Hunter's Heart

Prologue

His rage was as glorious to watch as it was terrifying. His normally cold, ice blue eyes had turned amber as the wolf side of him took control and they flashed with pure, unbridled fury.

"How could you do this?" he roared as he picked up the closest armchair as easily as if it were an empty box and hurled it across the room. "After everything we have been through!"

She flinched away as the armchair collided with the far wall and shattered from the force, the plaster on the wall coming away with it. The desk was the next victim of his anger and it was easily overturned, the computer and monitors, the files and papers, and the lamp that had all been neatly arranged on top of it scattering across the floor behind it.

"Each of us is a half of one!" he shouted as he looked for the next thing to work his anger out on. "A Were's mate is the missing part of their soul. We cannot live alone forever. Whatever companionship we seek over the years before we find our mates pales in comparison to the connection we have to our mates and it never, ever, lasts ..."

His voice trailed off as he focused on something and she knew it would be the next thing to be thrown.

"The Goddess is never wrong," he growled. "Our wolves are never wrong. I thought you would have learned this by now. And you want to THROW IT ALL AWAY!"

She ducked again to avoid being hit by flying porcelain shards as a vase was sent flying into the wall just a few feet away from her. She knew that despite everything that had happened between them and his obvious rage, he would never hurt her. When she looked up again, he stood in the middle of the destroyed office breathing hard, but no longer looking for something to tear apart.

She wanted so badly to point out that he hadn't been so sure when they'd first met, that he would rather have ripped off his left arm than accept that she was his. That little part of her that prickled against the boundaries and rules of the pack was itching to blurt out the words. The resentment at the way she'd been treated in those early weeks was still there, no matter how much she pushed it aside.

But she held herself in check. Now was not the time to bring that up.

"You're mistaken, Alpha," she began hesitantly while keeping her voice soft, hoping the man was done with his temper tantrum now. "I wasn't the one who asked the Elders to break our bond. I thought you had."

The Alpha went so tense at her words he was practically a statue. "I thought we had agreed to never lie to one another again, little wolf."

"We did," she retorted, hurt that he would even think she would lie to him. "And you know better than to think either of us would ever break our word to each other. I wasn't the one who wanted the bond broken, but I was led to believe you did."

The Alpha turned quickly to face her, his rage back in full force. She knew what he was thinking as his amber eyes flashed dangerously, his anger no longer leveled at her. If she wasn't lying to him and she had been fooled into thinking he wanted their bond broken, someone in his pack had convinced the Elders to perform the ceremony under his orders.

His next words were soft and controlled and in light of his rage, the tone made a shiver of fear run up her spine.

"What did you say?"