PROLOGUE

ALISA'S POV

It is time.

I quickly stuff my clothes into a duffel bag; a tee-shirt, jeans and some money. My eyes dart back and forth between the bag and the door and with trembling hands, I pull a hoodie over my head, quietly heading towards the door. There will be no time for goodbyes.

But before my fingers can even wrap around the doorknob, it bursts open to a group of men, all with steel-blue eyes boring into mine. I scream.

“Tie her up!”

A thunderous order booms from the entrance and the men pour in, dragging me by my hands and legs.

“Get your hands off me!” I shout, kicking and clawing at them furiously but they are too strong. Far too strong. This was not supposed to happen!

Amidst the chaos, my eyes fall on the last man at the door, Beta Zion. I should have known.

He stalks towards me and with a sneer on his lips, Zion raises an open palm high up in the air before bringing it down and slapping me hard across the face. Such was his brute force that my head rolls like a limp doll to the side and I taste blood in my mouth. Tears line my eyes and blur my vision.

“Unhand me! Let me go-” I choke on my own words as his hand wraps around my neck and long nails dig into my skin. It is excruciatingly painful. Then I see it, the murderous glint in his eyes.

“Burn her,” he hisses.

***

A dark cloud blankets the moon and a heavy breeze begins to stir as I struggle against the ropes that bind me to a wooden stake. A roaring fire burns nearby and I am smothered by the thick smoke that rises from it.

“Confess your sins!” Zion orders.

I shake my head. How dare he! “No! As Luna of Red Moon pack, I command you to release me!”

Zion laughs, he must have gone cuckoo in the head.

“You have no right to hold me, prisoner! Once Ryder finds out he’ll-“

He walks up to me and grabs a fistful of my hair, yanking it by the roots. Ouch.

“The Alpha?!” He spits in my face and I almost gag, his spit smells of dead mice. The man needs to brush his teeth.

“Alpha Ryder was the one who ordered for your execution!”

What? I blink. His words pierce through my heart like a poisoned blade. All around us, chants begin to rise together with the billows of smoke that swirl up to the heavens. I shake my head, only for Zion to tighten his grip.

“You lie!” I scream. He's lying, he has to be lying. Beads of sweat roll down my face as I struggle violently to free myself from the stake, the ropes cut into my skin. I need to speak to Ryder. I need to speak to my Alpha!

A laugh escapes Zion’s lips. “You are no Luna! You are a harlot! A murderer! A SUCCUBUS!”

With a shove, he finally lets go of my scalp and bends over to pick up a burning stick. Waving the flaming torch barely inches from my face, the smoke fans around me drowning me in the billows of its black fumes. I cough violently.

Through the smoke, I see the Beta’s thin lips curl up into a smile that never quite reaches his eyes. I have neither seen nor felt such evil before.

“NOOO! LET ME GO!” I scream again but my cries for help fall on deaf ears for one by one, the eyes of the pack turn away from me. None dares to touch me, none dares to free me. Was this truly Ryder’s command?

My heart shatters to a million pieces there and then. This is the end for me and I am scared. I don’t want to die. Not just yet.

“Goodbye, succubus.”

Beta Zion drops the burning torch onto the heap of dry hay that lay beneath my bare feet and all too soon, the hay catches fire and the flames begin to spread, dancing like gipsies around my feet.

I close my eyes as the first lick of flame makes its way up the stake and a lone tear rolls down my cheek. I whisper, “Alpha, did you betray me?”