Read Chapter One of Marked Fate

“I don’t want any trouble here.” 

The bartender’s eyes narrowed as he scanned my frame, not bothering to hide the flicker of lust on his face as I stood waiting for more than that as an answer. His gaze shifted past me into the shadows of the dingy club.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and glanced in the same direction, but the shadows at the edge of the room were still. Whatever he saw, I didn’t catch.

“Yeah, not sure how you think I can cause trouble with a simple question.”

“Maybe he doesn’t understand plain English.” My best friend, Katryn leaned her curvy hip against the bar, folding her arms as she studied the male with derision in her eyes. Her deep auburn hair had streaks of strawberry blonde that caught the bright yellows and whites of the club lights as they pulsed and flashed around us.

The bartender cleared his throat, glancing down at the counter as he wiped away spilled liquid. After a moment, he raised his eyes. “Things are neutral here in town. We don’t segregate. You want to start problems with dragons, you better get out of Defence to do it.” He lifted his chin, pushing his chest out. “No matter how many witches you bring in here.”

I glanced sharply at Katryn. Was it that obvious she was half-witch? Most supernaturals couldn’t pick up on it since Katryn’s wolf was the more dominant of her two halves. Her short temper was clearly more of a wolf shifter trait than that of a calm, peace-seeking witch.

I nodded and pursed my lips. “I don’t want to cause problems. I just…” My confidence slipped as I considered what it was I was after.

Answers? And then what? A sense of belonging? I internally scoffed. While I didn’t know exactly where this path would lead, I did know that I needed information. Information on which dragon pack had stolen my wolf-shifter mother and impregnated her while she was enslaved with them, and then magically just released her. I wanted to know where I came from. I needed to know.

Who did my unfortunate dragon half belong to?

But how do I tell that much messed up personal information to the bear-shifter who already thinks I’m here to start trouble?

“Ow.” I grimaced and brought a hand to my side. The spot above my hip tingled. That had never happened before.

The deep thudding of the music pulsed around me, and I bit my lip. The club wasn’t what I would consider high-end. Not that I would know since sups aren’t supposed to be in clubs until they’re old enough to be ranked in their packs or covens. Bites was certainly not the club to have broken the rules for, especially since it reeked of illegal activity. There had been a vampire on the edge of the dancefloor when Katryn and I first came in. 

If a vampire in your club didn’t scream illegal activity, I don’t know what would. 

“Look, she-wolf, as far as I’m concerned, you’re all the same to me. Paying customers. That’s it.  I don’t need to know anything else about you. The less I know, the better for me,” the bartender stiffened as he went to the countertop with his rag. “It’s also better for  my club.”

I jutted my chin to the side and nodded, my nostrils flaring in frustration.

He’d seen something behind me. Something I hadn’t been able to differentiate from all of the other bodies crammed on the floor, writhing and bumping into each other. 

I was in over my head, and I knew it.

Katryn watched me, waiting for her cue to do something, anything. We were both hybrids, but my ranking in our pack superseded her own simply because of who had taken me in after my mother had died. Her loyalty and friendship had her with me here as I searched for my answers. So, whatever happened to us would be on me. 

Whooping and chanting from the direction of the front door pulled me from my thoughts. Katryn and I turned; our eyes drawn to the group of men who walked through the doors of the club. Strutted is more like it. 

The way they moved in unison, slapping high fives when they walked by some and jerking their chins up at others made my lip curl and not in a smile. Cocky. Arrogant. 

“Great.” Katryn sighed, stepping alongside me, and glancing up at my face. Though she was smaller, shorter than me by almost half a foot, it never got in the way of her attitude and fight. But she was wary of the newcomers. Always looking out for me. It’s what made us more like sisters than friends. “Should we abandon the search for now? We need to get to the apartment anyway to check in.”

We’d come this far. We were so close; I could feel it. I just needed to find a dragon I could ask questions of. That’s it. Why, in the biggest faction-integrated city in the world, was I having a problem with that?

The idea of quickly doing this had been so simple in my head, like I’d be able to arrive in this new town and easily find one willing to spill their guts to all my questions. I should have known assuming this would be simple was a fool's dream. 

When dragons enslaved wolves and wolves killed dragons, there wasn’t a lot of trust between the two species. 

“We might not find out what we want to do today, Morgan.” Katryn sighed; the heavy disappointment was easy to ascertain under the heavy beating of the music. “That doesn’t mean it’s over forever. We have time.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I matched her sigh, trying not to let my shoulders slump. I couldn’t let go of my disappointment. Not in a place where any weakness would be a guaranteed spotlight on two females new to town. 

I might come from a small pack on the outskirts of the Rocky Mountains, but that didn’t mean I was stupid or naïve, no matter how out of place I looked.

“Ugh.” I reached up, rubbing at my left side, just above my hip. My mark had started tingling the second I walked inside Bites. It had never ached like this before, and it seemed to grow with each moment. 

She glanced at me curiously but something caught her eye behind me that stopped her cold. “Don’t stare, but I think they’re headed this way.”

I shifted so that I was standing next to Katryn, making a mental note to bring up my mark to her later in our room, when we had a chance at privacy. 

She’d said they, but I knew who she meant before I looked up. “I’m not staring, you are.” 

To be fair, we both were staring now. And who could blame us. The group of five arrogant wolves had pheromones coming off them in waves. They were dominant, filled with that better-than-everyone-else confidence that came with being a part of stronger packs, which only rankled my own wolf. I preferred the satellite wolf lifestyle which had more rebellion in actions and thoughts, but I still understood the hierarchy of things. 

And the ringleader of their little group was so clearly an alpha. They way he stretched his arrogance in front of him like it would force everyone to bow that he came in contact with. 

If I ever wanted to fit into a pack, to belong, I had to adhere to the alpha. Fine. But when that alpha wasn’t my alpha, I had no problems rejecting any hint of possible control.

“Avoid them,” I said. 

Katryn’s snort drew my attention back to her. “We’re standing at the bar. Not exactly a good place to avoid anyone.”

She was right, but the vantage point was too good to give up. We could see more here than in a dark corner. “Okay, one more sweep of the club, look for anyone who could be a dragon.” 

At this point I didn’t care if I found a female or a male. Or even the ambiguous ones I’d heard about that could shift between male and female based on their needs. Those were rare and never fit completely into a clan either. They had similarities to satellite wolves actually, except….A satellite dragon couldn’t breed.

I’d read a legend once that said any dragon that doesn’t mark and rank in their coven becomes a satellite dragon. The legend called them anti-shifters. They could shift, but they no longer had complete control over their powers which became drastically weakened.

The lack of a mate creating limitations on a supernaturals’ abilities and powers wasn’t restricted to the dragon clans. It extended to all supernatural beings. Having a completed pairing increased the power in a couple, and in a pack or clan. A coven, a pack, a clan, any supernatural being became even stronger if the mate was pure, but a hybrid? A hybrid could lose the part of themself and their power, if they mated outside their true match. 

“What does a dragon look like again? Cause I’m not seeing any wings or fire breathing.” Katryn scoffed and then nodded toward the side. “Although if we were looking for creepy loner, that dude might fit the bill.”

I followed Katryn’s head nod to a man who watched us, watched me, with his arms folded across his chest. His broad shoulder held him up as he leaned against the wall. Even across the room, I could feel the heat of his gaze. He didn’t seem to care that I knew he was watching me. 

I swallowed. The realization that this wasn’t a safe idea washed over me more and more. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s a dragon.” 

Though both of us chuckled dryly, it wasn’t because anything we said was humorous. I knew we were both doing the same thing, trying to be normal.

The group of uber-alphas strode through the room continuing like they were moving toward us, though it was slow going since they were stopping at different groups and talking to them. 

The leader’s eyes found me, every few moments. I didn’t want to keep locking eyes with him, but the way he held my gaze steadily, I knew we were their end point. Like he’d become an arrow and I was the target center.

I didn’t want him to get to me. I didn’t want to have to face him. The closer he got the more my mark ached. And I wondered if it was a warning, something to snap me out of my perpetual staring. Because as much as his stupid swagger pissed me off, the wolf was gorgeous. And that might make me feel things I wasn’t in the position to handle. I wasn’t free to chase anything physical or otherwise with another male. Especially one like him.

Panic creeped in. 

A part of me bucked, not wanting to acquiesce to a stranger alpha’s dominance. The wolf part of me though, was growing anxious with anticipation, excited at the chance to be in his vicinity.

“Morgan, what are we going to do?” Katryn could feel it, too. Whatever it was. This strange pull. Maybe it was a sense of inevitability. 

Katryn’s voice wasn’t filled with fear but the slight quiver reminded me again that whatever happened was on me. And we were in the middle of the lion’s den.

“We need to get to the apartment complex.” I cleared my throat, unwilling to admit that I suddenly wasn’t confident in my decision to come to Bites, especially when we should be preparing for class tomorrow, not running off on wild dragon chases.

The bartender spoke up behind us. “I don’t want any problems, ladies. Don’t make me call my bouncers.”

Bouncers? He had bouncers? Usually that meant he had to hire someone else to do what he couldn’t do. Did that mean there were bigger men than a bear-shifter in this place?

The pack would be upon us in a matter of moments.

We had to get out of there. The last thing I wanted to do was get in a fight with a group of males who were clearly in their territory. Especially if they were the kind of wolves who believed in submissive she-wolves. That was the last thing they’d find here. 

I scanned the room, unable to stop myself from pausing as I caught a glimpse of the supernatural watching me from the same spot. He hadn’t moved, but the heat in his gaze had intensified. A heat raced through my entire body, like he’d just caressed me with fire.

I tore my gaze away, sighing in relief when I recognized the sign for the restroom above a hallway. “Restroom.”

“Now? Seriously?” Katryn huffed after me, as I bolted, not waiting to fall into step as we turned from the approaching group of wolf testosterone.

The second we ducked into the mostly empty bathroom, a pressure pulled off of my shoulders, releasing the panic that had my chest constricting. I could breathe again. 

“They seem…oppressive.” I leaned against the sink looking up at the dingy bathroom ceiling

“That’s normal. They’re not your alphas. I felt the same way.” 

Katryn moved to stand at the counters in front of a sink and reached up, smoothing the lines of her makeup. The artful and sultry eye makeup she wore made her pale skin seem even paler and her bright green eyes stand out even more than they normally did.

I ignored the mirrors myself. I knew what I’d see and I didn’t care. I wasn’t one to stand there and admire my long brown curls or the fact that I might be above average height for human females, but just normal for wolves. 

There was nothing extraordinary about me, except for the shape of my mark. 

My mark. Another thing that screamed hybrid and made me different. I was clearly a wolf, but it was also clearly…not. It depended on the day, the time of the month, and most importantly where and who I was with. The mark changed, morphed, which was unnatural. 

Right then it was tingling and not in a fun way. It was burning, like it was trying to warn me of something. 

“Do you think there’s an exit from here? Besides the front door?” Katryn pulled away from the mirror, scanning the perimeter of the ladies’ room like a door would just pop out of the cement walls. There weren’t even windows in this grunge hole. Just garish overhead lighting that left any flaws out in the open for everyone to see.

No doors to get in or out besides the one we walked through in the front.

“Maybe there’s one down the hall.” We had to step into a small hallway to get to the bathrooms. The males’ room had been to the right while the females’ had been to the left. A water fountain chaperoned in the middle.

I hadn’t noticed anything else before we’d disappeared into the women’s room. “What if we don’t get another chance to slip out and search?” I had no idea what would happen once our classes started and school took over. It was one of the reasons we were able to come here, away from our pack. We had to make sure we didn’t get kicked out. 

No matter how badly I needed to find a dragon. 

“I know you’re anxious. But, do you want to deal with those guys out there?” 

Katryn wasn’t voicing concerns out of a sense of fear. She wouldn’t hesitate to go anywhere with me. We had bonded over the years because neither of us fit in, with our pack or anywhere else.  It was just as hard to find a pack accepting of a half-witch and half-wolf as it was a half-wolf and half-dragon.

Nothing quite like being a hybrid that was half of your own mortal enemy.

“I don’t know. I need answers, Kat.” I could feel all the stress from the last few years collecting under my skin like a heat rash. I needed to know who my father was. I needed to know who I was, and where I belonged. And, the burning desire to know if my mother had loved my father, or if she’d been treated like a slave, had been consuming my thoughts as of late.

I knew it was too much to hope that they’d had a love match, but at the same time, she’d never spoken of him badly, just with longing. That had to be a good thing. Right?

“Maybe we should call it a night.” I sighed and glanced at Katryn. “Do you think we can call in a bomb scare or something?” I was only half kidding, but walking out of here without running into the popular egocentric wolves wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

“Well, I guess neither choice is fun. Potential entanglement with powerful asshole wolves, or checking into the apartments and letting our alpha we’re here and your engagement can be officially announced.” Kat shrugged.

My jaw twitched. Searching for the answers I so desperately wanted helped me ignore the fact that I was sent to the University of Defence for a reason beyond getting a degree in supernatural biochemistry, which was my major. But to the Sloan pack, that was secondary.

I bit my lip, shaking my head. “I can’t believe I’m arranged.” 

Saying the words out loud made it real. Why wouldn’t I be arranged? I was an adopted daughter in the Sloan pack. Sloan was small. A Mountain pack. Our alpha was always on the look for more power. So when an opportunity came for an alliance with one of the most powerful packs there was, he’d picked me to be the one to make the alliance happen. To ensure a merge with the Thorne pack through an arranged marriage. And the last thing my alpha had cared about was the fact that I didn’t want to go.

I had a satellite mentality and everyone knew it. Sloan–the alpha ditched the use of his first name when he stepped into power because he then became the power and authority and protector of his pack–he became the pack and lost his individuality.

I would lose mine. I would lose who I was but not because I would be alpha. I would become another wolf’s mate. We hadn’t been mark matched. Nope, we’d been politically matched.

He would mate with me and since we weren’t fated, he would take my powers. I would become like his servant and not like his equal, which I would have been if we’d been fated.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Did I want to deal with the group in the club or deal with the intended responsibilities?

I opened my eyes and focused on Katryn. “I don’t think we have much of a choice. We should go.”

Her gaze wasn’t pity, it was heartbreak. We’d be separated in this whole process. The only friend I had. 

I didn’t want to pretend like I wanted to do whatever it took to protect a pack that tolerated me, but didn’t truly accept me. I wanted everyone to be safe, of course, but I didn’t want to lose myself simply to make the two packs stronger.

Why couldn’t I have found my fated? Why couldn’t he be someone in a strong pack that wanted an alliance too?

I rubbed my mark on more time before reaching for the bathroom doors. 

And why was my stupid mark bugging me so much?