Her Royal Wolf

FALL MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS SERIES: BOOK THREE

G. BAILEY

Contents

Other Books by G. Bailey

Map

Description

Quote

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

Author’s Note:

Volume 1

Chapter 1

HER GUARDIANS SERIES

HER FATE SERIES

PROTECTED BY DRAGONS SERIES

LOST TIME ACADEMY SERIES

THE DEMON ACADEMY SERIES

DARK ANGEL ACADEMY SERIES

SHADOWBORN ACADEMY SERIES

DARK FAE PARANORMAL PRISON SERIES

SAVED BY PIRATES SERIES

THE MARKED SERIES

HOLLY OAK ACADEMY SERIES

THE ALPHA BROTHERS SERIES

A DEMON’S FALL SERIES

THE FAMILIAR EMPIRE SERIES

FROM THE STARS SERIES

THE FOREST PACK SERIES

THE SECRET GODS PRISON SERIES

THE REJECTED MATE SERIES

FALL MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS SERIES

ROYAL REAPERS ACADEMY SERIES

THE EVERLASTING CURSE SERIES

THE MOON ALPHA SERIES

Her Royal Wolf 2021 (c) All Rights Reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Design by Rebecca Frank

Edited by Polished Perfection

Created with Vellum

Map

Description

My alphas have crowns…and if I can win the rite, so will I.

After arriving in Fall Mountain Pack, I found out all the secrets the alphas were forced to keep from me—and the terrible truths that came with them.

Along with what loving them will cost me.

The rite is a thousand-year-old test for the position of alpha female, and if I want to win it, I have to battle against wolves far stronger and more trained than I am.

The six instructions for the Forest Rite:

1. Once you enter, you can’t shift.

2. You can’t leave unless you win, not even in death.

3. Don’t look into the shadows.

4. If a path appears, take it at your own risk.

5. This is the forest of the gods. Pray to them for help.

6. Only one wolf leaves.

The alphas can’t save me now, and we aren’t alone in the city. The old gods are stirring, pulling themselves back into a world on the brink of war.

The angels are silent, including their king, which is strange.

Persephone and Hades’s love may have been written in the stars, but if I want my alphas, I have to fight.

And I will.

This is a full-length reverse harem romance novel full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. Intended for 18+ readers.

Quote

A wolf is a wolf,

even in a cage,

even dressed in silk.

-Unknown

Prologue

OISEAN, COMMANDER OF THE ANGELS

T he sound of a new wolf baby cry echoes throughout the snow-ridden forest. Trees shake with the power of the cry, signifying one more wolf-born goddess is walking in the mortal world. Blood and the musky scent of the forest surround me, reminding me of my home. We have many trees and forests there, but our forests are coated in rich, deep and true power. The snow crunches under my feet as I walk to where the wolf babe is being held in white blankets, clung to by a blood-soaked female wolf.

I lean down, the female wolf looking up at me with fear.

“Wh-why are you here?” she croaks, holding her crying babe closer. I can’t see the babe’s face, but the cry is strong. The mother’s eyes are as dark as her skin and hair, quite beautiful, but she isn’t meant for this world much longer.

“You asked to be one of the chosen, and you lied to your pack about your connection to me. The eighth child should not exist, but I helped you. Your baby survived, thanks to me, and you know what we agreed,” I respond. Dealing with these wolves has been an annoyance. They are all too emotional.

“But I just gave birth to her! I wanted time, to nurse her, to tell her I love her!” she cries, trying to crawl away from me, marking the snow with her blood. “P-please! Please don’t take her yet. Please!”

I sigh as I take two steps closer and effortlessly rip the babe from her weak arms. She cries and claws at my legs as I spread my wings and float above her. “You stink of death, wolf. Be still as it claims you. Go with the honour you have brought a goddess into this world.”

She pauses in her wailing and looks up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I curse you to a life of misery and death, winged one. I curse you with my life.”

I smile. “Your daughter is the goddess witch, not you, and she is only ever going to know I am her father.”

“You are not her father,” she sneers.

“Maybe not in blood, but such things have never counted for me.”

The babe cries in my arms, and I push some of the blankets back, her honey-orange eyes looking up at me with the innocence only a babe could have. A new goddess, one I can keep for myself, train to be my secret witch in the war to come between the gods. They are all here now, in the mortal realm, and my task has just begun.

As the babe settles, I look down at the female wolf, who is silent in a pool of her own blood. Death has claimed the wolf, and I claim Medea, the babe, my witch goddess. My goddess of illusion.

Together, we will rule this mortal realm.

Chapter

One

M y gods, I knew nothing.

I guessed nothing like what the truth really is.

Fall Mountain Pack isn’t the smallest pack in the world, like I was taught, but instead, it’s the largest and most powerful. Millions of wolves live in the city in front of me, a whole pack that the wolves of the Ravensword Pack could never even imagine exist. Since learning about the angels and seeing the world outside when we were on the train, I always assumed the angels were the ones ruling the world and they could never be challenged.

But, looking over at this city, I’m not so sure anymore. Everything that has happened to me—being rejected by the alpha of Ravensword and thrown to sea, surviving that to find my alphas, then learning that we knew each other all along and they had been looking for me—all of it has led me to this point, to this city, to my people. My wolves. My alphas.

The grass crunches under our feet as we walk down the hill, surrounded by enormous black wolves. My eyes watch the red cloaks of the alphas of Fall Mountain Pack, the red fabric stroking the grass as they walk in front of us. Valentine and Silas are close, on either side of me, their arms brushing me every so often, comforting me.

“You were bound not to tell me anything about this pack,” I say. My statement doesn’t need an answer. I know I’m right.

“Yes—”

“I bound them with blood, forbidding any conversation about this pack. It is the same blood-bound promise any wolf makes who leaves. Our city is our secret for a good reason,” Alpha Reine interrupts, looking back at me, and then pauses. “And any conversations like this should be done in private. We have a reputation to uphold, Mai.”

The sternness of her voice, the power behind it, makes me want to bow my head. I feel the pressure of her gaze as we stare each other down, and my body starts to shake, a feral growl slipping from my lips. She growls right back, her eyes bleeding to a blood shade of red.

“Mai—” Valentine steps in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. I immediately snap out of it, the trance I was just in, and shake my head.

“I don’t know what just happened,” I whisper.

“Young wolf,” Reine huffs. “But such power. The rite is going to be very interesting.”

Valentine and Silas both tense, and it only makes me more nervous of what I’ve just signed myself up for.

“Wait for me!” Trey shouts, and I look up to see Trey running down the hill.

“Who is the boy?” Reine asks, walking to Valentine’s side. I keep my eyes from hers, not wanting a repeat of what just happened. Trey crashes into our group, brushing back his blond hair, his cornflower blue eyes looking between us all.

Phim places her hands on his shoulders, but Silas speaks. “Trey is our ward, who we have raised.”

Soren walks to Reine’s side, glancing at Trey. “How old is the boy?”

“Ten,” Trey answers. “But I look older.”

“That you do. You are tall for your age,” Reine comments, smiling his way and looking up at her mate. Something silent passes between them, and he walks away before she looks to us. “Some wolf children grow faster than humans, after all. Some do not.”

“Trey certainly has done,” Valentine agrees.

“As our ward, he will be staying with us,” Silas states, his tone offering no room for argument.

“I look forward to learning all about you, Trey Fall,” Reine softly tells him before turning away and continuing her descent down the hill, walking easily between the many ragged, moss-covered rocks.

It takes a while for all of us to get down the mountain, and the whole time, I’m aware of Silas’s and Valentine’s gazes on me, watching my reactions to this city, to their pack and the secret they were forced to keep from me. The reason why they always hold back, never tell me how they feel, makes so much more sense now. They have a duty to this pack, to be alphas, and this rite means they can’t choose their own mate.

But I know, deep down, how I feel. I think I might know how they feel, and finally I have some answers. We eventually come off the hill and onto brick-laid streets and pathways, lined with small houses. It’s staggeringly beautiful. The crater walls that make the hills cast deep shadows down on the city, and where the sun does touch, it highlights how lovely it is. Every house on the row in front of us is made of golden brown bricks with white roofs and sweet little white windows with different coloured flowers hanging out of them. The wooden doors have the mark on my hand drawn into the wood, each one painted in a different way, but it’s all the same symbol. It’s their symbol for Fall Mountain Pack, I realise. I turn my hand around, looking at the mark there. I have so many marks now, starting with the moon marks on my back, the pomegranate and vipers on my arm and now this on my hand. My marks are my story painted on my body, and I never want it to end.

Marks have meaning, marks have power.

I lower my hand and look once more at the city I now call home, a place I am meant to feel safe.

Each house has its own little picket-fenced garden in front of the door, filled with beds of plants and fruits, some with people in their gardens, enjoying the beaming sun shining down on us. Two little girls in soft cherry dresses run through the gap between the houses, their laugh making my lips tilt up. The roads, the streets even, have beautiful crystal street lamps lining the edges, and I can scent nothing but wolves, the distant forest, and fresh, clean air. It’s effortlessly peaceful here, untouched by the brutal world outside. A place the Levi hasn’t destroyed, humans never found, and the angels haven’t ruined.

I know why my four alphas call this home, why they never spoke a word of it, blood-bound or not. This place is worth protecting with my life. So are the people. They are happy, content, and most importantly, innocent.

For a while, I just take it all in, the beauty of the city, of everything stretched in front of me down this one road and strip of homes. This is only an inch of the city, but it’s so different, so unusual compared to everything I’ve seen in my life. The pack in Ireland was close to this, but on a smaller scale and not as hidden. Ravensword was never this quiet, never this calm.

The city is calm.

“What do you think?” Valentine questions. Reine looks my way, as does her mate, waiting for my answer.

“I have a lot of questions…but this pack is incredible from where I’m standing. I see why this is home,” I say.

“We will answer anything you wish now,” Silas tells me. “Anything, Mai. We told you, once we got to the city, there would be no secrets. That is true.”

I look into his winter grey eyes that seem lighter now. His moon mark on his neck looks darker in comparison, and I can’t handle the pressure of his gaze for long before I need to turn away. “Why do I have this mark on my hand?”

“Every wolf who enters our pack lands is marked. Even the angel was presented with a mark,” Alpha Soren answers. “It’s a safeguard. You won’t be able to speak of the city when you leave unless I allow it.”

“The rest of your questions will have to wait until we are inside our castle,” Alpha Reine interrupts, “as I have many questions myself, for all of you.”

She gives Valentine and Silas a pointed look.

I’m almost thankful for the interruption, as everything feels a little overwhelming, too much to take in at once. My questions can wait; I trust my alphas.

I trust myself, and this pack feels like nowhere I’ve been before. The land is seeping with shifter energy, and it’s enough to make me feel dizzy.

Valentine, picking up on my nervous energy, ever so softly links his fingers through mine as he holds my hand. His warm hand gives me a little more strength, and I make sure to hold my head high. I look up to see Alpha Reine staring at us, or more at our hands joined, before turning away to no doubt hide her reaction. I did notice the look she gave me, the one that suggested she isn’t overly impressed.

I hear the sound of the horses before I see them in the distance, gigantic black-haired horses running towards us down the path, while people move out of the way. The horses are twice the size of me, galloping so fast I wonder if they can stop in time. The four horses are pulling along a mammoth-sized carriage behind them. The carriage is lit up inside but appears older, making me frown as I wonder who made it.

“We mix some of the human technology with our own. Our engineers are quite extraordinary,” Alpha Soren states. “Are you interested in the making of cars and carriages, among other things?”

“Of course she isn’t, dear,” Alpha Reine hushes him.

“I have watched Ragnar in his garage many times, and he showed me how some of it works. It’s very interesting, but I prefer to have my head in books or training with Silas,” I say.

Silas chuckles. “Sure you do. The many curse words you throw my way during training suggest you love it dearly.”

My cheeks redden as he winks at me, and Valentine chuckles. Even Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren look amused for a moment before they both turn away. I glance back at Trey, Phim and Adira, who are staring at the city in awe. Adira looks away from the city, probably sensing my gaze, and her robin egg blue eyes fall on me. She smiles at me, a smile full of malicious intent.

I smile back, baring my teeth a little, before looking away. She is a snake, and we just let her into a wolf den. I’m determined the only one who is going to get hurt is her.

“It is good to have you home,” Alpha Reine says, looking at Valentine and Silas and then finally on the rest of us. We don’t get the same warm greeting, but I do understand. She doesn’t know who we are anymore, as we have changed from children. And she doesn’t know much about Phim and Trey at all. I imagine, as alpha female of this huge pack, she has had to make herself strong and become careful of who she trusts.

The carriage stops in front of us, and I stare up at the magnificent horses, admiring their soft coats and long manes. Within the braids of each horse’s mane are silver upside-down mountain clips that catch the sunlight.

“It is good to be home,” Silas replies, walking up to the horses. He pats the side of one of them. “How is my horse?”

“Gwendial is fine,” Alpha Soren tells him. “We will ride out together tomorrow.”

Silas nods at him, a softness in his eyes for Alpha Soren. I remember being told Alpha Reine challenged his biological father for Silas, won, and brought him up. I get the impression, or feeling, something similar happened with Valentine. I want to ask about Valentine’s history, but I will wait until he comes to me. No one should be pushed into revealing their past.

“Should we not wait for Ragnar and Henderson to come back down with the children?” I question.

“They will catch up,” Valentine tells me.

“There was an outbreak of a nasty sickness five years ago that took a lot of our young,” Alpha Reine tells us, a note of sadness in her words. “Wolf children are very welcome to many parents here, and they will be honoured and celebrated. My people are working hard to find them homes, and you need not worry.”

“I will try not to,” I reply, looking at Alpha Reine. “And I’m so sorry for your losses.”

“We endure the fall,” she tells me, each word filled with power, “and rise in the ashes.”

She turns away from us, and I look up at the gigantic oak carriage that towers up into the sky, the oak shaped into leaves and petals that join together to hold a red stained glass sphere. The door of the carriage has the Fall Mountain Pack symbol carved in the middle, and it opens outward before a man jumps out. Wearing all black, with a red cloak falling from his shoulders and a red symbol on his chest, he bows his head of black hair. Two swords are strapped to his back, and four daggers are strapped to his arms.

“Any royal guard wears this uniform,” Valentine tells me, loud enough for Phim, Adira and Trey to hear. “There is a ranking for guards, starting with grunts, and the top level is one of the Selected Royal Guards. To become one takes intense training.”

The guard keeps his head bowed as he pulls down a little tiny row of steps that lead into the carriage before stepping to the side.

Alpha Reine walks on first. “Thank you, Krause. Take us back to the castle.”

“Yes, alpha,” Krause responds. Alpha Soren climbs on next, and Silas gestures for me to follow. He holds onto my hand as he guides me up the steps, and I sit on the empty side. The walls are dark, with an electric light above us on the ceiling, and the seats are made of dark red fabric. There is space for at least ten people to sit in here, maybe fewer if they are the size of my alphas.

Silas comes and sits right next to me, opposite Alpha Soren and Reine. Valentine gets on next and sits beside Silas, followed by Adira and Phim and finally Trey. Trey takes the seat next to Alpha Reine and Soren, immediately chatting away as the door closes and the carriage takes off.

I peel the red curtains back to look out the window, watching the houses go past until we come to a clearing of grass, and beyond is one of the two rivers that flow through the city. We cross over a large white stone bridge, and I look down to see three swans in the river, gracefully swimming along.

I look back to see Silas and Valentine deep in conversation, both of them tenser than before.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

The carriage goes quiet, everyone listening in as Silas answers me. “Our bond with the pack has gone silent.”

“What does that mean?” Phim questions. “I can feel the bond, but I can’t tap into it.”

“It’s like it’s gone silent, disappeared,” Trey agrees.

“It’s the magic of the city,” Soren claims, interrupting. “It can do that, on occasion. I heard of issues with the pack bond when my father’s rite was started. The land doesn’t know who the alphas are going to be, and it makes the rules.”

“The land is alive with god magic,” Alpha Reine agrees. “We should all be cautious of its strength while The Rite of Wolves is commencing.”

“There’s only one pack after all. Making another one and then coming here must have messed with the magic,” Silas agrees.

“I hope it was worth leaving your people for so long,” Alpha Soren comments, his eyes looking my way. They left to find me, and it has no doubt cost them something they aren’t saying. The city seems at peace, the people safe, and that can’t be said for anyone outside these walls.

I get the impression he is talking about me, about whether I’m worth the years they spent looking for me.

Silas and Valentine turn my way. Their combined gaze makes my heart beat fast. “Some people are worth all the stars in the sky, all the packs in the world, and every beat of our hearts.”

I suck in a breath, holding back the emotions pouring throughout my body. These alphas so effortlessly take my heart and soul with a couple of words. With a look.

I love them passionately and whole-heartedly, and whatever the future is going to throw at us, we can handle it.

The silence becomes uncomfortable after a while, and I choose to look out of the window, watching the city pass by, enjoying the normality of this place. Wolves fill the streets, both shifted and not, pausing to enjoy the leaves falling from the trees or a quiet talk with a friend. Some are eating on benches, others are running or doing stretches. The shifted wolves are walking between them or lying on the grass in the shade, young wolves playing at their feet. The young wolves are tiny, and they must shift for the first time so young here. I can’t wait to run through this city in my wolf form. The scents and sights will be unforgettable.

The wolves here wear a mixture of human-like clothing—dresses and jeans, leggings and T-shirts—surprising me. In the Fenrir Court, the angels dress like humans in the eighteen hundreds, and we were the odd ones out. We drive around a corner, and I look up at a large, broken pillar that towers into the sky. The pillar is made of white stone, beautifully carved, and I imagine it was one of the original parts of the mountain that fell.

“Is that part of the original mountain?” I question, pointing at it.

“Yes, and there are parts like that all over the city. The city, by the way, is called the Ruina City, and it is divided into eight plazas. Each plaza has a name, and it is defined by the pillars which mark the borders of areas. We just left the Infernum Plaza, and we are now in the Calah Plaza,” Alpha Reine explains to me.

“I look forward to learning more about Ruina City,” I answer.

Alpha Reine nods, looking out. “I felt your presence, all six of you, when you stepped in here. The land shook with power, unlike anything I’ve seen. You were all born to walk this city, to be in this pack.”

“I know I was,” Adira comments with a proud smile.

Alpha Reine watches her for a moment, and I can’t read her expression before she turns back to looking out the window. “This land is steeped with magic from Hades and from other gods who walked on this place right before our time, and after a while, the land speaks to you. It helps you.”

“Do you think the land is happy to have us here?” Silas questions. I’m a little surprised he doesn’t call her his mother, but I don’t comment on it.

She frowns, turning to Alpha Soren. “Yes and no. The rite…well, it has made the land alive once more with thick, dangerous and wild magic. We should all be very careful until you take our place as alphas.”

“Our connection to Hades has grown,” Silas warns.

Something like fear flashes in Alpha Reine’s eyes before she rests back. “I look forward to our long conversations on what has happened this last year that I haven’t heard from you.”

“How did you contact each other before?” Trey asks.

“Fox and his oddly silent brothers regularly brought people here from my sons, along with letters. We have received over two hundred wolves, all young or female,” Alpha Soren answers him. I wonder if they have a problem with the birth rate of female wolves compared to males here.

Trey starts asking a million more questions, mostly about food, and I softly smile at Silas, who smirks at me as I turn away to look out of the window, watching the city once again as we pass by it. The small houses slowly turn into bigger ones with large grasslands between them. We pass another pillar, marking a new district that is full of newer townhouses, rows of them with what I think are shops on the lower levels. Several of the townhouses have glass windows with dresses on display, or jewellery and many other things we pass by too quickly for me to really see. The streets are filled with so many people, some pausing to look at the carriage and whisper to their friends. I catch several eyes in the crowds, and I smile at them, wishing I was out of the carriage so I could talk to them, find out the secrets of my new home.

After several miles of townhouses, we come up to large gates shaped like wolves running together, made out of gold metal. The gates meet in the middle with a large upside-down mountain symbol in silver, and in front of that are several men in guard uniform, their red cloaks making them stand out. In a row, they bow their heads before pulling the gates open, the creaking noise filling the silence.

“Welcome to the Hades Plaza and home to Darkland Castle. Our home is yours for now,” Alpha Soren exclaims. I don’t miss the for now part of his invite. I push the worry in my throat down as we ride past the gates, and I get a good look at the Hades Plaza.

For miles, it’s just woodland and fields filled with flowers of every colour, towering oak trees and bushes filled with berries. I scent everything, even from within the carriage, the way this part of the land is truly alive. It’s breathtaking to take in as we head down the winding stone-laid path until we eventually go past a few rows of small grey stone townhouses with walled gardens around them and three long stables at the end, filled with horses. The carriage veers to the left, and I see where we are heading: a large clock tower standing tall in the middle of a short-walled courtyard, with ivy and red roses climbing over the stone and up the tower. The clock isn’t moving, and it doesn’t have any hands, just a wolf’s face in silver on white within the circle of the clock, and markings where the hours are. Above the clock face is a red bell hanging high.

Where is the Darkland Castle? I can’t see any castle or building other than the clock tower, but I doubt that is what Alpha Reine means.

When we pull into a courtyard, I do notice on either side of the clock tower, there is a crater with water falling in from either side, the ends of the river. The sounds of the waterfalls hit my ears when the carriage door is pulled open.

I climb out of the carriage after Alpha Reine and walk away from them all, to the clock tower and the small brick wall marking the edge. The gap is gigantic, spreading for a few miles, and the waterfalls are huge on either side. I look down and see the castle built into the ground, into the gap, and it has been designed in the shape of a wolf with three heads.

“Did you know Hades and Persephone had a wolf who couldn’t shift?” Valentine comments from my side. Everyone else is looking down at the castle with me, but Silas and Valentine are watching me closely. Like they want to take in my every reaction.

I shake my head, and he continues, “The wolf couldn’t shift because he was cursed for loving someone he shouldn’t, and the curse made him morph into a wolf with three heads. The world cast him away. No one would help or talk with him due to his ugliness, until Persephone and Hades met him. They took him in, told him the world might have seen him as one thing, but that did not mean he was what they said. They named him Cerberus, but no one ever knew his real name. He walked these lands, protecting Hades and Persephone from any danger in repayment for the kindness.”

I look at the castle, the one they must have designed to look like Cerberus. Yes, he isn’t the prettiest wolf to look at, but he is still spectacular.

“Sometimes, when you look that way, I want nothing more than to know what’s in your mind. What you are thinking and feeling,” Valentine whispers to me, searching my eyes as he leans in, the closeness of him making my breath hitch. “You’re a riddle to me, Mai. A riddle.”

“I actually thought you were the riddle, Val,” I whisper back, searching his eyes, feeling that familiar and wanted tug between us.

Adira laughs at something, snapping me back and reminding me we aren’t alone.

“What’s down there?” I ask, pointing at the darkness. “Is it a river or lake?”

“No one quite knows,” Valentine replies. “The castle doesn’t go that far down. It just stops at some point, and no one is brave enough to climb or jump.”

“Maybe we should send the angel asshole to see, and hope he doesn’t come back?” Silas suggests in a serious tone, rubbing his chin like he is actually thinking of sending Callahan down there. He’s joking. He must be. At least I think he is joking.

“I want to have a private word with my boys,” Alpha Reine announces. “I need to know everything that has happened and how exactly you found both Mai and Adira. The rest of you, it is time to have a small look at the castle on the way to your rooms, and then we will see each other at a celebration meal and afterparty.”

She pauses and clicks her fingers. Alpha Soren is already walking away, taking Trey with him. “Trey is being shown to the children’s section of the castle, where he will be protected at all times. We take our children’s safety very seriously here,” Alpha Reine announces. “And the poor boy needs a bath and a haircut.”

“I’m sure he will love the pampering,” I say.

“I have no doubt. But any private talk you want, including knowledge, can be said in front of our beta and Mai,” Silas replies.

“And me,” Adira grumbles.

“Boy, you might be older than you were when you left, but I am alpha female, and when I demand to speak with you alone, I will not be questioned,” Alpha Reine growls out. “I have commanded you to tell me everything, and you will. There will be no discussion on who is present. Especially not wolves I don’t know or trust.”

Both Silas and Valentine look ready to fight when I step forward, placing my hands on both their arms.

“I’ll be fine on my own, and I could do with resting,” I tell them both. “It’s safe here. It’s our home.”

Even if I’m not sure it feels like home right at this moment. I feel unwanted, especially by Alpha Reine, but like she said, she doesn’t know who I am or anything about my story. In her mind, I could have been hiding all this time, knowing who I am, and choosing not to find our people. She knows who I was as a child, nothing more than that.

“Fine,” Silas tensely replies, and Valentine nods, placing his hand over mine on his arm before I let go.

Alpha Reine doesn’t look impressed, and I suspect they are in for an earful only a mother could give when we aren’t here.

“I will protect Mai in your absence.” Phim steps up to my side. “As your beta, it is my honour to do so.”

Alpha Reine stares at Phim for a long time, her eyes widening slightly.

“I know who you are. Why did you not say?” she questions.

“Some things should be kept in the past,” Phim tightly replies.

“I did not get to meet you more than once as a young one. You screamed and cried all of the time, from the moment you were born. Like you wanted the world to know how angry you were,” Alpha Reine tells Phim with a sad smile. “Seraphim, I knew I remembered the name. At least your terrible father gave you the name when he stole you away.”

“Stole?”

“Yes, stole.” Alpha Reine nods. “Why do you think he took you to Ravensword? It was the only place we couldn’t get you back.”

“I-I thought I was given away,” Phim whispers. “How old was I when I was taken?” she asks.

Stolen… She was stolen away. Our mum never wanted to give her away.

“You were only a few days old. The story is long and complicated…but I know my dear friend wished she could have brought you up alongside Mairin, and prayed for you every single day,” Alpha Reine says, turning to me. “I’m sure Mai has many stories about—”

“We have much to discuss,” Valentine interrupts, and I give him a nod of thanks as I gently place my hand on Phim’s back. She straightens up, wiping away some tears.

Two blonde women in dark red silk dresses with thin silver cloaks falling from clips off their shoulders walk over to us, their heads bowed. The one on the left is slightly taller and has a chunk of her ear missing, visible with her hair tied up in a bun. The other woman’s hair is down, falling to her waist, and she looks up at Silas and Valentine, her cheeks turning red.

I can’t blame her. They are alluring and tempting to even the purest soul.

But a spark of jealousy makes me gulp.

“We shall see you shortly,” Alpha Reine states and turns away. Silas nods to me before leaving, Valentine looking into my eyes before turning and following after him.

“Please, follow me. Feel free to ask any questions, and I will answer them as best I can,” the taller one says, her head still bowed. “It is an honour to be in your presence.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” I reply as they start walking away, across the courtyard. Hidden within the courtyard walls is a door, and the shorter one holds it open for us to follow the other in. The door leads to a winding staircase, and I count two hundred steps before we hit the bottom, which is lit up with modern electrical lights lining the ceiling. I barely get a chance to look at the large framed paintings on the wall before we turn to the left, moving aside to let four guards walk past.

The path leads to another, much larger staircase, and on every third step, there is a gold statue of a goddess or god holding various weapons. I pause at the one on the ninth step, recognizing her immediately, even in stone. She has a veil over the top part of her face, her long hair falling around her and the flowing dress she wears. In her hands is a bowl of pomegranates and one viper curled around them all. My eyes flicker to my arm hidden under my shirt.

Persephone.

“Is this Persephone?” Phim asks me.

“Yes,” I answer, looking away. The women and Adira have gone ahead, and we walk quickly down the steps to catch up, finding Adira looking up at one of the statues. The goddess is completely naked, her body twisting to the side, and her hands are bound with rope. Her long hair is braided, and a crown rests on top of her head.

“Let me guess, this is Peitho?” I question.

Adira turns to me and smiles. “Peitho was the only other female in the worlds Hades loved. They were lovers, did you know that?”

My stomach drops like a stone, a sickness rising in my throat as a growl snaps out of me. I feel my wolf pushing me to shift, and it takes every bit of strength I have to not let her.

“And then Persephone, the love of his life, came along,” Phim adds in, making me feel a little better.

Adira smiles, a seductive smile. “The rite will decide who is their true love.”

“Do you really think winning the rite will ever make them love you?”

She tilts her head to the side, her eyes flashing with blue power for just a second. “I can be…persuasive.”

“Is everything okay?” one of our tour guides questions from the bottom step.

“Yes,” Adira answers and walks away as my hand shakes, my body itching to punch her.

“She isn’t worth it, and she is not their lover,” Phim reminds me. “Rise above it.”

“I intend to try,” I bite out. “But she really pisses me off.”

We carry on after them, down another forty steps until we come to a corridor that is filled with books, rows and rows of bookshelves towering up to high ceilings that are at least twenty feet tall. There are books of all shapes and sizes in every nook and cranny, the old book smell filling the space and making me feel at home already. Hanging chandeliers float down from the ceiling, tops of them unseen in the cosy darkness.

“Wow, it’s dusty in here,” Adira says, sniffing. “Books should be burnt outside to make space in here.”

I ignore her ranting, disgusted by it, and I’m quickly fascinated by all the books, the amount of knowledge that must be held in these corridors.

“Excuse me,” I say to our guides. “I never caught your names.”

“My name is Erin,” the taller one says. “And this is Helle.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Mai,” I tell her. “How many corridors of bookcases are there?”

Her eyes widen in excitement. “We had them recently counted, well, the ones we can find. The rooms in this place tend to disappear now and then,” she explains.

“The rooms disappear?” Phim seriously questions. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Oh, no one has ever gone missing. The house has its own magic and protects itself. The rooms usually clean themselves as well,” she explains.

“I’d really like to stay somewhere else,” Adira pipes in, and everyone ignores her.

“Anyway, it has four thousand bookshelves—that we counted—and it doesn’t include what is in the five libraries,” Erin explains.

“I think I’m in love with this house,” I sigh.

“Do they have any books on sparring?” Phim questions. “Perhaps some new techniques.”

“I’m sure there is a section!” Erin says with a grin. “The library keeper will help you. I can show you the way whenever you like, but perhaps we should get to your rooms first.”

We carry on down the book-shelved corridors for a long while, passing a few windows that overlook the waterfall.

“Do you think they have books on riddles?” I ponder out loud.

“We can ask together,” Phim suggests, and I nod with a smile. “For Valentine, I’m guessing?”

“Yes! I want to find a riddle or make up one with ideas,” I say. “Something that will make him pause and struggle to get the answer. The riddles he gives me get harder each time.”

“He has an old riddle book under his bed,” Phim tells me. “I asked him about it once, and he told me to piss off before getting drunk. Maybe you’d have more luck now.”

We go down two more staircases before coming to a corridor that is painted white, with beautiful alcove ceilings and paintings of dragons all the way across the middle of the ceiling. The dragons are water dragons, dancing between symbols and flowers. It really is beautiful.

Erin answers my question before I’ve even asked. Even Adira is staring upward, not a bad word from her mouth. “Who painted these, we are unsure. These are original paintings, like many of the paintings throughout the castle. Aren’t they something else?”

“Are there other painted ceilings around the castle?” Adira asks.

“Yes. The throne room is personally my favourite,” she replies.

“I can’t wait to see that,” I answer as we come to a row of doors at the end of a corridor. Erin goes to say something when a black wolf runs down the corridor and walks up to her, dropping a letter from its mouth into Erin’s hands.

“It’s for you,” Erin says, handing me the slightly wet note. The wolf runs off, and I place the letter at my side, knowing I’m not opening it in front of Adira.

“This is your room, Adira,” Erin says, her companion silent still. I hardly even remember her name. “If you need anything at all, there’s a phone in your room, simply just pick it up to speak to us.”

“Brilliant. I want food, clothing and a warm bath,” she demands, opening the door. “Immediately.”

She slams the door before Erin can reply, and I sigh.

“I’m sorry about her,” Phim tells Erin. “She is a bitch.”

Erin chuckles before covering her mouth, her cheeks burning red. She heads slightly down the corridor, past one door. “Your two rooms are next to each other. I thought you might like that.”

“Thank you, Erin,” I say, opening the dark oak door. She bows her head and walks away, leaving Phim to follow me into the room.

The room is impressive and huge in comparison to the train bed I’ve slept on for weeks. A large king-sized bed takes up most of the room, and three windows look over the waterfall in the pit, letting light into the dim and cosy bedroom. There is a wardrobe in a similar sleigh shape as the bed, and an open door to a small shower room.

“I hope my bedroom is this nice, or I’m swapping,” Phim comments, sitting on the bed. I sit next to her and open the letter.

Come alone to my private rooms before the celebration meal this evening.

We must talk,

Alpha Reine.

Phim reads the letter over my shoulder, and we look at each other. “Be careful.”

“I will,” I answer. “How do you feel being here?”

“Like something is wrong. Really wrong,” Phim tells me, standing up. “The alphas won’t let anything bad happen to us, and they think this is their home. I just can’t shake the feeling…like…”

“Like something bad is going to happen?” I ask. “I mean, I did just enter The Rite of Wolves to fight for them and to be alpha female.”

“The alphas won’t—”

I stand up. “They gave up this city, left it, to find me. I will fight for them and prove my worth. Not only to them, but to the city and, most importantly, to myself. Respected leaders aren’t given everything and hidden from the world. They are the ones who stand up for what they love and protect everything good. I think this pack, Fall Mountain Pack, is good. The people are.”

“I hope so,” she replies. “And watch your back in there. I can’t watch it for you without entering myself, and obviously I won’t do that.”

“I know,” I softly tell her.

She sighs and steps back. “Get some rest. You look tired and stressed. I’m napping for five thousand years, if you need me.”

“Bye, sister,” I say, the word foreign on my lips even now. She looks back at me as she walks away, a small smile on her face before she leaves me alone. I sit down on the bed and lie back, looking up at the red bird painted across the ceiling.

I’m still a bird in a cage. This time, I’m fighting my way to the top and the freedom it promises.

I won’t be controlled and used by anyone ever again.

Chapter

Two

UNKNOWN

I n the deep darkness of the room, I hear a voice, something like an echo, that snakes into my chest and cuts me deep inside. The first of many cuts, the voice seems to promise and vow. I can’t remember much anymore, but one image of a woman is unforgettable. She is beauty, and light, and I love her. I can picture her now, even as the creature nearby tries to erase her from me. Her blonde hair like silk, her bow lips, and bright green eyes like the vibrant forests of my home.

Mairin. My Mai.

For her, I will keep on fighting until the very end, because she will come for me. She will know that king isn’t me. That I’m here, stuck here, and she will see.

I won’t be left here for long…

Chapter

Three

“G ive her back to me,” a woman screams, once, twice and one more time, but the final plea is nothing short of a cry. “My daughter does not belong in hell. She is not yours!”

I open my eyes and gasp in shock at the sight below me. I’m floating above a burning hollow in the ground, a hollow filled with red and black darkness shifter energy. Dark magic. It curls around the feet of a tall man in a cloak, his face hidden from sight, as though the shadows and darkness are his friends.

The woman stands right outside the gap, a yellow light shining all over her body. I have no idea who the silver-haired woman is, but there is a pull towards her.

“Persephone is my wife, my mate, and my lover. Her place is at my side, as it has always been and as it shall always be. In this life and the next,” the man smoothly replies, his voice like sugar and seduction. Luring you to him.

Hades.

“She is my daughter!” the woman screams.

“Demeter, all birds leave the nest. You, the goddess of nature, should know this lesson better than most,” Hades responds.

“And I am home, mother,” a soft-spoken female voice echoes from the darkness right before a figure walks up and out of the hollow, lowering her cloak hood. Persephone, the goddess my soul is connected to, stands at Hades’s side. Beautiful. That is the only way to describe her. Persephone softly glows green with blackness at the edges. Her silver hair falls low, braided at the sides with three red roses.

“You are lost,” Demeter whispers in horror. “He has turned your mind with his darkness and—”

“I love him,” Persephone interrupts. “He is mine, and I am his. I chose to stay. I chose to eat the food of the underworld and live here. I won’t leave, and I want you to accept what is.”

Demeter’s eyes are full of unshed tears as she looks to Hades, her body shaking with fury. “Watch as your precious souls weep at the destruction I am going to cause until you let my daughter go. I will destroy the earth.”

“Do what you must, mother,” Persephone replies, turning to Hades.

“The humans,” Hades whispers to her.

“Are not our problem. We will guide their souls, and the blood will be on her head, not ours,” Persephone responds. Demeter screams and yellow energy blasts out of the earth, crumbling the ground around them, and the last thing I see is green light as it burns through me.

I open my eyes, sucking in a deep breath to calm myself down, feeling light flickering into my eyes. It was just a dream.

Ouch.

I lift my hands above my face, frowning at the burns marking my palms.

“By the wolf, what have you done to your hands?” An unfamiliar voice makes me jolt, and I look up to see Erin standing by the bathroom door and hear the sound of the shower running, steam pouring out behind her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“Or sneak into my room?” I question, sitting up as she hurriedly walks over.

I did knock, but you never answered, and I left you an extra ten minutes, but if we don’t start getting you ready now, you’ll be late,” she explains to me, frowning at my hands. “How did you hurt yourself is the more important question.”

“Do you think dreams can be real? Dreams of goddesses and gods?” I ask her.

She lifts my hand in hers before looking up at me with her ebony eyes. I believe she is in her twenties, but her hand feels rough under mine, telling me she has worked hard for a good amount of her life.

She shrugs. “My father works in the Pack Prisons, with the worst of our kind, and he is a wise wolf. When I was ten, I had terrible dreams, and he often told me dreams are rarely just dreams. They are our mind’s way of escaping reality.”

“What are the Pack Prisons?” I question.

She steps back from me. “A place where wolves who have committed crimes, unspeakable crimes, are kept. There are other things in there, old and powerful beings and creatures who feed off the energy of wolves in the night.”

“In the pack I was brought up in, they would just have a trial and kill any wolf who committed a crime,” I say.

She smiles, straightening up. “Death is a blessing. A life in the prisons…it’s being drained, slowly, of everything that makes you. They take the memories first, then the voice, then every bit of the soul, until they are in a state of constant pain. They only leave fear, and that is the punishment every man or woman in that prison deserves.”

“Sounds like a place I never want to go or see,” I reply. I definitely think of a person who should be thrown in there for everything he did to me.

“Right, your hands,” she mutters. “You can’t go to the celebrational ceremony meal with burnt hands, and your wolf healing won’t fix it in time. I will have to get a dress with hand coverings or long gloves, and of course, ointment to take the pain away and help with healing. Get in the shower, and I will be back.”

“Thank you,” I tell her as she walks away. I head into the shower room, shutting the door behind me, and I strip off my dirty clothes before climbing into the shower, enjoying the hot water falling down my body. I rest back, trying to push the dream of Hades, Demeter and Persephone to the back of my mind until after the meal when I can get my alphas alone to speak to them about it. My hands sting as the water runs down my palm, the burn covering everything but the upside-down mountain mark. I carefully and painfully wash my hair with my hands, enjoying the watermelon scent and the silky feeling of my hair before finishing up and climbing out. Wrapping a towel around myself and leaving the shower room, I go to continue getting ready in the bathroom.

The bedroom has completely changed in colour, thanks to the setting sun, and I pause. As the sun sets over the waterfall, it casts beautiful shades of poppy reds, burnt oranges and vibrant yellows through the windows of the castle into my room. The sunlight reflects off my body, highlighting my skin and hair, and for a second, I see myself lightly glowing.

The door is knocked once before it opens, and I turn back to see Erin come in. For the next half an hour, she plasters my hands with a green ointment that turns clear, leaving a protective seal over my palms, before drying and curling all of my hair. She applies makeup, drawing delicate bat wings and swirls coming out from the corner of my eyes, and I barely look like myself when she is done. I slide into the dress before standing in front of the mirror as Erin ties up the lace on my back. The dress has loops for my middle finger, covering the top and bottom of my hand in midnight blue lace which runs up my arms to the main part of the dress, which flows down to my feet in folds of star-littered-night-sky blue silk. After putting soft dark blue slippers on my feet, Erin places her hands on her hips and grins.

“You look perfect,” she compliments me. “The city is buzzing to see the alphas and…honestly, you. Everyone knows the reason they put off the rite and left was to find you. And now you’ve come back and entered the rite. It’s all very exciting.”

“Thank you for all your help,” I tenderly say, blowing out a breath. “The Rite of Wolves,” I whisper. “I wasn’t expecting to come here to fight.”

She gently places her hand on my shoulder. “I think you will win. You have my support, whatever you need.”

“Thank you, that means a lot,” I admit. “I’m a little overwhelmed by this place and all the people. I’m glad to know one of you is on my side.”

“More than one, Mai,” she replies as I walk to the bed and pick up the thigh strap and my two daggers. She comes over and shakes her head. “Weapons are banned in the throne room. They won’t let you take them in.”

“Damn,” I mutter. “Alright. I can shift if I’m in danger, anyway.”

“Don’t you dare shift and ruin that dress! It took me days to make it.”

“You stitched this yourself?” I question in awe, and she nods. “It’s really amazing.”

The door is knocked twice, and Erin opens the door where two guards are waiting outside. They speak quietly with her, and she leaves the door open as she comes over to me. “The alpha female has called for you. I will clean your room for when you return.”

“Thank you, Erin,” I say and walk to the door. The guards bow and turn at the same time, holding their back straight, and walk fast down the corridor to the staircase. We go up four staircases, and I’m completely losing track of where we are before we come to a large pair of stained glass double doors. The stained glass is made of panels of every colour in shard shapes, making no particular shape, but as the dimming sunsetting light shines through, it casts the multicolours onto the wooden floor so it looks like a rainbow as we walk across it. The guards open the door for me, but they don’t follow as I go in, and they close the doors behind me.

I turn back to take in the large bedroom, but my eyes flicker upwards first, past the four massive chandeliers to the painted ceiling, which is a forest of dark green trees, a shadow between them all. Two black metal staircases wind up the sides of the room to a veranda that hangs over half of the room. Green vines of dozens of different plants climb up the veranda, curling around the metal bannisters and walls. Several rows of large oak wardrobes hide under the veranda, and a large, impressive four-poster bed is in the middle, and sitting on the edge is the alpha female herself, clipping a crystal earring into her ear. She rises off the bed, her moonlight silver dress trailing after her as she walks to me.

“Thank you for coming to see me privately, Mai,” she says, resting her hands together in front of herself. “How do you like Darkland Castle so far?”

“Unlike anything I’ve seen before,” I truthfully say. “But I doubt the castle is why you asked me to see you alone.”

“You’re in love with them.”

The statement lingers in the air between us, and for a moment, we simply watch each other.

“Why else would I enter The Rite of Wolves?”

She nods and walks away from me, to one of the doors under the veranda to the left, waving her hand for me to follow. “For power? Many of the females I fought never wanted my mate, but they wanted to be alpha female.”

“You fought in the rite?” I question, following her into a small room. There are two cosy chairs in front of a large desk. The desk has four jewellery boxes, each of them a different type of wood, but each has the symbol of Fall Mountain on top. Alpha Reine waves her hand at one of the seats, and I sit down as she walks along the wall. She pushes into the wall, and a panel slides to the left, revealing a lit-up section. Inside are five crowns and an empty cushion. All the crowns are exactly the same: a wolf baring its teeth and holding a diamond inside its mouth at the front, and the rest is twisted silver vines to make the crown. Alpha Reine picks one up, and the panel slides back as she returns to me and sits down, resting the crown in her lap. All I can think of is the crown I promised Persephone I would find, the one I’m on a deadline to find. I doubt it is the crown in front of me, it just doesn’t feel right.

“When the children were young, I met a stray wolf in the forest outside our French home. You have been told about where you grew up, yes?”

I nod and she carries on. “Soren never told me who he was, or about this city, because he was bound not to, but I knew he was an alpha, even as he tried to hide that side of himself from the world. He ran away from here when his parents were killed, and never looked back. Soren fell into our lives, into the space left by my sons’ father, and is a great man. We were happy, even though the secret he hid was a ticking time bomb between us.”

I know that feeling well, I thought before she continued. “When the pack fell and the world became chaos, Soren had no choice and brought us here. I fought to be alpha female, and when I won, I let our heirs go to search for you.”

Reine pauses, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.

“I killed in the rite, and it changed my soul. Even now, the weight of what I did to secure my family’s future and to be with the wolf I was in love with…it haunts me.”

“Being haunted by the darkness in your past is…” I know I don’t have to tell her what it feels like, what it is. I’m sure she has killed more than I have done, and I feel like our past is mixing as one in certain points. My alphas never wanted to bring me here, to the rite, because it could split us apart. I can’t even think about that outcome.

“My sons have told me you do not remember us and you were brutally brought up in the Ravensword Pack. For that, I am sorry,” she states. “Your mother…well, I’m sure she is watching us as we talk now and sending you luck in your trials ahead.”

“My alphas told me the pack I was brought up in, including my mother, tried to protect me from someone. Who is this person?”

Her eyes tighten. “One of you, the babies, a god-bound wolf, but…he twisted what it meant to be bound to a god. The boy was the only one of you that was half-angel, and whatever is in his soul, his blood, turned him into a monster. The world paid for his greed, his obsession with power and you.”

Half-wolf, half-angel. Total monster. King of the rest of the world.

“Me?” I quietly ask, paling.

“Yes,” she replies. “I know it pains my boys to speak of him, and if you remembered, it would hurt you as well. He was in love with you, as much as my sons were as children, but I don’t believe you ever felt the same way. Your connection to my boys was there from infancy. You all grew up together, and you drew them in like bees to a flower.”

“What is his name?” I demand.

“We don’t speak his name, Mai. In fact, we don’t speak of him at all,” she tells me, “like we speak the names of none who betray our pack. He is the king of the angels, let that be his name, and he will fall by our claws and be buried in the ash of his stolen lands.”

“So war is your plan?” I ask.

She smiles and places the crown on her head. “Only alphas discuss the future of the pack, Mai, and right now you are only a wolf.”

“And bound to a goddess,” I add in. “My mother is gone, and I can’t ask her, but what happened when you were pregnant? How did the binding happen?”

She tenses, just a little bit, her eyes watching mine. “Our memories were wiped, and the only one who knows is the angel commander, Oisean.”

“I’ll make a note to ask him…before I kill him,” I say, holding my head high. “I want my friends let out. Breelyn and Callahan.”

Her eyes narrow. “We have a system for judging who stays in the pack lands if they are not sworn to the alphas. They are safe, you have my word as alpha.”

“Fine,” I growl. “Can I see them?”

“I don’t see why not,” she replies. “I’m glad we had this time together, I feel like I understand who you are a little better, Mai.”

“I didn’t come to this pack for a fight, but I know what is mine and what is not. I know what I want. My life hasn’t been good or even worth remembering until I met them, your sons, and they saved me. They fought for me, dragged me back from the darkness, and reminded me why I should be alive. Why I should fight every goddamn day for my life and what I want for my future. I choose to fight for them. The rite is my test, not only for them, but to prove I will make a good alpha female, and then we will discuss the war, Alpha Reine. That is who I am.”

She tilts her head to the side, standing up. “I see why they chose you. Even as a child, you were stronger in your mind than even me.”

I smile, wishing I could remember that girl before I bow my head in respect. “It was an honour spending time with you, Alpha Reine.”

“And you, Mai Fall,” she replies. “The next few weeks will be interesting.”

As I walk away, feeling her eyes on my back, I almost believe I made a good impression.

Chapter

Four

“W ould you like an escort to the meal?” Valentine asks as I step out of the double doors from Alpha Reine’s rooms, startling me.

I look up at him and pause, desire shocking me still. Valentine is wearing a tux. A crisp white shirt presses against his muscular body, stretching the material. His thick thighs fill his dark trousers, and his shiny shoes reflect the lights. Valentine’s hair is a little long, chocolate brown locks falling into his iridescent eyes and reminding me a tad of the more rugged alpha I met in a house on a beach. Even then, he took my breath away. And now it’s just more. I want more of him, more moments like this, more desire filling the air and changing our scents so easily when we are around each other.

I could definitely try to convince Valentine to wear tuxes more often. I’m literally speechless.

Footsteps make me turn to see Ragnar walking out of the shadows, through a door, and coming towards us. Ragnar has a similar tux on, his face clean and smooth at the edges, and the five o’clock shadow he was growing has been shaved away, his face cleanly shaven like Valentine’s. Ragnar pauses at Valentine’s side, his hands in his pockets, his eyes slowly looking at me from the tips of my feet to the top of my head. I do the same, eating up how extraordinary he looks, how both of their scents wrap around me in a comforting woodsy and vanilla scent.

“You smell like watermelon,” Ragnar comments, his voice full of gruff, unspoken desire. “Fuck, I love watermelons.”

“It’s the shampoo,” I reply, my throat dry. I turn to Valentine. “I’d love an escort because I have no idea where I’m going in this castle.”

“We would be honoured to escort you,” Valentine replies, his voice ragged and coated with desire. He clears his throat. “Mai, you look as exquisite as all the stars in the sky.”

Ragnar knocks his shoulder. “Val, always right and always so poetic, it makes us all look bad. Shall we get going?”

I chuckle and nod. “I’m so happy you both came for me. I don’t remember how I got here from my room, and I’d have to ask the guards to help me.”

“Before we came looking for you, we spent a year or so here, and we always got lost,” Valentine says. “But the house has a strange way of guiding you around.”

“How?” I question.

“It’s unexplainable,” Valentine says. “When you’re lost, you will see.”

I look at the walls as we pass. “Maybe it’s ghosts.”

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Ragnar questions.

“Yes and no. I believe we have souls, and it’s not unbelievable that part of our souls can stay attached to things or other people,” I reply. “Well, to me.”

“Like Hades’s soul and Persephone’s, and the others,” Ragnar agrees. I sometimes wonder what part of me is Persephone and what part is me and how closely we mix together. The souls we are bonded to are to be lovers, mated and married in every sense of the word, together. That connection must stretch into the world, and I doubt even death parted them. I want that kind of love, the love I’d die for, the love that would continue long after I’ve left the world. I wonder the same about my alphas, how much of them is Hades and his obsession with me, and how much of their feelings is their own.

We walk in silence through four doors and three more empty corridors, totally confusing me on the layout of this place.

“Did the children get off the train okay? I haven’t had a chance to see you and ask,” I question Ragnar.

“Yeah, Henderson and I sorted them out,” he replies, placing his hand on my lower back. “They seem to be easily bribed with the promise of sweets and warm beds by the people in this pack.”

“I’m honestly not going to miss the constant baby crying,” I admit. “I like children, but a train full of them has made me realise I don’t want children for a long time.”

“You’re not the only one,” Valentine says, scrunching up his face.

“You really don’t like children, do you?” I comment.

“I’d like my own,” he honestly responds, and my cheeks warm as I get the impression he means kids with me. For a second, I imagine that child. My blonde hair, his green eyes and golden skin. “And Trey is alright.”

“Trey is amazing,” I chuckle, thankful when he looks away to hold a door open for us. We end up going just around the corner before Ragnar leans down to my ear. “Ready for the meal?”

“Not exactly,” I say. A room full of strangers is not something I’m looking forward to, but I hold my head high nonetheless, refusing to be intimidated by the room. It’s not they who are intimidated, it is I, and I can control my own emotions and reactions. I will show them who I am, the real me, and that isn’t a scared female. I was never born to be the fear-filled female the Ravensword alpha tried to force me to become.

At the end of the passageway, there’s a stained glass door just like the ones that lead to the alpha female’s bedroom. But this time, it’s a tree designed into the glass, the roots all exposed, and the tree changes into stone at the top to make it almost look like the tree is holding up the walls. Four guards stand in front the doors, and two of them open the doors, the others walking away to make space.

The minute that the door opens, a flood of music fills my ears, and I look forward into the room to see it’s hidden behind a massive curtain. A large thick red curtain blocks our view of the room completely, and a man in a white suit waits in front of the curtain. I can hear the room behind the curtain, sense and smell all of the different things that are coming through. It sounds like an orchestra is softly playing the music, people are talking loudly, and glasses occasionally clink. There are so many different scents that I can’t even count them out as they mix together. The overall scent is pure wolf and flowery perfume.

“Where are Silas and Henderson? I can’t find their scents in the room,” I ask, still searching, but they would stand out to me.

“They are running a bit late,” Ragnar says, “but they will be here.”

A part of me is relieved, even if I wish they were here right now at my side. They give me strength, even being close.

“How many people are going to be at this meal?” I ask the next important question.

“Only the important people in the pack,” Ragnar says. “So about forty people, all the leaders of the different plazas, and anyone of importance like the betas.”

“Does the alpha female have an omega?”

Valentine’s eyes soften. “The only person Alpha Reine would have accepted as an omega would have been your mother.”

My chest tightens. I wish she were here; I wish I could remember her.

“Anything else I need to know about this meal before we go in there?” I ask.

“We’re expected to present ourselves in front of the city, and I’ve demanded you will be present at our side,” Valentine states. “It’s usually only for the alphas.”

“I shouldn’t be there then,” I say. “I don’t want to piss off the city I’m trying to win over.”

“You have earnt your right to be there the second you said you’d fight in the rite for us,” he growls at me.

“I did that because—” I pause.

He steps closer. “Because?”

“You damn well know why!” I protest, my cheeks burning.

“I still want to hear it,” he smoothly replies, and I walk away from him, pausing near the man by the curtains.

Ragnar chuckles as he walks over, whispering something to Valentine that I don’t hear.

“I will talk with him,” Ragnar tells Valentine and me.

Ragnar goes over and talks to the man standing by the rope, and I smooth down my dress, fiddling to make sure I get it right. I have to look fine.

Valentine catches my hands, stepping in front of me, and I glance up at him. I pause as he moves closer, so close I suck in a deep breath as his hands softly drift up my arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake. My body feels on fire everywhere he touches. Everything feels so much more intense as he takes one step closer, our bodies flush, and I arch my head to keep my eyes locked onto his. Wordlessly, because nothing needs to be said between us, he surprises me by kissing me.

Our first kiss. I take about a tenth of a second to decide the kiss is absolutely perfect, a million times better than I ever imagined. His lips move over mine almost gracefully, softly, pushing my lips apart, pushing himself into my mouth deeper. Every movement of his lips feels like he completely owns me, and I am his without a doubt. All the built-up tension pours out of us into the kiss, making the desire thicker in the air, and my entire being swims with pleasure. My body leans into his, wanting more, feeling his hard length pressing into my stomach, remembering that night on the train. I barely get to thread my fingers into his hair, his hands clutching my waist, before Ragnar coughs deliberately.

Valentine breaks away, looking pained to do so, and I feel that right down to my toes.

I stare at him, trying to catch my breath, and he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I promised myself I would not kiss you until we were in our home. It killed me to wait.”

All I want is for us to be alone so I can kiss him more, so I can search his body with my hands and—

“Val…,” I whisper, my heart pounding with emotion. If he wanted me to fall any more in love with him, he is definitely accomplishing that. “Val, I—”

“We are about to enter a room full of wolves who can scent an inch of desire a mile off,” Ragnar reminds us. “So how about you both calm down?”

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, brother,” Valentine replies, straightening his tie as he steps back. Ragnar is right. Tonight is about first impressions, but not one part of me will ever regret that kiss.

“Are you ready?” Ragnar asks me, his voice…off.

I barely get to answer before he is walking towards the curtain. “Yes.”

Valentine and I walk to his side, and I search Ragnar’s face, his body language, sensing that he looks like he wants to be anywhere else. The man pulls the rope, which slowly opens the curtains, peeling back to reveal the grand throne room.

“Alpha Heir Ragnar Fall, Alpha Heir Valentine Fall and Mairin Elysia Astra Fall,” the man shouts out, introducing us. The room goes silent, and I feel the eyes of so many on us from below, but I’m too frightened to look down, to see what is waiting for us.

I reach across and touch Ragnar’s hand for comfort, but he sharply pulls his hand away from me. “Sorry,” I whisper to him.

“About Valentine and you kissing in front of me? Like I’m not here?” he demands, a bitter tone to his voice I’ve never heard before from him. It makes me jolt, and Valentine wraps his arm around my waist, not missing a beat. Until this moment, I always thought we were on the same page when it came to us all. They told me they shared females before, and they never once said it was a competition, that there was jealousy between them all over me. I never want to come between them, or ruin their family unit, and jealousy like this could do that.

“I’m not sorry for kissing Valentine, Ragnar. Honestly, after what happened on the train…I didn’t think—”

“No, you didn’t,” he replies. “How do you think you’d feel seeing me kissing someone like Adira?”

Burning jealousy knots in my stomach.

“Enough, brother,” Valentine growls. “What the fuck is wrong with you tonight?”

Ragnar smirks. “Or what?”

Valentine tilts his head to the side, his eyes bleeding to red, glowing unnaturally, his voice deepening. “I’m going to fucking punch you and ruin that pretty suit of yours if you don’t shut up.”

“Try it, brother,” Ragnar growls back.

My head feels fuzzy, and my heart feels torn as I stand between them. “Please stop.”

They both look away, but Valentine keeps his arm around my waist. “Look at the throne room, Mai. I thought you might like it here.”

I take his advice now, needing the distraction, and look at the throne in front of me. A place where Hades and Persephone would have ruled this part of the world. They walked the path I’m taking. I can feel it in my soul.

Unsurprisingly to me, the room is absolutely, breathtakingly spectacular, and there is so much to take in, from the wrap-around windows that make it look like we are inside the waterfall to the pillars between each window that tower up to the very tall ceiling. Right at the back of the throne room is a giant throne, big enough to seat at least five people on it, maybe even more. The throne is completely made of smooth black onyx, cut from a single large stone, I’d bet. The back of the throne is taller, shaped into wolves’ claws, and the armrests are wolves’ faces, their teeth bared. On the seat is the upside-down mountain mark for Fall Mountain Pack, a silver inlay, and so clear from up here. The throne is slightly raised on a platform with four long steps up to it.

The sound of the falling water outside mixes with the chatter of the people in the room, and I can’t see where the music is coming from, so it must be under the staircase we are on. The centre of the room features a long rectangular oak table with red roses in vases, candles and white placemats. The table is filled with people on matching oak chairs, and so many of them are still watching us, no doubt hearing everything we’ve said and done. I know I’ve just made one hell of a bad impression on these people, the leaders of the plazas and no doubt extremely powerful wolves.

I try to take in many of their faces, but I find my eyes flickering up, looking at the giant ceiling that stretches above the room. It’s incredible. Dozens of stories are told in the paintings on the ceiling. All different sections, they are delineated with clouds, seemingly about gods. There is one right above me of a shirtless man killing a lion while kissing a very naked woman. In fact, most of the gods and goddesses are naked, and it makes me blush just to look up. I smile to myself, remembering Erin claimed this is her favourite painted room. I could spend hours just looking up at this ceiling until my neck ached and I had no choice but to look away. In the centre, there is a gigantic castle in the clouds that draws my attention, a castle made of crystal shards.

“That’s Olympus,” Valentine tells me. “It’s the only reference we’ve ever seen in the city except for a book found that marks that as the old home of the gods, where the gods were from before they came to this world and mixed with mortals and found their demise.”

“It’s incredible,” I say, looking up at the one chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the painted Olympus. The chandelier is absolutely gigantic, filled with thousands, if not more, crystals that are in spiralling patterns to match the painted Olympus design. This room is beyond belief, very regal, and it shows me what Hades and Persephone liked in the sense of decor.

“We should go and speak with the waiting people,” Ragnar says tensely, and it has nothing to do with the people. I feel like a wall has been slammed up between us, and I don’t know how to get through it.

“Sure,” I say nervously.

“Mai doesn’t have to speak to anyone if she doesn’t want to,” Valentine replies. “I will happily tell them all to fuck off.”

I laugh quietly. “I’m going to be fine.”

He goes to take my hand and squeezes it, making me flinch. Valentine pauses and lifts my hand, turning it over to see the burns under the lace.

“Who did this?” he asks with shocking possessiveness. He sounds dangerous, and it only makes me want him more.

“No one… Well, I woke up with them after a strange dream. I think the dream…” I drift off as I see my hand glowing with red power. I lift my other hand into Valentine’s waiting palm, and the seductive darkness of his magic caresses both my hands. I feel nothing but a warmness before the glow disappears, along with the burns.

“Next time you’re hurt, tell me. I never want to see you in pain,” he commands.

“Yes, alpha,” I reply with a coy smile.

His eyes flicker with something else. Something far more wicked, and his lips twitch.

Gods, I wish we were alone.

“Healed?” Ragnar questions, stepping to our side and picking my hand up to examine it. I nod and he smiles. “I’m glad.”

“I will,” I tell Valentine. “Thank you for healing me.”

“Always,” he replies. Always.

“Let’s go,” Ragnar suggests, offering me his arm. I hook my arm through his, and Valentine leads the way down the steps. “You are going to behave tonight, brother. We both know peacekeeping is not your strong suit.”

Valentine doesn’t pause as he carries on walking. “I can deal with it for a while.”

“Being alpha means talking,” Ragnar reminds him. “We can’t just let you get drunk and wash away your issues in a bottle.”

I sharply look at Ragnar. We don’t usually talk about Valentine’s drinking issues and what it is he has overcome to get to this point. “I’m joking, of course. But still, be nice. Mother wouldn’t be happy if you started a fight.”

“What is wrong with you tonight?” I question Ragnar, but he doesn’t reply to me as we get to the bottom step. I’m sure some think being back in the pack is stressing him out, or maybe it is just jealousy causing him to be a bit of an asshole tonight. Either way, I’m talking to him alone to work this out if I ever get a chance.

A young woman immediately stands when we get near the table and bows her head of long black braided hair, woven into two sections. Her skin is a lovely dark shade, and it matches her very dark brown eyes marked with silver makeup in swirls that come down to her cheeks. She is wearing a silver dress, with a long slit up to her upper thigh, which amplifies her curves as she rises. I see her moon marks on her upper arm as she smiles at me. “It is an honour to meet you all. My name is Solandis Fall, and I’m currently the beta of Infernum Plaza, as of last year. I really wanted to introduce myself to each of you as I’ve spent my thirty years of life studying the gods.”

“How interesting. It’s good to meet you, Solandis,” I reply. “I would like to know what you’ve learnt on Persephone, if you have free time.”

“It would be my pleasure, Mairin,” she says, looking delighted.

“Enjoy the meal,” Valentine tells her before guiding me away. We are stopped a few steps later by a male beta, who invites us to the Ina Plaza to enjoy the famous nights out. We are stopped at least fifteen times to speak as we try to go past, and I attempt to remember all the names and all their faces, but it becomes too much. I’m almost relieved when we get to our seats at the table and Ragnar pulls out a seat for me. Valentine sits next to me, with Ragnar on his other side. I pick up the glass of white wine and sip some, noticing there is only wine out for Valentine. I glance down the table, spotting a jug of water and an empty glass. I quickly climb out of my seat and grab them both, feeling eyes on me as I set them back down in front of Valentine and me.

“Thank you,” Valentine comments softly as I slide his wine glass over to me.

“I’m being selfish, really. I need more than one glass of wine to survive tonight,” I say, lying my pants off.

He laughs and leans over, kissing my cheek softly.

A silence ripples through the room for just a second, and I try to ignore the growing pressure I feel by drinking some more of the wine. It tastes like juice, but I remember the last hangover I had, and I don’t feel like reliving that tomorrow.

But then again, the night has only just begun.

“Beta Seraphim Fall and Adira Fall.”

I look up to see Phim and Adira walking down the steps, hushed whispers echoing around me. Phim looks absolutely stunning in a light pink dress, something I never expected to see her wear, and it completely suits her complexion. Her red hair is half up and half down, locks of shiny hair that messily fall around her shoulders. A sparkling pink clip rests in her hair, shining under the light of the chandelier, and she looks…not impressed. Phim, not fazed by a room full of betas and powerful wolves judging her, doesn’t falter, doesn’t pause as she walks past them even when they try to speak to her.

I glance at Adira, who has paused to speak to two males. I hate her, but she does look amazing in a tiny, glittering black dress that pretty much reveals everything about her body. Her long hair falls down her back in a straight wave, and Adira almost glows with her blue tints of power. She is far more connected to her goddess than she is pretending not to be, and I’m going to prove that she is using her powers and she controlled the Levi on the train.

“What kind of bullshit room doesn’t allow weapons?” Phim questions as she sits down next to me. “I feel naked and I don’t like it.”

I smile and she glares at me, making me only smile more. “What could you need a weapon for at a meal?”

“To look threatening and possibly stab someone if they don’t stop talking to me,” she deadpans.

“I think that’s the point. You don’t stab people during a meal,” I say quietly, but several people are looking at us like we are wild animals. I try not to laugh as she continues to frown at me like I’m insane.

“But where’s the fun in that?”

I laugh as I slide her wine glass towards her. “Drink instead.”

She grumbles at my suggestion but takes a sip.

“Alpha Heir Henderson Fall and Alpha Heir Silas Fall.”

I watch them take the steps down two at a time, effortlessly and too impressive for words. They are both in suits that match what Val and Ragnar are wearing, but Silas has lost his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms. The top of his buttons is undone, revealing his golden chest. Henderson looks flawless in his suit perfectly hugging his body, and he has cut his hair, left his five o’clock shadow and—god dammit. My heart feels like it stops beating as I look at them both. I can literally see their abs through the white shirt, their toned muscled chests and arms, and the way their bodies are so well built. They look like gods, coming to claim the room with just their presence. Somehow, they look better every single time I see them, and this time, I don’t try to hide my desire as they both look my way, no doubt sensing my change in scent.

A wicked smirk fills Silas’s lips, and he leans to Henderson, saying something that makes Henderson chuckle low, the sound making its way to me. I could literally stare at them all day.

Adira sits down in the seat next to Phim, and I turn to find her watching the alphas, her scent changing to one of desire. Gods, I hate her.

Phim stands up and slowly drags her chair closer to me, the awful noise of the chair grating across the floor, before she stops and sits down, close enough for her arm to brush mine.

“Bitch,” Adira mouths at Phim. I don’t even want to know what she mouths back that makes Adira turn away with a paler face than she had before.

Silas and Henderson spend time talking to several people on their way to us. Henderson softly smiles at me before he sits down on the other side of Ragnar. Silas walks past next, pausing behind my chair and leaning down to whisper into my ear. “Beautiful. So beautiful.”

Heat fills my cheeks as he carries on walking to his seat, and Phim shakes her head.

“You lot are so sweet it’s sickly,” she mutters.

“One day it will be you,” I tell her.

She wiggles her nose. “At this point, only a goddess could tempt me into the clusterfuck called falling in love.”

“Don’t go saying stuff like that out loud. The gods might hear you and see it as a challenge,” Valentine teases.

Phim glares at him, and I touch his hand under the table. He links our fingers as the room goes deadly silent.

“Alpha Soren Fall and Alpha Female Reine Fall. Rise.”

We only get a second of warning before everyone stands, and I do the same, Valentine still holding onto my hand. I realize this must be a tradition of sorts for them as everyone is silent, their heads bowed as Alpha Soren and Alpha Reine walk down the steps. Alpha Soren is wearing a dark chocolate brown tux with a red bow tie, and Alpha Reine is wearing a red dress with long sleeves and a short hem. They both don their crowns, marking who they are as they walk around the table, not acknowledging any of us. There’s a pause when Alpha Soren pulls out a seat for Alpha Reine and she sits first. Something about her sitting before anyone else seems symbolic.

“We thank the gods above and below us for the meal we are to eat. All hail the gods.”

“All hail the gods,” everyone repeats as Alpha Soren sits, and everyone else does after him. The room is full of waiters within seconds, running around, offering drinks to everybody, and placing small bowls of nuts, breads and butter on the table. My glass is refilled before I can even blink, and soon a steaming pile of food is placed in front of me. The plate is brimming with seafood, all fish I’ve never seen, let alone tasted.

“Try the red one,” Ragnar leans over to suggest.

I pick up one of the red slices of fish, cutting it with my knife and fork into a small slice, and my mouth explodes with flavour from one bite. It’s absolutely stunning. I barely get three mouthfuls before my plate is taken and replaced with another meal. This time it is a full plate of roasted chicken, steaming vegetables, and spiced potatoes all designed to make a flower shape on the plate.

“How many courses are there?” I whisper to Valentine.

“Usually five to six,” he quietly replies. Gods. In Ravensword, every meal was a blessing, and food was scarce in some parts of the city. The only reason I was fed well enough was the fact that food was donated to the foster home, but still, Mike had to hunt occasionally. I wish he’d taught me how to hunt. It would have been a good life skill, but he was always concerned about other wolves watching a female hunt and the reaction they might have had. Females weren’t allowed to do things like that.

“So tell me, Mai, what do you remember about how you got to the Ravensword Pack?” Alpha Soren questions. “I’ve been filled in on everything, but I do wonder how you got there.”

“I was shown a memory. An angel I’ve never met carrying me when I was twelve,” I reply.

Alpha Soren folds his hands together and turns to his mate. “Perhaps The Wolves of Mnemosyne could help with Mairin’s memories?”

She nods. “But there will be a price.”

“Who are these wolves?” Silas questions.

Alpha Soren sighs. “A last resort and a bad choice at that. The Wolves of Mnemosyne are immortal, ancient, and live not far from these lands. We have met them once or twice to trade, and some of our people have gone to them for trades. They make trades, magical ones, and I’ve heard they can control minds.”

“Recently a female wolf wanted a male to be in love with her, who wasn’t, so she went to The Wolves of Mnemosyne for help. They gave her what she wanted, and we don’t have a clue what she traded, but she lost her sight. She may have the male, who is in love to the point of obsession, but she can’t ever see him or anything anymore,” Alpha Reine continues. “The male is starving to death because he won’t eat or drink, or even sleep for more than a few seconds, because being away from the female is too much.”

“It’s safe to say no one but The Wolves of Mnemosyne got what they wanted,” Alpha Soren states.

“For my memories, I’m willing to do what it takes,” I say, and my alphas look at me with varying shades of disbelief.

“You did just hear what she said, right? The part about losing her sight and the male going mad with love to the point of killing himself?” Silas demands.

“Yes, I heard,” I reply, holding my head high. “And I will be careful. I won’t trade anything like my sight, but I need my memories back. If there is even a little chance of getting them back, I’m going to explore that option. I want to remember. I need to.”

“I think it’s a bad idea,” Adira adds in.

“You’re not the only one,” Henderson agrees. “This is too dangerous, Mai. I’m sorry, but you can’t do this.”

His words are filled with the power of an alpha, pushing me to submit. He instantly pulls the power back when he sees the look of shock on my face. “I’m sorry. I just can’t see you dead. I can’t see you nearly dying again, Mai.”

“None of us can,” Valentine says. “The rite is dangerous enough. Can we deal with one life-threatening issue at a time?”

“Fine,” I grumble… I don’t need their permission or knowledge. I can find The Wolves of Mnemosyne myself. Well, with a little help from Erin, that is.

The tension between us all is thick as my meal is replaced with a platter of fruit, and I don’t eat any, my appetite gone.

“Training is at six tomorrow morning, Mai,” Silas says. “I will send someone to guide you while I prepare a space.”

“We all will be at training,” Ragnar adds in.

“I’m looking forward to kicking your asses,” Phim says with a grin. The rest of the meals are served while we sit in silence, and I feel my alphas staring at me every so often, but I don’t want to look at them right now. I never want to feel controlled or forced into a box again, which they are trying to do with their overprotectiveness. Loving someone too much can be dangerous for everyone involved. I’m pretty sure the female who went to The Wolves of Mnemosyne can attest to that.

Alpha Soren stands, and the room goes silent as he pulls out the chair for Alpha Reine before she slides her arm into his. “The city is waiting to see our heirs and their guests. We should retiring for the night. Good moon to you all. May we endure the fall to rise in the ashes.”

“May we endure the fall to rise in the ashes,” is repeated around the room several times, echoing in the silence that follows after it. Then my alphas rise, and Valentine pulls my chair out for me, offering me his hand. I raise an eyebrow at him, making it clear what I think of that, before moving to stand next to my sister.

“You’re so pissed, aren’t you?” she asks as we walk after my alphas, their parents in front of them. I look at her and she chuckles low. “Overprotective alpha-assholes, the lot of them. Why do you like men again?”

I glance at their muscular bodies, a twinge of desire flickering through me. “Even now, I want them despite being pissed.”

“Angry sex is the best, by the way,” she tells me. “All that tension…”

I almost choke on thin air, looking at my younger sister like she is insane. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Okay, if you’re going to sneak away to see these witchy wolves”—she keeps her voice low—“you damn well better bring me along. I want to be your omega when you win this rite and become alpha female. Omegas protect.”

My chest warms…even though I’m not ever putting her in danger, and I think she knows that. “Who said I was sneaking out?”

“Please,” she laughs. “I’m not as oblivious as those four.”

We go up a winding staircase at the back of the throne room, and after a few dozen steps, I hear the whistling of the air coming through the cracks in the stone walls. Eventually we come out onto a balcony, and in the middle is the clock tower, the massive bell at the same level we are on.

Henderson steps back. “The bell is rung for three reasons. One ring is for a new alpha being born. Two are an alpha mating ceremony. Three are for war or an attack on the city.”

“Let’s hope the bell is never rung three times,” I say.

“The world is full of angels, and we are the only race dangerous to them. The bell will be rung… I only want us to be ready for when it is,” Henderson replies, and I turn to see Ragnar looking at us, a smile on his lips.

“I’m still pissed at you all,” I reply, crossing my arms as I start to hear a slow building chant getting louder and louder. I realise it’s a chant of the gods, a lullaby Mike told me once. It gets louder, deafeningly loud as we all reach the edge of the balcony wall and look down. The courtyard is crammed with people and wolves. Many of them are holding lanterns that make it look like there’s a million stars on the floor, and it’s a special and memorable view. It takes my breath away, seeing so many people crammed into the courtyard and the forest, filling every bit of space. They cheer and chant, crying out my alphas’ names. I hear my own name and Adira’s repeated in the crowds, too.

“Our gods and goddesses have come home. The future has just begun,” Alpha Soren says, his words feeling as powerful as they sound.

I stare over the sea of stars that are people, and for the first time, I realise what it will be to be an alpha female to a pack of this size. To make decisions that could risk their lives, to run a pack, to be at their side to help them in any way I can. Part of me is terrified, and another part of me wonders if I can do it, if I can be a strong alpha female like Reine.

I guess all I can do is try.

Because I belong in this city, in this pack…and in The Rite of Wolves.

Chapter

Five

“T oo slow,” Silas growls, easily whipping himself around me as I pant breathlessly and narrow my eyes as sweat drips over my tight clothes. I hate and equally love training, but Silas is a smug bastard at the best of times. And it’s the worst in here. I lift my daggers in my sweaty hands and brace myself once more. His eyes look me over, assessing me from head to toe in a calculating way that sets my blood alight. “What are you doing wrong?”

“You don’t want to tell me, all knowing master?” I bait him. I shouldn’t, not with the way he always reacts when I tease him during training.

At least I make it fun in my own sadistic way.

His eyes flare, and he moves swiftly with his own dagger. I block, only to lose my footing and stumble back. He is on me in seconds, pinning me to the mat, his dagger at my throat as my arse burns from the impact with the floor. I struggle underneath him as he easily holds me down, and he smirks. “Smartass, your core wasn’t tight, and you are favouring your left still. It’s a weakness, not one I want to see.”

He doesn’t move for a second, and this reminds me of the days we met, when he trained me from a weak girl into one who could do this. I flip him off me with my legs and bounce up, jumping away from him, using his tiny distraction. He glowers at me as he flips up in one smooth move I couldn’t do if I tried.

Sweat pours down my back from the hours of training, starting so damn early this morning that the sun hadn’t even risen as I walked the dark corridors to this place. It’s a long room with tall ceilings and rows of seating on one side and yellow mat-covered floors designed to soften a blow.

“My turn. Mai should take a break,” Henderson states, offering me a bottle of water and stepping into the circle marked on the floor. I give him a thankful look as I walk to the seating and sit next to my sister, who is sweaty and tired from training, too.

I drink my water as Henderson pulls his shirt off, revealing his glistening, corded, muscular chest, broad shoulders, thick arms and slim waist. Silas leaves his white shirt on, but the sweat reveals some of his massive build and trained body beneath. They both grab swords from the table of weapons, and Henderson flips his sword in his hand before getting into a stance.

“If I liked males, this would be a good show,” Phim sighs. She would be right. Seeing them like this burns something in my blood, in my core and soul. I could watch them fight all day, watch the sweat drip down their muscles, and imagine running my tongue—

Phim nudges my shoulder, and she grins at me, no doubt reading my mind. I lower my voice as Silas attacks, Henderson blocking and shoving him away in one swoop. “I want you to shadow Adira in the castle. It was easy to watch her on the train, but here? Not so much.”

Henderson attacks next, and they meet blow for blow, never missing a beat. They are equally matched. Silas is stronger, but Henderson is quick, as he moves like a ghost in the ring, and it’s mesmerising to watch. I feel Phim’s eyes on me, but I don’t look her way. “Consider it an omega-in-training order.”

“I’d do it anyway, as your sister,” Phim replies and nods. “But I will do it. I don’t think she should be left alone in the city either.”

“A snake in a chicken’s nest,” I murmur.

Phim doesn’t need to say a word; I feel her agreement as the alphas brutally clash their swords together and move like water in a river, fluid and graceful. I’m not sure who is going to win until Henderson makes a mistake, stepping to the right when he shouldn’t have, and Silas’s sword is in the space, the tip on his neck within moments. Only the tiniest break, that’s all he needed to find a way in and end it. Henderson chuckles and pats Silas’s shoulder, both of them talking about moves and countermoves.

“I’m going to shower,” I tell Phim, knowing my alphas will overhear. Phim nods before I leave the seats and head to the door and out into the corridor. The corridors are confusing, but somehow I find myself back at the bottom of the stairway of statues that leads to the courtyard, and I walk up them, pausing in front of Persephone, looking for something in the stillness of the statue’s eyes. I don’t know how long I stare at her, her beauty shining through even the statue, but suddenly Trey comes hurtling down the steps, a female chasing after him. His eyes widen, and he crashes into me. I embrace him back, breathing in his scent.

“This castle is amazing,” he exclaims in a hurry. “Want to see something cool?”

“Always,” I say as he grabs my hand and pulls me along. I chuckle, looking back at the female, who is kind. I can tell from her eyes of honey, her soft face and general demeanour, and how quickly she hurries after us. We head around corners and down a flight of stairs before we come to a door, and Trey opens it. It’s a sweet bedroom, filled with children’s toys, from a large dollhouse to a piano in the corner, and wooden toy planes lie on a mat on the ground in front of a fireplace. Trey drags me through the room that scents of him—his new bedroom, I assume—to the back where there is a small dog bouncing in an area with a wooden fence. Its fur is black, and it barks, yapping at Trey as he leans down to pick it up.

“It’s a wolvenhound pup,” the female who followed us explains. “They are given to our royal young to teach them commitment and caring and loyalty as part of a tradition. It will live eighteen years and be a fierce animal to behold.”

“Alpha Reine said even though I’m just a ward of the alpha heirs, I am considered royalty and should be given a pup,” Trey says.

I pat his shoulder. “I agree, and you are not just anything. You’re my family and theirs too.”

He blushes and nods, looking at the female. “Cinder, can we take Fido for a walk around the castle? I know we aren’t meant to let him leave the room for a few days, but…”

Cinder smiles and winks at Trey. “Only if it’s our secret.”

“Yes,” Trey shouts and rushes to the door. “Are you coming, Mai?”

I pat Cinder’s arm. “Thank you for looking after him.”

“It’s an honour, Mairin Fall. I was not blessed with a babe in my mating, and I worked hard to come here in hopes of helping raise a royal child. Trey is a blessing from the gods.”

I smile at her. “If you need anything, come to me.”

She blushes and bows her head. “Good luck in the rite, Mairin. There are many, like myself, praying for you. Many females who already had the alpha heirs’ hearts might not have held up our traditions and taken the rite… We respect you dearly for it and pray the gods reward you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper as Trey calls for me again, his wolvenhound yapping away. I incline my head towards Cinder before leaving with Trey.

Respect is earnt, and I hope I’ve made the best choice.

Chapter

Six

“T here isn’t anything to worry about. You look magnificent!” Erin claims as I meet her eyes in the mirror.

“I would look less pale if I didn’t have to walk out in basically nothing,” I mutter, returning my gaze to my reflection. My dress, if it can be called that, is white, thin and lacy, only covering up my breasts and between my legs with thicker material. Erin and two other females have drawn moons, swirls, birds and symbols in black paint across my stomach, arms, legs and back. My eyes have two swirls coming out the edges, going around my eyebrows and meeting to make a moon on the middle of my forehead. My lips are ruby red, the only bit of colour left on my pale body. My blonde hair has been braided a million times, connected at the nape of my neck in a complicated bun. “You really do look like a goddess tonight. And all you have to do is walk up the steps and pledge your blood to the rite.”

“Then shift and run with the alphas through the city,” I remind her. “Oh! You missed out on how I have to pledge myself in front of the entire city and see the other six women who have entered the rite.”

“Technically, the whole city won’t be able to see—” I gently whack her arm, and she chuckles. “Look, it’s a good thing only seven were accepted into the rite. The last rite, there were eleven.”

It’s still six females to fight, to battle against, to possibly kill. I’ve taken lives, and sometimes, more often than not, when I close my eyes, I see their life slipping away. I see the moment their life left their eyes like it just happened, and it hurts me to remember the bit of my soul that was tainted with each death.

Phim opens the door and comes in, followed by Henderson. His eyes go wide as he stops in his tracks, his scent immediately changing, heavily laced with thick desire, filling every one of my senses and making it impossible to notice anything else about him. My eyes lock onto his, the very colour of pale blue ice on a frozen lake.

“Alpha Heir Henderson,” Erin squeaks, bowing her head. Henderson doesn’t take his eyes off me, and I feel like his prey, like I am being hunted, and I have no interest in running from him. Henderson is one of the most handsome males I’ve ever seen in my life. All my alphas are handsome, but Henderson has an otherworldly beauty to his features, to him, that fully draws me to him. I can’t always look away, wanting to trace my fingers over his high cheekbones, his pouty lips and strong jawline.

“Erin and I will wait outside,” Phim suggests, winking at me. Erin keeps her head bowed as she follows Phim out of the room. The sound of the door shutting seems so much louder than it is. I can only hear my heart beating as Henderson takes me in, his eyes caressing my body.

I feel a shiver of pleasure that makes my heart pound even faster.

“Can I kiss you?”

My chest rises and falls fast. “I can’t be touched…the paint.”

“Fuck,” he grumbles, his eyes flickering red. “I want to kiss every inch of you, Mai.”

Heat spreads through me. “I wouldn’t stop you.”

His eyes flicker fully red this time, his wolf taking over as a possessive growl rumbles out of his chest, and I feel the growl throughout my body. I try to distract myself, my own wolf reacting within me.

“Henderson, aren’t you meant to be getting ready for the rite?”

His eyes bleed back, and he takes a deep breath. “Yes. I wanted you to do something for me.”

I tilt my head to the side, curious, pausing as he undoes his shirt button by button, and I’m helpless to do anything but watch. His moon marks are on his lower arms, spread over his muscles, and I end up staring at his corded, muscular chest.

“I want you to paint the markings on me,” he says, pointing at the paint pot on the side.

I look up at him, pulling my eyes from his chest. “Painting is not one of my hidden skills, Henderson. I would mess it up.”

“I don’t care. I want you to do it,” he replies, crossing his arms. I gulp.

“I have no idea what to paint on you. Surely there’s someone else who can do this?”

“No. My brothers are painting on themselves, as they do have hidden painting skills, but I don’t. I need and want your help,” he replies. “I’m selfishly looking forward to having you touch me when I can’t touch you.”

“Sounds like torture,” I respond.

He smirks at me, his voice deeper when he speaks. “If done right, it’s the sweetest pleasure, Mai.”

I know we aren’t talking about painting anymore.

I look away, feeling his amusement at my reaction. Damn alpha males. “Alright, but don’t blame me if you look terrible when this is done.”

I look back to see Henderson running his hand through his thick black hair. “Noted.”

I go to get the paint and the brush that was used for my painting and instruct him to sit down on the bed. I climb on my bed behind him, blowing out a breath. After undoing the lid of the paint, I dip the brush into the thick black ink. Starting in the middle of his back and drawing over his corded muscles, I watch every reaction he has when I occasionally touch him with my fingers. He holds himself tensely, a sweet torture, as I draw swirls and moons all over his back and shoulders, trying to mimic what was done on my own body.

“Why do people wear these marks?” I question as I climb off the bed and go around, standing in front of him. He moves to the edge of the bed and parts his large legs, placing his hands on his knees. I step between his legs, careful to not let his legs touch mine and ruin the paint.

I stare at him for a minute, both of us locking eyes with so much tension building in the room.

“It’s in tribute to the gods,” he tells me. “When you win the rite, and you will win it…” I smile softly as he reaches up and carefully drifts his fingers over my cheek where there is no paint. I resist the urge to lean my cheek into his hand. “When you win, you will get power given to you by the gods in the forms of marks. Every alpha female does.”

The marks on Alpha Reine’s forehead make more sense now. She was given them for winning The Rite of Wolves. “When you walk out of that forest at the end, you will be more powerful than you ever have been. Naturally, wolves will follow you and die to protect you. The pack will bow, and you won’t be challenged. Alpha females are a law to themselves.”

“I nearly challenged your mother,” I say, cringing.

He grins. “She hasn’t had anyone even hold eye contact for more than a minute in a long time. I think you shocked her to her boots.”

I smile as I start to paint on his shoulder, following the swirl on his back.

“Being who you are, Mai,” he carries on, “means none of us can predict what is going to happen when you win the rite and become our alpha female. Did you know we never planned to do the rite?”

“Really?” I ask.

He nods. “There is only one female in this world and the next we would take as a mate. Only one, and the rite is a waste of time for us. We will be alphas and choose you. Only and always you.”

My heart pounds as I smile. “I want to do the rite. This is about more than us.”

“I know, and it’s why none of us will try to stop you.”

“I’d like to see you try,” I reply with a grin that makes him laugh deeply.

“Tell me why you want to be alpha female, other than to have the best mates in the world,” Henderson questions.

“Best mates in the world?” I ask, arching an eyebrow, and he shrugs, knocking my paintbrush and making an odd brush mark on his arm.

I glare at him, and he laughs, making the area look even worse. “Okay, okay. Shush, you.”

He pretends to zip his lips, and I chuckle.

I carry on painting onto his collarbone. “I want to be alpha female to put our people first and build a better world that’s not going to be like the one that I grew up in from twelve years old. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

I pause and lean back before continuing. “I’ve been thinking about the kind of pack that I want to be in, and I know on behalf of all females, I don’t want females to be forced into things that they don’t want to do, and I want them to have the same opportunities males do. I don’t want anything to be like the Ravensword Pack and how they treat their females. Even here, I saw only three female betas in comparison to thirty-odd males at that meal. The numbers should be close, if not even. I want to free my people from Ravensword, even if they may have never looked after me, and they really should rot in hell, most of them, but not all of them. I want to go back and save them from the life they are forced to live, that their children are forced to live.”

I breathe out. “I want a world where female and male wolves are free to choose their own mates. That they don’t have to let a pool of magical water decide who their mate is. It’s just the essence of whatever’s left over from the goddess Persephone in this world, and it’s not her. I’m the closest they ever got to the moon goddess, and they never even knew it.”

“Do you think that’s why she chose to link you to the alpha of Ravensword?” Henderson asks, a note of anger at even mentioning that alpha.

I draw a swirl onto the other side of his collarbone, and I watch how he flinches a little, like he might be a bit ticklish there. “I think so. I think she wanted me to be an alpha female and in power. So she did what she thought was the right thing, all that she could do with her reach being so little in this world. It’s different now, after being in the forest, I can feel her…soul around me. Like I’m being haunted by a ghost.”

“It’s the same for us,” Henderson explains. “After time, we feel like it’s a part of us and we couldn’t exist without Hades.”

“I never understood why Persephone left Ravensword with all those rules. All the rules about mates, unless some alpha made them up. True mates are rare, right?”

He nods. “Extremely. My parents weren’t true mates, but my mother and Soren are. They knew in their mating.”

“All of the matings are made up in Ravensword, and probably most end in disastrous ways. I want all wolves to be free,” I say.

“Like Jesper?” he softly asks.

“Yes,” I reply, my heart hurting, and I try not to think too much about him. “I’ve been there since he lost his family. I held him until he went back to sleep whenever he woke up crying, read him stories, and hugged him whenever he bumped or grazed his knees in the forest. I love him like a brother, and the way he looked at me last… Knowing he is alone as Alpha Sylvester’s ward… I left him.”

“You had no choice, and he chose not to come with you. He is a kid, and he made a mistake, which I know you have already forgiven him for, but don’t blame yourself for it,” he firmly tells me.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to actually get him back,” I admit.

He puts his hand on my waist where there’s no paint, just lace between me and his large, warm palms. My skin flushes as goose bumps litter my arms. His touch alone is pure longing. His blue eyes seem to burn with the same. “I promise you we will go to Ravensword, take the pack, and rip Alpha Sylvester’s head off his shoulders. That revenge is yours and promised. We haven’t forgotten, and we aren’t moving on. We are building our revenge.”

I hold my head up. “You’re always on my team, aren’t you? No matter where I run…”

“No matter where we run, we will find each other again,” he vows. I shiver, my body remembering the words even if I can’t. I know we used to say that to each other…but all I have is the feeling the words conjure in my chest. Love, safety, and happiness. Family.

I have to look away and carry on with my painting across his chest. I run my fingers over some of his marks on his arms as I finish off, and I step back. “By the gods, I’m really bad at painting. I’m so sorry. Some of the moons look like cakes.”

He laughs. “Don’t be sorry. I enjoyed this time with you. I’ll see you at sunset, Mai. Thank you.”

“Please don’t thank me,” I say, wincing. “How long is it until sunset now?”

He looks up at the clock on the wall. “About an hour. What are you going to do with your free time?”

“I’m going to the library,” I say. “Between training, meals and getting lost in the castle, I’ve not had time this week.”

“I’ve missed you this week outside of training. There has been a lot to catch up. I will be with my brothers if you need me,” he replies, glancing at my lack of a dress one more time. “I really, really hope you don’t until I can touch you.”

I grin. “Wait, before you go, did you hear anything else about Breelyn? I’m trying to trust your mother, but I want to see her. I promised myself I’d protect Breelyn.”

“I’ve not heard anything yet, but I convinced my mother to bring the hearing forward. She really is trying to do the best. I promise you, she’s not put them in there for no reason, and they are safe,” he reassures me.

“I do understand why she locked them away. I tried to look at it from her point of view. If I were alpha female of this pack and someone brought in a wolf from another pack and an angel, I’d put them in there as well.”

“My mother hates the angels with a passion, and she doesn’t understand that not all angels are loyal to their king and follow him without pause or reason,” he replies. “We have a lot of work to do to convince my mother that working with some angels at all is a safe bet and that not all of them are like him. Honestly, that’s why we brought Callahan here with us. We need my mother and Soren to see the angels are not all monsters like their king.”

Makes more sense to me why they brought him along now.

“Your mother told me something about him,” I reply, and Henderson visibly tenses, and I see pain in his eyes. “She told me we grew up together and that he was in love with me.”

“Yes, it’s true, and the only reason we didn’t tell you was because it was part of the blood binding that we couldn’t talk about him. You can ask me anything you want, but I will warn you it does hurt us to talk about him. We were very close. Close as I am to all my brothers, but in the end, he betrayed all of us.”

I hear the pain in his voice.

“Why?”

“He left for six months, randomly, without reason. Honestly, I thought you might have known why he left as he told you everything, but you told us you didn’t. No one knew where he went or what he did, and he came back different with markings on his arms, and his eyes… He had powers.”

“Do you think he found a place to connect with the god he is bound to and it changed him?” I ask.

“I have no idea. He came back with Oisean and an army. They wanted you to go with them, and when you didn’t want him back, when you wouldn’t go with him, he slaughtered the pack as they gave you time to flee. We all fought, the best we could, but it was madness, and we barely managed to get away with some of our families. Ten of us, to be exact,” he says. “We lost Adira and you. But we found Adira on our travels and sent her here, but she clearly got distracted along the way.”

“He must have been so young…,” I whisper, knowing I was just twelve. “Gods, hearing that a young wolf killed my mum and so many others…”

“He was the oldest of us all, but yes, just a teenager,” he replies. “But his power? It was deadly and destructive. He could destroy land with a click of his fingers, escalating his power from his angel blood and morphing it into something else.”

Like I saw Demeter do in my dream.

“Half angel. Half wolf. Does he have wings?”

“Yes, but they’re not like angels’.”

“What was the god that he was connected to?”

“No one knew. His mother died in labour, and he was brought up with us,” he explains to me. I can see the point where he is getting tired, and I stop.

“You don’t have to tell me anymore,” I softly say.

“I promised you no more lies,” he replies, his eyes tired. “And I meant it. The blood bond forced me to avoid the truth with you before, but I won’t ever do that again.”

“I know, and I trust you. All of you,” I firmly say. “I won’t ever not trust you again. I know who you are.”

“Then you should know the second I get my hands on the king of the angels, I’m going to kill him,” he warns me. “I’m going to kill C—”

“Wait.” I pause. “I don’t want to know his name, not here, in our home. He killed my family, tore my life apart and is likely still hunting me. If I know his name, I might think of him and fear him…and I won’t do that. I will never say his name because he does not deserve to hear it. He doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near me, because when you kill him, I will be there. For my pack, for my mother.”

“The king of the angels will die for what he cost us all,” Henderson states. “We’re making alliances in the Fenrir Court on our way because when we do go to war, we’re going to need some of the angels to help us win. It will be a brutal fight, Mai, and my mother and stepfather’s tunnel vision is going to cost us.”

“Hopefully, Callahan will be able to sway their judgment,” I say, putting a lot of pressure on his shoulders. “We have to win this world back, because how could we ever have a future with the threat the angels constantly pose?”

“Us against them,” he agrees.

“What about the humans?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “The human lands of America are still there, but they’re useless. They don’t have that many people left, and what is left is scattered all over the place. They don’t have armies, and what is left in the city in the way of weapons isn’t going to be anything useful against angels. They also trade humans to the angels. Food for food.”

I shiver. “They don’t care about fixing or saving the world. They might even side with the angels as they did lock us wolves up behind a wall. Or at least they thought they did.”

I smile sadly. “Is it naïve of me to wish our future wasn’t so complicated and painful?”

“No,” he replies. “Hope is never naïve.”

“You best go and get ready,” I suggest.

Henderson nods. “See you at the rite… I haven’t said it yet, but I’m proud of the fighter you’ve become. They are watching you with the gods, you know that?”

“Who?”

“Everyone you’ve lost, even if you don’t remember them,” he softly tells me. “I bet Daniel is cheering you on, and your mother is telling the gods to help you.”

I smile. “I miss Daniel so much it’s hard to let myself think about him too long. With my mother, it’s easier because she isn’t a real person I can remember. I just imagine a random woman.”

“I do the same with my real father. I know a few things about him, and I like to pretend he was really a good person. Surely he was handsome,” he says, wagging his eyebrows at me, “but still, I can’t see him. It isn’t the same as losing someone you really knew. He wasn’t even aware I was born.”

“Thank you, Henderson. I don’t know how you do it, but I feel…safer. Stronger,” I admit.

He grins. “I’m training to be your mate, and that’s a mate’s job.”

I chuckle. “Your interview is going well, that’s for sure.”

“It will go better when I can touch you,” he replies with a wink. “See you out there, Mai.”

“See you,” I reply as he walks out the door, leaving me smiling and my heart feeling full.

I slide my feet into my slippers as Erin comes back into the room after Henderson and breathes out a long breath. “He didn’t touch the paint. Thank the wolves.”

I silently laugh to myself. “No, I told him he couldn’t. He wanted me to paint him, actually.”

“I saw,” she replies with red cheeks. “Luckily, no one’s going to be looking at them when you’re up there.”

Any woman or man would be looking at them, if they had any sense. They look like gods. They are gods, well, partly. Sometimes, when they use their gifts, I feel like they aren’t even touching the true potential they have.

“Come on, Mai, you want to go to the library?” Erin questions.

“Yes, definitely,” I say, walking to her side by the door. “Where is Phim?”

“Seraphim was speaking with Alpha Heir Henderson outside,” she replies, and sure enough, when we get out of the room, they are talking quietly together. Phim bows her head before walking over to me.

“Ready for the library?” she questions.

“Always,” I reply, and she rolls her eyes at me as we head down a few corridors before coming to a set of stairs behind a yellow patterned door. We have to walk all the way up to the top before the stone staircase leads to a balcony corridor that overlooks the waterfalls. The balcony itself is wet on the floor from the spray of water, and it’s noisy here, the water hitting the rocks making most of the sound. I can also hear the echo of the city like white noise. I watch waterfalls as we walk past, the orange and pink sunset in the distance highlighting the falling cascades like a rainbow is stroked through the water.

“Did you know the rivers have two names after two female wolves who died in the river many years ago?” Erin asks me as we walk, and we both watch her, but her eyes are on the waterfall. “The rivers are twins of each other, like the females, starting at one point, separating for their life and then meeting once again at the end. So they are named Arianna and Brianna.”

“How did the girls die in the river?”

She looks over at me. “They jumped in after a male baby, who survived thanks to them and became the first beta wolf in history. He asked the alpha, Alpha Soren’s father, to name the rivers after the girls, and he did.”

“It was very honourable of him to do that,” Phim says. “The pack we lived in would never have named anything after a female.”

“What fools they are,” she replies with a growl.

“Agreed,” both Phim and I say at the same time. Erin holds open an old wooden door, and we step into a small outdoor pathway leading to large green glass doors. Instinctively, I feel drawn to whatever is behind the doors, and everything fades away as I walk up to them. I don’t hear Phim or Erin as I turn the silver handle, walking in through the doors that cast a green light on the black wood floors and the carpeted cream rug that leads from the door to the small wooden counter before the biggest library I’ve seen. The library stretches up into the ceilings, filled with rows and rows of books of every colour, some of the spines glittering in the light from the glass rooftop. The bookcases themselves are all white stone, some of them repaired with white painted wood so the effect they have isn’t lost. At the end of each bookshelf—the fourteen that I can see—there is a statue of a goddess or god holding various things, just like the ones on the stairs. The one right in the middle is Persephone, holding a bundle of pomegranate seeds as she looks up at the glass.

The library stretches far back into pits of darkness, and up above, there are more sections that circle around, with white ladders to climb the different sections. Something deep inside me feels at home here, relaxed, and almost like I never want to leave. I turn around as Erin and Phim come in with me, and above the door is a panel of green metal with silver words written across, symbols and shapes that slowly merge in my mind into letters I can read.

“For my love, my queen, my end and my beginning.”

“How did you read that?” Erin questions. “That’s the language of the gods. Did you study it?”

“No,” I admit. “But I can read that.”

Erin bows her head. “By all the gods.”

“Another cool thing about you, sis?” Phim mutters. “You’re making me look bad at this point.”

I laugh and shake my head before turning around. Erin walks past me and goes to the counter, ringing the gold bell in the middle of it.

A brush of air blows against me, and suddenly there is a little person sitting on the edge of the counter, next to the bell. The…person? Or whatever she is. She has long grey hair, is about the size of a doll, and has a white tunic dress on with navy cowboy boots. On top of her head is a cream cowboy hat with a little blue flower stitched on. Her skin is yellow, the colour of sweetcorn, and her eyes are pure white.

I can’t scent her; she literally smells like nothing. Like she isn’t really here when I can see her. My mouth drops open, and when she chuckles sweetly, I close it.

“Welcome to my library, Mairin Elysia Astra Fall. You are not as pretty as the goddess once was,” the creature says. Ouch. “Never mind. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Who are you?” I coldly ask.

She grins, flashing me a row of sharp yellow teeth. “A secret that I’m not about to tell you, young goddess. We earn secrets in this life.”

“Many call her Dot,” Erin says, helping.

Dot’s sharp, intelligent eyes turn on Erin. “You are worthless of my time when yours is so little.”

Erin pales and I clear my throat. “Are you always so…well, sharp tongued?”

“I’ve been called worse names,” Dot replies.

I feel like I’m being led into a verbal trap with this creature, whatever she is. I change the subject, ignoring the amusement I see in her eyes before I even say a word. “So you look after the library? Can I borrow a book?”

“Yes,” she replies. “But if one of my books is damaged by your hand, I will take it off.”

“You will not touch Mai or—”

“Violent child, shh,” Dot interrupts Phim. “Mairin—wait, I don’t like that name. I much prefer Astra, so I should call you by that.”

“No one really likes to call her by her full name,” Phim replies, not offended too much as she stares down Dot. I prefer Mai, but I bet Dot doesn’t care.

I believe she is wondering if she could take her. “You couldn’t win a fight with me if you tried, Seraphim. Not yet, perhaps not ever. The books haven’t decided your future yet.”

“Have they decided mine?” I ask.

Dot flashes me a feral grin. “That is a question I would never answer, Astra.”

She moves super quick, disappearing and reappearing with a book, and hands it to me. “This is the book you’re looking for.”

“I never asked for a book,” I say, walking over and taking the book that is literally the same size as her.

“Astra, next time, come to my library alone,” Dot replies before vanishing from sight.

“There is little chance in hell she is coming here alone!” Phim shouts into the library. I swear I hear Dot’s laugh echo down from the darkness.

I look at Erin. “You could have warned us about Dot.”

“That would have meant explaining Dot, and I don’t think that is possible,” she replies. “And before you ask me what she is, I have no idea. But she has never hurt anyone.”

“Makes me feel better about coming here again,” I say.

“Not alone,” Phim states. “There is something wrong about her, and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“I don’t get the feeling she will hurt me,” I admit.

Phim doesn’t answer and looks at the book in my hands. “What did Miss Know-It-All get you then?”

“Maybe it’s a book on what she is, considering I’ve asked,” I ponder.

“Many people tried that over the years, even the Alpha Female Reine herself,” Erin says. “It was one of the rare things she gave up on and said to us all that Dot’s secrets are hers to keep as long as she harms no one.”

“And she hasn’t,” I reply. I look down at the red book in my hands and turn to the first page.

“The Wolves of Mnemosyne. How could she possibly know?” I mutter to myself. Erin leans over my shoulder and frowns, whereas Phim rolls her eyes.

“Makes perfect sense to me,” she mutters. “Show Mai a dangerous place with dangerous wolves, and she runs to find out how to find them.”

“I doubt this book is a map to their current location,” Erin says, waving at one of the seats to the left, five chairs tucked around a circular oak table with four lit candles in the middle. We all sit down, Erin and Phim on either side of me, as I place the book down. “Why do you want to know about those wolves?”

“I don’t remember who I was before I was twelve, and I don’t remember who my mother was. I lost everything, and it’s all up here somewhere,” I say, tapping the side of my head. “The pack I grew up in, the secrets I might know, all of it. It’s all just a mystery to me, and they can help me remember. I need to speak with them.”

“And that means you’re desperate for help,” she replies. “Going to them is a death wish. They aren’t normal wolves, Mai. They trade with magic, they have their own pack, and they always win in their deals. Anybody who’s desperate goes to them, and no one has ever come back with a good solution. I can’t press how bad an idea this is.”

“She knows this,” Phim says. “But Mai is more stubborn than anyone I know. Even the alpha heirs have forbidden her from going, but here we are.”

“I know what I’m asking and the risk I will take. It’s my choice,” I tell them both. “Could you imagine what it’s like to not know who you are, where you came from? I have stories from the alphas, but that’s it. That’s all I have, and stories are not memories. I need them back.”

“I understand but—”

“I can’t tell my sister about our mother who I grew up with. I can’t tell you what she looks like, what she was like as a person. I miss someone I can’t remember, and I’ve always had this emptiness, this hollow feeling I can’t shake. My past is a part of me, and if there is a chance of getting it back, I have to try,” I say. “I have to.”

Erin stares at me for a moment, her eyes soft. “My mother died when I was young. There is almost nothing I wouldn’t do to find out who she was and have memories of her.”

“Will you help me?”

“Yes,” she says reluctantly. “I don’t want to, but without my help, you will end up never finding their real location. There are wolves in the city who will guide you to The Wolves of Mnemosyne in exchange for gold. They don’t let just anyone see them, as the alphas want their heads, so I will have to ask around. Until then, read up on them and learn anything you can that could help. We are going to need all the help we can get.”

I meet Erin’s eyes, the haunting words of Dot floating around in my mind. She said Erin wasn’t worth her time, the little she has left… Why would she say that? Gods, I hope she is wrong.

“NO, RIGHT NOT LEFT,” Erin corrects me, and I backstep, flashing her a thankful smile. I want to try to figure out my own way to the courtyard, and I was pretty sure I was right. Five guards wordlessly follow Erin, Phim and me through the castle to the awaiting carriages to take us to the pledge ceremony of the rite. From what I’ve been told, I have to make a blood oath in front of the alpha heirs to enter their rite and, if I win, to willingly take them as my mates.

I shiver, a mixture of excitement and dread for what The Rite of Wolves will actually be like.

We head through the castle until we come back out to the entrance in the courtyard. Thankfully, I wasn’t that lost, and there waiting are two much smaller carriages.

I scent my alphas in the one carriage as I walk over, but Adira cuts in front of me. “Sorry, I’m taking the last space in this carriage.”

Her sweet tone doesn’t match the bitter statement. I barely look at her outfit, the same as mine in style, but somehow she looks far better than I do. Or at least I think she does.

“That’s fine,” I tightly reply, hearing a growl in my throat. I walk to the next carriage as Phim comes to my side.

“I could drag her out by her hair if you asked,” she suggests.

“She isn’t worth it. Not today,” I reply. “Let her have this tiny victory, because I only care about winning one thing. And it’s not an argument over a carriage seat.”

She looks at me. “Playing the long game, I like it. As long as it ends with her death.”

We climb into the other carriage, and Erin closes the door behind us. The carriages immediately take off after we sit down, Phim opposite me and Erin at my side.

I glance at Erin, wondering how safe it is to speak in front of her. I do like her, but trust is hard to come by and we don’t know each other all that well. Telling her about my plan to get my memories back was a risk I had to take, but this is different. I decide to sit silently, looking out the window as we head out of the courtyard and through the forest before getting to the city. The carriage takes a sharp right, pushing my shoulder against the carriage wall.

“I haven’t been able to find anything out about the other females taking the rite,” Erin says. I was unaware she was looking. “Other than Adira, it’s going to be a surprise. Once we know who is in it, I can tell you about their families and anything I know about what they might have been trained in.”

I smile. “Any information would be good.”

I do believe Erin is on my side, but I don’t trust her like I do Phim and Breelyn.

Breelyn… Gods, I wish she was watching the rite ceremony today, and I hate that she is locked up. Callahan too.

Eventually we slow down, and I glance out the window to see the streets covered in crowds of people, some holding signs. All of them have red markings painted on their faces. It’s a sea of red and black wolves. The pressure of so many of them almost makes me want to turn away until I catch the eyes of a little girl at the front of the street. She is waving so excitedly, and I can’t help but wave back at her, seeing how happy she is when she spots me.

The road steers around a bend before a river bridge, and for a brief second, I see a towering, white stone, square building in the middle of a circle of tall, daunting oak trees with large roots.

“Why aren’t you wearing your usual red cloak like the rest of the city?” Phim questions, with her own red cloak on her shoulders.

“Royal staff wear black,” Erin explains, messing with her black tunic-style dress and cloak clipped to her shoulders. “The alpha heir, or in this case alpha heirs, wear white trousers, and the females entering the rite wear white dresses in the same style to show who they are. Everyone else wears red except for royal staff. We are meant to blend in like shadows.”

“Since when did clothes mean so much?” Phim mutters to herself. “Give me leather trousers and a crop top any day.”

I chuckle, knowing she isn’t joking, but she is funny.

The carriage comes to a jolting stop, and Phim and Erin look at me as the door is opened. The cheering from the crowds of wolves echoes into the silent space. My body feels warm as I nod to them and duck my head as I step out of the carriage, taking the hand of the male guard waiting for me. I let go of his hand, speechless, as I look over at the crowds below me. We are on a raised hill, and below are thousands of wolves, shifted or not, a sea of red and black. They cheer, and I hear my name bellowed in the wind, all of it so overwhelming. I was the foster kid who no one would even speak to, and here?

Here, they cheer for me. Support me.

A single tear escapes my eye, and a warm hand wipes it away before it can fall and ruin my makeup. I look up to see Ragnar standing over me, and he licks the tear from his finger before winking. His moon marks look strange, catching my gaze and I could have sworn they were higher than they are currently are on his chest, near his heart. He walks away, leaving me to watch his marked back of corded muscles. I look away from Ragnar and to the building he is going into, a massive, towering, square building made of pillars on the outside, holding up the roof. Seven fire pits line the edges, casting deep shadows up the pillars, like shadow monsters are lurking within the walls. I can feel something, like an echo throughout my chest, when I look at this place. An echo of deep, strong, shifter energy that is undoubtedly coming from within the building.

Ragnar goes inside, followed by Adira and six other females behind her in a line, all of them looking my way. The others in the rite. The female at the back catches my attention. An aura around her is a little different from what I expected. One side of her head is shaved, the other thick with locks of deep, dark brown hair that falls to her waist, and she has a soft, dark tan that makes me wonder if she loves the sun. Marks, unlike the ones painted on us both that match, cover the side of her neck and go down to her waist, almost like a snake pattern. Scales and symbols that slowly change before my eyes.

The language of the gods. I can’t read all of what she has marked on her, but it’s random letters that I can’t make a word from that would make any sense.

A. V. C.

“Dammit, you’re going to be the last one in,” Phim whispers behind me, snapping me out of it. She looks over at the line as four guards come over.

“Only Mairin may go ahead into the sacred,” one of them states.

“Are any of you guards female?” Phim questions, eyeing them up.

They look at each other. “A few.”

“Not enough,” Phim says, looking at me. “You best change that when you win this rite and take your mates. Your mates, sister.”

“I will,” I state, holding my head high, pushing down all the nervous energy I feel. I nod to the guards, two of them walking in front of me and two behind. There are fourteen steps—I count each to distract myself—as we head up to the front of the building, the place I don’t even know the name of. The guards in front of me step back, and I walk to the back of the line, behind the marked female, who immediately looks back at me. Most of the females have gone except this one and two in front of her, both of them blonde, and neither look at me.

“You and Adira are my only real competition,” she claims outright as her brown eyes, the colour of deep mud, watch mine. “My name is Tualla Fall, Mairin, and I will not enjoy taking your life. It is the way of the gods.”

“May the gods watch over you, Tualla. You won’t be the only one who will take no pleasure in this rite,” I reply as the female in front of Tualla goes into the building, her footsteps soon disappearing.

“You’re a goddess,” she replies with a smile. “Isn’t it like you’re asking to watch over yourself, Persephone?”

I smile. “I am no more Persephone than she is me. Being soul-linked to a goddess doesn’t make you one. I am myself, always.”

“We will see, Mairin,” she replies, clearly doubting I’m telling her the truth, and I don’t blame her. The guard waves her in, and she looks back at me just once before walking in. The cheering keeps me company and my thoughts from wandering as I wait outside, a chilling breeze blowing around my body. It’s not exactly cold, but with so little clothing on and the weather slowly drifting into autumn, it’s cold enough to make me shiver and for goose bumps to litter my arms.

The guard eventually nods and waves me in, and I blow out a long breath to calm my nerves before I start walking in. The building seems to engulf me in pure silence in the darkness of the entrance before I step into the main room. It is bewildering in here. Four massive statues of wolves fill each corner of the room, their heads meeting together, and glowing red water falls down from the ceiling in the space between them into a pool in the middle. The red water glows with so much shifter energy. I feel it smack into my chest, and it threatens to knock me to my knees as I freeze to the spot. The alphas, standing on either side of the room, have shifted, with their wolves’ heads bowed, and in front of the pool are my alphas.

All four of them stand in a line, white stag crowns on their heads that glitter in the red light encompassing their bodies, like the gods are shining down on them. Not just any god…Hades. I can feel his soul here with me, like an old lover, and any fear I had seems to relax as my alphas look at me and bring my body to light with another feeling entirely.

Their desire flares to life in the room while I watch each of them as I walk to them, feeling like a magnet pulled to its other half. I stop in front of them, and Silas speaks first.

“If you wish to enter The Rite of Wolves, hear our rules.”

Henderson takes over. “There will be three tests, each to show a god or goddess your skills and loyalty to the pack, to our people and to your alphas. If your soul dies in the rite, you will not leave the walls of this city.”

Ragnar speaks next, his voice like ice with no warmth to be found. I try to ignore his tone. “The final test, shall you make it thus far, is called the Forest Rite. You will enter a sacred place and follow these rules. The six instructions for the Forest Rite: Once you enter, you can’t shift; you can’t leave unless you win, not even in death; don’t look into the shadows; if a path appears, take it at your own risk; this is the forest of the gods, pray to them for help; only one wolf leaves unless the gods allow another path. That rarely happens.”

Valentine finishes the speech, goose bumps littering my arms. “Cut your hand and offer your blood to the pool. The gods will decide your fate from that point onwards.”

“I wish to enter The Rite of Wolves,” I reply, my voice echoing around the room like Silas’s did.

They each step aside, and with them here, I don’t feel nervous as I pick up the jewelled dagger on the edge of the pool. I don’t pause or halt as I cut my hand and hold it over the pool, looking down into its dark, glowing waters. Time seems to slow as two drops of blood fall from my hand and splash into the water. The water bursts with so much light, but it doesn’t hurt my eyes as I watch the light dance out of the water like wolves and run up invisible stairs, frolicking around the room before bursting into light balls of fire and raining sparks down on us all.

“I think we know the gods’ opinion,” Ragnar says, watching me closely.

“There was never any—” Valentine cuts off when five guards run into the room, their faces pale.

“Alphas, there are Levi in the city! They are attacking wolves!”

“What?” I whisper. Valentine, Silas and Henderson immediately shift and run out of the room with Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren.

I take a step to go after them, but Ragnar catches my arm. “We are staying here, it isn’t safe.”

His grip tightens when I try to pull my arm away. “What are you talking about? I’m not staying here when there are Levi in the city! Let me go and come help save your people, Ragnar!”

Screams echo in from outside, and my heart drops.

“No,” he replies, cold and calculated, and without warning, he lowers his lips to mine, kissing me brutally and passionately. I shove him away, slipping out of his grip.

“Ragnar, this isn’t the time, and I will never be the damsel you can lock away,” I breathlessly tell him. “I will always fight.”

“Mai—” He reaches for me, but I run from him, something I never thought I had to do with Ragnar before in my life. I push down the emotion building in my chest and shift mid run. The wash of shifter energy shakes the ground at my feet as I land outside. It’s chaos. Pure chaos. Hundreds of Levi are attacking rows of wolves, teeth and claws ripping them apart in a black wave, my alphas at the front. Everyone is running away, back to the city, and four women run past me into the building, two of them carrying small children. Six more people are running towards me when five Levi run out of nowhere, cutting them off. With a growl, I run and jump in front of them, baring my teeth at the Levi as they run at me.

I shift back, naked as I crouch down in front of the Levi, and with a scream, I hold my hands up and push everything I can into my hands, the power stirring in the middle of my chest. Green shifter energy slams out of my hands like tendrils, wrapping around the Levi who whine as my magic crushes their bodies until they explode in a pile of blood. Hot blood sprays over me as I look back, not caring about being naked.

The six people are huddled together. Two of them shift into small black wolves. One of them is only a toddler, clinging to its mother’s chest. “Get inside, it’s safe there.”

“Thank you, goddess,” a male says. “Thank you so much.”

Goddess? I guess I must look like one, using all my shifter energy, the connection I have to Persephone.

I look into the mixed crowds, unsure where to go next. Red shifter energy blasts into the air within the crowds.

My alphas. I see Phim and Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren fighting a bunch of Levi on the left, Phim using swords to cut through them, and the alphas using teeth.

“Here,” a female wolf says behind me, and I turn to see a red cloak being held for me. “You should wear this, goddess.”

“It’s Mai,” I say before accepting the cloak. “And thank you.”

I slide my arms in the cloak and tie it up at the waist, covering myself as I hear a cry before me.

“Mairin,” Tualla calls out, and I turn to see her in the crowds ahead, crouched over two males and holding in the stomach of one. I run over to her, kneeling in the blood and mud. “Can you heal anyone? This is my brother, please.”

“That isn’t my power,” I softly say, shaking my head. “I c-can’t do anything.”

Her eyes, like daggers, look crushed as she holds her hand over her brother. I look down at his pale complexion, his shallow breaths, and feel the change. “He is leaving this world. Say what you must before it’s too late, Tualla.”

She looks between me and her father before letting his stomach go, the wound there too great, and leaning over him. She places her hand on his cheek, over his thick beard. “Run with the wolves to the home of the gods, for you are one now. May they find you peace, may we see each other again.”

She pauses on a sob, unable to continue. I don’t know if it’s the right thing to say, but I’ve heard it twice before. “We endure the fall and rise in the ashes.”

Tualla sobs more, reaching over to place her hand on my arm in thanks.

Her brother wheezes, a cry of pain leaving his mouth, and my heart hurts. I look at Tualla, and she nods once.

I hold my hand out above him, letting a little of my power slide out of my palm, and the tendril gently rests across the male’s forehead, his whole body glowing green for a few moments to end his life. He smiles softly as his eyes close. When my power fades, a row of pomegranate seeds with a black mark is left on his forehead where my touch was. I don’t know what that means, but I know it has something to do with Persephone. The screaming around us never dies, though for some reason, everything feels silent for a moment as Tualla looks at me. “Thank you for that kindness and the mark of Persephone to guide his spirit in the afterlife.”

“Above you!” I shout as a Levi runs at us. Before it gets close, Ragnar is there and grabs its throat, crushing it within his hand, and he rips the Levi apart, throwing the pieces away from us. Despite the fact I’m not sure what happened back in the sacred building, I give him a nod of thanks. Tualla leans over her brother’s chest, weeping, and I stand up, knowing she needs space.

“Time to go,” Ragnar softly suggests, waving a hand at the carriage. “The fight is over, and there isn’t anything we can do here.”

“There was plenty you could have done,” I whisper back, my voice harsh. “Keeping me safe should never come above saving this city.”

“It always will,” he replies, a bite to his voice. “I don’t care if the world burns and everyone suffers, but not you.”

“I’m going to find the others,” I tell him, and he reaches out, grabbing my arm once more. I growl at him, and he smirks.

“No, I’m ordering you to get into the carriage and to safety. You can either get in yourself or I’m ordering the guards to force you,” he says. I barely believe the words coming out of his mouth or that he just said that as I let him guide me to the carriage. Before I get in, I turn back to him.

“I never saw you as a controlling asshole before, Ragnar.”

There is being possessive, but there is too much of it when it feels like I’m being strangled and stopped from doing what is right.

Something drifts across his eyes. “You’re about to be alpha female, Mairin. It’s about time you grew up and realised you have to be protected.”

“Mai,” Erin says from within the carriage, surprising me, as I didn’t see her there. I look away from Ragnar, biting my tongue, and climb into the carriage. He closes the door, not getting in with me, and the carriage takes off. “Are you okay? You’re covered in blood. Do you need a healer?”

“I’m fine,” I reply, looking out at the chaos. “But how did the Levi get in here?”

She pales. “They never have before.”

Something is wrong, and I’m not giving up until I figure out exactly what it is.

Chapter

Seven

“B orn of one of the nine muses, Mnemosyne was gifted a special talent, to create memories and wind them into something new. The goddess Mnemosyne, a lesser goddess to many, spent her long, immortal lifetime helping humans and wolves alike until she met Fenrir, the wolf god. They fell in love, traveling the world many times over until Mnemosyne had children of her own, and grandchildren after them. These wolf shifters live in one pack, and many say to hear them sing is to hear the gods’ words.” I pause in my reading as I hear the door handle jolt. I look over as Silas comes into my room.

“At least you’re not Ragnar,” I mutter.

Silas sighs. “He was overprotective and an ass, like we all are, but we both know he only wanted to keep you safe. I’m sure you slamming the door in his face this morning taught him he was wrong. He was wrong, by the way, from what he told us happened. He has been stressed since we came here.”

“He was lucky I didn’t throw my breakfast at him,” I reply, closing the book. I don’t care how stressed he was. He was out of order.

“What are you reading?” he questions, leaning against the wall.

“Nothing,” I reply quickly, too quickly. He raises his eyebrows at that, glancing at the book.

“Do I want to know?”

“No,” I slowly say, putting the book down. “How is everyone?”

Silas crosses his large muscular arms against his chest. “Healing. We lost one hundred and ten lives to the Levi, an unacceptable amount. The Levi have never breached the barrier before, and we have wolves finding out how it happened. I heard you fought with your powers.”

My chest hurts for all those lost, including Tualla’s brother. I wish I could have saved him with my powers, but I know I did save a bunch of wolves, and I’m proud of myself for that.

“I didn’t have any weapons hidden in that see-through dress,” I reply and hold my hand in the air. I only have to think of my power to feel the tug, and slowly my hand fills with green shifter energy, tendrils wrapping around my hair in a sweet caress. I look up, the green glow of my magic turning his grey eyes into deep pits of sage. “This feels as natural as shifting to me.”

He smirks, his voice deep and husky. “I know the feeling.”

I shiver, letting the magic go, and the room seems so much darker in seconds. I walk up to him, and his eyes drift over my body, my knee-length denim skirt, my daggers strapped to my outside thighs, and my thin cream crop top before making their way up to my eyes.

“I came here to take you out for the day,” he says. “And we are beginning with a visit to a certain wolf and angel.”

“Really?” I say, smiling wide. After the events of yesterday and hardly sleeping all night, thanks to worrying about how the Levi got into the city in the first place, I could really do with seeing them and knowing they are okay. “I can see them?”

“Yes,” he replies. “I might have helped convince Alpha Reine to allow me to take you, instead of her, as it might make it easier for me to tell you another bit of news.”

“What?” I question.

He moves closer to me, making my heart beat fast. “All the females in the rite are moving in here, and no one is allowed to leave the castle without an alpha heir or alpha at their side. The castle has triple the amount of guards until we find out what happened.”

Dammit. How the hell am I going to sneak out to see The Wolves of Mnemosyne?

I search his eyes. “I can deal with it.”

“Good, because we all plan to ignore the females. They are pointless, but the guards are something we agree on. For your safety,” he replies, like he is waiting for the catch. He walks to the door and holds it open for me as I walk out. I stay close to his side, keeping up with his fast pace, despite my shorter legs. “Also, in light of the attack, Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren have moved Breelyn and Callahan’s hearing in court up to three days away.”

“Is that a good thing?” I question. “I mean, they aren’t going to hurt them if they decide they don’t want them in the city?”

“I won’t let that happen. The angel saved your life, and Breelyn has done nothing wrong except refuse to swear loyalty to our pack,” he gruffly replies.

“Henderson explained to me about the need for an angel to be in the city…for the war to come and the alliances we could build,” I quietly reply as we round a corner. Two guards pass us by, bowing their heads for Silas, who looks down at me the entire time they pass, searching my face for something.

“Yes,” he responds, his expression tight. “We won’t win this unless we work with others. I refuse to let our pack die without exploring alliances. The world has known nothing but war, a losing war, for years, and our pack has always been a secret chance to save us all. The Fenrir Court working with us, along with at least one of the other courts could secure our future.”

“What do you know about the other courts? There is Styx Court.” I stop when Silas growls. “So is that a no?”

“The Styx Court isn’t controlled by anyone, not even the angel king himself. It’s a land full of thieves, murderers and pirates. They follow no one, not even the angel who is meant to rule them,” Silas explains. “They would stab us in the back for the money we have.”

“Okay, good to know,” I say. “How about the Neso Court?”

Silas rubs his chin as he pauses at the bottom of a stairwell, letting me walk up first, and he follows me, his voice echoing as we pass the god statues. Every time I walk past them, I feel like I’m being watched. “We know little to nothing about them, only that the angel king is said to visit. The Neso Court has walls taller than any building you’ve seen, and no one is allowed in or out.”

“That only leaves the Galatea Court, the lands we are hidden on,” I say.

“The angel king lives in the mountains of this land, along with his city, and every angel in this land worships him. Along with his army,” he replies to me as we get to the top step. How they have stayed so close to the angel king without him knowing for this long is a miracle in itself. “We are already surrounded by enemies. We need help from outside, and we won’t get any here.”

“Could we win with just the Fenrir Court army?”

Silas doesn’t lie to me. “No. We don’t know the numbers the angel king has, but we are aware they will be extremely high, and we will be outnumbered.”

I cross my arms as we get out into the courtyard, the doors lined with ten or more guards. We pass several groups of guards who are walking around as we head out of the courtyard, following the path through the fields towards the houses in the distance. “Are they being kept there?”

“Along with Fox and his brothers, yes,” Silas replies. “We assigned them to watch Breelyn and Callahan, make sure they are being treated well.”

“Thank you,” I tell him.

He looks over at me. “Other than the attack, do you like our home?”

I glance at the tall, thick trees, the distant sound of the waterfalls, and the deep, murky and earthy scent of forest wrapping around me. “Yes. Thank you for saving me, Silas. For being there, even when I couldn’t remember who you are. When I can’t.”

His hand rests on the middle of my back, warmth spreading from his touch. “You saved us, too. When we left here, we only wanted to find you, and instead we found rejected wolves, a pack ruled under a terrible alpha, and learnt the hard way of the brutal world outside. By the time you came to us, we had almost given up hope that the world could be better. That it was worth fighting for. We all have our own darkness we have fought and battled, Mai, and I’m thankful we have each other to fight it.”

“Me too,” I reply, taking a deep breath. “I noticed you don’t call Alpha Reine mother… I was wondering why not when she brought you up.”

“I had a mother,” he tensely replies and looks down at me, the tension fading a little. “Every memory of her I have is bad, some good but mostly bad. But she was my mother and gave birth to me, fought for me, protected me when she could. She deserves that title.”

. “Reine is like a mother to me, but”—he taps the side of his head—“she understands, in my birth mother’s honour, I won’t call her it. My mother never meant to leave me, and my father…well, I’m glad Reine killed him for what he did. I can remember bits of him, memories I wish I could forget. My mother suffered, and if I was older, I could have stopped him.”

“I’m sorry, Silas,” I softly tell him. “Tell me what your mother looked like. What was her name?”

His lips tilt up. “Like me. She had blonde hair that she kept chin-length, and bright grey eyes, brighter than mine. Her name was Silvia.”

“I wonder where she got your name inspiration from,” I reply with a grin.

“When I was ten, Reine dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the forest and told me to punch and kick a tree until I felt less angry at the world. At myself. I’ve always been angry, I can’t remember not being, but fighting helps. Training helps,” he admits to me. “I know that side of me comes from my father, and sometimes I wonder if I’m one step away from becoming—”

“Never,” I say, stopping in my tracks. I step in front of him, looking up into his eyes. “Do you want to hurt me? Would you ever hurt me?”

“No,” he firmly replies, running his fingers through my hair, and I let out a sigh. “Then I’m certain you will never be him. He made his choice. His soul be damned to the gods of hell, but yours is not. Your soul, Silas, could never be damned. You’re too good.”

“You forget I’m soul-linked to the literal god of hell,” he replies with a small smile.

“And I’m soul-linked to the queen of hell,” I reply. “But I’m not hellish.”

“Well…,” he replies, and I cut him off by leaning up and kissing him softly enough to taste him before pulling back. His eyes flash with desire as I take one more step away.

“Do that again,” he commands.

“Catch me first, alpha,” I reply before running as fast as I can down the road, laughing. My legs burn with the effort to run this fast after what feels like a minute, and I make the mistake of looking back just as Silas crashes into me, picking me up so I land on top of him on the grass by the road. He rolls us so he is on top of me, and my cheeks burn as I breathlessly stare up at him, feeling how his body perfectly fits in between my legs, pressed against me so there is only us.

“Now I’ve caught you,” he breathes out, leaning down, his lips inches from mine. “What should I do with you?”

“I-I…,” I drift off just as I hear someone nearby. Silas looks up and groans, leaning down to rest his forehead on mine.

“Never alone,” he whispers to me. “But I’m going to get you alone, Mai. Your scent drives me crazy.”

“So does yours,” I admit, and his eyes flare with red shifter energy, my own responding. “When I’m your mate, Silas, we will have time.”

“Mate.” He rolls the word around. “I’ve never had someone who is mine. Mine to protect.”

“I think I’m falling for you, Silas,” I softly tell him, gently, kindly as I bare my feelings to him. “I thought I knew what loving someone was like, back in Ravensword. But I loved Daniel, Mike and Jesper like family. Like pack. But with you…it’s the love I would die for. Do anything to protect.”

“I love you, Mai,” he whispers, brushing his lips across my cheek, his declaration a whisper in my ear for only us. “I’ve loved you since before I can remember, and I will love you until there are no more beats of my heart, Mai.”

Tears fall from my eyes as a deep feeling of happiness like I’ve never felt fills my chest. I wrap my arms around his neck, holding tightly. “Until there are no more beats of my heart, Silas. I will love you until then and beyond in the afterlife.”

The scuffle of feet nearby makes me smile at Silas, and he lifts himself off me, helping me up with his hand. He makes sure to shout loud enough for his voice to echo. “Whoever the fuck is nearby, I’m remembering your scent, and you better pray to the gods to save you from the training I’m doing with you tomorrow.”

I chuckle low as Silas guides me away, the scent of the wolf or wolves nearby changing in the wind to one of slight fear. After many months of Silas’s nice training with me, I’d be scared if I were them. We walk quietly the rest of the way to the houses, and Silas opens a little white picket fence to let us into a smaller walled courtyard outside a row of houses. We walk through a small garden filled with dozens of wildflowers and bushes. The marked stone path winds to the back of the house where Fox is sitting on the bottom of the steps leading to the door, which is guarded by five shifted wolves in a line, sitting still enough to be statues.

“Finally, someone to talk with,” Fox dramatically says, walking to us. He wraps his arms around me, and I hug him back until Silas growls. “Alpha.”

“Fox,” Silas replies, his whole body tense until Fox steps away from me. Alpha males and their possessive asses.

“Nice to see you, Mai,” Fox says, grinning. “What do you think of the city?”

“Other than the attack, it’s breathtakingly beautiful,” I answer. “Do you live here?”

“Yes, but five doors down. I’m stuck outside this one because the bratty female and the argumentative angel are in there,” he replies. “It’s a true wonder they haven’t killed each other. It sounds like they’ve been close a few times.”

I inwardly cringe. “They both have fiery personalities, so they might not get along.”

Even Silas chokes on a laugh at that one. I glare at both him and Fox. “Thanks for watching them.”

“My brothers and I take turns,” he explains, “though they like the silent guards.”

“Keep watch,” Silas commands Fox, placing his hand on my back and walking us up the steps, clearly done with Fox. I turn back and flash Fox an apologetic smile, and he waves a hand, used to Silas’s moody attitude. The wolves step aside to let Silas through, and I follow him in, shutting the creaky wooden door behind me.

“Finally! Tell me you’re here to get me out of here?” Breelyn says, sighing in relief as she climbs off the aged yellow sofa and rushes to me. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her into a hug. She is in a casual white T-shirt and black leggings, her long dark brown hair braided. She is tense for a moment before she hugs me back. “You’re not here to get me out, are you?”

“Not yet, but I promise it won’t be long. They have moved your trial forward,” I say.

“Fantastic,” Callahan states, walking down brown wood stairs and coming into the room. It’s strange to see the angel in casual human clothes. He has a light grey T-shirt and grey joggers on that do little to hide his toned body. He inclines his head at us, and I do the same, but Silas does not. “We heard there was an attack. Are you well?”

“Yes,” I say.

Silas clears his throat. “Levi got into the city. We have no idea how it happened, and we lost many lives.”

“I’m sorry,” Callahan replies. “May they be with the gods.”

Even Breelyn lowers her head for a moment, for those lost, before she looks up at me. “Can I be moved to another house?”

“Why? Are they not treating you well?” I ask, getting angry. If they haven’t looked after her—

“Breelyn, you’re confident enough to throw a plate at my head yesterday. You can tell your friend that you hate my guts, so you want to move,” Callahan growls at her. Actually growls.

She bares her teeth at him. “If you had just shut up for five goddamn minutes, I wouldn’t have had to throw the plate!”

He crosses his arms, standing straighter as he takes a step closer. “Sorry for trying to talk to you, female! It’s what people do!”

“I don’t care,” she snaps, flashing him a look of indifference. But to me, I see something else entirely, something strange in the way she holds herself. I don’t see indifference. “I don’t want to speak to you.”

“Fine,” he replies.

Silas and I look at each other, neither one of us quite sure what to say. Silas breaks the silence, thankfully. “Callahan, I could use your opinion on some subjects to bring up in your trial. How about we go into another room and talk?”

“Of course, alpha,” he replies, flashing one more seething look in Breelyn’s direction before turning and heading up the stairs. Silas lets his fingers run across my arm as he passes, and I finally have a quick look around the room. It’s nice, reminding me of my foster home with its aged wallpaper with shell designs and worn-down hardwood floors. There is one sofa, a side unit, and a fireplace in here, and an arched doorway into a kitchen to the left.

“How are you?” I ask Breelyn who walks back to the sofa. I sit down next to her.

“Going insane with boredom and worrying. I can’t protect you in here,” she replies. “I’m meant to be training to be your omega, and I need to be at your side during this rite. The guards explained the rite to me, how are you?”

“Training every morning and evening, when I can,” I answer. “My alphas are working me hard, which is what I want, but truthfully, I’m worried. No one is allowed to know what happens in the rite’s three tests, only that if I can survive the first two, the final test is held in The Rite Forest. I’m yet to find out what that place actually is.”

“You’re fast on your feet, and you have goddess powers. Use them to win; it doesn’t matter if that isn’t fair to the others. We both know you have the alphas’ hearts, and only you can be alpha female,” she says. “I believe in you.”

“Thank you,” I tell her, looking down. “I’m working on believing in myself at all costs. I’ve been at my lowest, and I’m crawling back up. There is only up.”

“I’m glad to see you’re keeping weapons on you with the Levi being able to get in the city,” she says. “I hate we can’t have weapons in here.”

“You would have stabbed Callahan by now, so I actually agree with that rule,” I reply, arching an eyebrow.

“Can’t you take the insufferable bastard with you?” she replies.

I chuckle. “What did he do to make you hate him so much?”

“Hate him?” she replies. “No, I don’t hate him. Hate is too close to love, and it’s too much of an emotion to hold for anyone. If I ever said I hated him, then there is a big issue. I’m indifferent to him.”

I bite on my lip, unsure what to say to that. Thankfully, Silas, followed by Callahan, comes down the stairs. “We must return. We are only allowed to be here for ten minutes, and we have gone over that.”

I nod to Silas, looking back at Breelyn. “I can’t wait to show you the library and introduce you both to Dot when you are free.”

Breelyn hugs me this time.

Callahan meets my eyes over her shoulder, a softness flashing in them when he looks at Breelyn. She breaks away. “Can’t wait.”

“I will try to come back if I can,” I say, climbing to my feet, already feeling guilty about leaving her here. I turn to Silas. “Can we have more guards on the door? If the Levi attacked them, five wouldn’t be enough, and they have no weapons.”

“Yes,” Silas agrees. “I will make the command to double the guards when we get back.”

“Thank you,” Callahan and Breelyn say at the same time and then turn to glare at each other. Feeling another argument coming on, I walk to the door with Silas, who pulls it open. Before Silas can stop me, I walk over and hug Callahan, who wraps his arms around my back. “Don’t kill her, okay?”

“She’s the one who shifts into a deadly wolf, and I’m weaponless. I can’t even fly away,” he jokes, flashing me a toothy grin. I chuckle, going back to Silas, who watches expressionless as I step through the door. I don’t look back, knowing if I did, I wouldn’t want to leave, and the moment I’m at the bottom of the steps, the wolves are back in their line in front of the door. Fox is picking daisies in the garden and stands up.

“A daisy chain for you,” he says, placing the necklace of daisies over my head.

“Thank you, Fox. I used to make these,” I say, pulling my hair out of the chain.

He rubs the back of his neck. “A pretty necklace for a pr—”

Silas knocks his shoulder. “I’m the only one of four who are allowed to call Mai pretty, Fox.”

“Understood, alpha,” Fox says, and the moment Silas looks away, he winks at me, and I chuckle as we walk away and through the picket fence.

“Back to the castle?” I ask.

“No,” Silas replies, lifting my hand and kissing my knuckles. “I want to show you something.”

We head into the thick trees in the forest, stepping over the large exposed roots and the many little plants that grow around them. There is no path, making the trek difficult, and I don’t know how long we walk until we come to a stone-built throne in the middle of five white oak trees. The white oak is the same shade of weathered stone as the throne, which is broken at the top, the armrests covered in ivy. Silas leads me over and waves to the throne, which I sit down on, the stone freezing cold everywhere it touches me. I feel hyperaware as Silas settles his eyes on me, all predator and wicked.

“You are sitting where the first god was said to be created. From ash and magic and nothing more,” Silas breathes out, moving closer, his eyes trailing over me, his desire a thick scent in the air to match my own. My heart beats fast as he moves closer, and the forest is silent to my ears, as I only focus on him.

“Ash and magic to create a god? With that truth, I could make a god in seconds,” I breathe out.

He laughs, low and devious. “I don’t make up the legends, Mai.”

I arch an eyebrow as he leans over and goes to his knees in front of me. In front of the broken throne I sit upon. Something deep down in my chest warms as I gaze into the eyes of the alpha I love on his knees before me as I sit on an old throne in a warm forest. His hands fall on my knees, and I gasp from the contact and the warmth of his large hands.

“Will you give me something? Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time?”

His question is more like a plea, and even when I don’t know what he wants, I find myself nodding. I wouldn’t and couldn’t refuse him anything.

When we met, I was sure we would become enemies with how mad he made me, how far he pushed me, but it was just a dance. A dance to become this, two wolves in love beyond even the touch of the gods.

We are not promised to them, our souls are only promised to each other.

His returning grin is nothing short of a craving mix of want. My heart feels stuck in my chest as he brushes his hands up my thighs, pushing up my skirt to my waist and baring me to him, only lacy white fabric between him and my core.

“Do you trust me?”

“Always,” I whisper, so filled with desire. He leans down and kisses my knee as he pulls down my lace panties and leaves them on the ground near his feet as he carries on kissing up my thigh, pushing my legs apart. I gasp as he pulls me closer to the edge of the throne, my ass half hanging off it, and he looks up. His lips settle on mine with a fevered desperation I match, wanting more of him. Close to pleading for him.

He growls against my lips, and I feel the growl everywhere. Right down to my core. I can hardly breathe as he kisses down my jaw, slowly nipping my neck and collarbone, the pain laced with sweet pleasure.

“I want more than anything,” he breathes against my chest as he presses a kiss right above my breasts hidden under my crop top, “to thrust myself inside you. To not know where I begin and end with you. To never want to leave…but I want that as your mate. When I knot…”

He pauses with a growl.

Knotting. Something I’ve only heard whispered about before. It happens in sex, when a male chooses his mate, and the female accepts. I don’t know much about it other than it’s pleasurable, and I want to find out about it. With him, Silas.

He lowers himself, again teasing with his lips against my upper thigh, closer to my core than ever before. “I want to take you as my mate forever. But for now, I need a taste, if you will let me.”

“I trust you,” I breathe out.

He grins like I just said I’d trust the devil with my soul. Maybe I have done. He brushes his fingers across my core, and I moan, clutching his shoulder right before his thighs nudge my lower legs, spreading me open, and he licks between my legs with his hot tongue, focusing on my nub. Pleasure courses through me like a wave of fire, burning my veins to life, building an inferno controlled by Silas’s tongue. He slips one finger, then two inside me, adding to the pressure as I sink my hands into his hair, and he growls against my core.

The vibration of his growl, the possessiveness, is too much with what his tongue is doing.

“Silas!” I cry out his name like a prayer for the gods as I crash into an orgasm so strong it shakes my whole body, making me forget anything but him. His scent wraps around me as he leans up, meeting my eyes.

I reach for him, but he catches my hands, lowering them and nudging my cheek as he leans in to kiss me. “Touch me, and nothing—no vow or rite—will stop me from taking you on this throne.”

I blush, pangs of pleasure still coursing through me. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he breathes out before stepping away, calming himself. He looks back once, an impish smirk on his lips. “You look good on a throne like that. I will take you on this when you are my mate. When I’ve spent hours crashing you over the edge when I’m inside you.”

I purr. “I’m looking forward to being your mate, Silas Fall.”

His eyes flare with longing and surprise. They may have found me as a broken female, but that isn’t who I am anymore. I’m fighting for my future and finding who I am—and what is mine.

Chapter

Eight

“I  vow to the gods to speak only the truth within these halls and during this court,” I say, reading the script handed to me, never pausing. The court is held in a silent, weapon-free room with only one entrance and exit, the doors in front of me. The guards walked me here after lunch, with Phim and Erin close by. And it’s another part of this giant castle I had never been in. I think it’s near or at the back of the ballroom, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Then welcome to court, Mairin Fall,” the guard says, bowing his head and nodding to the four guards in front of double stained glass doors. The doors are stained a deep, mustard yellow, and it’s so dark it makes it impossible to see inside. The doors creak, a sign of their age, as the guards open them to make enough space for me to walk inside. I glance behind me, where Phim and Erin are waiting, and Phim nods to me. I’m here to make sure Breelyn and Callahan walk out of this court at my side, free.

I hold my head high, feeling underdressed in a black T-shirt, skinny jeans and black boots. Erin was certain that no one dresses up for court; it’s a casual meeting of each of the plaza betas and the alphas alone to discuss the fate of whoever is standing before the court of wolves. My hair sways behind me, up in a high ponytail, so the ends brush against my shoulders as I head into the large circular room with mosaic blue tiles and white walls with marble pillars. The ceiling is painted blue, like the sky with dotted clouds around. I see Alpha Reine first, Alpha Soren at her side, on two seats in the middle of a long grey stone table. My alphas are seated around them: Henderson and Silas on one side, Valentine and Ragnar on the other. Each of them watches me like a hawk from the moment I step in. There are five other wolves seated in the room, only one of them I recognise from the celebration meal, Solandis Fall.

Breelyn and Callahan aren’t here, and I sit down on the first row of seats in front of a circle gap between the seating and the stone table.

The room is silent, and I feel like everyone is watching me as I hold my head high. “Today we have a special guest at our court meeting, Mairin Fall. We have also invited Adira Fall as a second opinion on the wolf and angel.”

Great.

I don’t bother to hide my distaste as the door behind me opens and I scent Adira walking in without looking back. She makes a show of stopping next to me and bowing to the alphas before walking past me and sitting on the seat at my side. Of course, Adira is wearing a silky black dress that clings to her curvy body, and it dips so low that everyone can see everything.

“Good to see you, Mai,” she whispers.

I don’t respond to her; she doesn’t even deserve my attention in any way, shape, or form. Adira sighs and leans closer to me. “Ignoring me won’t make me go away, Mai.”

“When I get my memories back, Adira, you better watch your back,” I whisper, never turning her way.

For a second, I scent her fear, and then it’s gone. “That will never happen. You have no memories, and it’s impossible at this point for you to remember.”

I smile.

The doors open once more, and this time, I look back as Breelyn and Callahan are guided into the court, both of them held on to with chains attached to handcuffs at their wrists. I grit my teeth, reminding myself that they will be walking out of here without those things on. I have to be careful with Adira here and her lies she so easily spews from her mouth. She knows I care about them both, and I have no doubt she is here to lie about something, to make them look untrustworthy.

Breelyn’s eyes meet mine, and I give her a nod, which she returns before they both stop in the marked circle. The guards push them onto their knees, and I grip the seat under my hands.

“We will start with the female wolf,” Alpha Soren begins. “Breelyn Ravensword, rescued from the Ravensword Pack by Beta Seraphim. Breelyn has refused to bind herself to the pack and now risks our city. Will we now take time to let anyone in the room speak for Breelyn Ravensword.”

I stand up and Alpha Soren nods. “When I first met Breelyn Ravensword, I was held captive by the alpha of Ravensword, and I was forced to kill her father in front of her. Instead of hating me, which she would have had a right to do, she became my friend and showed me how truly kind she is. Breelyn Ravensword will be my omega if I win the rite, and I would trust her with my life. I wish, on her behalf, to let Breelyn stay in our pack until the rite is over, and I believe she plans to swear her loyalty to me, to the Fall Mountain Pack.”

“Please sit,” Alpha Soren commands, and I do. Breelyn looks back once, her eyes thankful.

“I will attest to Breelyn’s character,” Silas says, standing. “I have spent weeks training Breelyn Ravensword and found her to be a respectful wolf. I believe she has no ties with Ravensword other than them being the pack she was born into.”

Silas sits down, and Alpha Soren looks to Breelyn. “Do you intend to swear loyalty and join our grand pack when and if Mairin takes alpha female?”

“Yes,” she replies, and I breathe out a long breath. “My loyalty stands with Mai—Mairin—Fall, and I plan to be an omega who would die to protect her.”

Silence rings after she stops talking, and eventually Alpha Reine speaks. “I have spoken with many children who were on the train and heard that Breelyn, along with others, fought Levi to protect our alpha heirs and pack.”

She looks at Breelyn. “The question isn’t if you’re loyal to this pack, but are you loyal to Ravensword Pack still?”

“Alpha Reine, that is a hard question to answer. I am not loyal to the alpha or the family of my fated mate because he beat and raped me before I killed him. So did his friends in the pack, including the alpha himself. The alpha of Ravensword caused my father’s death to punish me before continuing to hurt me until I escaped. I would rather die than go back to that pack,” she brutally answers, hurting my heart. Callahan looks at Breelyn, and for the first time, I think he sees how broken she is and how strong she is all at the same time.

I think he really sees her.

“But the pack is not defined by its alpha. There are old, young, weak and kind wolves in the thousands in that pack. I grew up with them, and many tried to help me when I was mated.” She pauses as a look of pain flashes across her face. “So I am loyal to the pack of those who don’t deserve the alpha they have. I hope to one day see the alpha of Ravensword dead and an alpha who cares on that throne.”

“I believe I speak for everyone here when I say I am sorry for their treatment of you,” Alpha Reine says and looks at Alpha Soren, nodding once.

“We will take a vote. Stand if you wish for Breelyn Ravensword to be allowed free passage around our pack until after the rite?” Alpha Soren asks before standing himself. My alphas all stand, Alpha Reine next until all but one of the betas is standing. The remaining male, a permanent frown on his face, doesn’t move.

“It has been decided,” Alpha Soren states. “You are free to leave, Breelyn Ravensword. Undo her cuffs.”

Two guards, hidden in the shadows of the room, step forward as Breelyn stands. They undo her cuffs, and she bows her head to the alphas before walking past me, a small smile my way. She looks back at Callahan, her brow creasing. He looks right back at her until she goes out of the door, and silence rings once more.

Alpha Soren looks down at Callahan. “Never before has an angel been welcomed into our city, and even kneeling in this court is setting history, Commander Callahan of the Fenrir Court.”

I glance at Callahan’s head of wavy, sun-kissed blond hair, and he looks back at me, his warm, whiskey amber eyes meeting mine before he looks up at Alpha Soren.

“Then I am truly honoured, Alpha Soren, to kneel before you in your court. I was born in the Fenrir Court and trained to be a soldier from a young age. I fought well enough to be promoted to Commander of the Fenrir Court army, under the rule of Viscount Deimos.” He pauses, his wings moving with him. “In my lifetime, I have seen a world fall and one reborn in its ashes. I have seen enough to scar a mind, as I am sure can be echoed in the minds of many in this room. Our races are enemies, that much is true, but I am here because that doesn’t have to be the case. When I first met the alpha heirs and Mairin Fall, I saw a change on the horizon for our world. There are gods and goddesses in the world, and I believe their presence, in a time of war, means one side of this war has been blessed. I know which side I am on, and I am here today to ask for you to look past my angel wings, past what marks our blood as different, and to realise our goals are the same.”

His words ring out into the courtroom, and I lock eyes with Valentine for just a moment, realizing this is exactly why they brought Callahan here. He is a respected angel, a commander who worked hard for his life and title.

“What is it you want for this world, Commander?” Alpha Reine questions.

“Peace,” he replies. “A world where no child suffers and blood isn’t spilt in war. I am no threat to you or your pack. It is a majestic honour to be here and to help you.”

“As before,” Alpha Soren begins, “would anyone like to speak on behalf of Commander Callahan?”

I go to stand, but Adira shoots her arm out, pushing me back as she stands up. I knew she wouldn’t sit silently. “I wish to speak the truth, and I can’t sit here without saying it.”

“Speak, child,” Alpha Soren commands.

I curl my hands into fists. “Callahan was sneaking off on the train, coming back scenting of angels and deception. I believe he is nothing more than a spy, who saved Mairin’s life to get closer to the alpha heirs and on the train. When I was in the city, spying on them, I saw Commander Callahan kill many angels and humans, with almost a soulless quality much like many of the angels in the city. They enslave humans there, refuse to even let them have names, and I have no doubt that is what they want for the wolves of this city.”

“As the commander, I had to—”

“Kill? Control? Put humans in their place?” Adira questions, cutting him off. “Many in the city fear the commander more than they do their viscount, and that is for a reason.”

“I was born powerful and with a gift,” Callahan replies, narrowing his eyes on her. “I’m stronger and faster than the average angel, so of course I was feared when I held a position of power. As for leaving the train, yes, I did, but to get food. Blood, as you are all aware, I drink to survive. But I do not drink human blood, and I have never taken without permission.”

“Adira, you may sit,” Alpha Reine tells her, and she does, briefly flashing me a smile. Bitch.

“May I speak?” I question.

Alpha Soren nods. “Rise, Mairin.”

I glare at Adira as I stand up, straightening my back as I face them all to speak for my friend. I’m well aware his life is on the line. I can feel the pressure building on me. I look at my new friend who saved my life, protecting me, and raise my head high. “Commander Callahan and I met in the Fenrir Court, my first chance at seeing how angels live and humans suffer. They suffer, there is no doubt in my mind about that. Angels rule and wolves, we hide. Right?”

“Mai—” Henderson tries to make me stop, but I won’t.

“If we only ever judge based on what’s in our blood, then we are all damned by other’s actions. I would like to be judged on my actions, on the risks I take, and the times in my life I have been brave. Callahan is brave, braver than most males I’ve met, and he has a good soul. Killing this male for having wings makes us no better than the angel king himself,” I tell them all, a few of them gasping. “You’ve hidden away, and I understand why, but unless you plan to hide for the rest of our lives, trust must be given. My alphas brought an angel into their home, and I hope each of you can see he is no threat to us. He is our ally in the war ahead. Unusual times call for unusual choices. I plead with you to put your preconceived judgment in the past and give Callahan a chance. A chance to talk with you and teach you of how the angel courts live and breathe.”

“And how to take them down,” Callahan softly adds in. “Viscount Deimos wants change.”

I sit down and cross my arms. Seeing the proud looks on my alphas’ faces makes me sit a little taller.

Alpha Soren stands. “The time for change is upon us. I stand for Commander Callahan to be allowed to stay in the city, with his wings hidden and two wolf guards at his side or outside his room at all times. No flying. Stand if you agree.”

My alphas stand, but no one else does, making the room an even number. I look at Alpha Reine, and she shakes her head, making it clear her opinion. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Adira grin, and I look at the betas, wishing one of them could give Callahan a chance. The sad thing is, I understand where they are coming from and their deep-rooted hate for the angel race. They want them all dead, and having one in the city isn’t what they would wish for, war or not. They can’t see him for who he is, not like we know him.

A chair scrapes, and Solandis Fall stands up, swaying the decision in our favour. All the beta wolves look sharply at her as she nods to Callahan. “If you betray our pack, I will rip your wings off and feed them to you, angel.”

He inclines his head, and Solandis looks over at me for a brief second.

“It is decided. Take his cuffs off. This court meeting is over,” Alpha Soren commands, turning to talk with Alpha Reine and my alphas.

“Looks like Mai wins once again,” Adira says, standing up, her sharp eyes looking down at me. “Eventually your luck is going to run out.”

“Eventually your lies are going to come to light,” I say, standing up to face her. “And then who will need luck? It won’t be me.”

She bares her teeth at me, a deep growl vibrating out of her chest before she storms past me. The guards finish taking Callahan’s cuffs off as I get to his side, and I smile at him. He flashes me a relieved look. “Thank you.”

I nod, placing my hand on his arm. “I save my friends. We’re kind of even now.”

He chuckles as I lower my hand. “That we are.”

I walk past him and to Solandis, who is talking with a male with thick dark brown hair and blue eyes. He looks at me, detestation flashing in his eyes before stepping around Solandis and going to my alphas.

“Ignore him,” Solandis says. “Moody old bugger that he is.”

“Why did you stand?” I ask outright, getting to the point.

“For you,” she replies, surprising me. “You tried to save my brother from a painful death and my sister from a difficult, life-changing decision on the day of the attack.”

My eyes widen for a second. She is Tualla’s sister. Now that I stare at her, I notice they have similarly shaped faces but little else.

“I’m sorry for your loss. That was a terrible day,” I say.

“The Levi got in through the wall in my plaza. I lost many of my people,” she explains to me. “My family and I are mourning, and my loyalty is with my sister in the rite. But I do wish you good luck. My family is no longer in your debt, Mairin Fall.”

I bow my head in respect to her, stepping back and looking over at my alphas as I walk out of the room.

Thank you, I mouth to them, and they each tilt their lips up in a smile. I walk out of the courtroom and straight to Breelyn, embracing her in a hug. Even Phim joins the hug, and I fully relax for the first time in this city.

“Want to see the pack city, Bree?”

“Damn yes,” she replies. “Time to see my home.”

Home…we are finally home.

Chapter

Nine

“D ot, what do you think?” I ask, well aware she is ignoring me, but the second I walked into the library this morning, a book on advanced riddle creation landed on the desk I was heading for. I know she is near and no doubt has a judgmental word or two about the riddle I’ve written for Valentine. I had intended to look around the library myself, before the book I wanted arrived and I got the suspicion I was being watched closely. I hope it’s Dot. I can’t scent her, unlike everyone else I’ve come across, and I’m nothing but curious about who and what she is. I’ve seen and heard of nothing like her. “Fine, I’m going to read it to you, just in case you are listening.”

I swear I hear a slight whisper of a chuckle.

“I am found in sight,

Clueless to many,

Unavoidable to some.

I am stolen even in the darkest of nights with only a look.”

Silence follows as I write my riddle down on a piece of paper from my room and fold it in two, writing Valentine’s name on the top. I push my seat out and stand, looking around the beautiful room. My favourite place in the castle by far. Even Breelyn loves it here, but she doesn’t believe me about Dot, and considering Dot hasn’t shown her face the two times I’ve brought Breelyn and Callahan here, they think I’m going crazy. “I’m going to take your silence as confirmation of how much you love my riddle.”

A laugh echoes around, and I shake my head as I leave the library, bumping right into Ragnar waiting outside. “Hello, you scared me.”

I place my hand over my racing heart, and he picks it up off my chest, kissing the tips of my fingers. “I’m sorry for how I acted the other day. I was out of line.”

I search his eyes, remembering the wolf who makes me smile, who cared and loved me way before we met once more. The nights and days roll into one memory until I nod. I’m not happy with him, and I can’t understand what he did, but Ragnar deserves the benefit of the doubt this once.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” I warn him. “You frightened me, Ragnar. I had to run from you.”

He steps closer. “I feel like we are getting to know each other once more in this rite, and I swear, Mai darling, I will never intentionally frighten you.”

His lips fall onto mine, a pressured and passionate kiss, crumpling the note in my hand as he grabs my waist and presses me to him, his scent a swirling mixture of desire. But something doesn’t feel right as he kisses me…

I break away, smiling softly, wondering if it’s just how he has been acting recently that is putting me off him. I’ve always wanted Ragnar and felt a soul-burning connection, but—

“What is this?” Ragnar asks, slipping the letter from my hand. My cheeks light up as he reads the riddle and hands me it back.

“For Valentine, I presume?” he questions. “You two and your riddles. He used to write them on the trees around your house, and you’d write the answer on the massive oak tree outside his.”

“I didn’t know that,” I say, smiling, imagining us as two children, drawing on trees and figuring out how to speak to each other.

Ragnar nods once. “He didn’t like to talk to people after his sister’s death.”

“He lost his sister?” I whisper.

“Sometimes I forget you don’t remember,” he replies, running his hand down my arm. “You’re so beautiful, like you always were, but life has changed you. You’re stronger, sexier, different.”

“Even if I did remember, that wouldn’t change those things about me,” I reply. “I am who I am because of my past.”

“You were born strong, and your life has tested that strength, weakened you. Without it, you could have ruled this world instead of—”

Weakened me? I wouldn’t call what I am now weak, and I didn’t expect Ragnar to say that. It makes me pause as three guards walk past, making Ragnar halt mid-sentence but not move away from me. “I’m going to Valentine’s room, hoping he isn’t in there so I can sneak this in. Want to come with me?”

“Yes, then I’m stealing you for the day,” he says, wrapping his arm around my waist. “A whole day of us alone where I can do whatever I want with you.”

I rest my head on his arm. “I should be training, Ragnar. I only took a break for lunch and to visit the library. Actually, where were you this morning? You’re always in training.”

“I had a friend to see,” he answers, a mischievous grin on his face. “And I got you something. I want to give you it somewhere more romantic than a corridor, but…”

He pulls out a small box and opens it, revealing a gold band ring with a golden apple, filled with tiny diamonds. “It’s…well, beautiful. But why an apple?”

He picks the ring out, and I offer him my hand, watching as he slides it on my middle finger. “When the gods ruled this world, there was an apple called the Golden Apple of Discord. It was true, undeniable power. A glowing bundle of shifter energy from the creator of the gods, shaped almost like an apple. The gods and goddesses argued over who should be the keeper of such power, making them more powerful than anyone on this earth, until it was stolen by a goddess, who hid it away before dying and taking its location to her grave. Her name was Persephone.”

My eyes widen as I run a finger over the ring. “So no one ever found it?”

“No,” he replies, pursing his lips. “This ring will stay on your hand during your shift to wolf and back. It’s made of a metal that our shifter energy cannot bend or rip.”

“Wow… Do you—” I pause. “Do you think the king of the angels wants me because of my soul bond to Persephone? Because she might tell me where it is or I might be able to see her memories?”

Something sparks in his eyes. “Perhaps. We will never know, as he won’t get close enough to you to find out. Can you see her memories?”

I shrug, lowering my hand. “In my dreams…I’ve seen things. So maybe.”

“Interesting,” he replies, watching me so closely. I lean up and kiss his cheek.

“Thank you for my gift and the history behind it,” I tell him. I’ve not had a gift off Ragnar before, and I half expected it to be a car or something similar. “Let’s go.”

He links his cold hand with mine, and for a moment, I think I scent someone else nearby. An oddly familiar dry cedar and musky citrus lemon scent, but it’s gone quickly. I look around us, the corridor empty of anything but bookshelves filled with books. Ragnar’s eyes glitter in the dark corridors as he looks back at me, and when he blinks, the light of the stars is gone so quickly. A coldness fills my chest, like a sense of dread, and it stays with me as we walk through the castle and to my alphas’ rooms. There are four doors, each with a silent guard stood outside, and we go to the first door.

“Move,” Ragnar commands, a coldness to his voice.

“Please,” I say after him, and he only smirks at me. The guard steps aside, and Ragnar opens the door, letting me in while he waits outside the room. Valentine’s room is grander than mine, on a level I wasn’t expecting. His bed is on a stone platform, with an actual fountain of water around it, broken only by a row of steps going up to the bed. A massive chandelier hangs above the four-poster stone bed filled with red sheets. The floor is dark red, deep pinks and white mosaics, and the walls are raw stone. I step in and rush up the steps to his bed, placing the note on his pillow and breathing in his scent, which fills the room, making my cheeks slightly flush.

A breeze blows through the room from an open glass door, and I walk over, stepping out into a small balcony behind the waterfall, close enough for me to reach my arm out and maybe just touch the water. Several large plants in pots line the balcony and a seat, with a pile of books on a small table near the door. I lift the cover of the first book, smiling when I see the title.

“Riddles. 422.”

I’m not the only one doing research, it seems. Knowing he is reading these for me only makes my heart warm. I leave Valentine’s room, jumping when Silas steps in front of me.

“It’s rude to sneak into other people’s rooms without asking,” Silas states, his body so close to mine, his scent possessing me in a comforting and seductive blanket. I step closer, arching my neck to meet his winter snow eyes.

“You can sneak into my room anytime, Mai,” Ragnar interrupts us, but neither Silas nor I move, both of us staring each other down. I love when he challenges me like this, a competition of wills in a teasing dance.

I lift my hand and run my thumb across his bottom lip, the world around us disappearing, his eyes burning into molten lava. “Telling me what to do again, Silas?”

He breathes in deep, stepping closer, our bodies lined up. “Yes. Even if your stubborn ass is never going to listen to me.”

“Never,” I reply with a grin, lowering my hand, but he catches it and places it over his heart, over his dark shirt, his silver buttons pushing against my thumb.

Ragnar places his hand on my shoulder, and I turn to him, but he is looking at Silas, who slowly turns his gaze from me. “I’m stealing Mai for the day, and we should be going.”

“I will join you both,” Silas announces.

“I’d love to have you two to myself for a bit,” I say, smiling at Ragnar, who doesn’t look that happy about Silas joining us. “I mean, if it’s okay, Ragnar? I don’t want to ruin what you have planned?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Ragnar smoothly replies, taking my hand and leading me down the corridor. Silas easily keeps up behind us, the corridor too narrow for us all to walk side by side. I link my fingers through Ragnar’s, feeling how tense he is at my side now.

“Any more updates on how the Levi got into the city?” I question them both. I have a theory myself that I know I can’t say to them. I think Adira somehow lured the Levi in, controlling them, but I am not sure. She wouldn’t have wanted her entering the rite disturbed, and she was with us the entire time. I’m not sure she is even powerful enough to lure and control that many Levi at once. I need to get a book on her goddess and find out what I can about her and the powers Adira has.

I need proof before accusing her once again.

“Nothing,” Ragnar replies.

Silas adds to his one-word answer. “The alphas have gone into the chapel to pray to the gods to protect our city, our pack, and for an answer on how this happened. That’s how low we have gotten, praying to gods who won’t answer calls.”

“Could you four ask Hades?” I question.

“No,” Ragnar replies. “Hades wouldn’t help with this pack and this city when we aren’t ruling.”

“Our power is growing every day we are here,” Silas carries on, flashing a strange glance at Ragnar. “Soon I hope we won’t need Hades’s help in protecting the city with our own barrier.”

“I feel my powers…my connection to Persephone growing here,” I admit. “It’s readier than ever to call my power out, and it feels stronger, like a flame building from a spark.”

“I can sense your power growing,” Ragnar tells me after we climb a staircase and come out to the main, larger corridor of the castle. We all drift into silence after Ragnar’s statement and climb the rest of the staircases to the courtyard. This time, I actually remember a few of them. In the middle of the courtyard is a red car, the door left open. “You need to learn to drive the human cars, or I thought you’d like to learn.”

“I would!” I say. “I mean, Mike taught me a little, but we never had much fuel, so I couldn’t drive far. Do you have fuel for it here?”

“Stolen from humans over the years,” Silas says, rubbing his chin. “We keep cars in case of emergencies.”

He flashes a sideward glance at Ragnar, who shrugs. “If Levi attack the city, Mai knowing how to drive could save her life.”

“Fine,” Silas agrees, and I smile before rushing to the car and climbing into the front seat. Ragnar gets in the passenger seat next to me, and Silas sits behind him, slamming the door shut. I pull the seat belt on before adjusting the seat to pull me forward so my feet touch the pedals.

“Did you make any changes to this one?” I ask Ragnar as I adjust the mirror like Mike taught me so I can see behind.

“Why would I do that?” he rhetorically asks, and I frown at him, almost wanting to laugh, because Ragnar loves to mess with mechanics of cars. “Turn the engine on, pushing the pedals. This is an automatic, so no stick.”

“Okay,” I say, doing what he asks. The car jolts harshly forward, and I gulp, pushing the pedal a little softer this time. I drive us slowly down the courtyard path, past angel guards who look our way, and towards the forest, speeding up a little.

“Take a right at the gate, don’t go through it,” Ragnar commands, and I follow his instruction. “And speed up.”

I chuckle, putting my foot down on it, and we speed through the bumpier path, following the wall for about a mile before going into the forest. I laugh, speeding up more, enjoying the freedom the car can give me.

“Careful, Mai. A car can easily kill you in a crash,” Silas warns, and I slow a little, knowing he is right.

“Always the boring and killjoy one, brother,” Ragnar replies and leans over, pressing his palm into my knee and slamming my foot on the pedal. The car jolts forward, my hands gripping the wheel tighter.

“Let go, Ragnar, it’s too fast!” I shout at him, but he only presses his hand harder on my knee, to the point of bruising. Silas leans forward, grabbing Ragnar’s hand off my knee and slamming him back into his seat. I look back at the path, a scream blasting out of my throat when I see the crater pit in front of me, and I slam my foot on the brakes. The car screeches to a halt right in front of the edge, my heart racing in my chest.

“What the fuck, brother! You nearly killed us all!” Silas roars at Ragnar as I shakily undo my seat belt, open the door, and run outside. I’m shaking from head to toe as I close my eyes, shifting in a green haze into my wolf.

“Mai—” Silas pauses as my wolf turns back to him. I watch his eyes bleed into red, the red haze spreading all around him until his large black wolf is in front of me. Wordlessly, I turn and run into the forest, letting my wolf calm my racing heart and confused thoughts on Ragnar, knowing my pack is close. My alpha is watching.

Chapter

Ten

“T hey have cleared half the city for this morning’s test,” Erin quietly tells me, pulling another lace on my corset tighter so I can hardly breathe. Four sharpened daggers are hidden in the corset, a design all of its own. Black chiffon is tucked into the corset, flowing down my arms, and my black trousers are skintight. Breelyn finishes braiding my hair down my back and curling it up into a bun at the base of my head. Not a strand out of place. “Whatever the rite test is, it means you will be alone there with those other females.”

The females that have sunk into this castle like a plague to haunt the alphas. They don’t speak to me or even notice I’m there when they come to watch training or just to follow the alphas. Every time any of them speak to my alphas, a growl slips out of my throat and my wolf itches to bite their heads off. The only thing that stops my wolf is how the alphas ignore them completely—except for Adira, but I know they don’t see her like that. I’ve overheard several conversations in training, asking her what the hell she is doing entering the rite. She never gives them any answer other than it’s meant to be. She always looks at Ragnar when she says it. I trust him, and he looks at me in a way he doesn’t look at her, but I don’t like it. My wolf and I know they are ours.

As much as we belong to them.

Erin meets my eyes in the mirror. “All the females in the rite are going to head straight for you and try to kill you. You kill them first, got it?”

I give her a shaky nod, the best I can do with how nervous I feel. I want to see my alphas, but on any day of a rite test, they must be in chapel all day to pray to the gods for a true mate to be found in the rite. I hate they won’t be there today, but in some ways it’s less pressure if they aren’t watching me.

“Adira is going to be first on that list,” Phim warns me, her arms crossed as she leans against the wall. “Please kick her ass and show her up. I’m tired of her.”

I run my ring around my finger as I stand up and glance at myself in the mirror. I look like a warrior queen on her way to direct an army to battle instead of a female wolf in love enough to fight other females in a deadly test.

“I’m not letting Adira win,” I firmly state. Three tests. Three times I need to win, because a life without them…I don’t want to imagine that again. I nearly lost my mind, as well as my heart, the last time that happened. “But if something happens to me—”

“Don’t even say it, sister,” Phim firmly interrupts, coming over and placing her hands on my shoulders. “We are strong and have been through hell.”

“And hell taught us how to fight,” Breelyn adds, stepping to Phim’s side.

I hold my head high. “Thank you, I needed that. I needed your support.”

“I hate to interrupt, but you can’t be late today,” Erin says, nodding at the door. Phim lowers her hands and steps back to Breelyn’s side.

“We will be waiting for you to come back, and so will they,” Breelyn tells me, and I know who she means without saying their names. I walk to the door, and Erin runs to my side, making me pause.

She keeps her voice quiet. “I found where The Wolves of Mnemosyne are. They sent word through a young wolf that they want to see you. The young wolf will come for you, and you should go with him.”

“Thank you,” I tell her. I can get my memories back! Erin looks worried as she steps back and bows her head. I open the door and head out into the corridor, four guards waiting for me, their red cloaks pooling like blood on the floor around them.

“I’m ready.”

Two of them walk in front of me, two of them at my back, as I’m guided around the castle and to the courtyard where all the females are waiting. There are equal amounts of black and white horses tied to the edges of the courtyard, and I join the line of females, next to a blonde wolf whose name I don’t know. She looks at me and sneers before turning away.

Well, no use learning her name.

I glance down the line to find Adira and Tualla side by side, like night and day. Minutes tick by. The only sound filling the space is the falling water as it hits the rocks, and the warm wind as it blows around us, a wisp of dead leaves in its wake. The season is changing, summer fading into autumn, and soon it will be winter, my favourite month. There is something about the white snow, the peace and clarity it brings with it. A fresh beginning.

I can’t wait to see this city in snow.

Alpha Reine walks out from the side entrance to the courtyard, a long red cloak falling from her shoulders and trailing behind her, her white crown on her head. She stops in the middle of us, about ten feet away, her head held high and regal. I see so much of Ragnar and Henderson in her expressions, the way she holds herself.

I wonder if she sees so much of my mother in me. A deep sadness tickles at my chest when I wonder what my mother would have thought if she could see me today.

“Welcome to the first test of the rite. I have the honour of speaking and guiding you through three tests before handing one of you my crown,” she states, the wind echoing her voice and filling it with power. I can’t help the shiver that shakes through my body. “Each test is in honour of a god or goddess, and each sacrifice made today will be in their honour. Today’s test is for the goddess Athena.”

“The goddess of wisdom,” the female next to me mutters softly between Alpha Reine’s slight pause.

“Enter the city, guided by a lighted path, and find one marked with your scent. Use your wisdom to make the right choice and fight fairly. May Athena herself watch over you all,” Alpha Reine states and waves a hand at the horses.

Dear gods above, horse riding?

I memorise everything she said, while keeping a close eye on my fellow females in the rite and noticing how four of them have grouped with Adira, talking quietly. Tualla walks to my side on the way to the horses, a bow attached to her back with a quiver of arrows. Two long blades hang from her waist.

“How are you?” I question.

“Well,” she tightly replies, meeting my eyes. “Thank you for the kindness you showed my family, but we are not allies, Mairin Fall.”

I nod. “Agreed. We cannot be allies in a test that sees only one winner.”

She looks back at the group and straightens her shoulders. “An ally would warn you of the group behind us and the intention they have to hunt you first.”

I look behind me at the group, Adira clearly in the lead. I know what she has been doing since we got here. Plotting and scheming, typical.

I smile at Tualla. “Let them try.”

She looks right into my eyes. “Five against one isn’t fair. Show them what a goddess of death walking on the mortal lands can do.”

Goddess of death? I’ve never heard that one before. Queen of the underworld, sure. Goddess of spring and fertility, but not death.

I don’t get to question Tualla on it as she runs and jumps onto a horse, effortlessly gliding into the saddle and undoing the binding before taking off in a gallop with the click of her tongue and a swift squeeze of her legs.

I know I’m never going to look that graceful climbing on the horse. I choose the white horse nearest to me, not too tall or short. A leather satchel is clipped to the back, and I hook my foot into the stirrup and pull myself on. I sway a little on the horse, and she neighs, moving a step back. The wind picks up around me as two other females lead their horses away, and I undo the binding, talking quietly.

“Horse, you need to know I haven’t ridden a horse since I was thirteen and fell off, breaking my arm in four places. Since then, your kind and I have avoided each other, but by the gods, I need your strength today. If you could make up for my total lack of experience, that would be massively appreciated,” I say. I should have asked Silas for a horse riding lesson. “I’m going to name you Neve for your snowy coat.”

Neve neighs, like she can understand me, as I take her reins and copy what Tualla did, clicking my tongue, and Neve takes off, faster than I expected, down the courtyard road. I barely manage to keep my ass on the saddle as she charges down the road, passing the two other females easily, and into the thickness of the forest. The earthy scent of the forest is nothing but passing as the wind brutally slams against my eyes and body, making it haltingly chilling with every slam of Neve’s hooves on the road. The gates are wide open when we get to them, and I follow my instinct when we get to the large houses, taking the first right. I turn and look back before we go around the corner, seeing the group of females racing their horses down the road, Adira in the lead. Her white leather outfit makes her look like a peace symbol.

But she doesn’t want peace.

The few large townhouses I pass are empty, the gardens and streets too. I guide Neve left before pulling on the reins to slow her down. She listens and I stretch my senses, looking for something, anything that scents like me, but finding nothing. I think back to every word Alpha Reine said.

Guided by a lighted path.

Lighted…but it’s bright out, and there are no lights on. I search the houses, looking in their windows and only seeing reflections of myself on my large white horse. Pulling Neve to a stop, I turn around and watch the quiet roads for a second to make sure I’m safe before unclipping the satchel. I pull out four small glass vials, each a different shade of purple. I put them back and search further into the bag until I find a piece of paper.

It has the number seven on it, nothing else, and I turn it over to see a strange row of stars in a weird line. I turn it over several times before I look down the street. The houses have numbers on the door; the house in front of me is number three hundred and two. The next one is three hundred. So it might be a house number, but what are the dots? I place my hand under the paper with a tiny amount of power, and the dots make up another word, glowing clearly.

Titianess.

A street name, maybe.

Hearing hooves on stone in the distance, I push the note back in my bag and grab my reins, swinging them. Neve sets off fast into a new street. Not the right name, but the houses are still descending in order.

Two hundred and forty-one.

Two hundred and thirty-nine.

Two hundred—

I scream as something lands in my arm, and Neve cries out, throwing me off her back. I slam harshly onto the ground, my body aching with the impact. Biting down as I turn my head, I see a throwing star imbedded into my shoulder. It hurts like hell, and I grab it, pulling it out with a spatter of my own blood spraying me. I stand and rush to the house near me, ducking down behind a bush. Blood pours down my arm as I watch around me for any movement. And then Neve whines, her body falling onto the stone.

Despite wanting to go to her, I pause. Whoever is hunting me did this on purpose. I just need to see where they are. I stretch out my senses, and then I feel it. A female in the house opposite me somewhere, likely upstairs so she can aim her throw perfectly. How the hell am I going to get to her before she throws another one at me? A throwing star launches through the bush and lands in the brick wall near my head.

To hell with it.

Lacing power into my hands, I stand up and walk out into the front yard of the house. Two throwing stars whoosh through the air towards me, and I use my power to knock them away, green shifter energy burning the metal into droplets that I step over. The female throws more and more at me as I walk to the house where she is hiding, and I bat them away like the annoyance they are. I don’t feel any pain, just a heartbeat drumming into my ear as I pause and stretch my hands out towards the window in the middle of the house. My shifter energy slams out of my hand in a wave of tendrils, smashing into the glass and connecting with the female inside. She screams as my power lifts her out of the window, wrapping around her like tangled webs of ivy. The blonde female who sneered at me earlier screams for me to stop, and I do.

Her body falls from a good height, bones smashing as she hits the ground, but she is alive. Part of me knows I should kill her. She is a risk to me, but instead, I walk away and rush to Neve. The horse is silent, blood pouring from her neck onto the cobblestone, like a river of red water.

“May you run with the gods, Neve,” I whisper softly, sadness wrapping around me like a coil. I shake it off the best I can, grabbing the satchel and using one of my knives to rip a strip of fabric off to strap my shoulder with, stopping the bleeding. Tears sting my eyes as I pull the fabric tight and make a knot.

Then I run.

I run down the streets for what seems like an hour, checking each number, praying to the gods that I don’t run into anyone else. I’m tired, exhausted, and I stop to suck in a deep breath, my core muscles burning as badly as my legs are.

I lean against a street sign, wiping sweat off my forehead, and then I see it:

Titianess Street.

1-29

A smile fills my lips until two females step into my path. They both have long brown hair, one slightly darker than the other, and she has a full fringe. The female on the right has deeply tanned skin, scars littering her hands, and comes across a tough female. The other is very beautiful with her classic features, but her eyes speak a hardship her beauty does not. I slide my daggers out of my corset, holding one in each hand.

I was so worried about the group Adira has tracking me that I didn’t check the others.

They don’t waste time talking as they run at me, and all the training I’ve had prepared me to make my move. I hold my ground until they get to me, and the second they do, I duck below them and run my dagger past their knees as I tuck and roll myself over and jump to my feet. I swing my leg out, kicking the one on the left and slamming her a good distance away.

“What’s your name?” I question the one left.

“Adolphine Fall,” she replies, holding her stance perfectly despite the cut.

“Why?” I ask next, knowing I don’t need to explain myself. I swiftly look at the other female, seeing her head is bleeding, and she isn’t getting up anytime soon.

“Because while you’re still in this test, none of us stand a chance. I’ve trained since birth to be an alpha female, worked with every beta in every plaza, fought and proved myself against all the females in my plaza. I fought to be here! But you? You’re a no one to this pack, to this city, but it’s clear our alpha heirs favour you because you fuck them!” she shouts at me, and I try not to react, to not show her how much her words affect me. Does everyone think this? “They don’t see me and never will do as long as you’re alive. But the city, the pack, knows and judges you for it. For luring them, controlling them in the name of love. Duty to the pack should always come before love.”

I don’t agree. Love should come first, and her statement is filled with lies.

She breathlessly pants, both of us circling each other. She lashes out with a sword, and I miss the tip, jumping back. I block her next hit with my dagger, and she pushes down until I scream and a blast of my shifter energy slams out of me, hitting her dead in the chest. She lets out a cry as she is thrown back and tumbles across the ground, green shifter energy flickering around her body like electricity.

I don’t need to go closer to know I killed her.

Even if I didn’t mean to.

I push the guilt down, deep down, until I can’t feel it anymore, and slide my daggers back into my corset, picking up my satchel before going down the street. It doesn’t take me long to find door number seven, a white townhouse with three floors, an overgrown front garden and a chipped painted door. I slide a dagger out, just in case, and open the front door with the aged golden handle.

The inside of the townhouse isn’t much better. The floorboards are broken and missing in places, and there is a huge gap in the wall, the wallpaper aged and ripped all around. I step over the missing boards and into the only arched doorway in the corridor, which is lit up by a fireplace. In front of the fireplace is a small table with two glasses on it and a tall chair.

It takes me a second to recognise the scent of who is in it, and I run over, scraping my feet as I find Trey unconscious in the chair. I go to lift him, but I’m thrown across the room with a slam of red energy, and I cough as I’m sure one of my ribs breaks in the fall. Groaning, I climb back to my feet and rush back, trying to ignore the pain. Trey looks okay. His chest is rising and falling, but I can’t get to him as I sense the protective shield now.

This is too far. How dare they use a child in this test? I only saw him yesterday, and he was fine, happy actually, as he loves his classes, the friends he has made in the castle, with the guards’ children who are a similar age. He was happy…and now he is in danger.

A growl escapes my throat. The alphas have taken this too far. I know my alphas would have never done this or had anything to do with it. Trey is a child.

I turn to the glasses of clear liquid and see a folded red letter in front of it. I crack the red wax seal and open the letter, reading the words written in silver ink.

“I have taken a life from you.

In return you shall drink one of mine.

A poison is placed in one of the drinks.

Amanita Poison,

Cyanide Poison,

Hemlock Poison,

Nightshade Poison,

Which I will not say.

You have seen the cure and it has felt the wind.

Use wisdom, and the shield will fall.

If not, the shield will stay forever.

Immortality is a gift and a curse.”

The letter isn’t signed by anyone, and I quickly grab the four vials out of the bag, looking at the drinks and back. How am I meant to know which one is the right cure?

I remember a little teaching on poisons and what they smell like, but that was before I could shift, and all scents are more intense now, different. Plus, what I learnt in school on poisons was more to do with what could be poisonous to wolves when we are in the forest. The poisons on this list sound more complicated, and I don’t have a clue what they are for or look like.

I blow out a deep breath, knowing that this is risky, and I pick up the right goblet. Reine said to make the right choice, and it might not be that simple, but I don’t know what to do. I take a long drink until it’s empty, and then I pause, looking at the vials. If anything, they look like poison and scent like it too. I smell the other drink, feeling dizzy already. It smells like nothing.

Maybe the vials are poison?

My legs give way under me, and I shakily look up at Trey’s sweet face as he sleeps, unaware of what is going on before I force myself to drink the other drink.

The second the drink is all gone, a red haze floats down from around Trey, and the dizziness makes my head hit the floor before he is even awake.

Chapter

Eleven

SILAS FALL

“T rey? You used our fucking ward as bait in a deadly test?” I roar, slamming the door to the throne room open. On instinct, I search for our bond to check on Mai and Trey, who are with my brothers healing, but find it silent, like it has been since we got back here. Our home. The emptiness in my chest is strange to me. I’ve never been alone, not in thoughts or presence; my brothers and pack have always been there. Now I’m spiralling without a rope in the world to hold on to. Especially when she is hurt, in our home, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it unless I want to upset her and tell the pack to screw thousand-year-old traditions. If I pull her out of the rite, the pack will never respect her and they might even try to hurt her.

I fucking hate it.

It feels like my idea of home is burning down with every damn day we spend here. If it’s not the Levi attacking, it’s Mai entering the rite and now Trey being used as a pawn in this game. I’m sick of it. We are meant to protect them, all of them, and this is nothing short of failing.

Alpha Soren sighs, clutching his drink glass tighter, Alpha Reine nowhere to be seen. He is sprawled on the throne, ten guards in a line behind him, waiting on his command. Or to see to his protection…not from me. I wouldn’t hurt the alpha, but I am allowed to be angry with him as he sits on the throne, a crown on his head, a carelessness to his eyes over my outburst. I expect an answer.

I step up in front of Soren, his guards twitching behind him. Fighting them, all of them at once, would be a fun way to release some anger. I cross my arms, levelling my stare on Soren’s.

“He was in no real danger. Mairin wouldn’t have let—”

“If she didn’t get the cure right, he would have been permanently stuck in that state!” I growl, my voice loud enough to shake the ground at my feet. I might not be able to feel my brothers’ emotions and hear their thoughts, but when we all rushed into that old house, finding Mairin pale and unmoving on the ground and Trey out of it in a chair, the dread and panic was strong enough to be tasted in the air.

I want to burn down to dust every single wolf that dared to lay a hand on her.

I want to destroy them.

But I know she will. Or has done.

“Son,” Reine coos as she walks in the room behind me. She places her hand on my back, and every instinct in me wants to throw her touch off. It’s not her fault she reminds me of my father, the beatings he gave me, and how she was forced to challenge him so he didn’t kill me. I remember watching the entire challenge, the swiftness that Reine fought and so easily killed my father with, and the clean rip of his neck in wolf form. Her wolf howled that night, and in my soul, I felt the howl of freedom. Of justice. It’s one of my memories that keeps me up at night. Violence, blood and freedom.

But today, justice was far from the minds of this pair.

“Have you both lost your goddamn minds while we have been gone? Trey is a child,” I growl, stepping away from Reine, hurt briefly flashing in her eyes before they narrow on me, but I’m not done. “One of the many things I learnt from you was how to protect the innocent. Trey is innocent and kind and young.”

“When you are alpha,” Reine starts, pursing her lips, “and if Mairin becomes alpha female as you so wish, there will be many moments where she has to make hard choices for the greater good. Today was not only a test in wisdom but in understanding the pressure that will fall on her shoulders. On you all.”

She walks past me and to Soren’s side, placing her hand on his shoulder. “In the time you left us, we made many hard choices. Many, son. It is tiring and exhausting to hold this pack together when we are not the alphas they need. They need you, all four of you. The alpha female will be the bond that holds you together throughout the hard decisions, the balance of right and wrong. The loss and joy you will find ruling millions of wolves. The rite is a hard test, and I stand behind my decision to use your ward. It forced Mairin to make a snap decision and trust her instincts. She trusted herself, and so did the other females who survived.”

“How many, my love?” Soren asks.

“Four,” she replies with a smile. “Two of them were killed by Mairin and two were killed by the poison.”

I close my eyes for a moment, pushing down the burning anger within me. A part of me is proud that the clumsy female I started with is now strong enough to take down two well-trained wolves, and another part of me hates she had to kill once again and I couldn’t protect her. Take the life for her.

Two tests left.

Three other females left.

“Was Adira one of them left?” I question. I wish she hadn’t entered the rite, mostly because it forced me and my brothers to realise she doesn’t see us how we see her. She is like a little sister to us, and even if we never saw Mai again, that won’t change. Mai has to win the rite, but a part of me doesn’t want to see Adira die. I remember her as a little girl who chased us around and climbed trees to jump out of them onto our backs.

Now she is hunting and trying to kill the female we are in love with. My loyalty is to Mai.

Reine nods and I breathe in deep. “I understand why you chose to use Trey, but I do not agree with it. Neither do my brothers.”

“We make no apology for our choices,” Soren announces, leaning back on the throne. “She is just a girl, and if she dies, so be it. It is the will of the gods and maybe for the best. You don’t think clearly when she is around.”

Burning fury builds in my chest, smouldering from a flicker of a flame into a blaze as he sits in the throne made by Hades, a dark shadow to my soul.

A darkness I regularly embrace.

The red shadows effortlessly spread around my body, pooling at my feet, a threat laced with darkness as I walk to him. “Mai wants the rite to go ahead, but the decision of who is going to be my mate has already been decided. I am not just an alpha. I am not just a wolf. I am Hades. Threaten her again and see what a god of the underworld can do.”

He pales and Reine steps in front of him, and I pause. I’ve accepted that part of me will always be him, and he will always be a part of me. Mai hasn’t realised how much of herself is Persephone. Not yet. She will.

Soren and I have never seen eye to eye, but Reine? She has been like a mother to me, and I respect her for it. For saving me when no one else did.

She bows her head slightly. “Forgive us, Silas. Sometimes we see only a wolf and not what lies beneath.”

I pull my power back, cracking my neck.

“Shouldn’t you be at Mairin’s side? I heard she was injured,” Reine suggests. “I know your brothers will be healing her, but I’m sure she would want you there when she wakes.”

I almost chuckle. “If you bothered to truly get to know her, you would know she wouldn’t even want us to heal her or treat her like an injured wolf. She is stubborn, brave and beautiful.”

“Like her mother,” Reine whispers, her eyes bright and sad.

We have all lost so much, Reine maybe more than anyone. Soren is lucky to have her.

Inclining my head, I turn away. “Silas, have you gone to see her? Your aunt? She asks for you often.”

I pause mid step. My aunt, the female I haven’t seen in many years. She let my mother and me suffer, never once stepping in and stopping what happened. “No.”

Reine and Soren don’t stop me as I leave the throne room and head through the castle to Mai’s room. Callahan’s large wings block the door entrance, and he looks back, bowing his head as he steps aside. The room is packed with wolves. Breelyn, Phim and Trey are seated in the corner, sitting on the floor. My brothers sit around the bed where Mai lies in the middle, pale but healed from her injuries. I sit on the edge of the bed, picking up her small pale hand in mine, hearing her heartbeat loud and fast within her chest.

Her scent wraps around me. Frost-kissed peaches and wisps of lavender. I breathe her in until my heart calms down to focus on the rise and fall of her chest. She is breathing. Mai is alive.

God dammit, I love her more with each passing day. She frustrates me, angers me, and torments me with her attitude, but I love her more for it. I love her.

I tell myself that a million times until my wolf calms enough for me to think straight and admire her beauty. Someone has undone the braids she had in, her soft blonde hair wavy as it is spread around the pillow under her. Her pouty lips are slightly parted, and her long eyelashes flicker occasionally like she is dreaming.

I turn her hand over in mine, running my fingertip over the upside-down mountain mark. A mark that binds her to this pack, to this city and the secret. So many years I wished to bring her back here to protect her and treasure her so she could be free and safe, but home has never been so dangerous for any of us. I move the ring on her finger around, looking at the apple.

Where did she get this?

Something unknown about the ring makes me angry, worried, and nervous, as a possessive whisper chills down my spine.

I feel his presence like a snake wrapping around my arm, slithering down to curl around Mai’s hand. Hades. My brothers all turn towards me, sensing the presence of the god who is part of me as much as I am him.

We are his four vipers, parts of him on earth, fated for only one female.

She is our Persephone. Our goddess of spring and the underworld.

Chapter

Twelve

“H ades, stop it!” A woman laughs, giggles almost in joy. I blink my eyes open. The darkness disappears to reveal a bed of flowers, and curled in the middle of them are Hades and Persephone, their faces and bodies covered by a white sheet. I know it’s them; I can feel it, and my eyes trace every line in the blanket, the faces hidden from me. Parts of Persephone’s silver hair escape the blanket edges, and one of Hades’s legs.

“Tell me then,” he teases, his voice dark and rough, making me shiver from head to toe. “Every god and goddess in the mortal lands and beyond has asked you this, but you answer none of them. You can tell me.”

She sighs and pushes the blanket off her face, but he stays hidden. She looks down at him with such feigned innocence. “I hid it where only I could find it.”

He laughs. “Well, my queen, keep it hidden. Don’t you know what it can do?”

Her eyes drop. “Yes…but perhaps that much power could—”

“Only destroy,” Hades interrupts. “The mortal realm is held on a rocky balance. You know this. Power like that could rip it apart and leave only fire and creatures born from it.”

“You are right, my king,” she replies, sliding back under the blanket. But to me…I heard a lie.

I wake up slowly, achingly slowly, as my body reminds me of what happened before I passed out. My sheets tell me I’m in my bed before I open my eyes, breathing in Henderson’s and Valentine’s scents. I wake up to find them both sleeping on either side of me, my hands clutched in theirs. I turn my head to Henderson, and his eyes drift open.

“You’re awake. How are you?” he quietly asks, not to disturb Valentine. I scent others in the room and hear many light snores.

“Sore but alive. How is Trey?” I question.

“See for yourself,” he says, nodding his head to the end of my bed. I sit up, softly pulling my hand from Valentine’s without waking him, and finding Trey curled up in his wolf form at the end of the bed. Breelyn and Phim have both shifted, lying at the foot of the bed, also sleeping. Silas and Ragnar are sitting by the wall, snoring softly.

Callahan catches my eyes from the door where he is leaning and nods to me.

I turn to Henderson. “Did I pick the right cure?”

“Yes,” he whispers back to me. “But the poison was strong and knocked you out for two days. That’s why everyone is sleeping—we didn’t want to leave you.”

Tears sting my eyes at the gesture…at the family I have found in this room who haven’t left me no matter what. I lean over and kiss his cheek, and he cups mine.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he questions. “We didn’t know about Trey, and we aren’t happy about it.”

“Neither am I, but I’m well and so is Trey, by the looks of his snoring wolf,” I reply with a quiet chuckle. I look down at my long green nightdress, my hair falling around my shoulders. “But I’m going to shower. Can you wake everyone and tell them to go to bed because I’m good?”

“Of course,” he replies. I lightly kiss him after he helps me climb quietly out of the bed. I look back to see Callahan is staring down at Breelyn, his expression unreadable. For a moment, I wonder if he likes her, but I’m not sure Breelyn would have noticed. The pair of them are like fire and ice, an explosion waiting to happen if they ever collided. Henderson picks Trey’s wolf up like a baby, carrying him from the room, and I slip into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

I suck in a deep breath, staring down at my hands, seeing blood on them that isn’t there. I flick the shower on, my body in a trance as I pull all my clothes off and climb in, only to kneel down and lower my head.

I pray to the gods to forgive me for taking another life. Three lives.

I pray to anyone that will listen before the first tear falls down my cheek, woven into the running warm water. After letting more than one tear fall, I stand up and clean off the blood and dirt left on my body before washing my hair. I flick the shower off and climb out, pausing at the sight of a second door between the toilet and cabinets.

A door that wasn’t there before. The door itself looks normal, like every oak door in this castle, and the gold handle is similar in style. I remember what Erin said about rooms in the castle moving as I dry myself off and pull on fresh clothes from under the sink. The cream leggings and white crop top are soft as I walk to the new door. My hair drips cold water down my back as I turn the handle, and a brush of dust blows at me. I blink in the dim room, smelling nothing but dust and a hint of soft, gentle rosemary.

“What are you trying to show me, house?” I question out loud, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness as I search the wall near me for a switch but only find textured wallpaper. Eventually I follow the wall and find a rope, and I pull on it, letting in a blast of light from outside the massive window. The curtains disturb the dust, particles of it floating around in the air, and I have to blink a few times to take in the room. It’s a dressing room of sorts, with at least ten mannequins dotted around and a pillar in the middle covered in gold coins, sparkling jewels and chains of gold and silver. Chests of more jewels rest at the bottom of a platform, piles of aged leather-bound books next to them.

The books are more precious to me than the jewels. On the mannequins are breathtaking ball gowns in every shade of green and pink imaginable. More line the walls behind, hidden in a closet, and I walk across the thick green carpet, which matches the gold-laced wallpaper designed to look like a forest, gold leaves falling in a whirlwind between the trees.

“Why did you show me this room, then?” I ask the house, walking past the dust-lined window and to the books piled high. I pick up a gold diamond necklace, putting it down and picking up the first book. I turn the page to find it’s a diary, written in gold ink and lined with aged yellow paper, tiny green flowers on the edges, almost painted on but faded over time. Something falls out of the book, and I lean down, picking up the tiny seeds.

Pomegranate seeds. I run them between my fingers before going back to the book. It isn’t in English, but it is a language I can read.

The language of the gods. The symbols change before my eyes, morphing into word after word as I start reading.

It’s been three hundred and two months since I spoke to my mother, and with every frostbitten winter and scorching, burning summer, I miss her. Love has come with a heart-aching price, and I would pay it again and again, even as I watch the humans scream to the gods to save them from the burning world. They can scream all they wish for our help, but we can do nothing to stop her. To stop the gods who have joined her in a war against us.

Gods are not meant to have true love.

And we are always going to be an abomination to them.

I lean back and close the book, knowing exactly who I am reading about, whose story this is, and it feels private, her private life. The apple ring catches my eye, reminding me of the “apple of discord” story Ragnar told me when he gifted it to me. These books are powerful and dangerous for the knowledge they could hold. I put the book down, back where it was, and look away at the walls of the house.

“Thank you for showing me this room, but some secrets should be kept,” I softly say.

I jump as the floor shakes a little under my feet, and a jewel dagger falls off the pile of coins and jewels, clattering at my feet. I raise my eyebrows as I lean down, wrapping my hand around the hilt of the blade, and it lights up, glowing green, shining brightly into my eyes. There are words written on the blade. The handle is made of black leather, and a large green gemstone is encased in gold at the end. The language of the gods is written on the blade, and slowly it changes.

“For the queen of death can touch this blade. Others will perish.”

I breathe out a slow breath of air and keep hold of the dagger. It could have killed me, but the house knew better, and it clearly wants me to have this dagger. I leave the room, taking a second to pat the wall once in thanks, and close the door behind me. The second I close the door, it fades into the plain white panel wall that was there, not a scent of magic or anything to tell me how the castle did that.

I step back a tad, reminding myself the castle clearly doesn’t want to hurt me.

“Are you alright in there?” Ragnar asks, knocking on the door three times. I pull the door open, and his eyes flicker straight to the dagger, his brow creasing.

“The dagger of Persephone. Morganis,” he breathes out, reaching out, but it glows brighter, like it’s fending him off, and he lowers his hand.

“The dagger has a name?” I question, looking at its green glow.

“Fucking hell, she is holding that dagger from the legends,” Fox mutters from over Ragnar’s shoulder. Ragnar steps back so I can go into the room, and suddenly I have a room full of eyes on me.

“Morganis…,” Valentine says, rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes on the green glow radiating off the dagger. “I thought it was a legend.”

“So did we all,” Silas dryly comments, his lips tilting up. “Only you could go into a bathroom and come out with one of the seven deadliest weapons ever to have existed, thought to be lost or destroyed by the gods due to its power.”

“How did you find it?” Phim asks, and it seems like Breelyn, Callahan and I are the only ones in the room not shocked by my discovery. Callahan lowers his eyes, watching closely, but Breelyn looks perplexed.

“The castle made a door and—” I pause for a second. “Well, this was in there.”

I leave out the part about the diaries, something telling me this isn’t the time to share that information. “Now, can someone tell me why this dagger, Morganis, is so deadly?”

I lift it as I speak, and the alphas jump back, Fox nearly falling off the bed in his escape. Scaredy cats.

Or wolves in this case.

Henderson clears his throat. “Morganis was once a person, one of seven virgin sacrifices given to the gods. Morganis was given to Hades, who didn’t want her, not when he had Persephone. Persephone took her in as a maid of sorts, and one night, Persephone was attacked. No one knew who attacked her, or our records don’t say, and Morganis threw herself in the way and was dying. Persephone took Morganis’s body to Hades, and he offered her to the eternal river of souls in the underworld. She disappeared under the red water, and this dagger rose in her place.”

Silas carries on. “Persephone realised quickly how the dagger has unique and strong powers of its own. It can see evil and absorb power, giving it to the bearer. The other gods tried to steal it, only to find it wouldn’t let anyone but Persephone touch it. So they threw the other six women into the river of souls, and each came out as a powerful weapon. All of them lost over time…”

“Until now,” I finish, holding the weapon up. “Morganis is in this dagger. It’s a soul?”

“Yes,” Henderson answers. “Well, according to the legends and books in this city.”

I walk over to my bedside table and place it down, the green hue disappearing the second I let it go. No one else makes a move to touch it.

“The rite should be easy for you now,” Phim says with a smile. “Thanks, castle.”

“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “I won’t use it. I already have an advantage over them with my powers, and this would make it so much worse. I will win this rite fairly. Or as fair as I can.”

“Every time you say something honourable, it is also stupid,” Phim replies with a tad bit of a smile. “Now that you’re good, I’m getting some food. Coming, Breelyn?”

“Can’t you hear that?” she asks instead, her eyes fixed on the dagger.

“Hear what?” I ask.

Breelyn furrows her brow, staring harder at the dagger before she snaps out of it. “Nothing, I thought I heard…well, it doesn’t matter.” She looks to Phim. “I’d love to eat.”

“You hungry?” Phim asks me, and I shake my head. They both leave, Fox leaving next with a nod to me, and Callahan stays by the door.

“Can I get you anything?” Callahan asks, and behind him I can see his new guard shadows in the corridor.

“No, I’m good. Thank you for being here,” I tell him.

He nods. “I’m glad to see you are awake and well, Mai.”

Callahan leaves, and Valentine reaches for my hand. “Want to head into the city and do something normal? Fewer gods, magic and deadly fucking tests in a moving room castle way?”

I laugh, holding my stomach. “Gods, yes. Let’s go.”

“We have a meeting,” Henderson says with a sigh. “But we will go and make an excuse up for you, brother.”

“We will?” Ragnar replies.

“Yes,” Silas growls at him. “Stop being a dick, like always since we got home, and move.”

Ragnar growls back at him, and Henderson gives me a tired smile. “Have fun, I will come back to see you later today.”

Silas looks at Valentine. “Look after our girl.”

“Always,” he replies. Ragnar storms out, Silas and Henderson following after him. I quickly slide my shoes on before taking Valentine’s hand and walking with him down the corridor to the courtyard. We climb into one of the carriages, sitting side by side, and I rest my head on his shoulder after he speaks quickly to the driver.

“Has Ragnar been strange to you since we got here?” I ask.

Valentine hums. “Yes. He is stressed, and we all feel lost without our bond to ground us. I suspect he is taking it harder than the rest of us. Our home comes with much political pressure, and the rite doesn’t help. Neither does the Levi attack.”

“Maybe that’s it,” I say, running the ring around my finger.

Valentine’s hand rests on my hip, nudging me a little closer to him, my body pressed against his. In the small carriage, I look up to find his emerald green eyes watching me, his eyes that remind me of the forest outside my foster home, the hues of the deepest green leaf in the heat of summer. I used to think there was nothing more beautiful than that colour, not the colours of the sunsets that fell every night and never made a night better or the brightness of stars above as they look down, untouchable like the gods. No, the rich green that reminded me of my own eyes, but they were always so much paler.

“Tell me a story about us, when we were younger, Val,” I softly ask. Every story they tell me is like coming home, like a part of an unknown puzzle, and I crave them.

He rests back, squeezing my hip once. “Your mother, Baia, was a brave fighter. Not just in her wolf form, but in hand-to-hand combat. She fought with daggers and blades. Once a year, on the blue moon, our pack used to honour the gods by battling each other. Females were not allowed to partake in this, but Baia walked right up to the alpha and told him she was entering whether he liked it or not.”

“She sounds amazing,” I whisper.

He nods. “Baia was a second mother to us, me included. The alpha was an old, stubborn wolf, but for some reason, he allowed Baia to enter. And of course, Reine was her biggest supporter. You held my hand as we watched her fight a wolf twice her size and pin him to the ground with daggers within three minutes. I remember you whispering, ‘I want to be my mama when I’m older.’”

He pauses as I feel a mixture of pride and sadness. “That day, your mother came third in the contest, which was phenomenal to see, and females were allowed to enter the fights the next year. Reine was the first to sign up, after hugging Baia.”

“Gods, I wish she was here,” I whisper a plea. “That I could see her one more time and tell her how much I love her.”

“I believe our loved ones stay with us through our lives, like guides sent from the gods,” he tells me. “She wouldn’t be far from you, Mai. She loved you so much.”

“I know, I loved her too,” I say, pressing my hand to my chest. “I can feel it.”

He kisses the side of my head before the carriage comes to a stop. Valentine climbs out first, and I take his hand as I step out after him into a busy street. At least ten people stop dead in their tracks to stare or bow their heads. But Valentine’s eyes stay on me as he links our fingers. Keeping me close to his side, he leads us through the crowd, the scents of so many people overwhelming me, along with their stares.

“Which plaza is this?” I ask Valentine as we pause to wait for the people in front to move.

“Ina Plaza,” Valentine tells me, quietly guiding me through the crowds. We come to a townhouse with a long alleyway down the right side, littered with pots of green plants and hanging lights on a string. The ground is cracked in places as we walk down the alleyway, which opens up to a snug area with a wood canopy hanging over a circle of chairs and tables, all facing a large piano. Some of the seats have couples sitting together, and I meet the eyes of an older woman in a green dress. She bows her head, and I incline my head back at her as Valentine leads me to the piano.

“Can you play?” I question, and he grins, patting the seat after he sits down. I sit next to him as he opens up the cover of the piano to reveal the keys.

“Not often,” he softly replies before he touches a key, the sound vibrating from the piano, echoing around the space. Valentine breaks into a song, effortlessly moving his hands across the piano, his eyes fixed on the keys. A shiver breaks down my spine at the haunting tune, the melodic twang to every note, and the way he never misses a beat, never a single key out of place. I stare at Valentine, almost like I’ve never seen him. His imposing form towers over everything nearby, his dark, chocolate brown hair messy in locks that fall down on his forehead, his eyes sparkling underneath them. I trace his high cheekbones, his strong jawline and his thick neck to his large chest, hidden under his black shirt.

My alpha. My cheeks burn when I think of his lips pressed against mine. How he tastes, how he feels. Holding back with any of them seems impossible when I’m so in love with them.

I’m in love with Valentine, the broken alpha wolf who was lost in a bottle of whiskey when we met. Lost in grief. Now he is so much more, and he might have always been. Perhaps it was just hard for him to be who he is when the past was controlling his present. We might have grown up together, and we have that, but what we have built over the last six months is so much deeper and more profound.

It’s addictive to be in love, a feeling I never thought I’d be lucky enough to have with one person, let alone four.

The song ends, and Valentine looks at me, searching my eyes. I grin at him as I clap and hear my clapping echoed with many others. I turn to see there is quite the crowd now, all of them cheering and clapping for Valentine’s song. He smiles at them before looking back at me.

“I’m going to see if I can find a drink from that stall I saw outside the alleyway. Do you want one?” I ask. “Oh, I didn’t bring—”

“Here,” he replies, offering me a little drawstring bag from his pocket, full of coins. “We trade gold coins in the city, and what is mine is yours.”

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yes,” he replies with a nod. “Stay close, Mai, and don’t wander, please.”

“Play for them, Valentine,” I whisper back, sliding off the seat. He does as I ask, playing another song effortlessly, even though it looks so hard to play. I walk through the crowd to the alleyway and to the stall next door, asking for a glass bottle of water from them. I pay with one gold coin, gold shaped into a circle with a wolf on it, and head back to Valentine when a man steps in front of the alleyway, blocking my view.

Something about him is familiar as he bows his head, his hands shaking slightly as I get an overwhelming scent of booze in the air, stuck to his clothes. The man has deep, chestnut brown hair and a short beard, with bright brown eyes and a slightly large nose. He is wearing a ripped shirt that’s tucked into brown pants. “Te—ll him to talk to m—e. I beg ya.”

“Who?” I ask, as he stumbles closer to me.

“Va—lee—n,” he almost whispers, his blood-shot eyes fixed on me. “Ma cou—sin.”

“Valen? Do you mean Valentine?” I ask, and I’m shocked enough that I don’t move when he rushes to me, grabbing my throat and slamming me into the wall.

“Whore! I asked you to—”

With a scream, he is thrown off me, and I suck in a choked breath as Valentine lands on his cousin and starts punching him again and again. Blood marks his knuckles as I watch in a trance, unable to move until I snap out of it. I rush to Valentine, and with my powers, I throw him off his cousin, making him roll onto the floor. Valentine stands, his eyes burning red, and I let my hands glow with my power as I step over his cousin, who is still but breathing, and to him. I cup his cheek, the green glow of my hand mixing with the red darkness spreading from his body.

“I’m okay,” I whisper softly. “I’m not hurt, and you don’t want to kill him. Let’s walk away, run away, I don’t care, but we are leaving together, Val.”

“Princess,” he growls, and I growl back at him. He steps away from me and shifts, and I shift next before running after his wolf, the crowds parting for us. No one stands in our way as we run through the city, and I follow Valentine until we come to a garden park, and he leaps over a black gate. I jump next, landing on soft grass and heading through the bushes where I hear the river. The grass bank ends at the river, little pink and yellow flowers dotted around. Two pillars stretch up and meet above us, casting a deep shadow, and thick trees line the edges of the clearing.

I scent no one else here as I focus on my alpha, who shifts back on the edge of the river. I watch, captivated by his muscular back and his corded muscles on his arms as he walks into the river and sinks underneath it.

Being braver than I usually am, I shift back and walk to the river. Valentine breaks free of the water, facing away from me, his wet hair dropping down his back. The water of the river is ice cold as I walk in, and every instinct in me wants to get out, but I don’t stop until my body is completely under the water. I swim in front of Valentine, and my heart cracks when I see tears falling silently down his cheeks.

Not caring about our lack of clothes, I swim closer and wrap my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, holding him. I don’t know how long it is, but the water almost feels warm when he holds me back and I finally breathe.

“My cousin is all that is left of my family. We owned a drinking hut in the Fall Pack, and I grew up for the most part thinking that getting drunk was normal. We all did. My mother only went to the angel because she was pregnant and was worried drinking throughout her pregnancy might hurt me…so she tried to get help. That’s where her care for me ended.”

My chest aches. “There was a fire, and they were all killed when I was ten…except for my cousin. Princess…” He pauses. “Every good memory I had was with you, my brothers, Baia and Reine. You were my family, and seeing him today, his hand around your throat—”

“He is drunk,” I whisper. “I’m not defending his actions or what he called me, but he didn’t deserve to die for it. Killing what’s left of your family…I couldn’t let you have that on your soul.”

Valentine looks down at me, finally meeting my gaze. “You don’t think less of me, knowing I was brought up by that? That I’m nothing more than a bastard born of a drunk? That the first thing I did when I got to this city, instead of looking for you, was to give up on life and dive into a bottle. I was a teenager, so drunk off my arse that I didn’t notice the river until I fell into it. I woke up here, and I swear I saw your face in the water, telling me to come for you. Begging me. You were being hurt in that pack, and I was here being a drunk. How can you even look at me?”

“Val…no. I don’t think less of you because you suffered and fought your way out of it to come for me. You did find me,” I firmly say, frowning. “Gods, Valentine, I’m in love with you. I think I loved you even when you were drunk and lost and afraid. I will love you until there isn’t a star left in the sky to shine for us.”

His lips fall on mine with a passion, a breaking passion that unlocks a dam of emotions between us. A wave of desire sparks everything to life, making me hyperaware of how hard he is, pressed against my stomach, and how much I want to be here with him. He kisses me until we forget the cold water, forget the guilt marking our souls for things we can’t change, and enjoy what we do have.

Each other.

Chapter

Thirteen

B reelyn and Ragnar circle each other in the ring, wolves in every step they take. Brutal, harsh, and deadly. One weapon each was allowed, and the first one knocked out of the circle wins, like always. Every day we do this, and I’m proud of the fact Breelyn has turned into a warrior in her own right. She grips her chosen spear in her right hand, never taking her eyes off Ragnar. He has chosen a deadly axe, the bright blue dyed rim of the blade reflecting off the sunlight.

Callahan leans forward on his knees, watching them closely as Breelyn strikes. She whips her body through the gap between her opponent and herself, and Ragnar blocks her spear with his axe, using his strength to push her back a few steps. She backflips out of the way, using the pressure of the axe and spear to gather momentum. Breelyn lands on Ragnar’s side, pulling her spear back and kicking at his leg. He takes the kick, wincing slightly, but within seconds he slams his axe down at her, enough force in the blow to knock Breelyn off her feet, and she lands just outside of the ring.

We all clap and Callahan leans back as Ragnar walks to Breelyn, offering her his hand, and she accepts it.

Callahan smiles. “Breelyn will make a strong omega. She is quick and smart with her attacks. If she could just control her blind spot…”

I try not to smile at the frustration in his tone. Breelyn won’t speak to Callahan, not after they left the house, and whatever happened in there has made their dislike for each other into a spiralling fireball that no one can miss.

“I will mention it,” I suggest. Callahan nods at me, his eyes clouded with something. I watch my friend for a moment, the tension in his body clear as he runs a hand through his hair. “Friends tell each other their worries. Just thought you’d like to know that little fact.”

He chuckles softly, but it dies away in the stillness that follows. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Breelyn challenging Silas this time. She has a death wish. “My dreams have plagued me since I was young, warning me. Every dream of late…”

He pauses to meet my gaze. “I see you at the foot of the throne, your back bare, and a whip coming down again and again. I’m unable to move, to save you, do anything but watch.”

Dread settles into my bones, a touch of fear dotted into my chest. “Have your dreams ever come true?”

He breathes out. “Once, yes.”

I look over at my alphas standing around the circle, watching the fight. Silas and Breelyn aren’t fighting with weapons; instead, they have both shifted, claws and teeth in a mix of white and black fur. “Let’s hope your dreams are simply dreams, because since I got here, something has felt…”

“Wrong,” he finishes my sentence. “I swore to protect you, and there is no one else I would serve, Mai. By my honour, I will find a way to prevent this dream.”

“It’s a gift,” I tell him, clearing my throat and pushing down the lump of emotions. “To have such a power, Callahan. The gods have blessed you.”

Breelyn’s wolf goes skidding out of the ring, a trickle of blood marking her white coat near her face. She growls in annoyance and looks up at me. I pat Callahan’s arm, hearing a possessive huff from Silas’s wolf echo around, and Callahan nods to me. Our conversation will stay between us, for now. I walk down the steps, getting ready to shift and train next when the doors to the training room are pulled open, and Alpha Reine walks in. Breelyn, Phim, Callahan, and the four guards in the room bow their heads. We do the same, out of respect.

Alpha Reine looks at me. “The second rite starts now. You must come.”

“That’s not right,” Phim exclaims, standing from her seat, the sword she was sharpening still in her hand. “We were told it happens in four days!”

The guards behind Alpha Reine each pull their own swords out in response. Silas’s wolf walks to my side, Breelyn moves to my other while Valentine, Ragnar and Henderson walk closer.

“Sit down, beta, before I make you,” Alpha Reine growls.

“Seraphim,” Valentine warns. Phim looks to me, and I nod before she sits. The guards slide their swords back and stand in perfect formation once more. Valentine speaks before any of us can. “Why the sudden change?”

“It is Mairin’s right to choose to come with me or not, Valentine. If she wishes not to enter, the price to the gods will be steep. They do not favour cowards—”

“Careful,” Henderson warns, low and possessive.

I shiver, even in the warm room. Alpha Reine and Henderson stare each other down for a long pause, a taste of dark shifter energy slipping into the room through the natural shadows and pits of darkness in every corner. The darkness isn’t natural, it’s from Hades, and I don’t know who is doing it with all the alphas here. The shadows are tinted red, and most people would fear it, but I will never fear their shadows. I’m not sure who looks away first as I glance at the shadows.

“The rite will not be explained to any other, and each of my heirs are commanded to go to the temple, to pray to the gods above and below for the perfect alpha female to be chosen for you,” she replies, holding her head high, her eyes sparkling. “Come, Mairin Fall. Time is of the essence with today’s task.”

“I am no coward,” I state, my voice colder than how she speaks to me. I know she has to remain impassive and cast no judgment or side with no female in the rite, but she was my mother’s best friend. She was part of my childhood, or so I’ve heard, and I wonder why she looks at me with such contempt, something bordering on hate.

Alpha Reine turns and walks to the door, waiting still. I run my fingers through Silas’s fur and nod to Phim in the stands. Callahan catches my eye, and within his eyes, I know I have a friend who has my back, two omegas to stand with me when I might fall, and them—my alphas. They might be the four parts of Hades’s soul, but whatever is in their soul, I wish to stake a claim on it as much as they have claimed me.

The rite is the last barrier in our way from diving into the storm waiting for us. A storm of darkness and light, a clash of our souls finding each other after so many years. Both in the mortal sense…but in the immortal too. We are gods, there is no point denying it, and I wonder what will become of our lives. Will we live past the others around us?

I suck in a breath, holding my head high as I walk to Alpha Reine, the guards surrounding us. She walks ahead of me, out of the training room and down the corridor, past one full of books, and the soft sound of the castle creaking calms me. No one has told Alpha Reine or Alpha Soren about the secret room I found or Morganis, who is resting under my pillow. Sleep came easier last night, mostly because of Henderson sleeping next to me, but also knowing I am protected in more than one way. Morganis will help me defend myself, and there is no way the castle all but gave me that dagger for no reason. I am in danger. My senses aren’t wrong, and the castle is trying to show me. Help me. As we round a corner, I place my hand against the wall for a second, hoping the castle can understand my thanks.

The guards open a large rosewood door with carved poppies and thorns making a ring shape in the middle. The one guard turns a large red metal key, while two others pull the heavy door as wide as they can. The inside lights up with fire, a thin channel of oil fire lining the corridor and turning at the end, suggesting a staircase in the darkness.

“The guards will leave us,” Alpha Reine tells me when I don’t follow her in. Her eyes wander across my face, something flashing in her expression too quick for me to catch it, and she turns around. The guards keep their heads bowed, but I don’t miss the tension in their bodies, in their stance, as I follow the alpha female into the dimly lit stone corridor. The rocks are thick, moss clinging to the edges, and it smells damp, a musky old damp stench that’s hard to breathe through. My eyes adjust to the darkness well, better than they have before as I get to the corridor steps, a turning staircase going down deep into the earth. The smell gets better the lower we walk into the earth, even if the lack of air makes breathing a little harder. Eventually, at least a hundred steps later, the staircase comes to an end in a small room with four archways leading off to other corridors. The same oil-lit fires spread across the ceilings, and I wrap my arms around myself, my crop top and leggings doing nothing to wash away the chill.

“I brought you here earlier than the rest,” Alpha Reine begins, “to give you a warning, something that may save your life.”

I blink in surprise. “Why?”

She turns back to me, a single name spoken, and it cuts deep. “Baia.”

From the broken gaze of her own eyes, I know I’m not the only one who feels it. “Honour-bound are the ones you seek. Honour them and they will honour you back.”

I hear footsteps, and Alpha Reine turns away from me. I whisper softly, “Thank you.”

“It was not for you,” she curtly replies. “You are not your mother.”

I gulp down the hurt that sentence implies as the other females appear on their own. Adira comes into view first, dressed to kill in various weapons and a leather outfit. She smirks at me when she notices I have no weapons. Tualla comes in next, as casually dressed as I am, with a sword in her hand. The last female, dark-haired with narrow eyes, is wearing a dress, but the hairpins in her hair bun look sharp. I notice right away that the females left are not from Adira’s group, and a thought shocks me, something I should have guessed. Adira manipulated them, getting the competition out of the way, and tricking them into thinking they were teaming up together on the first test. She was always out for herself. The test I thought I’d won, I’d been playing right into her hands.

“Welcome,” Alpha Reine states, turning to face us. “This is the Sepulchre of the Gods.”

We stay silent, but no one in this room, even the alpha female herself, is clear of a scent of fear. “Gods had many, many children with mortals over the years, and when the half mortal children died, or were murdered, their bodies were sent to the god of death. He built this place, locked their bodies into the walls, and poured dark magic into the ground, into the stone itself, so that the demi-gods’ souls could wander here, free to travel between the afterlife and mortal realm as long as they came back when he called.” She pauses when there is an echo from the Sepulchre, somewhere deep within, that gives me goose bumps. “The gods used to visit them until they all died, and of course, this place was left. The souls, with no god to keep them in the afterlife anymore, found a new way of existing. They didn’t have mortal bodies, so they shaped them from the river below and around the Sepulchre. We call these new creatures a new name, not mortal, not wolf, not soul, but something in-between the rules of nature. Naiads.”

Tualla pales considerably, and even Adira looks wary. The other female takes two steps back, and in my ignorance of what they are, I keep my head high. “This test will honour the goddess Amphitrite, born of water and wife to Poseidon. Within the water, you will find a token, and to leave the Sepulchre, you must press it to your wrist to be given protection and be able to leave. There are only three tokens.”

Only three?

One of us isn’t leaving this place…and it won’t be me. I have to win this.

She looks at each of us, her gaze on me a second longer, her sentence repeating in my mind like she spoke the words out loud. “May the gods protect you all.”

Alpha Reine walks between us and up the steps, pausing and looking back. Her eyes glow red for a moment, and a stone wall slams down between us, locking us in. My heart pounds as Adira and Tualla run into two separate corridors, never looking back.

The other female inclines her head before going down another corridor, her steps slower. I’m left with the furthest right corridor.

I walk down it, my trainers slipping on the moss stone with each step. The corridor gets narrower, the light from the oil fire dimmer and casting darker shadows on the wall. I should have grabbed a weapon before leaving. It was foolish not to have.

But…I am a weapon. My shifter energy is the way I can harness it and how it protects me. I need to learn more control, but every time I use it, it’s like my body knows. Like it’s an old dance and I’ve danced it my entire existence. Part of me knows, deep down, that it’s Persephone who knows how to use the shifter energy because it’s hers, and our souls are more connected, more than ever before.

The corridor winds in a circle, the walls so tight that they brush my shoulders with every step before opening up into a square-shaped room. The walls of the room are filled with grave markings, the old language of the gods describing different names, but I know they are empty graves now. The souls of these magical beings left a long time ago. The brush of a footstep on dirt signals me that I’m not alone, and I twirl swiftly to see Tualla step out of a concealed archway behind what looks like a blank wall. She pauses as our eyes meet.

“Seems we are on the same path,” she states, walking towards me.

I take a step back, watching as she looks for another entrance. There is one opposite me, where I was heading, and the one I came through. Her eyes glitter like crystals. “We need not hunt each other when we are being hunted as we breathe. By the wolves, this test is not to take our own lives.”

“Trust is hard in a rite like this,” I comment and look at the only entrance. “If you betray me, I will not hesitate.”

“Neither will I,” she replies and walks to the exit. I pause for a moment before walking with her. This corridor is larger, and there is a sentence carved into a stone panel, right under the fire.

“Death is an honour we gods are never gifted with. Born in magic, killed in sin, your souls will be free under the lost river of spirits.”

“You can read the language of the old gods?” Tualla questions.

I nod, well aware she can see me in the dim light. “Can you? With your markings?”

“No,” she replies, solemn. “I tried for many years, but my tutor explained that only some ever learn and others do not.”

“May I ask what your markings are for? The letters?” I question.

Her eyes meet mine. “No.”

I didn’t expect another answer, and I could almost laugh at myself for asking. A howl echoes through the air around us, something not human or wolf. A howl, like a whine, burns my ears as it gets louder and louder, and I touch my ear to feel blood pooling, dripping down my neck. I look at Tualla, and her ears bleed the same as mine.

“They are using the noise to make our ears bleed,” she calmly states. “To hunt.”

Silas’s training comes back to me, reminding me not to panic. I can’t think straight when I panic, and I can’t make a mistake like that right now. I look ahead, seeing the corridor in front of us is empty. In the distance, not too far, I scent the river, and something tells me that’s where we need to go.

I run without warning Tualla, my trainers smacking against the dirt-covered stone as I skid to a halt at the end of the corridor, trusting my senses to tell me if anything is in the room ahead. This room has five archways, more of the carved graves, and I rush to the doors, scenting for the river. Tualla is quick on my heels, and without pausing or looking at me, she runs through the second door. Just as I notice something in the room.

I spin around as a glowing blue creature, which could resemble a human body if it weren’t for the swirl of water instead of legs, looks at me with dead black eyes. I gag on the dead, rotting fish skin that covers the upper half of the Naiad’s body and face, shining parts of blue light peeking out between the scales of skin. Bones and hair stick out of the top of its head, some of the bones woven together and falling to the ground behind it. Two more Naiads join its side, both of them smaller, almost the size of a child and with far more scales covering them and no bones for hair.

“Honour-bound are the ones you seek. Honour them and they will honour you back.”

Alpha Reine’s warning comes back to me as the leader of the Naiads walks closer, water spitting on the ground like heavy rain around it. The water sprays on me as it gets closer. Its arm stretches out, and a sort of human hand with some tentacles instead of fingers curls upwards.

Asking for something.

Wanting something.

Honour.

A deep-rooted instinct tells me to slide the apple ring off my finger and place it in the hand of the Naiad, even if I don’t want to part with a gift from Ragnar. He would want me alive, and it’s just a ring. As I drop the ring, I do what you do with anyone you respect.

I bow my head low and rest my fingers together. All I hear is water splashing around me, dropping onto the floor with every second that passes.

The Naiad lets out a harrowed cry that I feel right down to my bones, and suddenly the room is filled with small spheres of water in every colour, floating like stars in a dark, endless sky. Tears prick my eyes at the beauty of it, and I smile at the Naiad.

Beauty in death. That’s the true gift Hades gave these demi-gods. Maybe death has always been beautiful, in the way the calm after a storm is.

I see the dagger flying through the air towards the Naiad, and without thought, I jump and grab it, blade first, cutting my hand deeply as I roll to a stop. The water disappears, the light with it, and in its place is nothing but darkness. The Naiad I just saved screams, so loud it burns my ears, and I look up to see the other female, pale and motionless as Naiads appear around her and rip her apart in a spray of blood, their fingers turned into claws, their teeth sharper than any knife. I look away in horror and disgust, unable to stomach what they are doing. Unable to stand that she doesn’t make a sound other than gagging on her own blood. As they keep ripping, a cold, lifeless finger touches my cut, pulling it apart. The Naiad—the leader, I suspect—pushes the dagger away where it sinks into water, and carefully draws in my blood a mark on my hand. The mark glows blue like the deepest oceans, and my blood disappears, leaving the mark behind. It looks like a wave curled in on itself, and I feel a pinch of raw power coming from it as I look up at the Naiad.

I don’t know what she is thinking or saying as we meet, our gaze connected, but I know this mark is her way of honouring me for saving her life. The Naiad leaves down the third archway as I crawl to my feet, never letting myself look back at the other female as I follow the Naiad down the corridor and out into a small cavern with a fast-flowing river through the middle of it. And down at the bottom of the river are three tokens: glowing black rocks, gleaming and sharp, and glowing black like a pit of darkness in a clear glass river.

I bow my head once more to the Naiad, and this time, she bows back at me before disappearing before my eyes. I breathe out and suck in a deep breath before diving into the river. The water is ice cold, and it takes my breath away, freezing me down to my core, and I almost forget why I jumped in. My arms and legs don’t want to work as I struggle to make them swim deeper, my eyes stinging as I force them open. My hand grabs the rock as the fast current sucks me downstream into complete darkness. Suddenly I drop in the water, sucked out into thin air with a scent of thick magic, and I crash onto hard stone, knocking my chin and tasting my blood in my mouth. I hold back the cry as I stare up in the darkness and do what Alpha Reine said and press the rock to my wrist. It burns, and I can’t hold in the cry right before the room is flooded with light and a stone door slams open beside me. Alpha Reine walks in, her frown turning into a small smile, and she offers me her hand.

“I hoped it would be you I’d see in here, Mairin,” she offers. She saved my life in there.

I take her hand and let her help me up, looking at our joint hands. On her wrist is a black line of leaves, and on mine, freshly burnt, is the same.

I nod to her and she nods back, something akin to respect between us as she lets go, and I walk out of my second rite test.

One left to go.

Chapter

Fourteen

UNKNOWN

T hat’s it, you’re mine now.

You are an alpha no more.

The creature is right, I think. I can see a woman when I close my eyes, when there are no more screams from the others in here, when the creature isn’t looking my way. It feeds on me, on my power, but I don’t remember why I’m powerful…why I’m even here, and what my name is anymore.

I’m no one, nothing and not important because no one came for me.

Not even the girl with hair of gold.

Chapter

Fifteen

S ilas clicks his tongue, and his gigantic pure-bred stallion, Dulcis, turns between the logs hammered into the ground. Grey-haired and white-maned, Dulcis is a magnificent beast, and one look in his dark eyes told me he knew it. Silas uses only clicks to instruct Dulcis until they have gone through all the logs, and he slides off his back, patting the side of his neck.

“Good boy,” Silas praises and takes off his reins and saddle before walking with me to the stables, leaving Dulcis out in the enclosure. My tight jeans and blue T-shirt are covered in hay as I brush it off me, my boots clicking on the floor.

“He is beautiful,” I comment.

Silas watches me with his grey eyes, the very shade of his horse. “Careful, I could get jealous of a horse at this point.”

Only his smirk lets me know he is joking. I whack his arm, and he catches my hand, pulling me against his chest and kissing me deeply. My body feels like it’d been sleeping until his lips found mine, and I move closer, pressing our bodies against each other. He picks me up by my ass, pushing me against the stable doors, pushing his hard body into every soft place of mine. Gods, I want—

“You are wanted,” Ragnar’s voice cuts through the haze of desire, and Silas slowly, casually kisses me one more time before breaking away. But he doesn’t put me down or take his hands off my ass as Ragnar steps into the stables.

The sharpness, the anger and jealousy in his eyes hurts something in my chest. A low growl comes from Silas, vibrating against my own chest. “By whom?”

“Reine,” Ragnar replies, looking away from us.

Silas watches him with a sharp gaze, which softens slightly as he looks down at me. He lets me slide down his body and makes no attempt to hide how turned on he is as I walk to Ragnar. “I’ll be back. I want to see more of Dulcis.”

“Lucky horse,” Silas grumbles, and I chuckle, heading out of the stables with Ragnar, his pace fast and angry, never pausing.

I catch his arm halfway across the field, the courtyard of the castle in sight. He stops and turns on me. “We never spoke about this…sharing. Falling for you all. It was unexpected for me, and I never wanted to hurt any of you. Ragnar, talk to me.”

“I don’t share,” he states, each word cutting through my chest like daggers. He steps closer. “I can’t want anyone but you, my wolf, my queen, my darling and my mate, no matter how the rite ends. I’ve wanted you since we met, even that young, and no one could love you as I do.”

“That’s not true,” I whisper. “Love…it can’t be contained and controlled. And you know—”

“You think they love you, Mai darling?” he questions. The new nickname, I don’t like it for some reason I can’t put my finger on. “Silas loves himself and the thrill of murder, of pain and the fight. Valentine, despite his recent soberness, loves the bottle more than anyone in this world. His family taught him that, it’s in his blood, and Henderson is too noble to love anything but the title of kin—”

My hand smacks into his face, knocking his head to the side and causing a drop of blood to pool from his lip. He spits it on the ground and looks at me in sheer shock. “Don’t you ever speak of them like that and judge what you do not understand. I may love each of them and even you, but my relationship is private. Valentine is not a drunk, Henderson is noble, but that is not a bad thing, and Silas has been forced to fight; he hasn’t been given a chance to choose his own fate.”

I pause, my heart hurting deeply. “Ragnar, I don’t know what has changed since we got here, but you have never been cruel.”

“The truth is, you couldn’t remember even if I was,” he slowly replies, almost threatening as he walks to me. Low, that was a low blow. I know he won’t hurt me, and I regret hitting him. This isn’t who we are, we always were. I feel nothing but confusion settling in my chest as I look at Ragnar, tracing my eyes over his handsome features, the stern lines that weren’t there before and now are. Like he has frowned one too many times. His eyes meet mine, shining like dark lapis lazuli crystals. “You can’t remember that your first kiss was with me, so many years ago. I loved you and you loved my darkness, this side to me…only you did. But only for a fleeting moment, then you changed. You told me the gods above didn’t want this, us, and you ran into the arms of them. That’s why I—”

He pauses as a carriage neither one of us heard pulls up next to us. We don’t stop staring at each other, and the conflicting stories he is telling me are confusing me. I kissed him first? As a child? Why would I say the gods didn’t want us?

“This city has changed you,” I say as the driver of the carriage jumps down and pulls the door open. “But I love you, Ragnar. Come back to me, the kind and brave wolf I know.”

Something changes in Ragnar’s expression. “I love you too.”

I softly smile, even if deep down something still doesn’t feel right, and I don’t know why, but I don’t trust him. I can’t trust a wolf I’m in love with.

“There you are, Mairin. Come,” Alpha Reine says, leaning out of the carriage and looking at Ragnar. “I asked you to find Mairin and bring her to me, not keep her for yourself, son.”

“I keep what is mine,” he replies with a grin. That almost reminds me of Ragnar when we met…it’s just darker. Different. I’m not sure what to make of it. I turn to Alpha Reine, and Ragnar is already walking away.

“Where are we going?”

“Get in and you will see,” she replies before sitting back down in the carriage. I climb in, and the driver closes the door. Her scent, winter river and frost and snow, fills the space as she watches me. I wait, leaning back. It’s been a week since the second test of the rite, and I haven’t seen Alpha Reine at all. My alphas told me she is in meetings all week with Alpha Soren when I asked, and they themselves have been gone in a lot of these meetings too, along with Callahan, who is offering useful information. Phim is still watching Adira, after she made off out of the second test, along with Tualla. I knew without having to be told by anyone that the other female didn’t make it. The sound of her being ripped apart will be something I won’t be able to forget in a hurry.

“Congratulations on your success in the tests,” Alpha Reine comments, her eyes watching out of a small window. “Have you been preparing for the final test?”

“As much as is possible,” I reply, remembering the haunting words of the oath I took to take the rite and walk into The Rite Forest. Hallowed lands where unnamed gods died, and their blood made the trees. Made the forest from nothing but sand. It’s a damned place. Mortals and wolves be damned. I’ve read two books in the library about the forest, and there isn’t much about it other than stories of wolves and, eons ago, humans who wandered into the forest and never came out again. It’s a massive forest, thousands of miles long, and even the king of the angels would never step foot in it. It’s about two miles out of the city, the entrance hidden in a crystal cave full of black diamonds.

“Soren once told me Dot was said to be from the forest,” Alpha Reine says, capturing my full attention. “He said his great-great-grandfather made friends with Dot, and on his deathbed, she told him a small secret, one she could part with for him, her dear friend. That she was from The Rite Forest and may never return, for all our sakes.”

“Sounds like a threat.”

“To us? Our world? To her, whatever it is she may be,” she replies, turning to look at me this time, her eyes clear. “What is your opinion of Dot?”

“That she is powerful and dangerous, but not to us,” I reply as sure as I can be. “I’m not a good judge of character—it’s a bad flaw of mine—but I never got the sense she would hurt me.”

Alpha Reine nods, watching me so closely like she has since we met once more. “I caught your maid, Erin, talking with a low-born female wolf in the city. Are you planning on going to The Wolves of Mnemosyne?”

Her question surprises me into a stunned silence, and she carries on, my answer written across my face. “It seems you are not a good keeper of secrets either. Both traits you will need to work on in order to be a good alpha female.”

“I need my past back,” I state.

“I never once said I am going to stop you or suggest you do not go. You know the price you are going to pay,” she replies. “You are a grown female with a broken and scarred past. The Ravensword Pack, they turned you into this. The past will not alter who you are, Mairin. Nothing and no one but you can do that.”

“Thank you for not stopping me,” I reply.

Her eyes watch me. “Alphas are protective and domineering mates, who will never place their alpha female in danger in any sense, even if it’s the right thing to do. Their instincts override their minds, their wolf controlling so much of them. We, as alpha females, do what is best no matter the dear cost.”

“Have you paid a lot of costs over the years?”

“Yes,” she replies without pause. “Millions of wolves look up to me and my mate for guidance, for protection and to keep the laws we have in place. Sometimes I’ve had to judge quick and regretted it, sometimes I’ve lost dear friends to save others’ lives. We live in a dying world, Mairin, and I believe this pack is the last hope. If we fall, then no one will rise in our ashes other than a cruel king who will burn everything.”

“I am going to kill him,” I firmly state. “The alphas, they can’t. I know they can’t do it, and maybe if I have my memories back, I will struggle too. But I’ve been the female in a broken world, stepped on, treated like a slave, raped and beaten and rejected. That’s what the world is for mortals and what it will become like here if he lives and when, not if, he finds us. There are many I plan to destroy as I get revenge, and I will not stop. I will fight.”

It feels good to admit what happened to me, to say it out loud and demand my revenge. To promise it to myself and to the gods above and below.

I look out at the city as we pass it. “I vow to every god above that if I have the chance, he will die.”

“And the Ravensword alpha?” she asks softly. Softer than I’ve heard her speak.

I smile, feeling my power locked in my chest, my wolf at my back. “He is going to regret ever touching me. His pack is mine.”

For the first time since we met, her eyes glow bright, and she smiles. “Good.”

The carriage comes to a stop outside a row of orange brick townhouses with yellow trimmed windows and a garden of yellow roses, poppies, and daisies in front. The driver opens the door, letting Alpha Reine climb out first, and I follow. The front door, white with a gold knocker, swings open. A woman, older than I am, rushes out and bows her head low for Alpha Reine before looking up and locking eyes with me.

“By all the wolf gods, it’s like looking at Baia once more,” the female whispers, brushing her curly autumn orange hair behind her ear. She is pale with a bunch of light freckles, and her black cloak covering her shoulders hides that her right arm is missing. Little scars litter her neck and right cheek up to her forehead as she stares at me.

“You knew my mother?”

“Y-yes.” She pauses, looking at Alpha Reine. “Young Mai doesn’t truly remember?”

Alpha Reine shakes her head, stepping aside and looking at me. “This is Chastity Fall, and she was one of the few wolves who escaped the attack.”

Chastity walks to me, her eyes so wide. “I grew up with Baia. Our huts were right next door to each other. She was my maid on my mating day. She drew the ancient marks on my skin and braided my hair, which is a high honour. I loved her a monumental amount, and I’m so sorry, Mairin. I really am. My daughter was born two days after you…but she didn’t—”

She stops, the words not needed to be said. “It’s nice to meet you, and I wish I could remember, but I cannot. I’m sorry for your daughter.”

Her eyes flash red for a moment. “Revenge will be here soon. We have all trained for the day the alpha heirs declare war.”

The word war does nothing but strike fear into my chest, the knowledge that a fight like that could take my alphas’ lives, the lives of so many in this pack, and risk everything. We need a war to begin again, to save everything good left, but it’s never something I will pray for.

Death marks the word war.

The two are the same.

“Come in, come in,” she says, waving to the door. “I was so excited to hear you were both coming, and I’ve made a dozen small foods for us to enjoy.”

I nod and follow her inside, Alpha Reine trailing after us. The house is sweet, decorated with soft pinks and creams, flowers and paintings dotted around soft furnishings. We head into the living area where there is a small, cosy table with four chairs scattered around. That isn’t what makes me pause in my tracks.

On the mantel is a photo in a frame. The photo is faded, old, and cracked in places, but even if I can’t remember who the female is in the middle, in my soul, I know her. Reine and Chastity are on either side of a female with long, almost pale blonde hair, sharp features, and soft, kind eyes the same colour as mine, but brighter, not an inch of darkness to them that I often see in mine. She is wearing a white summer dress, tied at the waist, and sandals, and a beach is behind them, the waves frozen in the photo.

My mother. Baia Fall.

Tears fall down my cheeks as I realise why Alpha Reine brought me here. This is a gift for winning the tests.

Chastity comes to my side, picking the photo frame up and handing it to me. “You should keep it. When we were attacked, I grabbed my bag, and this was in there, the only photo I think ever left our old pack with us, by pure luck.”

“I can’t—”

“You will,” Chastity firmly states, pushing it into my arms. “I imagine losing your memories is a far worse injury than any I could imagine.”

My eyes betray me by looking at the space where her arm should be, and of course, Chastity follows my gaze. “Torn off by an angel in the fight, and I was left for dead.”

“I pulled her out of the pack lands,” Reine fills in.

“And saved me,” Chastity adds. “I was very lucky.”

“I will treasure this,” I tell her.

She smiles and places her hand on my back and leads me to the table. I sit down and enjoy some of the pastries, mini cupcakes and devils chocolate cake slices that Chastity made on her own, apparently using a recipe book from the humans. It’s all delicious, and I find myself eating seconds as Reine and Chastity talk, more like gossip, about the high ladies of the Fall Mountain Pack.

“I wouldn’t have guessed they were sleeping together,” Chastity states. “Not with her proposed mating to Beta Lewis.”

“I saw it myself,” Reine adds in. “Well, scented from the other room. The pair of them are going to start a fight my mate will have to end.”

“Maybe they are true mates,” I suggest.

They both look at me, a little pity flashing in Reine’s eyes. “Their scents would mix into one after the first time they had intercourse.”

“Oh…” I say, my cheeks burning red.

Chastity giggles. “She likely knows this already, the way your sons have been reported to be in love with her.”

“I don’t,” I quickly add, feeling the need to clarify. Alpha Reine looks surprised, and she doesn’t try to hide it.

“They could be your true mates, then. It’s more than common for shifters to share male mates, more so with the female birth rate declining,” Chastity says, breathing out the words in equal shock.

“I have no idea,” I admit. “But I’m drawn to them constantly, and it’s deeper than just sex.”

Alpha Reine and Chastity look at each other before both turning to me. Chastity reaches over and squeezes my hand on the table. “Mate bonds are rare and pure, the last true magic left from the gods before they left the mortal world. Well, at least, until you seven were born. I hope you are right.”

“As do I,” Alpha Reine agrees, her eyes on me a touch longer before she changes the subject to one of another scandal in the pack. I look at the photo on the table and smile at my beautiful mother.

Chapter

Sixteen

“T hank you, Dot,” I say as a book slams onto the table in front of me out of thin air. Breelyn frowns, looking around us as I open the book on legendary weaponry and find the page I want on the seven weapons made in the river of souls. Breelyn looks with me as I find a page dedicated to Morganis, the dagger clipped into a holder on my upper thigh. I turn the pages, finding several have been ripped out and there is only half a page left, showing the top of a blue axe. All the writing about the weapons was ripped out.

“Well, if this is the best the library has, we aren’t finding much more out about the weapons,” Breelyn says with a sigh. “This is why I don’t like—”

Another book slams on the table, but it’s in front of Breelyn instead, and it looks like a children’s book, bound in black leather with red textured font. I lean over and read the title out loud, “How to Be Kind.”

Breelyn growls, the growl echoing around in the air, and a slight giggle echoes back.

“I hate this place,” Breelyn states as I try to stop laughing. “Can we leave?”

I shake my head and look up at the shelves of books. “Do you have anything on the myth of The Wolven Crown?”

The alphas’ warning about The Wolven Crown comes back to me, a crown made from god blood. A crown of immense power.

I only get a giggle in response.

I sigh, knowing it wouldn’t have been that easy. As the weeks, almost a month, have passed since I came into this city, I feel the clock ticking down on the promise I made to Persephone. I climb out of my seat and leave the library, Breelyn walking by my side. I walk to the balcony and overlook the waterfall, noticing the dead leaves falling in the water, the chill in the air marking the change in season.

“It’s getting cold,” Breelyn voices what I was thinking as my bare arms are littered with goose bumps. “What happens if you don’t find this Wolven Crown?”

Something dark settles into my gut. “Then I will make a goddess of death extremely angry. We are soul-linked; there is a chance she could kill me. Or worse.”

“Then we will find it,” Breelyn announces, placing her hand on my arm.

I cover her hand and smile back. “We will, friend.”

“Omega soon.” She winks, and I chuckle, agreeing. I turn as I hear two pairs of footsteps coming towards us. Erin and Phim walk to us, Erin bowing her head.

“You don’t have to bow,” I tell her. “We are friends.”

Erin searches my eyes and then blinks. “Everyone bows for the alpha female, even the alphas.”

“We are leaving for The Wolves of Mnemosyne,” Phim cuts in, and now I realise why she has twice the amount of weapons on her than usual. “I have paid the guards to leave you alone and poisoned the others. They won’t be getting off the toilet anytime soon, but they will live.”

“There is a carriage in the courtyard. It will take you to the edge of the city where a male will be waiting. He will guide you outside the border of the pack,” Erin whispers, even when the roar of the waterfall would mask her voice for anyone nearby. “This castle is big enough that if anyone asks where you three are, I can cover for you.”

“Thank you,” I tell her and turn to my friend and my sister. Truthfully, they are both sisters to me, one in blood and one in loyalty. They would follow me anywhere, protect me at any cost, and I know I would do the same for them.

“We are ready,” Phim tells me before I can ask. Breelyn nods as Phim hands her two daggers and a bow with arrows. My own daggers are all I need with my magic to be backed up if I need it. Phim turns to Erin. “You did good.”

She blushes with a big smile. “I happily serve this castle and our pack.”

Phim nods at her before we walk off down the corridors to the courtyard. The sun is setting over the crater, casting a mixture of pink, orange and yellow light dancing around us like embers of a fire as we climb into the plain black carriage. I don’t know why we are travelling at night, when the danger of the Levi is higher, but I’m not judging quite yet. My heart feels stuck in my chest as I watch the courtyard and the castle below disappear in the distance. My alphas are going to be livid with me, but this is my choice, something I have chosen to do for myself. They wouldn’t, couldn’t, let me do this, but if I’m to become their mate, bound to them forever, I want to know who I was. It won’t change who I am now. It might change nothing, but this is the only chance I’m going to get.

“If they ask for something that is too much,” Breelyn starts, and I turn to her, the carriage bouncing across the road under us, “leave the past. Leave the memories if they risk your future or present.”

I breathe out. “There are answers in the past, answers I need, Breelyn. I want…I need to hear my mother’s voice. I need to know who saved me and left me in the Ravensword Pack. I need…”

“The past,” Phim says, pity in her eyes. “I would like to know who took you to the Ravensword Pack too.”

“It was an angel with black hair,” I say, remembering the flash of memory I was shown in the Fenrir Court. “And I felt safe. Like I knew the angel…which makes no sense. I need more.”

“Then we will get more,” she replies. Simple, to the point. Everything about my sister is. We travel in silence, all of us tense about leaving the pack lands and the risk of the Levi being close, never mind the wolves we are going to see. They aren’t our pack, and they are not like us. From what I’ve heard, they give only to take much more than they should. I need to be careful not to get tricked by these wolves. When the carriage stops, it’s dark out, the street lit up behind us, and a male holding a large torch waits for us by the hill that leads to the top field where the train is. Walking with Breelyn and Phim, I get to the male, who bows his head, something I will never get used to. He has salt-and-pepper hair, brown eyes and wears a simple tunic with a gold embossment of the upside-mountain mark of the Fall Mountain Pack.

“Call me Cean,” the male introduces himself, his eyes watching me more than Breelyn and Phim. “Are you certain this is what you wish to do?”

“Yes,” I answer for us all. Cean nods with a tut before turning and walking up the hill. His torch lights the way for him, but I have to use my wolf’s senses to see any rocks or lumps on the hill to avoid tripping as we climb. Cean walks right through the barrier, and part of me wants to pause and not do it, but I walk through the portal, and it wraps around me like a comforting hug before disappearing. I damn hope my alphas can’t sense I’ve left the barrier, or I’m so screwed. Breelyn shivers as she steps out, and Phim barely blinks. Outside the barrier are four brown horses tied to a post.

“Come, the Levi hunt at night, but never close to the city. I’d still not risk staying here much longer,” Cean explains.

I nod and go to the horse, climbing up as Breelyn and Phim climb on theirs. Cean unties our horses, handing us the reins before mounting his horse. “Why don’t the Levi come near the city?”

“Something in the air… They don’t like it,” he explains before clicking his tongue and guiding his horse. The ride is short, across a grass field and over a small hill. The entire time, my heart races as I take in every tree swaying in the breeze and the little noises of a rabbit running in the bushes to hide. I know everyone is doing the same as me, listening for the sound of the Levi, of an attack we would struggle to win alone like this.

After about ten minutes, we come to a massive, cracked gap in the middle of two large hills, like a god ripped the hill apart with their bare hands. There is nothing but darkness within it, but as I stare, I almost see a flash of gold. Cean looks back at me and nods before guiding his horse through the gap, so tight his feet scrape on the rock and his horse resists. Breelyn goes next, and I follow her, Phim behind me. As the darkness encloses around us, I look up at the stars peeking out, the silver light from the moon shining high above us in a place it cannot reach.

I immediately scent two things the further we go, one unknown to me, and one familiar. Human. The other scent reminds me of the thick scent of flowers and the musky scent of a forest, but there is something sweet about the scent. Sickly sweet. In the darkness ahead, I see a ball of light, and as we get closer, I see it’s a metal fire pit shaped into a sphere, floating off the ground and full of fire that burns on its own.

Cean climbs off his horse in front of the sphere, and I climb off mine, patting her side. Breelyn and Phim stay close to me as we walk to the sphere, the strange scent stronger by the second. Cean nods to me, opening his mouth to speak, when he freezes. Boom. A flash of gold light blasts out of nowhere, and when I open my eyes, I’m in a different room, in front of a different flaming sphere.

Breelyn, Phim and Cean are gone, replaced with gold wolves that make a circle around the cavern clearing. The rocks are black, littered with gold dots that make it look like stars. The wolves are different and strange, bigger than most wolves I’ve seen, except for my alphas. They don’t move, their gold glowing eyes watching me like prey. The heat of the fire burns my cheeks as I straighten up.

“Nice trick,” I start. “Now you have me here. Who is your alpha?”

“That would be I.”

I turn around to find a male standing behind me, head to toe in a black suit that’s filled out by his thick shoulders and broad chest, his voice warm and deep. The male has short blond hair that looks like the ends are on fire with gold light. His skin is golden, warm and tanned, and his eyes…they make me pause as he towers over me, his hands resting behind his back. Gold. They are shining gold, mesmerising to look at, like the sun itself is in his eyes. His presence is overwhelming as we stare at each other, and I can’t read anything about him until he smirks. He tilts his head to the side. His scent, a mixture of sunshine, dark forests and burning flames, surrounds me until I can’t scent anything else.

“Who are you?” I ask him.

He straightens. “You wish for a deal, Mairin Elysia Astra Fall, chosen of the moon goddess, soul of Persephone, the goddess of spring and death, and soon to be alpha female of the Fall Mountain Pack. What other titles will fall on you before this world is saved?”

He talks in riddles, but every word is true, and I feel like his eyes are looking right into my soul. I can’t see into his. “Have you heard it’s rude to not introduce yourself, alpha?”

“Yes,” he answers bluntly, and when he smiles, I see a flash of long, sharp teeth. He circles me, moving so close to the fire that he should be burnt, but it doesn’t harm him. “You are a daughter of the earth, and I am a son of fire. Your alphas are sons of the darkness. Perhaps names are nothing in comparison to our birthrights.”

“Birthrights mean nothing unless they use them for good.”

He laughs at me. It’s deep and makes me shiver despite how patronizing he is being. “I’m sure the millions of humans enslaved by the king of the angels would say his power is not nothing.”

He moves closer. “If you listen, you can hear their cries for help, or death or anyone. They pray to the gods, and they never answer. You’re a goddess, can’t you help?”

The silent room starts to echo with cries and pleas. I cover my ears as they get louder and louder, each one so desperate.

“Stop it,” I growl, and the sounds disappear, leaving a hidden mark on my soul.

“Why should I help you, goddess?”

I lower my hands, his question one I’ve thought about more than once.

He steps back in front of me, close once more, and I tilt my head to look at him. “Why, when your future is so bleak, would I help you?”

“Because I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t already plan to help me, trickster,” I reply simply. “You already know what I want, don’t you?”

He smiles.

“I can’t remember anything before I was twelve, including how I ended up in the arms of an angel, carried to a dangerous pack and abandoned,” I say, watching him. “I want your power to remember my past.”

“For a price,” the trickster replies, like the snake he is. “Hmmm.”

He moves away from me and leans against the fire pit, flames brushing his clothes and never taking alight. “What you ask for, and will ask for in the future, comes at a deeper cost than you will ever want to pay. I will take two female wolves from your pack. One now and one in the future.”

My heart all but stops. Wolves? I can’t trade others’ lives. “There are two times your memories have been wiped clean. Did you know that?”

“Twice?”

He smiles like a snake wrapped around a rat. “You begged for your memories to be taken by the angel. Both times.”

The earth shifts underneath me, and my vision swarms as a million questions fill my mind. I asked for my memory to be taken? Twice?

Why would I do that?

“How old was I when the second memories were taken?”

He turns his head to the side. “My truths are not free, young goddess. Have we a deal?”

“Who do you want?” I ask.

“The white wolf for your memories. For the second time you will come for my help, I wish for the female child who wears a crown. Your heir in return for what you will seek.”

For a second, I have no idea who he is speaking about other than Breelyn. “Your blood in her veins. She will live with me until a mate has been found. They both will share this fate.”

“You want Breelyn and my firstborn child? What if I never have a child?” I ask, shaking my head.

He doesn’t answer for a moment. “I’ve seen all, I see all, and I am all. I do not bet on the unknown.”

The power in his statement I can feel down to my bones.

I’ve never thought of having a child before, but I’m certain it isn’t worth any price to give a child up. I would never give a child up, and I can’t see why I would come to these tricksters a second time. I won’t. “I won’t come back.”

He only smiles, like he knew I’d say that.

“And Breelyn Ravensword is not mine to trade,” I carry on. “Name another price.”

He lifts off the fire pit and clicks his fingers. There is a flash of gold light, and I turn to see Breelyn on her knees behind me. She looks up through a curtain of soft hair.

“It is her choice,” the trickster whispers to me. I can feel the overwhelming heat of his body pressed against my back until he walks around me. Breelyn climbs to her feet by the time he gets to her, and she looks to me before back to him.

“Breelyn Ravensword, intended omega, white wolf and true beauty,” he starts. Breelyn rolls her eyes and walks away from him to my side.

“We are leaving,” I tell her firmly, grabbing her hand.

The trickster laughs as he turns on his heel. “For your alpha female’s memories and my future promised help with another deal she will desperately need, I want you to join my pack. One year and then you may leave. One year.”

“I said no,” I snap with a growl. I reach for my power, surprised to feel it doesn’t work here. The dark pit in my soul, where the magic usually is, is empty.

He smirks. Breelyn is silent, watching the trickster. “If you wish to leave, it is your choice.”

“Will you harm me?” Breelyn asks.

“No—” I start.

“Females are never harmed in our pack. If a male dares lay an unwanted finger on a female”—he pauses—“my skills as a torturer come in very handy.”

Torturer. Trickster. Alpha.

What else is this male?

Breelyn looks at me, and I can see the decision she has made already. “No. I forbid it, Bree. You can’t, we know nothing about this pack and—”

“You’re my sister, Mai,” she replies, her eyes filled with tears. “This would be a great honour, and it’s only a year.”

She squeezes my hand, and I grab it with my other, holding onto her. “You’re my sister too, that’s why I won’t let this happen.”

“Mai…something is wrong in the pack. Something is coming, and I feel it in every step I take.” She pauses to look at the wolf waiting for us. “He isn’t lying to us. I can feel the truth in his words, and he said you will come back for help. You will need help desperately. That can mean only one thing.”

“That my alphas and the pack are in danger,” I whisper. “It’s the only reason I would come here.”

She rests her forehead against mine before pulling her hand from mine and stepping to the trickster, her eyes locking on me. “Tell Callahan he was wrong and not to come for me.”

“I will,” I say, my voice catching. “And when your year is up, come back to me and be my omega. I will be alpha female.”

“I know,” she says with a cracked voice and a big smile. Her smile drops as she turns to the trickster. “Give her the memories back.”

He bows his head in a patronising manner that makes Breelyn bare her teeth. “Feisty. How interesting this year is going to be.”

The trickster walks over to me, a smile on his lips because he got what he wanted. He lifts his hand and bites into his palm, gold blood dripping from the centre. Gold blood. He offers his hand out to me. “We make deals in blood. Drink from my hand, and we have a deal.”

My stomach turns as I pick up his hand, his skin boiling hot to the touch, and lift his palm to my mouth. The copper taste is mixed with a sweetness, like boiled candy, and I push his hand away the second I’ve swallowed a little.

He walks closer and cups my head with his large hands. “I am going to unlock your memories and unwind the magic like threads on a blanket, bit by bit, until there is a hole. Memories, starting with when you lost the memories and further back, will come to you quickly. And random ones at the start. The rest will take a few weeks and come in bits.”

“That wasn’t the deal. I need all my memories now,” I say.

He sighs. “Mortals are always so impatient, and you’re not even fully mortal. Maybe a couple hundred years will help.”

“I will live hundreds of years?” I whisper, that truth haunting me.

“Mairin, you do have a sneaky way of getting real truths from me,” he replies with a wink. I have no doubt he told me that in apology for not giving me all the memories at once. “If I did unlock all the magic holding your mind back, it would kill you in one blow. Magic like this is delicately woven to grow with your lifetime. It was never meant to be undone.”

“It’s almost like you care if I die or not,” I murmur.

His gold eyes look down at me, so inhuman, so immortal and cold. “I care for nothing and no one.”

“Bye, Mai,” Breelyn calls out.

Gold light blasts into the room, blinding everything in sight before a sharp pain shoots across my mind, darkness following straight after it.

“MAMA! HE’S BACK!” I shout, rushing through our home, knowing where to step to make every floorboard creak for fun. We have been expecting him for two weeks, as he only comes when it’s a full moon and the rest of the pack are celebrating the days of the goddess. My green dress moves around my legs as the back door opens and mama’s secret friend steps in, his black wings disappearing in a puff of black dust. The black dust settles in his pitch-black locks of hair and dots the tanned skin of his forearms, the rest of him covered in thick leather and sharp weapons. I wish he would teach me how to use them.

It’s always “You’re eight, Maiy!”

But I’m nine, since yesterday, and if I knew how to fight, I could show the boys!

“Niall!” I squeal and he laughs, widening his arms. I run into his arms, and he swings me around before kissing the top of my head. “Will you—”

“You’re nine,” he replies with a laugh, putting me down and shaking his head. “When you’re sixteen, I will teach you.”

I stick my tongue out at him, and he ruffles my hair as my mama walks into the room. She smiles softly, her pale cheeks brightening. “Any luck?”

“No, Amica,” he sadly replies, using his nickname for her, and her face falls, as it always does.

And I never know why.

THE BOYS ALWAYS WIN.

It’s not fair.

I cross my arms and slump down against the big tree outside my house. The tree marked with our names, riddles, and drawings of wolves.

The four wolves, black and red-eyed, surround me.

“Until I can shift, I’m powerless,” I mutter, kicking a pile of dead leaves. Everyone our age can shift but me, and it’s not going to be long before they decide to be friends with Adira, the pretty wolf, or other females our age.

A horrible feeling attacks my chest when I think of them being friends with anyone else.

They are my wolves. Silas and Henderson nudge me to my feet, and we run for hours in the forest until my legs burn. Until I can run no longer with my pack.

“HE MUST BE DEAD,” my mama cries, her voice full of pain. I sink against the stairs tighter, holding on. “If you haven’t found him in Australia, where else could he be? Those damn weapons, those damned clues he has followed for eight years, are empty promises. They won’t save anyone.”

“I don’t know, Amica,” Niall replies, his voice tense. “I have more news, bad news. The angels are stirring in secret, building what looks like an army. I don’t know what for, the commander tells me nothing, but—”

“You worry for Mai,” she interrupts with a guess. “Would they come for the children? The ones born and changed by the gods by Oisean?”

“Seven of them like he said,” he states. “And there are seven—”

The stairs creak, and they both look up. I run to my room before I get told off.

“WHY CAN’T I see my sister?” I ask my mama as she braids my hair, the sun glistening down on us in the moss garden by our window. Her scent, moon-kissed lavender and petals of sunflowers, surrounds me. She is everything comforting in the world, and I always want to be with her.

Mama is always so sad when she talks of Seraphim, my sister. I know she has red hair and eyes that are bright like a glistening star. “You’ve always been too young for me to explain, but you’re eleven now… Her father stole her away to an evil pack. I cannot go there; they treat females badly.”

“I will save her when I’m older and strong.”

She kisses the top of my head. “I pray for nothing else than to see you both together. As it should be.”

FIRE LICKS the side of my house as I crawl under the table, my heart racing a million times a minute since the angels came. Since he came back, changed and different from the boy I grew up with, and demanded I go with him. His name… Why can’t I think about his name or what he looks like? Brown hair. Maybe.

Howls and screams echo outside, and pain cuts deep in my heart. My pack is dying, and I’m too scared to move.

I’m so scared.

My mama, with a glowing yellow sword I’ve never seen before, cuts down angel after angel who tries to enter our house until there is nothing but a pile of bodies, dead eyes looking at me. Tears wash away the ash and smoke sticking to my skin as I stare into the empty eyes of a dead angel in front of me, his throat slit. Mama looks under the table and offers me her blood-soaked hand. I take it and she drags me up the stairs, past my bedroom, and pulls down the attic door. All of her is soaked in blood and gore, almost masking her fear-filled scent.

“Go!” she pleads, pushing me up the steps.

“But Silas, Valentine, Ragnar and Henderson are out there! I can’t leave them!” I shout, and she pushes me until I’m in the attic. She pulls the stairs up. They are my best friends…my alphas. I will serve them and love them always.

“He wants you and he can’t have you,” mama says, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Stay here and wait, I will come back, and if I don’t…well…”

She pauses, her hands shaking as I sob and shake my head. “Niall will be here soon. He knows your father and is looking for him. Niall is the only angel you can trust. Do you hear me?”

“Y-yes,” I cry.

“My sweet Mai,” she says, cupping my cheeks. “One day, you are going to burn bright enough to outshine every star in the sky. Remember that.”

My mama goes to the door and looks back at me one more time, her sword glowing so brightly in the darkness. “I love you.”

“I love you too, mama.”

Those were the last words spoken between us.

“NIALL, mama told me this pack is evil to females,” I say, my voice shaky. I’m so scared.

Niall looks and scents of fear, too. He walks in a circle in the snow, my mama’s sword clipped to his hip, before stopping.

“But they are better than the angels…and it’s the only place you will fit in and be safe,” he says, going to his knees in front of me. He hasn’t said it, not when he came to the house to find me, holding my mama’s sword and scenting of her blood.

He hasn’t told me she is dead.

But I know.

I know and it hurts so much.

“I have to get revenge, not hide!” I shout at him, and he grabs my shoulders.

“Listen to me,” he firmly says. “You will get revenge. We will, together, but not now. Not while the earth is being ripped apart by angels. Not while they are looking so actively for you and you’re a child still. Maiy, I need to take your memories and protect you with magic.”

He pulls out the sword. “This is a magical sword called Chaitala, given and kept secret by your family for many years. It holds pure magic, and it can take memories. It can hide you from anyone who seeks you.”

“I don’t want to forget,” I cry out.

Mama. Valentine. Silas. Henderson. Ragnar. Aunt Reine. Uncle Soren. My pack.

It would all be gone.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, standing up. “But I promised your mama to protect you, and I will. Please make it easy on me.”

“Mama wanted this?” I whisper.

He nods. “It was the plan if the angels ever came for you. And they did. I wanted to save…but I didn’t get there in time.”

“How long must I live here in secret?” I ask when I hear the pain in his voice. The tears marking his cheeks.

“Years,” he replies. “I will come back when you’re sixteen and give you back your memories with the sword. I will be back.”

“Then do it,” I tell him, being the strong wolf mama always told me I was.

Niall looks proud, even in his sadness, and he presses the tip of the sword on my forehead, yellow light washing away my sadness with the memories it took.

I WAKE UP WITH A GASP, my head hurting like a thousand horses kicked at it. “He never came back. He never came back for me. He never came back.”

“Mai,” Henderson says, grabbing my hands as I keep repeating the sentence.

Silas roars. “I’m going to rip those wolves apart! Look what they have done to her!”

“Stop!” I shout, looking at them all. “No matter where we run, we will find each other again. No matter how we fall, we will pick each other up. No matter who we are, we love each other.”

“You remember us?” Henderson questions, and I nod, a smile tilting my lips up.

“Bits here and there. Some of it…he said it would all come back within a few weeks,” I say with a bright smile. “How long have I been out?”

“A few hours,” Phim says, lifting herself off the doorframe. “Where is Breelyn?”

“I’d like that answer too,” Callahan demands from the corner of the room, his voice like ice.

My heart, even so happy to have some of my memories back, feels like ice as I answer. “Breelyn is living with The Wolves of Mnemosyne for a year in exchange for my memories. It was her choice.”

“How could you do that?” Callahan furiously shouts, stepping towards me. Valentine moves in between us, blocking him from me.

“It was her choice,” I say again, firmer this time. I already feel awful and as far as I know, Callahan doesn’t even care for her that much. “She told me to tell you that you were wrong and not to come after her, Callahan.”

Something changes in his eyes. “I called her a self-serving coward.”

“Then you were wrong. She is my sister in every sense and anything but a self-serving coward.”

He storms out of the room, and the alphas sit with me for hours, talking through every memory I have.

I suspected it all along, but I’ve always loved them. It was always us.

Chapter

Seventeen

VALENTINE FALL

“Y ou look like I did when I met a mate who was wilful and strong. Who never listens to advice and does what she wishes,” Soren says, sitting down next to me on the ledge overlooking the courtyard. I breathe in the scents of the forest, the dampness of the river, the busy guards and maids rushing around as the sun sets softly in the distance. I found this place a week ago, and it’s nice to sit up here, in the silence, without guards following me around, pretending not to be stalking my ass. Coming back here was like being hit with a wall of reality, and reality comes with political meetings, the rite, and everything we dislike about being alphas. The responsibility.

I don’t know how Soren does it so easily, or he makes it look that way in the meetings around the betas.

It seems like I’m not just fucking up at being alpha heir, but with my intended mate.

Mai went alone to do something dangerous and reckless without trusting us, because we told her no instead of listening.

“How do you know when you’re being smothering instead of protective?” I question, asking and needing advice. I don’t have anyone else to turn to, to ask about things like this. I want to protect Mai but not smother who she is or stop her from doing what she wants in life. Like getting back her memories.

I’m happy she has them back, that she looks at us like we haven’t ever been apart, because it’s always been like that for us, but it came at a massive price: Breelyn, the wolf loyal to Mai. And I know she will never forgive herself if something happens to Breelyn while she spends a year with The Wolves of Mnemosyne.

I should have been the one she came to for advice; instead, I was one of the people she hid it from.

I fucked up.

“Our wolves demand we protect our females,” Soren starts. “But our wolves rarely understand that our alpha females are forces of their own, and we are there to weather the storm with them, not protect them from it. There is a line to be crossed and marked again in the sand, but understand you are still learning. I am still learning to this day, and I thank the gods for each day with my Reine.”

“You’re right,” I tell him, patting his shoulder. “Thank you for the advice.”

“I hope to advise you for many years to come, Valentine. I’m proud of the male you have become,” he tells me, and something deep down needed to hear that. From him, from a male who watched me grow up and fuck up more times than I can remember. I can only give him a shaky nod before I walk away and follow Mai’s scent, past her room and to her next favourite place: the haunted library.

She shouldn’t be out of bed, and my wolf grumbles as I walk in, searching for her. I follow her scent down two tall bookcases and find her on a faded leather chair, a book in her hands, and her scent wraps around me like a vise.

“How are you?”

She looks up from her book, her eyes wary. I hate that I did that to her. “Perfectly healed.”

Good. “I’m mad at you and myself. We both handled this wrong, and I want us to figure out how to move forward with the plan that we do things together.”

I walk to her and go onto my knees, picking up the book and setting it aside. Her breaths are laboured as I pick up her tiny hands in mine, so warm, so perfect. “I’m so in love with you, and when I saw you hurt, it felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest. You’re taking years off my life every time you are hurt.”

“I know I shouldn’t have gone—”

“No, you should have,” I correct her, and she looks surprised. “But not with your omegas in training. It should have been us at your side. Always us.”

“Do you hate me for lying and not telling you?” she whispers.

Her eyes, like inhuman green stars, meet mine as I lean up. My body roars to life, pressed against her like this, feeling every soft curve of her body, her scent so intoxicating this close up. “I never could hate you. I love you, but I want you to promise me.”

I pause and run my lips across her jaw, tasting her skin. Her body arches into mine, a small noise escaping her that I want to hear again and again. “Promise me you’ll choose to argue with us until we listen. I’m a stubborn bastard, but I’m learning.”

“I promise,” she breathes out, and I kiss her, unable to stop myself. She moans into my mouth as I devour her lips, so soft and delicate, while she kisses me back with more passion than I expected. I pick her up off the chair, the curves of her body melding to mine as I press her into the bookcase, the proof of how turned on I am pressing against her. She wiggles against me, teasing me with her small body, and I push the hem of her dress up to her waist.

I know she has done things with Silas, but this would be a first for us, going this far. I hook my fingers in her underwear and rip them off, not wanting to wait. She gasps and kisses me harder, desperately, like I feel for her. I cup her wet core, groaning at the sticky heat I feel there as I slide one finger into her tight core, rubbing her nub with my thumb. She buckles, moaning loudly, and I devour each one of the noises, wanting to hear that noise forever.

I rest my forehead against hers, watching her as she peaks and tightens around my finger, crying in pure pleasure. Her glazed eyes meet mine, and she slides her hands down my waist, my skin burning everywhere she touches until she gets to my belt. I can barely breathe as she undoes the buckle and then my button before reaching in and cupping my hard length. I groan in ecstasy as she strokes me, harder and faster with every stroke. I grip her ass tightly as I feel my balls tighten, and take her lips as my own as I come into her hand, making the world disappear until I can only see her and taste her.

“Fuck, Mai,” I breathlessly groan against her lips. I kiss her one more time. “I can’t wait to take you as my mate, to be inside you.”

“Me too,” she tells me. I don’t deserve her. I never have, but she is mine, and I will protect and love her with everything I have. I kiss her softly now, and she melts into my arms. Love is complicated but worth every single moment it can give.

Chapter

Eighteen

“I  loved baked cherry pies that Aunt Reine made every full moon for the big party,” I say, watching as Erin tugs on the corset strings around my waist, spread across my ribs. She pulls it until it’s so tight I feel like I can’t breathe, but it holds three hidden pins, sharp and easy to pull out. Erin made this herself, and she really has a knack for making a useful and beautiful outfit for fighting and impressing. It’s what a queen going to war would wear.

Queen. Alpha female. Their mate.

I turn to look over my shoulder, my hair braided into one long plait that hits my back, and find Henderson’s eyes. He is sitting on the end of my bed, his legs spread wide, his large hands resting on his knees.

His eyes find mine, like they did so often when we were children. It was his eyes I loved first, that haunted my dreams first, that drew me to him like a moth to a flame. It’s been a few days since I got my memories back and lost Breelyn for a year, and I woke up this morning with another few flashbacks. I wish it was any other cost than Breelyn, and I wish she was here today. It was my decision to go there, a mistake I made. Callahan hasn’t looked at me once, not when I tried to speak to him yesterday. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Henderson’s lips quirk up. “You used to climb on my shoulders to pick the best cherries from the top of the tallest tree in the forest. It was an hour walk to that tree.”

I laugh. “If I remember right, Hens, you always dropped me. On purpose, I bet, as revenge for dragging you through the forest to that tree.”

Maybe, his eyes seem to say, a light laugh escaping his lips. I know they are mad at me, have been since I woke up and told them everything that happened, including how I planned it all. Silas punched a wall, Ragnar said I was insane, and Henderson gave me a look of pure disappointment. Valentine…well, he walked out and came back later on. That was a different kind of evening. My cheeks blush thinking about it.

That look Henderson gave me hasn’t left his eyes yet, not all the way, and I still feel it. I made a reckless decision, and it cost me Breelyn. I barely slept this week thinking about her, what she is doing and if she is okay. I haven’t even told them about the other deal, the one the trickster said I would return to make. Nothing would make me give up a baby.

Nothing would make me that desperate…and it scares me deep down in my bones to think there is something that is going to happen that could make me even consider it. The only people I would do something like that for are my alphas.

For them, I’d burn the world. Trade anything. Make any deal, because a world without them wouldn’t be worth living for me. I don’t know when I became certain of it, when I decided to fight for them, but it was when I was very young. My world was ripped apart when I had to leave them and my memories in the past to protect myself, to hide myself from the angel king. Now I have it back, and as the Wolven gods are my witnesses, I won’t let anything pull us apart.

The Wolven gods…I’d forgotten about them, too. My mama, in secret, would make us leave the house in the dead of the night once a month and go to an altar, hidden in bushes and thick trees. The altar was made of solid black onyx, and we would kneel before it. My mama would speak in the old language of the gods, like the words on the altar, and I would repeat everything, word after word until I understood the prayer. The Wolven gods, who are forgotten by most of the world, are shifters with god blood. They created the shifter race, or so my mama told me, and everyone else would never understand why we pray to them.

They weren’t pure or light or true to their word. They were dark gods.

I remember her words as clear as day, like I’m back in that clearing in front of that altar. “But you are a dark goddess, and you already love a dark god. Sometimes, there is good to be found in the darkest of souls.”

She was right. Of course she was.

I clear my throat, and Erin claps her hands, stepping back. “You’re all done.”

“Thank you,” I tell her.

“Adira came to see us last night,” Henderson states. I pause mid step towards the door and look to Erin.

“Can you give me a bit of time with Henderson, please?”

“Oh,” she says, bowing her head with red cheeks. “Of course. I will wait outside with the guards.”

Erin walks out and closes the door behind her, tipping the world into silence.

“She isn’t walking out of the rite alive, Henderson,” I say firmly. “I’m sorry, I know part of you loves her like a sister, but she made her choice. I know she can live, if I find the centre of the forest first and the gods allow her life, but I won’t have her in the pack afterwards if she comes out alive. I hope you don’t, and won’t, hate me for that.”

He looks me dead in the eye. “I haven’t trusted her since the train, Mai. We have been watching her like the betrayer to our pack that she is.”

“Really? I didn’t think you believed me,” I say, my lips parting.

“We did,” he replies, shocking me deeply. “We will always trust you, Mai, but we didn’t want her to know that. It had to seem like you truly thought we had dismissed what you said happened. Phim has been reporting to us, as well as to you, as we asked her to shadow Adira as well. I hate keeping secrets from you, but this one was important. We had to be careful.”

“Great minds think alike,” I say with a big smile.

“Whatever she is doing, it isn’t for our pack, and she is not loyal to us. I won’t have anyone close to us that would stab you in the back, Mai,” he firmly states. “None of us would. So she dies and you walk out of there. I won’t accept anything else. The gods won’t spare her, because we wouldn’t.”

Despite his certainty on it, I hear the trace of sorrow in his voice. I even feel it in my chest. Now I remember her as a child. We were close, friends for a time, but we never had any kind of bond that would last the years. It wasn’t the same, and I knew she wanted them for herself. I knew she would take them the second she could, without a care for me, her friend.

I walk up to Henderson and lean down, pressing my lips to his in a passionate kiss, telling him how I feel. Any part of me that doubted us, my relationship with him and his brothers, just disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He never pauses, sliding his hand to cup the back of my neck and kissing me deeper, marking my soul with his.

He breaks away. “Come out as our alpha female and become our mate, Mai. Fight for us, and we will never stop fighting for you. We will battle even the gods above to protect you.”

“Mating…,” I say, running my fingers over his neck, and he gulps. “I cannot wait to be bonded with you. I love you.”

“Even when the stars light up the entire night sky, they aren’t as beautiful as you. I love you more than the purest starlight on a dark night.” His voice is like velvet against my lips.

The door is knocked twice, but I don’t look away from him, this moment feeling precious and unforgettable to me.

The door is knocked again, and Henderson sighs. “I have to go to the chapel. Hours of praying for you ahead of me. I hate that I can’t stop you from doing this or be there.”

“Respect is earnt, and this pack won’t see me as their leader unless I do this,” I say. “I don’t want to be an alpha female they are forced to have and don’t want. That’s not how we are going to inspire an army to take back this world and save it from him. I’m not alone, Hens. You are always with me, like I’m always with you. Plus…there is someone else to help me…”

I walk to my side of the bed and pull out Morganis, the legendary dagger with unknown powers. Much like the sword my mama had, which glowed and had powers. The sword must have been one of the legendary weapons, and it’s incredible I’ve been so close to two of them. Niall must have it wherever he is. Maybe he’s still looking for my father, a man I don’t remember. He left us alone, and Niall never came back for me like he promised. The chances of either of them being alive is low.

I know who my family is, who is there for me, and after the rite is over, the pack will know too. I clip Morganis into my thigh clasp, next to the three other smaller daggers. It glows green against my leg, casting a shadow of magic around me.

“You look like a goddess, Mai,” Henderson breathes, standing slowly. He lowers his head.

“Gods don’t bow,” I tell him, offering him my hand.

He clasps it, looking dead into my eyes. “No, but you are the only female in the world I will bow for. No questions asked. You’re mine, Mai.”

“I’m sorry I disappointed you…,” I say, looking down. “I—”

Warm hands cup my cheeks, tilting my head up. “The only person I felt disappointed in was myself. My brothers. We let you down by being so overprotective that you felt you had to go to him alone. We shouldn’t have shut you down, and I’m sorry, Mai.” He pauses slightly before continuing, “I’m sorry you felt you had to hide that from me. We are going to be mates, and I never want to make you feel that way again.”

A weight feels like it is lifted from my chest. “I thought you were disappointed in me for going when you said no. I had no idea you felt this way.”

“We are all mad at ourselves. You trusted Breelyn and Phim more than us,” he sighs. “We are the ones who failed, not you. It won’t happen again. We will trust each other, Mai. That’s what mates do.”

“I do trust you,” I say, kissing him softly. This time, the door is slightly pushed open, and a guard sticks his head through the gap, looking down.

“Alpha Heir Henderson, I’m sorry to interrupt, but—”

“We are coming,” I say softly as Henderson growls low. The guard jumps backwards, and the door softly shuts.

“You are a brute,” I say, shoving his shoulder. He grins as he rises up and looks me over from head to toe.

“I’m going to enjoy peeling those clothes off you and making you my mate when we see each other next,” he whispers into my ear. “I’m going to mark you as mine.”

I meet his darkening eyes, desire changing my scent, and I see him breathe it in. “Mine. You’re going to be mine, Henderson Fall.”

His replying growl sends shivers through me before he walks to the door and pulls it open. A line of guards in red cloaks wait outside the door, and Henderson looks back at me once.

“Win.”

“Yes, my alpha,” I reply, my words husky. His eyes flare before he forces himself to leave, and I suck in the cold breeze of air coming from the door, hoping it hides some of my desire-filled scent as I walk to the guards, who surround me and guide me through the castle. We go past the ballroom and down two large staircases to a stone corridor with three archways, decorated with three-headed wolves, each head hanging over an archway, looking like the wolf is going to snap its jaws closed on anyone who walks through.

The sharp stone teeth nearly touch my shoulder as I follow two guards through the middle archway and down a small, dimly lit passageway to a large domed room. The dome is made of sandstone, smooth all the way up to the top, where a chandelier of blue fire hangs on its own, held by magic. A buzz of something flickers through me, giving me goose bumps as I walk across the gold, silver and faded white mosaic tiles to where Alpha Reine, Adira and Tualla are waiting in the centre of the room. By Alpha Reine’s feet is a gap, with descending wood stairs that go into pitch darkness below.

I incline my head, and Alpha Reine does the same, as does Tualla and a reluctant Adira. I take a quick note of their weapons: swords and a bow with arrows for Tualla, and Adira is similar to me, just daggers, but she has a leather whip wrapped around her arm.

Morganis isn’t glowing, thankfully, but I see Alpha Reine look at the dagger for a second too long before looking up at me, something unspoken crossing her eyes.

“Welcome to the Forest Rite, the final part of this test,” Alpha Reine states. “There is one entrance to the forest below and one exit.”

She looks at each of us. “I am aware you have heard the laws of the Forest Rite before, but I want to repeat them. The six instructions for the Forest Rite are as follows:

Once you enter, you can’t shift.

You can’t leave unless you win, not even in death.

Don’t look into the shadows.

If a path appears, take it at your own risk.

This is the forest of the gods. Pray to them for help.

Only one wolf leaves.”

The last sentence echoes in my mind as I look at Tualla, finding her looking at me as well. I don’t want to kill her, but I will if I have to. “The Forest Rite will go on as long as needed—days or even a month is not unheard of. When the test is over, if the gods allow, your life might be spared. One of you will be given the markings of alpha female and bonded to the pack, within this forest as I was, as every alpha female before me. The alphas will know and accept the bond the second it is made.”

“Then we can mate in the traditional sense to complete the bond?” Adira asks, her voice like a purr, filled with desire.

A growl vibrates through me, and Adira smirks at me.

“Yes,” Alpha Reine replies, somewhat awkwardly, and clears her throat. “I wish you each nothing but luck. I will be praying to the gods for your returns.”

“We endure the fall and rise in the ashes of our pack,” I say. All of them turn to me, and Alpha Reine smiles before bowing her head, repeating my words. Adira and Tualla repeat them too, and I’m glad they do.

Those are the words of our pack, and they should be said in honour at this moment that will change things. Tualla bows to Alpha Reine before climbing down the steps, followed by Adira. I wrap my hand around my dagger as I walk to the top of the steps, feeling the ancient and dark magic in the forest below.

Alpha Reine wraps a hand around my upper arm, and I pause. “Where did you get that?”

“The castle gave it to me,” I say for a shortened version.

“It’s like the sword your mother had,” she quietly whispers back. “They are alive, tainted and dangerous.”

Her warning rings in my mind. “I will be careful with it.”

“You don’t understand,” she whispers. “Even with your memories back, Mai, you didn’t see the effect that weapon had on your mother. Baia told me your father gave her the sword and told her to keep it safe, and she showed me it. Over time, she told me it spoke to her, told her stories of gods never heard of in this world. She became obsessed with it, and I asked her to leave it alone, but she would not. I don’t know who your father is, or why he left, and why he gave her it, but I do know those legendary weapons are extremely dangerous.”

I look down at Morganis. “It doesn’t talk to me. Maybe because of who I am, it doesn’t affect me. My mama’s sword never did.”

She looks into my eyes. “Maybe it’s just waiting for you to be weaker. We will talk more soon, that I am sure, but please be cautious of that.”

“I will,” I softly say. “Aunt Reine, maybe you can make me a cherry pie when this is over?”

Her eyes fill with tears, and she gives me a tiny nod. “I’d like that very much, Mai.”

It’s the first time she has called me Mai—since I came here, that is. We have changed a lot, but some things haven’t.

I refuse to ask her to tell them I love them or give them a message from me in case I don’t make it out of this. I can only think that I will make it out of this and win this test. Win the rite. I steady myself, gripping my dagger tightly as I walk down the stairs that twist and turn in pitch darkness, threatening to trip me with every step. A soft yellow light fills the bottom of the staircase as I turn around the corner, and I walk to it, surprised to see a clearing in the middle of a forest of different trees. Some are white oak, others pine and dragon trees. Between them are fruit bushes and the soft noise of a creek, the damp scent drifting through the pine scent. Grass brushes my feet, and I look up to see the light is coming from hundreds of thousands of fireflies that line the ceiling of the cavern, looking like a moving ceiling of lights. It’s really beautiful, but the heavy feeling that settles in my gut shakes me to my core.

There is something here, something dark and ancient and powerful. I can feel it in my bones. I slip my dagger out, keeping my eyes around for Adira and Tualla, and anything else that might sneak around in this forest. I scent that Adira and Tualla went to the left on the marked path, and footprints confirm this after one look. I decide to go in the opposite direction, away from the marked path, remembering the warning in the rules about paths appearing in this forest. On this path, there is no sound, no falling leaves or brush of the wind in this place as the trees surround me in their cold shade. I walk quietly through the forest that scents like no other forest, listening for anything unusual to be found in the creeping darkness. Sometimes fireflies flicker in the shadows that I know I shouldn’t look into because of the rules, like glittering stars, and I watch them like I can see the stars above me as I go deeper in the forest. The shadows are different here, and they almost pull me to them like a safety net, even when my mind knows there is nothing safe there. A cry trickles to my ears from my left, and I twirl, hearing the cry one more time.

Tualla.

I shouldn’t go after her, I know it, but I run through the bushes towards her cries and try to keep my footsteps silent like Silas taught me. Tualla screams this time, a scream of desperation and pain.

Real. Raw. Heartbreaking. I grab a tree as I come to a pause. Near the path is Tualla with her swords stuck into her stomach. An arrow in her leg. Her blood pours from the wounds, and I flinch as another arrow cuts into her leg from somewhere up high.

It’s a trap.

Think, Mai. Think.

A really bad idea comes to me, and I slide my dagger back in before calling for my power. I step out from behind the tree, looking for Adira. Only she would use Tualla as a trap. I spot her in a white ash tree above me just before she shoots an arrow at me. I throw a sphere of shifter energy at the arrow, burning it into nothing, and the sphere goes past, slamming into Adira. She screams as she is thrown from the branch, and I don’t pause, running to Tualla.

Her eyes stare up at me as I lean over her, and she shakes her head. “G-go. It’s a tr-rap.”

“I know,” I tell her, pushing on the wound around the sword. “Don’t worry.”

Tualla stares at me, and slowly her eyes turn light blue, glowing with a familiar magic.

I don’t see Tualla’s dagger in her hand, but I feel it as she slides it through my chest in one smooth fell. She was being controlled by Adira, seduced by that power of hers. It’s the same light blue I saw in the eyes of the Levi.

I gasp, falling backwards, the pain paralyzing all my thoughts as I gasp for air, tasting my blood in my mouth. I can’t breathe, I can’t think straight, but some clarity shocks me aware as I open my eyes to see Adira leaning over me, brushing a bit of my hair from my forehead.

“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” she says softly. “I knew you would run to save Tualla with that pure heart of yours. Pure but stupid. I also knew you’d use your powers to deflect an arrow. You’re too predictable, Mai.”

She strokes her hand across my chest, covering her hand in my blood. “Ragnar, as he was inside me last night, made me promise not to kill you today. I lied. Even when he is fucking me, he is thinking of you.”

Truth. I see it in her eyes, feel it in her voice. She isn’t lying to me.

“Wh—at?” I gasp, my heart shattering. Ragnar slept with her? How could he do that to me? To us?

She sighs. “But you’re going to die soon, and I will finally get all of them. Not just Ragnar. Though, he is amazing in bed, between me and you.”

“Fuck you,” I growl, crying out with every letter that leaves my mouth. The pain hurts so much, but it’s still nothing to the way my heart is hurting.

He is a liar.

“Shh,” she coos. “It will be over soon, Mai. You can be with your mama. Do you remember yet?”

“N—o,” I gasp.

She smiles. “I thought so. You’d have killed me before this, and it would have been your right, considering I killed your mama. To get to you, to give you to the angel king and save everyone in our pack. I didn’t agree with them, that they should protect you, and I wanted to give you to the angel king. I ran to her, and she hugged me, like I was a scared girl, offering to keep me safe. At that moment, I enchanted her and forced her to use the glowing sword to stab herself. I stayed with her as she died, like I am with you. You saw me do it and ran.”

The memories are like an echo as she talks, and I see it. Young Adira, glowing light blue, my mama’s sword going through her stomach, the shock in her eyes. Mama told me to stay in the attic, and I didn’t. Couldn’t. I ran into the forest, and Niall found me, hid me, before going back for mama after I begged him.

Adira killed my mama.

“Bitch!” I scream, a flash of green magic blasting off my body and slamming into her. She flies back through the air, slamming into a tree. Dark spots attack my vision, but I see her standing, blood pooling on her cheek, and she darkly smiles as she walks to me. She grabs a dagger from her thigh and cups my chin. Using all the strength I have, I look into her dead, unfeeling eyes. Pure evil, that’s all that lies within her heart. “I’m going to kill you. I will find a way.”

“You don’t deserve to be pretty in death,” she breathes as she places the tip of the dagger on my cheek, near my eye. A scream rattles from me as she cuts down my cheek to my chin and leans back, a cruel smile on her face as my hot blood mixes with my tears. “I will look after them, Mai. Have fun in hell, because we both know that is where you’re heading.”

Everything is too fuzzy and my body too weak to even move as she walks away, leaving me alone with Tualla.

Too injured to move, to save myself. I turn my head to the side, blood dropping from my cheek onto the dirt path as I meet Tualla’s eyes. She is so pale, her eyes fading of colour, and I feel helpless to save her. I reach my hand across the dirt, and she grabs it with her own hand, with what little strength she has left.

She looks away from me, up at the trees above us, like they are alive and can hear her breathless plea. “Take my life, but save hers. If there are any gods in this forest, any magic left in this world, take what is left of my life and save Mairin Fall, the goddess Persephone. I beg of you. She will save this world.”

But there are no gods left to hear her begging, her pleas. It’s all silent, empty as Tualla looks at me once more. She tried to save me. My enemy in the rite tried to save me in the end.

“We will d-die together,” I breathe out, the words barely understandable, but Tualla knows what I mean. I see it in her eyes, even when dark spots dance around and I don’t feel the pain wrecking my body anymore. I’ve gone past pain, and I know I don’t have long left in this world. I wish I could tell my alphas… I wish I could see them. Love them. Have a life with them. Not Ragnar, not after what he did with Adira.

I try not to think about it as a light humming fills my ears, and it reminds me of my mama’s singing on a hot summer night, lulling me to sleep, the birds in the forest outside tweeting along with her song.

I had a beautiful life for a time, and I want so much more of it. So much more, but instead, I only get darkness.

An endless, silent darkness.

Chapter

Nineteen

“W hat are you thinking?” a male voice roars, the sound bouncing off the walls and echoing in my ears. The pain, the fear, the desperation are hard to miss as I open my eyes and watch in pure horror. Persephone, covered head to toe in the blood of hundreds of humans at her feet, stands still as Hades tries to reach her. Green shifter energy battles against the red darkness coming off Hades. They are fighting, their power mimicking each other, and yet I feel like Hades is holding back. He stands so still, his cloak blown down to reveal his midnight black hair and golden skin, sharp jawline and chin. He is handsome, as I would think the god of death would be, but it’s more than that. He reminds me of them, my alphas. I look at Persephone, and maybe I look like her too. She is wearing a green dress, silk wrapped tightly around her and tied at the waist with a silver belt. Her hair is tightly curled and held up in parts that are slowly coming loose with the power coursing through this room.

Red and green. Darkness and light.

“Please. Stop. You can come back from this, my dearest love.”

Persephone only stares and lifts her hand, a crown clutched tightly in her grasp. The crown is alive, glowing white and green, a crown made of silver and gold and metal I’ve never seen that looks alive. I can feel the crown, even just looking at it.

It’s the crown she wants me to find. The one I made a deal for, having no clue what power she was looking for through me. The obsessive look she gives the crown, like it’s her lover and soulmate instead of Hades, makes me shiver.

“I have been weak my entire life. Weaker than my mother…than you. I couldn’t save anyone from the war the other gods brought to us,” she breathes out. “When they attacked me, killing our unborn child, I could do nothing. I was not powerful enough, but this…this is power.”

“Persephone.” Hades’s voice makes my heart hurt. His pain is enough to make even a coldhearted monster feel something.

“NO!” she shouts at him, her power escalating into a dangerous wave as she lifts the crown and places it on her head. It fits perfectly, like it was always meant to be hers. “I choose power, every single time, because loving you, god of death, brought me nothing but pain. Power will not.”

Green shifter energy destroys the room, and I cover my eyes, the light blinding, feeling the heat of the power flickering across my skin. A hand covers my hand, burning where it touches, and I gasp, lowering my arm to see Persephone floating in front of me.

“You will not die when you do not have my crown yet. Find it before I truly become angry.”

She shoves a hand into my chest, and I scream as pain like nothing I’ve ever felt seems to pull my soul from the very depths of hell.

I wake up with a gasp, a sharp, aching feeling in my chest, and everything is so dark, only scratches of light in front of me. My hand goes to where I was stabbed, only to find ripped leather and smooth skin.

The dream…it was real? Persephone saw me, saved me, threatened me for the crown. All this time, I’ve assumed Persephone was good and pure and wanted peace. But I don’t think any of that is true. I think I’ve made a big mistake trusting the goddess I’m bound to. I reach up, my fingers brushing against roots. It takes me a while to pull the roots apart, light beaming in, and I climb out of the thorn cocoon that was covering me. Next to the cocoon is Tualla’s body, a light covering of tiny yellow flowers all over her body from her neck down. The forest, or whatever rests in it, did this for her. I doubt Persephone would have saved me when I haven’t got her crown yet, and I think I would have known if she did. We are so close, and this magic scents so different, older, deeply woven into the world. Perhaps Tualla’s plea didn’t fall on deaf ears. Tears wet my eyes as I go to Tualla and lean down, softly closing her eyes.

“We endure the fall and rise in the ashes, my friend. Rest with the gods, Tualla Fall.”

My words feel empty of meaning as I rise, looking at the forest ahead. Gods know how many hours or even days I’ve been sleeping in that cocoon; my stomach rumbling suggests it’s been a while. I doubt Adira has found the middle of the forest and become alpha female yet. They would be down here, searching the forest for our bodies if she had done. No, there is still time. Through a wave of dizziness, I head to the stream and drink some water before finding a berry bush. From scent alone, I test the unusual berries until I find one that I know and trust not to be deadly. I eat a few handfuls of berries for much needed strength and drink some more water before heading off through the woods. I don’t find any sign of a path for a long time, and the forest is eerily silent as I walk for what seems like hours until my legs burn and tiredness threatens to force me to sleep for a while. I find a clearing and pause, shock making me still like frozen ice as Tualla stands before me.

Not Tualla exactly. She doesn’t scent like her, but she looks the same except for the eyes and the white dress she is now wearing. Her eyes are pale, lifeless, and her skin lacks any sort of glow. Tualla is dead, that much I’m sure, but somehow she is here. Gods’ magic.

“They gave me five minutes to speak with you,” she says, her voice like a whisper between worlds. It makes me shiver with how wrong it is to have her speaking to me and how it’s even possible.

“Who did?” I eventually ask, the words hard to speak.

“They, the Wolven gods, the ones who have watched over the seven for many, many years,” she breathes out. The Wolven gods, the ones my mama prayed to and believed were real? “They, of infinite power.”

I pale slightly, taking a step closer. “The Wolven gods are real? What is the seven? The seven children born connected to the gods?”

“The seven is…” She pauses like someone pulling a string on her is tugging. “That is not my place to tell you. I am here to give warning.”

I know better than to push on what the seven are. The Wolven gods don’t want me to know, but I will find out another way, another time. “What warning?”

“Ragnar Fall is not who he says he is,” she says. Everything in me is suspended, like a glass about to be dropped from a height. “He is a pretender, a king in disguise, and many pretend around you. You must trust little and few to win this game. He intends to destroy you and your pack. You will never wear the crown if he is at your side.”

Ragnar didn’t betray me…he isn’t Ragnar. How long has this been going on? How did I not see it? I think back to every moment with Ragnar, and I realise he has been strange since we got off the train.

“Where is my Ragnar then?” I demand.

“In the prisons…his mind slowly lost, but they say he still calls for you,” she replies. A sob escapes my lips, horror filling my chest. Ragnar is in that place, a place for monsters to feed on him. Erin…her father…what she said of that place hits me hard. I have to get him out as soon as possible, and I have to know who is pretending to be my Ragnar. How did I not see it?

“His name is Cenwyn, and he is the king of the angels,” Tualla states, telling me the name of my enemy I didn’t want to know or speak. He has been here the entire time, kissing me, giving me gifts. Sickness rises in my throat at the memories. Cenwyn? The male I met in Ravensword…he is the angel king, and he has been here the entire time. I can’t remember much of him yet. Those memories feel locked deeper than others, but I know enough.

Sickness now fills my throat as I look at Tualla. “Thank you for the warning. I will—”

“Do what must be done to save millions. To save this city as its alpha female and queen,” she firmly states. “I died for you, Mairin Fall, do not let me down. You are as strong as you make yourself.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” I admit.

She smiles, the first time I’ve really seen her smile. “But you will save them. The weak, the ones unable to fight, and the world will finally be able to breathe. Be brave and tell my family I love them.”

I barely get to promise her before she disappears in a burst of white light, leaving nothing where she once stood. I step further into the clearing when I hear grass crunch under the feet of something, and I pull out Morganis. Slowly a huge white wolf walks into a clearing, its fur the colour of snow, its eyes white and clear like diamonds. Strange markings cover the wolf, glowing silver and white, and snow is left in every place the wolf steps. I freeze, the power of this wolf flowing through to me as it walks and stops a breath away.

Then it rears its beautiful head back and howls.

I feel the howl in every inch of my body, like a wave, and I nearly cry out from the cold magic that washes over me, smoothing over my skin. I feel the cut of my cheek close and heal; I feel something drawing itself onto my forehead and down my chest and back.

Markings.

When I open my eyes, the wolf is looking right at me. It’s a god, bound to this forest, and he has chosen me. I see my reflection in his eyes. On my forehead, dead in the middle, is a crescent moon and black swirls drifting down around my eyebrows. The same markings peek out of the leather on my chest, and tears fall down my cheeks as I slowly bow my head. The wolf bows with me, both of us moving like mirrors for a small moment. I lift my head as he does, and before he walks away from me, I’m already making a plan on how to save my alphas, my city, my pack.

I’m their alpha female, their queen, and I won’t let them fall.

Chapter

Twenty

T he castle is dead silent as I walk in, and within seconds, the red pools of blood surrounding the guards’ bodies at my feet tell me why. Escaping the forest was easier than I thought it would be; the stairs just appeared when I decided I wanted to leave. The courtyard was silent, too silent, but no one appeared as I tied up my horse. This is the plan, the one I need to stick to. Something is terribly wrong, and I can’t scent my alphas anywhere. My leather clothes are ripped and torn, sticky with my blood still, but I push the escaped strands of my hair from my eyes. I don’t need to check to see if the guards are alive as I walk down the corridors, following the trails of blood and bodies; it is clear.

The castle doesn’t make a sound, and I place my hand on the wall for a second, to breathe, to take strength from the castle even for a moment. The bodies and blood lead to the ballroom, where at least fifty bodies are in piles outside. They fought hard to protect the alphas and alpha heirs, but not hard enough. The ballroom doors are shut, marks on the floor showing me that the blood was spilled first before the doors were shut.

It’s a trap, because I scent my alphas in that room. Their blood is too strong to not scent, and it makes me panic. My heart feels stuck in my chest, unable to beat. If anything happens to them…I couldn’t live with it. Ragnar is already…it’s unthinkable.

Phim and Trey are in the room, too. I can scent their fear. I look at my shaking hands and turn them around. In my palm is the upside-down mountain mark for this pack, for what it stands for. The pack needs me to do this and succeed.

My hands stop shaking.

I keep my head high and pull the doors open, trying not to react to the scene in front of me as I walk through the blood. Valentine, Henderson and Silas are hung on glowing blue chains from the ceiling by their hands, their blood dripping with every second that passes, and they are unconscious. Dozens of deep cuts, scratches and marks cover their bare chests, and they are so pale. Their blood is like a pool underneath them.

It takes everything in me to look away, to not reveal the panic and dread and fear controlling me now. The males I love are tied to the ceiling like animals. Phim is chained with Trey in the room’s corner, awake, but she doesn’t say a word as her eyes meet mine.

I feel what she is saying, her eyes black and blue with bruises, her lip cut, and she is cradling her arm like it’s broken.

Run.

But I can’t. Not from this, from my pack.

On the throne that is not his, is Ragnar Fall…and he isn’t alone. Fox and his brothers stand on one side of the throne, and Erin is on the other.

They betrayed me. Us.

Ragnar, well, Cenwyn, starts to clap loudly as I walk further into the room and pause in the middle. I force myself not to look at my alphas, to try and save them just yet.

This is a game and has to be played out perfectly, or someone will die.

“Lose the pretend face, Cenwyn. It’s been a long time since we truly saw each other.”

He grins at my statement, his eyes playful as he looks to Erin and nods. She places her hand on his arm, and his skin ripples, changing from one body to another, a new and familiar scent pushing away Ragnar’s. Cenwyn is just as I remember him in Ravensword, but there is an air of darkness, of wrongness about him this time, that he isn’t hiding. He runs a hand through his locks of curled brown hair, the ends blond.

Cenwyn’s hazel gold eyes, like gold fire on a wheat field, search my face and lower before smirking as he rests his head on his bent arm.

“Alpha female marks suit you. Far more than it did them.” He waves a hand behind me. I turn slowly, air getting caught in my throat when I see Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren pinned to the wall in their wolf forms. Pinned with swords.

They can’t have made it through that alive, and it feels like another knife is stabbed into my back when I can’t help them.

I turn around, tears filling my eyes. “What do you want, Cenwyn?”

“You,” he says simply, breathing in deep. “Always you, since we were kids. Well, if I’m being honest, I wanted your powers too and the knowledge your goddess has. Now I get all three.”

He smiles and I make sure my smile matches his for a moment. Two can play the game of being a snake. Or a viper.

“I’m never going with you,” I bite out and turn to Erin. “How could you?”

Cenwyn follows my gaze and places his hand on Erin’s arm. “Show her who you really are and not this pretence.”

Erin nods and her skin ripples like it’s alive, changing her pale skin into dark, her blonde hair into black locks that fall to her thicker waist. Her eyes even change, now a burning colour of orange I’ve never seen before. She is younger than I thought.

“I’m like you,” Erin says, her accent thick and unusual. “My name is Erin, and I am the eighth goddess brought into this world. A witch goddess. I killed the girl who worked here and became her to get close to you. You did not disappoint.”

“Oisean kept his secrets locked up,” Cenwyn says, amusement in his tone, and he pats his knee. “Like sweet Erin here. She is more powerful than even you, Mai darling.”

“Don’t,” I snap. “Leave my pack before I make you, Cenwyn.”

I let my power radiate to my hands, glowing bright green, the glow filling the room and reflecting off the glass windows.

Cenwyn stands up off the throne and spreads his arms wide. The ground beneath my feet starts to violently shake, and the walls crack, glass cracks, and Trey cries out my name. Cenwyn’s eyes are glowing like stars as he smiles at me. “Try it and I will bring this castle, this pack, into the earth and into dust. I will force you to watch millions die and still get what I want. There is no way you win this, Mai darling, unless it’s with me.”

The shaking stops as I take back my power, my body shaking. He has done it before to the humans, and he will again. This pack is nothing but an annoyance to him.

“Run, Mai,” I hear Henderson groan. I look up at him, tears filling my eyes. They never would have seen an attack by Ragnar coming. He is their brother.

We have all been played.

“I love you,” I tell him, hoping Valentine and Silas can hear me. My heart feels clouded as I walk to Cenwyn, and he offers me his hand. The hand of the devil himself.

“That’s my darling girl,” he purrs, his fingers clamping on mine, and I feel nothing but disgust. “Now cut your hand and promise on your blood to mate with me. That you will be mine.”

My soul feels empty as I take the dagger and cut my hand. “I promise to mate with you, Cenwyn.”

His eyes shine with pleasure as he leans down and brushes his lips with mine. I feel nothing but disgust and pain, a sharp sting as he bites my bottom lip. “We are going to rule the world together.”

Erin’s eyes meet mine, and I turn to Fox, who smirks as he leans on the throne. “Did you kill Adira?”

“No,” I state.

“Oh good. She was useful to us. If not to just warm our beds at night,” he states, and for a second I feel bad for Adira. But she is still on my list to kill the first second I can. Cenwyn laughs and pulls me closer to him. I push down the urge to be sick all over his clothes.

“Time to go home.”

I can do nothing but hold the new necklace of mine tightly as his wings of metal and sharp daggers appear, and he flies us through the broken window and into the empty, starless night.

Chapter

Twenty-One

RAGNAR FALL

T here is someone new in my room, a male with a cloak the shade of black onyx, and he calls me a name I do not know.

The creature is scared of him, as he lifts a sword of gold and points it at me.

“Kill me,” I beg of the male.

“No, Ragnar Fall. You are coming with me. Maiy needs you.”

Even as the male grabs my collar and my weak bones cannot fight him off, I want to ask one question. “Who is Maiy?”

Epilogue

SILAS FALL

I  slam to the floor in a puddle of my blood and my brothers’, and my brothers fall next. I crawl to my feet, the blood loss and injuries making it extremely painful to stand, but Mai needs me. I woke up with poison in my body, injuries, and my power drained by magic fucking chains from the castle. I never saw it coming, and I’ve failed her. I’ve failed my pack. I will—

“Here,” Breelyn offers me a wicker bottle with something pink inside. Phim and Trey are resting on beds nearby, Phim hitting away the healers tending to her. “To heal you. Trust me. Alpha Reine is healing, but I couldn’t save Alpha Soren.”

I glance to where two unfamiliar females are bowed over Reine, their hands making strange symbols in the air, but her chest is moving.

Next to Breelyn stands a man in shadows, and I know who he is. I sniff the water before drinking it, and instantly I feel my wounds healing from within, my strength growing. I hand the bottle to Valentine, and he nods, his eyes as broken as I feel inside.

Mai has been taken by that bastard Cenwyn. Ragnar is missing and hasn’t been here for a long time.

If he is dead… Fury builds in my chest. Cenwyn is dead, either way. “What are you doing here?”

The trickster smiles like the fox he is. “Mairin herself came to me only hours ago and made a life changing deal. I am to protect your city with my magic and wolves, heal you, and give you this.”

Mai did what?

He holds out a necklace, a silver cross with a diamond in the middle that fits into my palm. I vaguely remember seeing the same necklace on Mai’s neck before Cenwyn took her.

Valentine hands the drink to Henderson. “What is it?”

“A way of contacting Mairin while she builds alliances with the angels, figures out Cenwyn’s weaknesses, and finds someone she is looking for. This is her plan, because she knew there was no way out of this without her going with King Cenwyn,” he grins. “Because I was feeling generous and bossy Breelyn was glaring at me, I decided to give her some advice. That to make a blood bond, it had to be purely your blood given, and if she had a certain amount of someone else’s blood in her system, it wouldn’t work.”

“So she took mine with the healers we have,” Breelyn states with a sly grin. “Cenwyn just let his enemy into his world, and she is going to get us the alliances we need to go to war.”

“She has a month,” he states. “One month, and I will make sure no one can enter or leave the pack lands. It won’t stop the angel army building outside, but they won’t get in.”

“What did you take from her in exchange for this deal?” Henderson bites out with a growl.

“Her secret,” he replies with a knowing grin. “She doesn’t even know what she gave up yet, but her journey with the angels will tell her.”

“It’s insane,” I growl. “He will—”

“Not know,” he replies. “And Callahan has been sent to the Fenrir Court, ready and waiting to make an escape with Mairin. We planned everything I have seen in my future, and your only job, alphas, is to have an army trained and ready for your alpha female’s return.”

Breelyn looks up at the mention of Callahan’s name, and something flickers in her eyes. Worry, perhaps.

I look at my brothers, but the sly fox adds, “Oh, and two more things. Ragnar Fall is held in the prisons. You might want to get him out before he loses even more of his mind. And Mai asked me to send something her way. I will need your help.”

Hearing that my brother is in the prisons and that my intended mate is a spy getting alliances and has made a deal she can never take back… My knees give in.

But my brothers catch me and stand me up, whispering the same words in my ear. “No matter where we run, we will find each other again.”

This time, the words aren’t enough.

READ the next book by clicking here…

Hello my lovely readers and thank you for reading Her Royal Wolf. Wolf shifters have always been an obsession of mine, starting with my nan reading me Little Red Riding Hood as a child and I hope I’ve poured my love for this fantasy world into my books.

I have learnt with every book I write and I always say each new book is my favourite but I have loved writing Her Royal Wolf.

Thank you to everyone who helped, edited, poured me coffee or inspired this book in my mind.

The next book in the series, Her Salvation, is on pre-order already. You can click here for the link.

Thank you so much for reading my story!! Lots of love, G. xoxo

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Volume One

Chapter

One

WINTER

W hy did I take this class?

“Everyone, please start by reading page thirty-two in your textbooks,” the professor goes on, as my class starts after he walks in. The professor looks as ancient as the old room we are all sat in, with his brown hair and beard, and very dated clothes that look like he hasn’t washed them in a while. I push my own out-of-control, wavy brown hair over my shoulder, wishing I had tied it up this morning. It’s a hot day, and the room is stuffy because of the lack of opened windows, making my hair stick the back of my head. I glance over at my best friend, Alex, who has her head on her desk, lightly snoring. I chuckle before kicking her leg and waking her up. She moves her waist-length, straight, red hair off her face to glare at me.

“I was resting, Win,” she mutters, hiding her eyes with her arm and huffing at me.

“The professor is here,” I giggle, trying to whisper to her as she nearly falls off the side of the desk, while still half asleep.

“Oh, what page?” She yawns, looking like she is going to drop back off to sleep already. I sigh, remembering how she actually has a boyfriend to keep her up all night. I, on the other hand, can’t find a good one. The last time I had a boyfriend was over a year ago, and I found out he had a bad habit of sleeping around at parties.  The unfortunate way I found this out was when I walked into his bedroom at his party, to find him in bed with two other girls. Let’s just say he has put me off men for life, or at least for a while.

“Thirty-two,” I reply, rolling my eyes at her grin.

“I might nap instead, I had a long night,” she says with a wink.

“Don’t rub it in,” I groan.

“Well, you’re coming to Drake’s party this weekend, and no, you don’t have a choice. I bought you a dress, and I found you a date.”

I don’t know which one was worse about that sentence. The fact she has bought me a dress, which I know will be way too slutty for my style, or the unlucky guy she has found for me. I decide to go with the second problem first.

“A date? You know I don’t date,” I hiss, while she continues to grin.

“Hey, you can’t judge every man because of one. This guy is nice, a friend of Drake’s.” She makes that annoying face she knows I haven’t ever been able to say no to since we were eight. I will never forget when I first met Alex. My mum had taken me to get an ice cream from the local ice cream van. Alex had just gotten hers in front of me, and I decided to get the same because her ice cream looked good. When the truck left, Alex tripped and dropped hers. My mum and I rushed over as she cried her eyes out over her ice cream. I offered to share mine and then, when I saw her at school the next day, we were inseparable.

“Fine, but if this doesn’t go well I’m blaming you,” I laugh.

“Winter Masters, is there something wrong?” My professor asks, causing the whole class to look at me. I can hear Alex’s quiet snort as I answer.

“No, sir. We were just discussing the work,” I answer with red cheeks. The professor raises his bushy eyebrows at me. I know he doesn’t believe me. Damn, I wouldn’t believe me, either.

I’m a terrible liar.

“Well, discuss it more quietly next time, I’m sure the whole class doesn’t want to know about your dating life,” he replies. I hold in the urge to hide under the table at his blunt reply. A guy about my age puts his hand up at the front, drawing the whole room’s attention to him. The boy has messy, brown hair that’s covered up with a backwards cap. He is quite muscular under his top and shorts from what I can see. I’ve heard a few comments about how attractive he is, which he definitely is, but I can’t remember his name.

“I would like to know, sir,” he says loudly before winking at me over his shoulder. I know I’m redder than a tomato now, and one glance at Alex shows how funny she thinks this is. I’m leaving her to sleep through the class next time.

“That’s enough, Harris. All of you get back to work. I am running tests on this next week.” He picks up a large pile of papers, most likely the tests he made us do last week, and hasn’t bothered to mark yet. I watch as he goes to his desk and pulls out his phone. I’m sure he is playing some game by the way he is typing, but he definitely isn’t marking the tests.

“Also, while I remember, you need to find work experience in the next week or you’ll be helping me sort out the university lost and found…for four weeks.” I swear the old professor even smirked but I didn’t see him do it. I bet they would be getting him more coffees than they would be doing anything else.

“Have you heard back from the local vets yet?” Alex asks, opening her book as everyone else starts reading quietly.

“Yes, they called yesterday, and I’m all sorted.” I grin, remembering jumping up and down in happiness after the call. I had applied months ago, and no one from our course was accepted, but I held out hope as I hadn’t been rejected. My back-up was to work at a local farm, with half our class. Studying to become a vet is hard work, and there isn’t much work experience available.  This is an English class, and we have to pass it to stay at the university. That’s why Alex, who is a music student, is taking this class with me.

“That’s great,” she smiles widely, making a few guys next to us turn to look at her. Alex is that very pretty girl you always wanted to be. She is tall with boobs and hips that are perfect no matter what she eats. I look at a McDonald’s meal, and my ass gets bigger. I’ve been told I’m pretty, but I like my food too much. So I have curves, unlike my skinny-ass best friend. My best qualities are my shiny, brown hair and blue eyes, which I have to admit, suit my golden complexion. We don’t say any more and get on with our work. At the end of class, I hand in my permission forms for the work experience, before finding Alex with her boyfriend, Drake, outside class.

“Hey, do you still need a lift?” I ask when I get close to them.

“Nope, thanks, honey. I’m going to Drake’s, but I will see you tomorrow to get ready for the party.” She winks, leaning against Drake. Drake is a good-looking guy, but is kind of strange-looking, and I can’t put my finger on why. Honestly, he looks like a typical, scary-ass man all the time. I don’t think he has a non-serious expression. He has dark, nearly black eyes and black hair that’s cut in a buzz cut, but he makes it work. It’s the eyes that give him the strangeness, they are too dark, darker than I have ever seen anyone’s. I always thought that he must spend a lot of time in a gym or something because he is all muscles, wearing expensive clothes. Alex has told me he is well off, but I knew that anyway from the car he drives and the designer clothes he wears. It’s not just the looks and money, it’s more how much older he acts, when he must be around twenty, like us. Alex doesn’t answer many questions about him, but they have dated a while, so I’m guessing she really likes him.

“My friend is looking forward to your date,” Drake says coldly in a slight Russian accent. Alex says he is not actually from there, but his parents were, apparently.

“Me, too,” I lie and frown at Alex’s chuckle.

“I love you, Win, never change,” she says to me, as she gives me a hug before we wave goodbye. Drake doesn’t say anything else but that’s normal.

I click my old, red Rover open before sliding in. My mum bought it for me as a going away present, and I love the old car, though maybe not the unusual stain on the driver seat I can’t seem to get rid of; I think it’s red pen. Well, I’m hoping it is anyway. We never had a lot of money growing up as it was just me and mum. As I drive home, I try to think about ways to get out of this date, but eventually come to the conclusion that it couldn’t go that badly. Right?

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Other Books by G. Bailey

Copyright

Map

Description

Quote

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

Author’s Note:

Bonus Read

Volume 1

Chapter 1