small fire to warm the ice-box interior.

In truth, she was too cold to flee even if, by chance she could find her way out. Her legs felt like frozen stalks of flesh that might shatter if she tried to run.

The walls were rough hewn by time, dripping large formations from the ceiling like frozen teardrops. The desolate atmosphere only heightened the chill permeating her bones.

“Hurry, I’m going to die of hypothermia,” she snapped to her captor.

The man shot her a dark look as if annoyed she could speak and pulled a hidden stash of firewood from a hole in the cavern to toss in a blackened fire pit.

“Vacation home?” she quipped.

“You test me,” he warned.

pretty comfortable in the barren

cavern with dancing light and she reluctantly sought the

“Come, warm yourself, she-wolf.”

name,” she returned with a jutted jaw. “The least you can do is call me by my name. It’s Cassandra, by the

couldn’t have been more dismissive but she was going to freeze if she didn’t get some of that heat. Meeting

told her to keep her mouth shut. She’d been kidnapped by a man who was strong enough to

her hands. He was big, much like Jandin and Koris, but there was something gracefully dangerous about

blond hair was cropped short to his skull with military precision, possibly to soften the fact that he was almost too

didn’t want to examine, he was breathtaking in a lethal, anti-hero way that she

As a test, she lifted her nose and surreptitiously sniffed the

the trouble. She gasped and recoiled, not quite sure

are you?” she asked. “You

mouth thinned in a parody of a smile. “That’s because I am not human.” His smile faded. “And neither are you. Otherwise, two rival werewolf clans wouldn’t

her cheeks flaming at the crass way he framed his statement but she lifted her chin and met his stare with open challenge. “I didn’t ask for any of this. Yesterday my biggest worry was my mid-term final. Today, I’m some kind of beast with a magical womb! And

work out for you?” he asked

as Jandin called it. So, if you’re not a werewolf, what are you? And why do you care what happens between two rival

a

is?” He met her stare with a hard one of his own. She shivered at what she read in his eyes. “You killed

apology. “Others, we simply