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Outside the sky is dark, the moon is bright, and the air is thick.
This may be Alaska, but at this exact moment, it feels otherworldly. The wolves we heard from inside the house are nowhere to be seen. The clearing around the house is empty, except for a few cars in the gravel driveway. I had wondered if I was going to walk into a den of wolves when I stepped from the house. This, though, is almost worse. Knowing they are out there, hiding. Stalking.
Stalking me.
But I’ve never backed down from a fight in my life and I certainly won’t now.
I need answers.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I taunt.
I see a pair of beady eyes in the tree line, and the animal watches me as I walk closer, unafraid.
Malik.
His body was so fierce when I saw him shift in the meeting hall and it’s no different now. He watches, waiting to strike.
Maybe it’s cocky, to walk with such abandon but I also know the strength in my hands. The power coursing through my veins.
It’s time I learned what I am.
Who I am.
The ring on my finger burns the closer I walk toward the wolf in the trees. And as I near him, I watch him shift. It’s a miracle, the transformation. One moment he’s a beast, the next he’s a man. Still powerful, his body no less intimidating. But now, instead of standing on four legs, he is on two, towering above me.
“Do you know who I am?” he asks walking closer until we are face-to-face.
“Malik.”
“What else?” he asks, his lips in a snarl.
“A… wolf?”
“You know more than you let on.”
“How do you know that?” I ask, crossing my arms, defiant.
“I listened.”
“To what?”
He pushes back his shoulders, growing inches as he does. “Your conversation, in the house. Appears that you have found a sister.”
“You could hear us?” I look over my shoulder, scared of what they might be saying now. What this man might hear.
“While you were with them, yes,” he says, tilting his head, half apologetically. “I’m a beast, as you well know. And my senses are heightened. Especially when it comes to you.”
I take a shaky breath, determined to remain strong and steady when it comes to this conversation. “Why me?”
“Why you?” He clucks his tongue, spreading a hand across the clearing. “Haven’t you figured it out by now, child?”
I clench my jaw, feeling like I am still missing something.
Malik lifts one eyebrow. “At the pack meeting I confirmed what I had guessed. It was difficult to see you for what you are when we first met because you have strong protections around you. Gaia must have gotten to you a few times already.”
My heart clenches, thinking about Gaia. She really was coming after me in the woods to try and keep me from harm. I so completely misunderstood her.
“Just tell me what I should know already,” I say, feeling defeated. “I hate games. I just need to understand.”
“Or what?” He smiles as if knowing he is two steps ahead of me. “Or you’ll huff, and you’ll puff, and you’ll blow that house down?” He points to the cottage with the stone fireplace and the handmade quilts and my men and the promise of a family. My sister.
I shake my head, anger rising in me at the mention of doing harm to the cottage. “Everyone I love is in that house, and you know it.”
“Then maybe it will be me doing the huffing and the puffing.”
I lift a hand instinctively, but he catches my wrist, clamping down hard before I can strike. “Don’t, Daughter. Don’t ruin what you don’t understand.”
He twists my arm, then lets go. He takes my other hand, forming a fist with it, then he does the same with his own. “A perfect pair,” he says. My eyes go to his ring, our rings. They are of the same metal, ancient, and perfectly forged for us.
“What does that mean?” I ask, not wanting to beg, but so desperately wanting to know.
“It means you are mine.”
I shake my head, now it’s my turn to sneer. “No. I’ve already been claimed.”
“Right,” he says circling me. “By your little wolf-boys.”
“They aren’t boys,” I say, turning to face him. Not wanting him from my sight.
“The father of your child?” He looks down at my belly.
I press a hand to my stomach. “Yes. How did you…?”
“I know because I am your father. I am Ares, the God of War and the bringer of destruction.”
My bones chill, my blood runs cold. My entire life I’ve pushed aside my questions about who my parents are. Now that I’m here, facing this man who says he’s my father, curiosity claws at me. Could I really be his?
And if I am, why did he leave me so long ago?
Why wasn’t I the daughter he wanted?
