Marked From Birth

wever, the deception required Audrey's body to move, and for that, they needed her submission. They dragged her into the dressing room, the door clicking shut like a trap. When th

her veins. It wasn't the heat of a fever; it was the heat of a sun being born. The "nothingness" she had felt for twenty-one years-that hollow ache where a wolf should have been-was suddenly filled with a roar so loud it drowned out the thunder outside. "Ah!" Lucas gasped, pulling back. He clutched his head, his body racking with a violent tremor. His clouded silver eyes began to burn. The grey film that had stood between him and the world for two decades began to dissolve like mist under a mid-day sun. Audrey couldn't speak. Her body was changing. Her bones weren't breaking; they were expanding, vibrating with a frequency that made the glass lamps in the room shatter. A brilliant, ethereal light began to pour from her skin-not the dull blue of Samantha's power, but a blinding, regal gold. I am here, a voice whispered in her mind. It wasn't the voice of a servant or a shadow. It was the voice of a Queen. We are one. Lucas fell to his knees beside the bed, his hands covering his face as the first rays of light hit his optic nerves. The world was coming into focus-the rich mahogany of the furniture, the deep red of the carpets, and finally, the woman lying before him. He lowered his hands, his breath hitching in his throat. He didn't see Samantha, the "perfect" princess he had been promised. He saw a girl with eyes like molten amber, her black hair fanned out across the pillows like a dark halo. But more than that, he saw the mark on her shoulder-the one the bite had revealed. It wasn't a standard pack mark. It was a silver crescent moon entwined with a golden sun. "You..." Lucas whispered, his voice raw with wonder. "You aren't the one they described." Audrey sat up, her movements fluid and powerful. The weakness that had defined her life was gone. She felt the strength of ten men in h