by Aubrey Rose
I let my shifter side ease back into my body. Immediately my senses confirmed what I had thought was true. Blaise was shaking mad, and Alekk was only trying to draw him out.
“You’re wrong. I’ll rip you to shreds, and I’ll do it without a knife,” Alekk taunted.
“I’d love to see you try.”
“Stop, Blaise, don’t!” I reached out to my brother’s wrist.
“Kinaya, stay back! I’ll save you from him.”
Blaise darted a quick glance over at me. It was enough of a distraction for Alekk to jump forward.
“Ah!” Blaise cried. Alekk’s hand came down on his wrist. The wolfbone blade clattered to the ground of the tent. I picked it up, not knowing what I would do with it. I certainly wasn’t going to attack Alekk. But there was no way I could use a knife against my brother. I held the knife uselessly at my side.
Alekk held Blaise fast around the neck, raising him off of the ground so that he tiptoed in the air.
“I could break your neck, you whelp.”
My brother writhed in his grip, his hands beating uselessly at Alekk’s strong arms.
“I’ll kill you. I swear!” Blaise choked out. “I’ll kill you!”
“Stop. Alekk, he’s my brother!”
Alekk tossed Blaise down to the ground. I immediately grabbed Blaise’s arm to stop him from trying to fight again.
“Don’t,” I said.
“Kinaya, run!” He shoved me toward the tent opening.
“No!”
I stepped back, the wolfbone blade at my side. I stood next to Alekk, looking back and forth at the two men who both held claim to my loyalty.
“Why are you doing this?” Blaise hissed.
“He’s my mate!”
Blaise stared at me. His jaw dropped.
“Your… your…”
“Yes,” I said. Now that I had all the powers of my shifter self back, I sensed Alekk’s agreement. He looked at me, and I could sense his desire. Not just to have me, but to protect me.
A warmth blossomed in my chest. “Blaise, he’s my mate and I’m his. It’s meant to be.”
“But—”
“There’s no time to argue about this. Can you get Dad to agree to a negotiation? If he can come, we’ll prevent a war between the packs. Neither of us want to fight,” I said.
Alekk looked warily at Blaise. He was already shaking his head. I saw a flash of fear pass over his face.
“What?” I frowned. My brother was not easily scared. “Blaise, what is it?”
“The rest of the pack is already here,” he said blankly. “They’re going to attack the back of the army. It was going to be a distraction so I could help you escape. Kinaya—”
“My men—” Alekk started to say.
Then, from outside, I heard shouting.
Alekk’s eyes darkened.
“No!” I cried.
“Come with me,” he said. He grabbed my arm and we ran, the three of us.
Chapter Twelve
All through the camp there were howls as men changed into wolves and fought. I saw a few of the guards from my pack leaping into the fray.
“Stop!” I cried out.
“There’s more in the back!” Blaise called. “Hurry!”
As we ran, my heart pounded in my chest. A prayer rose from my lips, unbidden.
“May the gods take those who fall.”
Those were the words Granny Dee had taught me, for a fight that would shed blood.
“May the gods take those who fall.”
Alekk’s wolves had scattered drunkenly into the woods, and from all around we could hear the howls and barks of shifters fighting.
“Stop!” he cried out. He grabbed a nearby captain by the scruff and shouted into his face. “Tell them to pull back! Retreat back into camp!”
“Your sisters said—”
“I don’t care what they said. Pull back!”
“Blaise, can you get them to stop attacking?” I asked breathlessly.
“I don’t know,” he said.
We raced to the back of the tents. Down the hill a hundred yards or so, Alekk’s sisters were leading the attack. I saw their pure black coats surrounded by the gray and brown of other wolves. They were too strong, I knew. My heart sank. His sisters would kill all of our wolves if they were allowed to attack.
And then I saw her.
“Dee!” I cried out, but she was too far away to hear. Her white pelt shone brightly against the dark trees. I saw her coming toward the two sisters. She snapped at them, and they jumped back, circling and snarling.
No. She couldn’t fight them. She couldn’t. She was strong, yes, but she was old. There was no way her reflexes could match theirs.
“DEE!”
I yelled at the top of my lungs, but to no avail. I couldn’t stop our wolves from attacking. Only the alpha could. And my dad was nowhere to be seen.
Other wolves were fighting all around us. I saw Francis locked in a scuffle with one of the guards. There was blood everywhere on the snow. I screamed again and again, but nobody would listen. I turned to Alekk for help.
“Shift with me,” Alekk said, gripping my brother’s arm. The air was chilly and loud with the sounds of battle. Blaise looked up at Alekk.
For a moment, I thought he would argue, but then his face set into a quiet certainty.
Both Alekk and Blaise jumped up to the top of a sled. They reared back and howled as loud as they could.
I clapped my hands over my ears. Their howl was louder than any sound I’d ever heard before. The sound of it ripped through the air, sending chills right down into my bones. There was no ignoring it, this plaintive cry. There was no denying who it had come from either—the two alphas howled together.
Alekk shifted back in an instant, standing naked on top of the sled. He looked down at the mob of wolves, most of whom had paused and stepped back at the howl.
“Stop fighting!” he cried. “Stop!”
Immediately the soldiers of Alekk’s camp stopped. They backed away, eyeing each other.
In the quiet, I looked around. I saw my father standing at the edge of the fight, his pelt bloodied. He wasn’t limping, though. I breathed in a deep breath, then out.
“It’s over,” I said breathlessly. “Thank the gods. It’s—”
Down at the edge of the fight, Alekk’s older sister leapt forward. I could see her move through the air as if in slow motion. She snapped her jaws around Dee’s throat and they both went down in a pile of black and white.
“No!”
Alekk and I leapt at the same time, racing down the mountain’s slope. In only a few seconds, he was there. He barreled into his sister’s side and knocked her away, but as I ran to them, I could see that Dee wasn’t getting up.
I knelt beside Dee. Her breaths were fast and shallow. The wound on her neck was bad, worse than anything I’d seen.
Alekk growled, staying near to me even as he faced down his sister.
“Dee,” I whispered. I couldn’t feel anything inside, only shock. I tried to hold her wound closed with my hand. Hot blood ran through my fingers. The snow melted under us as the blood dripped on it, and the frosted ground turned a dark, dark red.
Dee was shifting, too, changing. Her face turned human, but her eyes—
Her eyes were still wolves’ eyes.
“Child—” she whispered. Her eyes searched the tree branches above.
“Dee, it’s okay. Someone help!” I cried, looking around at the crowd who had circled around us. “Please! A doctor!”
One of the wolves barked in agreement and ran off. For what? To get medical supplies?
Dee’s soft hand reached up and touched my face. I looked down at her. I could barely recognize her face, it was so pale. Like she was covered in a soft layer of snow.
“Julia?” she asked. “Is that you?”
“No, Dee. It’s me. Kinaya. You’re going to be okay.”
She coughed. Blood ran down her chin. I held her th
roat, feeling her heartbeat pulse against my hand. God, the wound was so deep. My own chest tightened as I heard her breathing catch. I sensed my father behind me then. I hadn’t sensed him before; had he been there all along? Why wasn’t anyone doing anything?
“Oh, yes,” she said softly. “It’s wonderful.”
“Wonderful? What’s wonderful?”
“The darkness. Peaceful.” Her eyelids fluttered. I panicked and leaned closer.
“Dee? Dee!”
“Hush, dear.” Her eyes opened slightly, and searched out the crowd, focusing behind me.
“Damien,” she said.
He knelt down beside her, putting one hand on my back and the other on her head. I couldn’t make myself look at his face. I couldn’t look anywhere but at Dee. She was going to live. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let her die.
“Dad—” I whispered. I knew that he couldn’t see her. “Dad, she’s hurt.”
“It’s okay,” he said, but his voice was shaking. “I know.”
“I’m so glad Julia found you,” Dee said. A weak smile spread across her face. My dad stroked her hair gently.
“I will love her forever,” my dad said. “I promise, I’ll take care of your girl.”
Dee nodded slightly, coughing again. More blood ran down her cheek.
“And the twins…”
“And the twins.”
She was talking about me, me and Blaise. I hated it. I hated sitting here and doing nothing. Where was the doctor? I gritted my teeth and held her wound closed. The blood was growing sticky in my hands. Her pulse was growing slower. I had the image of a white wolf in my head just then, the blurry idea of an image really. I shook my head, focusing on Dee’s face, and it was gone.
“Two jewels…”
Dee’s breaths began to hitch, and blood trickled from the side of her mouth. Her eyes moved away from my dad, and at that moment I could sense her losing the world. Her wolf was running away, changing. So too was her human half. My body felt hollow and weak as she drifted farther and farther away in body and spirit.
“Dee,” I said, holding her throat under my hand. I didn’t need the slowing heartbeat to tell me what I already knew with all of my senses. “Dee.”
Then all of the connection between us vanished, and she was gone. I didn’t know if it was before or after her eyes closed, because mine were already blinded by tears.
Chapter Thirteen
I stood over my grandmother’s grave. Snow was falling through the fir trees, the soft white flakes tumbling down.
The funeral had been held yesterday, but I still needed to say more. There was too much left unsaid, too much that I wanted her to know.
“Hi, Dee,” I said. I knelt down and placed a branch of holly leaves against the slate stone that marked her grave. The same decorations we’d made for my birthday feast. Now there would be no more birthday feasts with her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but you were always there to catch me if things went wrong. This time…”
I trailed off, my voice choked with tears. This time had been more than a mistake. This time, I’d taken responsibility and everything had gone to hell. It was my fault, all of it.
“I want you to know that I love you, Dee,” I said. “And I found someone. Alekk. I’m sorry you never got to meet him. I know you would have been happy to know him. He was strong, Dee, just like you. Strong and wiser than I am. It’s not his fault… I know you thought you were fighting against him.”
In my mind, Alekk’s older sister attacked again. I shut my eyes as I heard her jaws snap.
“It was all Villa. His sister. The one who fought you. The one who…”
I couldn’t say the word. She’d killed Dee. She’d killed my great grandmother.
“She was going to fight against all of us. Even Alekk, if she had to. But she saw that nobody was going to back her. When Alekk faced her, she turned and ran.”
I stopped to wipe the tears from my face. I hadn’t seen much of Villa, except her dark tail flashing against the snow as she ran away through the trees.
“There’s peace, now, Dee,” I said. “She’s gone. The rest of the pack is with Alekk. And he’s not a warring alpha. Neither is Blaise, not really. They made peace right then and there.”
Right then, when your blood was flowing onto the ground.
I stopped talking and closed my eyes. Pressing one hand onto the frozen ground, I thought of all the times Dee had been there for me. Memories flashed through my mind…
Shifting. It was the first time I shifted into wolf form. I was scared, but Dee was there along with my mother. She laughed and told me about how my mother had grown up not knowing that she was part wolf. That she was scared when it came time to shift, too. I looked at my mom and saw that it was true. Dee held out a hand and I grabbed it and closed my eyes. I let the strange part of me take over my body, and I felt myself changing, my muscles growing stronger, my senses growing sharper—
“Thank you, Dee,” I whispered. “You made it easy for me. It wasn’t easy at all, but I knew you were there. I’m sorry—”
“Kinaya?”
My head snapped up and as I breathed in, I smelled my parents. They stood behind me at the foot of the grave. I stood up and turned to face them, my face hot with tears.
“We came to talk with you alone,” my dad said. His clouded eyes were rimmed red with tears. I wondered then what it would be like to be blind. He had fallen in love with my mother and never even seen her face.
“Sure,” I said. “We can talk here.”
I placed one hand on Dee’s gravestone. Whatever my parents had to say, they could say it in front of her.
“We wanted to talk with you about… about Alekk,” my mom said.
“Is this what you want?” my dad asked. “Really?”
A strong feeling of certainty came over me, like two arms holding me close.
Alekk wasn’t here. He’d left us and retreated back to their territory. Before he left, he told me that he would wait on the ridgeline for as long as I needed. It had only been a few days, but I ached to see him again. I wanted to be back in his arms. I knew that was where my place was.
“Yes,” I said to my parents. “But it’s not about what I want. It’s about Alekk. He’s my mate.”
“Kinaya—”
“Your mother is concerned,” my dad interrupted.
“About what?”
I knew the answer as her eyes darkened.
“I can’t forgive him for what happened to Dee.”
A frown creased my forehead, and I felt my fingers grow cold against the stone.
“His sister—”
“I know what happened,” my mom said. “I didn’t see it, but Damien told me how she died. I still… I can’t help but think that this isn’t the right pack for you. From everything I’ve heard, they are a violent pack. They’re brutes. I mean, look at the brand on your neck. It’s barbaric!”
“That’s part of why I need to go there,” I said quietly.
My mom paused, her hands clasped together.
“It’s not only that,” I said. “Dee talked about the Calling. About how when you meet your mate, he’s the only one for you. You told me that too, remember?”
“I remember,” she said.
“You said that when you met your mate, it would feel like coming home.”
My eyes burned with tears.
“Alekk is my home,” I said. “He’s my mate. There isn’t anyone for me. And I know this is a terrible way to start off, but I promise that I’m not making this decision lightly. It’s not a decision. It’s just…”
“It’s just true.”
My mother was nodding. I saw tears in her own eyes.
“I understand,” she said. “When you meet your mate, there really isn’t anything that can pull you apart. I hope you’re right, and I hope this pack will change.”
“Has he asked you to marry him yet?” my dad asked.
> “I—” I paused, unsure. He hadn’t explicitly asked me. And yet, I wore his brand.
“No,” I said, answering truthfully. “But he will.”
I saw my mom struggling with my answer. I didn’t know if she would ever come to terms with the idea of my marrying Alekk. Maybe she never would.
But maybe, just maybe, it would be okay anyway.
Chapter Fourteen
My mother’s words made me doubt myself. As I walked home from Granny Dee’s grave, I thought more and more about Alekk. He had called me his. He had told me that I would be his forever. And yet he had run away, taking his whole pack with him. He’d left the territory.
Did he really love me?
Back at the house, I said my goodbyes to Blaise and to my parents. I kissed them goodbye. In the forest, I found Ana waiting for me. She cried out as I approached.
“Kinaya!” she cried. “I heard all about it! Did the Scarred Prince really capture you and take you hostage?”
I smiled.
“He did,” I said.
“Was it just like in the stories? Did they torture you? What’s the Scarred Prince like?”
“The Scarred Prince…” I trailed off before looking out to the mountains, where he waited for me.
“The Scarred Prince isn’t a monster,” I said.
“He’s not.”
“No, not at all. He’s an alpha, an alpha who loves his pack.”
“They said that the soldiers branded you.”
“It was the Scarred Prince himself that branded me.”
I knelt down and brushed my hair aside. I had spent hours staring in the mirror at the black mark, three curved claw slashes that marked me as Alekk’s. I was part of his tribe. Ana’s fingers brushed the edges slightly, and I winced.
“Does it hurt?”
“Only a little. It healed quickly. I don’t think it will be too bad. And I have a journey ahead of me to keep me distracted.” I stood back up and shook my hair back over the brand. When Alekk had done it, it had meant only pain. Now, it meant so much more. Every glance at the mark made me long to return to him.
“Where are you going?” Ana asked. Her upturned face looked so young, so sincere. It was impossible to think that I had ever been a little girl like Ana. And yet there she was, waiting for my reply.
