CLAW MARKS ON LANE NINE

tched me lose, and not o

away. That was the thing about being the only wolf in the Ironfoot Pack without a wolf. Everyone else ran wi

cing team, and the team meant a salary, a house, and a seat at the family table my father had stopped saving

I r

er's voice rang through the stadium. "Back in

ahead of me and counted my breaths. In, out. In, out. My lungs burned,

y ankle folded, and I hit the rubber hard, palms skidding, kn

myself. Get up,

me like I was the evening's entertainment. By the time I crossed the finish line, Sienna was already

e podium stoo

ered in a black suit, with eyes the color of storm clouds. Every girl in the pack dreamed of being notice

ed on me, and the

t known was there. The air between us pulled tight. Every story I'd ever heard about the

whispered in

didn't have one. It was only my ow

second I saw something raw cross his face, something like shock, or

ward me across the track. The cameras f

voice cracking. "

an arm's length aw

You feel it too

latly, like it disgusted

and my face appeared thirty feet tall, bloody and dirt-streake

whispered.

ough for every microphone on the track. "My mate must be a champion, someone

"I trained every

alive." His voice didn't soften. "I

I felt them physically, a crack st

moon goddess," he said, "and I release you

a single voice called out from the stands, "Finally

folded and his eyes fixed on the ground. He would not look at me. That one look I h

d to. But I had spent eighteen years begging this pack

my ankle screamed. I met Kael's eyes, a

t your r

bond

like my ribs were splitting open, like every nerve was being pulled out of me one by

r a heartbeat, with his back to me and his ha

cold and smelling of concrete, and my own breath sawing in and out. I rem

have come, but instead there was only a thick, unfamiliar hea

w, steady thump that

um

he dim light my nails were darker than they

he place that had been empty my who

was f