Ice Blue [ Book One ]

Prologue

I could see the way his pupils dilated into slits revealing the beast that hid behind his human skin as he stalked closer to my crumpled form and bent down to curl his fingers around my tender throat. His fingernails dug in, and I could feel the sting of his nail in the mark he had placed on my neck.

"You are no longer my Chosen, and you are no longer a member of this Clan," he growled, his breath fanning my face as he tugged me up to my feet by my neck. He squeezed until he heard me gasp for breath. "I want you off of this territory and out of my life."

A broken, breathless sob escaped from between my lips as he delivered my sentence. "No," I tried to whisper, pin-pricked tears stabbing along the edges of my eyes. "Please . . . " I begged my Chosen. He was my lover, the one I chose to walk with me for life, my equal in soul — if not in rank.

For half of a second, I could see a flash of pain and doubt flittering across his pupils, allowing them to expand. But then it was gone, and his grip tightened more. "Silence yourself," he snapped. "I've made my decision and you will follow it through."

It was just that easy, wasn't it? An entire childhood together growing up, after three years of being mates, of watching our — His — Clan grow in a peace that it had not seen in centuries — together . . . He was giving up. He was putting the blame and weight of what happened entirely on me, refusing to see how he, too, was at fault.

He was completely willing to sign my death warrant so easily, write me off as if we had not both suffered a loss. I wanted to wail, to scream, to make him let me explain — but he was Denari, and his word was physically an order not even I could disobey. I could only manage a repeated, strangled, "please" as I stared at him.

His nostrils flared at the whispers I sent out, and he shoved me to the ground once more, slicing wounds into my neck in the process. Not deep enough to scar or kill me, but deep enough to sting and bleed. Yet the pain of these new wounds were nothing compared to how he took my entire life in his palm and smashed it in seconds.

"You're lucky I allow you to leave with your life," Andy said over my pleading whimpers. "You committed the highest crime and you lay here whimpering like a newborn kitten. Get ahold of yourself before I change my mind."

The order curled over me and I found myself, and Feline, fighting our emotions so we could stand. It was literally impossible to ignore or reject a Denari's order — those who try hard enough will likely meet the innner betrayal of their own feline. Their body will shut down, their organs will stop working, and death will greet them within seconds. That is why it is important to never attempt resisting an order.

Feline herself was trying so hard to push against the order for my sake, she was willing to allow her instinct to be overridden just so I could say my piece. That is when I decided to submit to his bared teeth and sharp tongue, growing limp. I wouldn't risk Feline's life. I couldn't.

Andy curled his iron-tight fingers around my wrist and jerked me behind him as he went toward the door of his office and threw it open. Outside in the common room stood many Clan members. All of them I knew since I was a cub, most of them I shared friendships with, many had mentored me in both school and training.

But the two that stood out the most were Lucky and Kay. Lucky, who's gray eyes were wide with despair once they landed on my blood-stained shirt and my mauled neck. Lucky, who was trembling and the stench of fear and an underlying feeling of fury nearly pooling around her like water. Lucky, my baby sister who I promised my brother to protect until my dying breath.

Kay, who had her arms wrapped around Lucky and was now pulling her against her chest. I locked eyes with the girl I called my best friend, brown meeting blue.