Alpha Nox

Prologue

For as long as I lived, I would never forget that day.

It was the day the people I considered my friends—my family, failed me irreparably. The day that the life that I knew and loved was ripped out from under my feet, splintered like the deck of a mighty ship, leaving me to drown in the ferocious waves below.

This was the day I learned the sheer power of betrayal and how it can motivate a person to endure anything.

The shackles around my wrists were heavy. Cold against the burnt flesh that spanned my wrists. Just as my skin would start to heal, scabbing over in rough patches caked with dried blood, the silver would brush up against them and split them wide open. With every step I took, the chains connected to those shackles rattled, singing a terrible song of agony, death, and unrequited love.

The townspeople parted to let me through, keeping their distance only because the guards standing on either side of me forced them to. I was more than positive if they were allowed, they'd hurl stones and throw fists, shouting words just as painful as their blows.

If only they knew that had I wanted to, I could've broken free.

These were the people that had watched me grow up, that had stood on their front porches waving as their children and I walked to school each day. How quickly they turned on those they considered friend and family, tossing away their narrow-minded ideas of community when it suited their sadistic needs.

I'd never forgive them for this.

I held my head high because that's what Einar (AY-NAR) women did. Turning my nose up at the crowd like I was better than them because I knew the truth.

It's what my mother did when the rogues murdered her, uncaring that she was holding my newborn sister against her chest. Using her abilities would've saved them both but would also have painted a target on all our backs. One that could never be removed. It was their sacrifice that granted me life—a life I threw away for something as fickle as love.

The one solace I had to this entire situation was a double-edged blade. One poised at my throat, pressing hard enough to draw blood that only I could see. Once this was all over, I'd be with my mother and sister. I'd walk into the Moon Goddesses arms, my head held high, and tears buried beneath silent rage.

...but my father.

Titus Einar, the one man that believed me, that loved me despite the crime I committed. He'd spend the rest of his life mourning me, just like he mourned my mother and sister.

The mere thought of my father made my eyes sting with tears. They would never know the pleasure of falling, of drying against pale skin, leaving salty kisses behind.

I scanned the crowd, my neutral expression carefully composed and perfectly in place. Disappointment battered me upside the head when I failed to see his broad shoulders and long blonde hair, but I couldn't blame him.

What person on this Goddess-forsaken earth would want to attend their only daughter's execution?

I was led through the clamoring crowd, shoved past their hateful words that ricocheted off my skin like spitballs, and into the city court room.

Even though I'd spent my entire life in this pack, I'd never been in this building before. There was never a need to come here.

The guards flanking me bypassed the security check-in, escorting me around the metal detectors and to a series of large double doors. Seeing as I'd been locked in a cell for the past three days, there was no need to check me for weapons. Hell, the scraps of cloth they called clothing didn't even have pockets.