Found by Fate (The Darkest Mark: Prequel)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

I t was the morning of my eighteenth birthday, and I just wanted to be left alone.

Within the next few full moons, I’d start shifting, and for the next few months after that, my ability to control my transformation might be… unpredictable. For now, I walked through the woods, a place I’d always found solace. It was my little birthday gift to myself. I’d come here often as a child; my younger brother and sister had been nervous about the dark, foreboding forest, so it had been a place to escape when I couldn’t take their antics anymore.

Although they’d been right to be afraid.

As I walked, I let my mind wander, taking in the beauty of the swaying trees and the birds who sang so freely. Once I started to shift, I was afraid they would sense me and wing away frantically.

The sense of someone watching me swept up my spine and a sudden pit opened in my stomach.

I spun to find a tall figure standing about ten feet behind me. He raised his hands in a placating gesture, but my heart still beat frantically. He was incredibly tall, and muscles bunched along his biceps and in his corded forearms. His nose looked like someone had broken it more than once, but he had once been handsome, in a rough way. Nathan Longroad. I hadn’t seen him in years, and recognizing him now did nothing to calm my nerves.

The alpha’s runaway son.

Some people said the alpha had murdered him.

Some people said the alpha had good reasons for that murder.

But here was Nathan, in the flesh.

He was staring at me with strange intensity.

“Hi,” I said, the word sounding flimsy in the wind that blew through the forest. I cleared my throat. But I didn’t know what to say next.

“I’d hoped I’d find you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking of you all these years.”

“Why?” I took a step back, but the house was a long way back through the woods. That house had never felt safe before, but now I wanted to flee home.

Nathan was six years older than me. He could leap forward as a man and land on me as a wolf, pinning me to the ground before I could take another step. His eyes narrowed, the look on his face offended, and I forced my feet to come to a stop, to hold myself still.

I needed to use my wits to get away from Nathan.

“Because I’m going to marry you,” he said with the sheer, smiling confidence of a madman.

My heart raced as his words sunk in. I’d never have expected him to appear out of nowhere and declare his intention to marry me as casually as if he were ordering a burger.

My sudden surge of anger that didn’t beat out the fear already pounding in my heart. “I can’t marry you. I barely even know you.”

“Of course we’ll get to know each other better,” he said. “But I know you’re my mate. I’ve known it since we were kids.”

That revelation had skipped me. Nathan had been a huge bully during our school years. He’d never bothered me, but then, he’d been five grades ahead and for all I knew, he’d never noticed me at all.

“I can’t marry you,” I repeated. “I’m eighteen today… I’m not ready to marry anyone.”

Had he come back because today was my birthday? It was too odd to be coincidence, but the timing was overwhelming. I pinched the skin on my wrist, wondering if it could be a dream. But Nathan still had me trapped in the woods and in this bizarre conversation.

“Oh, but I think you can,” he said with a smile. “Together we’ll be an unbeatable team. You as my wife, and me as the alpha.”

“You as the… alpha?”

“That’s the real reason you don’t want me yet, right?” He spoke as if he knew everything, his voice confident and deep. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the pack. You know that your beauty is a precious commodity, and you won’t waste it on some disinherited nobody. No, I need to be alpha to win your love.”

“No,” I shook my head, annoyed at the way he spoke like I was some kind of gold-digger. “I just don’t know you.”

“You may think that I'm crazy.” He crossed his arms over his massive chest. "But mark my words: if you agree to be mine, then I won't rest until we’re both standing at the top."

“Nathan, don’t be silly,” I said firmly. “You’ll only get yourself killed if you attempt…”

I couldn’t say to challenge the alpha. It made me feel as if I were a part of his scheme, which would require him to kill his father in order to take over the leadership of the pack.

I trailed off as I realized how pointless it was to argue with him. His mind was already made up.

He laughed. “I’m not afraid. I’ll show you my worth, Amelia, and then you’ll marry me.”

“Don’t do this for my sake,” I said in a whisper, still confused about how I’d become such a big part of his insane life plans. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

His smile widened, as if I’d just admitted I cared for him.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone we met. You’ll be in danger. But I’ll find you soon.”

My lips parted, unsure how to respond.

Then he turned and strode back into the forest, which seemed to swallow him.

I walked back toward the house with my sense of solace destroyed, and even the soft morning sun shining down and the song of the birds couldn’t restore that peace.

* * *

My stepfather, Curtis, was in the kitchen with my mother. His hands were on her hips and she was smiling up at him the way she always did, as if she loved him as much as he loved himself. I eased the back door shut behind me, but it clicked loudly into place.

Curtis turned toward me and smiled. “Hi, Amy. Ready for your birthday spankings?”

A pit opened in my stomach. I looked at my mom incredulously, but she laughed as if he was joking, as if that weren’t a weird, disturbing thing for a man to say to a teenage girl.

“I’ve got to get ready for work,” I said.

“You don’t need to work on your birthday,” he chided, but I was already on my way past them toward the living room.

My brother, Aiden, had just walked into the kitchen, and Rose followed him. Aiden stopped and, as he stared at my stepfather, a dark look came over his face. Aiden was just a year younger than me, and the two of us had always been close. Rose was just eleven, and she carried her hairbrush in one hand as if she was waiting for me to do her hair like usual.

“What did he say to you?” Aiden muttered as I passed.

“It doesn’t matter.” My voice was flat and colorless. “Don’t worry about it.”

“He was just teasing.” My mother patted my stepfather on the shoulder. She was the only one smiling, as if she was having this conversation in a parallel dimension, one where Curtis didn’t glower threateningly at my little brother. “Go get ready for work, Amy.”

I wanted to scream at my mother that Curtis wasn’t just teasing. I wanted to tell her, yet again, that he didn’t belong in our family.

But I didn’t. I combed through Rose’s hair and plaited it into a fishtail braid, then made sure she’d packed her homework and her lunch even though she got huffy with me.

We had to get out of that house. I threw on my sweatshirt, then walked with Aiden and Rose down to the bus stop that would pick them up for the pack’s combined K-12 school.

It was a long walk to the edge of pack territory, so I had plenty of time to think about what was happening at home. I wanted to get out of there so desperately.

But I didn't want to leave Rose or Aiden.

And there was no one I could talk to about my surreal encounter with Nathan Longroad. Curtis would take any opportunity to curry favor with the alpha. My mother would go right to Curtis with anything I told her. My human friends would never understand. They couldn't know anything about my life.

I was alone.