Thrane's Fated

by Marina Maddix

  Thrane blew out a breath and shook his head sadly. “I guess…I don’t know. Just practice what I’ve taught you already.”

  “Let’s do it!”

  I bared my teeth at him menacingly and crouched low in the defensive posture he’d shown me. On any other day, my words would have drawn some kind of deep, guttural growl of pent-up sexual tension. Not today.

  When he lunged at me halfheartedly, I easily deflected the move, blocking his grabby hands and spinning away from him. Feeling rather proud of myself, I bounced around a little.

  “Whoa, did I just beat the great Thrane?” I teased.

  I expected him to react forcefully, the flames blazing in his eyes, but he just shrugged again. “Guess so.”

  We sparred for a few more minutes, with me slapping away his attack the first time, then every time. Something was definitely off. He seemed beaten down, as if the moons had been pulled from the sky. Besides the fact I was learning nothing, his behavior had me genuinely worried.

  “Thrane,” I said, patting a light sheen of sweat from my brow, “are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  He snorted, then scuffed a toe in the dirt, before meeting my gaze. When he did, my heart clenched and my lungs stopped working. Cold seeped into my bones until I shivered. The fire, which normally blazed in his eyes, had been extinguished and replaced with an eternal emptiness that shattered me.

  Thrane broke the connection first and sat on a log, staring off into the purple depths of the forest. Finally able to breathe again — barely — I settled next to him, so close I could feel his warmth. It soothed me, even though I had no idea why I was so upset.

  My body yearned to pull him into a hug, to comfort him — why, I didn’t know — but my previous interactions with Thrane made me wary. Instead, I tentatively laid a hand on his shoulder. He slumped at my touch, and a million ants crawled up my arm at the contact.

  “Shh, all is not lost. There is hope.”

  I wanted my words to comfort him, but he jerked his head up in surprise. His gaze searched mine, desperately, without a trace of avarice.

  “Why did you just say that?” he whispered, his voice ragged. He sounded almost…afraid. But that couldn’t be. Thrane prided himself on never being afraid.

  “I-I don’t know. You just look so disheartened; I wanted to cheer you up.”

  He searched my face until I squirmed, but I never broke eye contact. He needed to know he wasn’t alone. People cared for him…including me, as it turned out, though I didn’t dare admit it out loud or he’d take it as an invitation to hit on me again.

  Would that be so bad? I shook away the random thought.

  Thrane swallowed hard, as if he were fighting back tears — which was obviously impossible — then slowly wrapped his arms around my waist and dipped his head into the crook of my neck. Instead of the forceful embraces he’d given me in the past, this one was gentle and uncertain. I don’t think I’d ever been so confused. Or touched.

  We sat there like that — him hiding his face in my neck and me stroking his broad back — for a long time. It seemed like hours, and I could have sat there for hours more, except a young couple strolling by drew Thrane’s attention.

  “Do you think it’ll be a girl?” asked Urdrum, my friend Yara’s mate.

  The news of her pregnancy caught me by surprise, and I would have jumped up to extend my congratulations, but something about the way Thrane watched them stopped me.

  “I sure hope so,” Yara said as they moved past us. “We need as many girls as we can get.”

  Even with my new extra-sensitive Warg hearing, I heard nothing more as they strolled toward their hut, but Thrane’s gaze didn’t waver until they disappeared from view. Seeing him this way worried me. If Thrane — the baddest, meanest, craziest alpha of them all — was distraught over something, it had to be big.

  “What’s going on, Thrane?”

  He shook his head and refused to look my way.

  I sighed. “Remember Ouma’s prophecy? She said light shines through the morning veil. What if she meant mourning veil, like a shroud of darkness? I think she was trying to tell us that even though things might seem bleak, we should have faith it will all work out in the end.”

  His body tensed and through gritted teeth, he said, “Well, isn’t that a pretty thought.”

  Without so much as a glance in my direction, he stood and stalked off toward the forest, leaving me more terrified than I’d ever been in my life.

  11

  THRANE

  Today, Arlynn had me painting the meeting hall, a decidedly ugly building. She’d said something about teaching me perspective, which didn’t make sense, since it seemed I was the only one in this fucking village with any idea of what that word actually meant. As it turned out, in the world of art, it means something entirely different.

  And that was a good thing. I needed something to take my mind off the news Natalie and Jorek had shared with us a week earlier. It ate at my gut…at my soul. A black cloud had descended on me, and the only bright spots were my training and art sessions with Arlynn.

  The training sessions allowed me to take out my frustrations. Naturally, I didn’t harm Arlynn, but the very act of ‘fighting’ seemed to boost my mood. I worked her hard, teaching her advanced moves more for my sake than hers. The exertion seemed to sweat the hopelessness from my body. For hours afterward, I felt almost normal again.

  The art had taken longer to warm to. At first I’d thought it was stupid. Who cared about such meaningless things, like painting pretty pictures, when we were at the brink of war? But since discovering our entire species was doomed, I’d developed a surprisingly lax attitude toward just about everything. What once would have sent me into a rage, now left me feeling ambivalent. What was the point, after all? If the Terrans wiped us out tomorrow, what did it matter? We were dead anyway.

  “Nice painting,” said a gruff voice behind me.

  Startled — no one snuck up on Thrane, Alpha of the Hill tribe! — I spun around, a growl already rumbling up my throat. Chorn, Markon’s second, held up his hands in mock surrender.

  “No, I’m serious,” he said, taking a step backward at my snarl. “I never would have expected it, but you’re really talented. Of course, you have an excellent teacher.”

  Chorn smiled at Arlynn, and the hackles on the back of my neck stood on end. My growl of irritation got him moving away from us pretty quickly, but I was surprised to discover a flush of pride warming my skin.

  “He’s right, you know,” Arlynn said. “You’ve made incredible strides over the last few days. Your grasp of perspective is nearly flawless.”

  “I know.”

  Instead of becoming irritated, Arlynn laughed. “I wish I had your confidence, Thrane.”

  “You should. You’re the real deal.”

  I felt her gaze on my skin, but I focused on my sketch. When little Krit had crouched down in front of the hall to pick a couple flowers, moments after we’d set up, I’d quickly sketched his shape. Emotion welled up inside me at the scene. It held such…hope.

  My eyes burned with unshed tears. Fury overrode all other emotions, and I threw my charcoal into the great fire pit and swiped at my paper. Instead of flying across the commons in a satisfying manner, it flipped upside down and fluttered down between Arlynn and me, landing right side up.

  Arlynn stared down at it for a moment, then her gaze shifted up to my face. Ashamed at my childish behavior, I turned away, unable to meet her beautiful brown eyes.

  “How the fuck did this happen!”

  “What?” I asked, as I turned back to her, completely confused.

  “Huh?” She looked as confused as I felt.

  “You just said, ‘How—’”

  The patrol I’d sent to the southern border two days earlier, interrupted her when they strode into the commons, a crowd trailing them, and making all sorts of noise. The guards puffed out their chests and kept the clamoring crowd at a distance, as if they
were protecting something hidden within their ranks.

  “What the hell…” I cried out, startled when Arlynn squealed like a forest rat caught in a trap.

  Still clamping my hands to my ears, I watched as she sprinted toward the crowd, shoving and ducking, somehow managing to squeeze through the mass of bodies. I finally followed, and the crowd parted just long enough for me to spot something foreign…something Terran. Instinct took over, and before anyone in the commons could so much as blink, I took my beast form.

  Drool spattered in the dust as I stalked across the commons, my growl resonating in the air. Bodies moved quickly, eager to back away from their angry alpha. I knew very well how intimidating my beast was — bigger than other Wargs, my bulging muscles bunched and rolled under gleaming black fur, and my orange eyes blazed with a feral ferocity that terrified even the bravest warrior.

  Finally, the crowd parted completely, giving me a full view of the scene. As my eyes locked onto my prey — which I had every intention of taking down with a single swipe of my paw — Arlynn jumped in front of me.

  “No, Thrane!”

  I stopped and searched her frantic face. Glancing beyond her, I glared at the three terrified Terran females cowering together, staring at me. Arlynn moved her body to block them from my view.

  “They’re my friends, Thrane,” she said calmly, though the quaver in her voice betrayed her own fear. “Please, you’re scaring them.”

  I’d always prided myself on frightening my enemy, and if Terrans weren’t my enemy, I had no idea who to hate anymore. But as strange as it felt to admit, I trusted Arlynn. Pulling my beast back within me, I stood tall, the proud and dominant alpha of the united Wargs.

  “Who dares bring Terrans into our village?” I growled at the patrol leader.

  Torrhen stood strong under my hot glare. “I know I’ve breached protocol, sir, but I used my best judgment. Don’t punish the others for my mistake. They only followed my orders, sir.”

  “No, don’t punish him either,” one of the Terran women, a curvy redhead, bravely spoke up. “It’s our fault. They were only trying to help us.”

  Wargs helping Terrans? What had our world come to? My gaze flicked over to Arlynn, who would have surely died at the claws of a grumpus had Solan not saved her and her sisters after they crashed in the forest. My ferocious heart softened…slightly.

  “Come forth, Terrans, and explain yourselves!”

  Arlynn rushed to the redhead and locked arms with her, glaring at me defiantly. She said nothing, but her presence gave the other women strength and courage. If she’d been my own mate, I couldn’t have been more proud. Or irritated.

  “I’m Nell, this is Lysandra and Teah. We’re from the colony and are seeking refuge,” the redhead responded.

  Murmurs rippled through the gathered crowd. Terrans seeking refuge with Wargs? Insanity!

  “Explain!” I roared, gratified by the women’s winces, but shamed by Arlynn’s scowl. I could almost hear her chastising me for being a bully.

  The one named Nell stuttered for a moment, then found her words. “W-w-we were at the Training Center with Arlynn, Sienna and Natalie. Up until a couple weeks ago, we’d assumed they were off on their missions, but then, we began to hear rumors. First, we heard they’d somehow commandeered their shuttle and killed all their guards.”

  Arlynn gasped. “No, that’s not—”

  “Quiet,” I snarled, wanting the woman to continue uninterrupted. I’ve found that letting a prisoner ramble on when they were terrified, was the best way to get to the truth…eventually.

  “Um, after that, we didn’t hear much, but I can tell you it caused quite a bit of excitement with the other orphans.”

  Markon had told me the women at the Training Center weren’t orphans in the truest sense of the word. That’s just what their Terran guards called them, because it sounded so much better than ‘prisoners’.

  “Then, a couple of weeks ago, whispers started trickling in again about a great battle way off in the wilds. Many Terran guards had perished as they attempted to selflessly rescue Sienna, Nat and Arlynn from the deadly grip of the Wargs.”

  A smattering of snickers sounded around me, and I let them enjoy their amusement. The worst the three women had endured, was spending a few hours in my containment center. Arlynn could complain all she wanted about me giving her the bite, but I know she’d been eager to become a Warg.

  “And you believed them?” Markon asked as he joined me; Solan stood beside him.

  “At first we did,” admitted Teah, the smallest and most timid of the three. Her voice sounded like a falling leaf on a soft breeze.

  “You have to understand,” began Lysandra, the third Terran, as she stepped forward and bravely locked eyes with me. The woman had seen battle, judging by the wicked scar running down one cheek. “We’ve been told Wargs are monsters since before we could speak. But the more all of us orphans talked about the Three Musketeers—”

  “The what?” Solan asked.

  “The Three Musketeers; that’s what we called the three who escaped. After some great heroes from the ancient texts.”

  We three alphas looked at each other and shrugged. We didn’t know their history or their ways, nor did we care. What we did care about, was finding out why these women were here, and what that might mean for us.

  “Continue, please,” Markon said softly.

  Nell took up the tale. “Anyway, we finally realized too much time had passed since their escape for whatever happened out there to be a real rescue attempt. If they were still alive after all that time, they weren’t in danger of being killed at all. Then more whispers started up.”

  “A guard who was sweet on me,” Teah said, blushing slightly, “told me he’d heard Sienna and Arlynn had been turned into Wargs, and that they’d killed Hank during the battle.”

  Arlynn shuddered, and I knew she was remembering that moment with revulsion.

  “That’s true,” she confirmed through clenched teeth.

  “Teah! Nell! Lysandra!”

  Sienna sprinted across the commons, followed closely by Natalie. They rushed to the Terran women and gathered them in their arms. I caught Markon’s gaze and rolled my eyes at the over-the-top display of affection. Finally, the squealing and crying died down enough for him to ask Nell, who seemed to be their alpha, to finish their tale.

  “Well, that’s when the three of us came up with a plan to escape, the three of us. We hid at the bottom of three big trash bins, which was even grosser than it sounds. No one noticed us when they dumped the bins outside the gates of the city, because we were so covered in filth. When night fell, we ran as fast as we could across the barrens toward the closest edge of the forest, and just hoped for the best.”

  Torrhen stepped forward. “We spotted them from miles off, sirs, and prepared to take them prisoner or kill them, whichever seemed right in the moment. When we saw they were females, though…”

  He didn’t need to finish. Despite the fact no one else knew our species was on the brink of extinction, they did know there was a seemingly insurmountable disparity between males and females.

  “They were so kind,” Teah cooed, gazing up at Torrhen with fluttering eyelashes. “They allowed us time and privacy to wash all the stinky trash off us, and they gave us these pretty wraps to replace our disgusting jumpsuits.”

  She twirled in a circle, causing her silk wrap to lift enough to show off her stout, shapely legs. I could practically smell the hormones wafting off the men gathered around.

  “And so you will be welcomed by our entire tribe,” Solan announced, stepping forward and taking the lead. “Tonight, we feast!”

  The crowed cheered and howled, encircling the women like they were our saviors. I looked for Natalie and caught her eye. There was no need for me to shout my question over the heads of the others — she knew what I needed to know. The flicker of hope which had kindled in my heart, died with one shake of her head.

  It was not enough. />
  12

  ARLYNN

  “From before remembered time, the Great Tribe has welcomed all visitors to Thracos,” Solan shouted from the dais at the front of the packed meeting hall. “Nell, Lysandra and Teah have come to us of their own free will, seeking asylum from the insanity of cruel Terran tyrants, and we shall grant it. In the tradition of the ones who came before, this feast honors not only our new friends, but also our ancestors and traditions. Now that the Valley and Hill tribes have reunited, we are the Great Tribe once again!”

  My old friends from the Center winced at the ear-splitting roars which reverberated around the room. Wargs of all shapes and sizes — some even in their beast form — crowded every square inch of the place, and spilled out the doors. Nearly as many people stood outside as in.

  “You’ll get used to it,” I whispered to Teah, sitting to my right.

  I’d been seated at the very end of the long head table with the ‘fresh meat’ situated between myself and Natalie, as if I were an after thought. It made sense. I was the only Terran-turned-Warg without a mate, after all, and the newcomers were the guests of honor. I probably should have felt honored for even being invited to sit at the head table at all, but it still felt like salt rubbed into a very raw wound.

  “Oh, I’m sure of it,” Teah replied, her voice breathy with either terror or excitement. Judging from the way her eyes skipped from one burly, handsome Warg to the next, I made a guess it was the latter. “I can’t believe they all seem so interested in us.”

  “They are, trust me. As you might have noticed, the male-to-female ratio is a bit skewed. Plus, they prefer their women on the bigger side.”

  Teah turned wide eyes on me. “Really? Why?”

  My heart cracked in two at her question — not in pity, but in understanding. We’d been told we were unworthy our entire lives, yet not far from the source of our self-hatred, lay a land that revered us as perfect women. Why couldn’t we have been born here, instead of the colony?