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CHAPTER ONE
LUCA
Running, night and day.
I’d been running on four legs for long enough that I’d forgotten how I’d ever managed it on two.
The ice wolf pack had covered so much ground that I wasn’t sure if we’d been gone from the palace for two nights or maybe three. It was all a blur of following Vento’s commands alongside the other wolves, deeper and higher into the Sans Cesse Mountains. They were definitely living up to their name - endless.
My muscles ached, although it was nothing compared to my heart.
But finally, Vento circled us around a dense growth of pines, sheltered from the snow and as warm as it would get up here. Some of the wolves spread out to hunt for us, and several more shifted to their two-legged forms to cut branches and build shelter. We needed rest, desperately.
None of the pack seemed to care about each other’s nakedness, although I felt my cheeks heat any time the others’ eyes skimmed over my bare skin. I turned to Vento instead, intent on finally getting some information from him.
“I have questions,” I said, and he chuckled, stretching his arms above his head and raking his hands through his beard.
“I’m sure you do. Just remember that you’re here on my invitation, and it was to save your ass from doing something you’d regret, and getting killed for it.”
I ground my teeth, hating both reasons. I went where I wanted - when I wanted. I was an alpha in my own right, leaderof my little pack in the city slums of Saori Sang. But he was right. If I’d stayed at the palace with the other Trial contestants, the activation of Merden’s blood contract would have forced me to try and kill Kana, over and over again.
And the woman I loved would have only had two options: lock me away or kill me first.
I never should have taken that fucking contract, and I hated owing Vento any part in protecting Kana from my stupidity. It hurt my pride that I hadn’t had the strength or the foresight to reject Merden’s offer.
“Tell me how you’re claiming alpha,” I growled instead, unable to broach the subject of thanks. I wasn’t fucking grateful, and I didn’t think I could pretend.
“Your grandfather refused to back down on isolation. Refused to help the vampires, even when we had solid evidence that the gobbelins had returned,” Vento said simply. Too simply.
“I barely knew him,” I muttered, thinking of the harsh old wolf who had greeted me in the mountains during the first Trial. He’d forced me to shift for the first time, opening a world I’d never known I was part of.
Then he’d fucking shoved me out the door, banishing me from the pack for something I’d had no part in, and leaving me to die, stuck in my wolf form and delirious from pain.
Vento sighed, his watchful eyes still on the pack as they went about their tasks without instruction - they trusted him, even if I didn’t yet. “Your grandfather was hard in ways that no longer matter to the ice wolves. His generation... their purposes and hangups... no longer serve the world as it is today.”
“So you killed him?” I asked dryly, raising my brows at Vento.
He chuckled again, turning hard eyes on me. “I challenged him. Not all challenges end in death, pup. Your grandfather still lives, licking his wounds in the mountains. But if he had refusedmy victory, I would have torn out his throat,” the new alpha warned, his voice dropping to a growl of warning.
“I have no plans to challenge you,” I snapped back, feeling the second warning flowing beneath his words, like an underground river rushing in the darkness.
“You have a different pack now, and a claim on a mate,” Vento added like he needed to explain my statement. He glanced across the horizon where the palace would be, if we weren’t quite too far away to see it. Any view would have been blocked by the icy mountain peaks and dense fog, anyway.
I nodded, feeling my heart beat a staccato rhythm, torn betweenprotect Kanaandkill Kana.
What good was I to her? I was meant to be a weapon to protect her. Instead I was a double-edged sword.
“I have to break this contract,” I murmured, to nobody in particular. Vento growled a low noise of agreement, and I respected him all the more when he didn’t throw the contract back in my face. It had been a rash, stupid decision, born of insecurity and childish hurt. Merden had twisted it from me all too easily, though, and I knew I’d spend a lifetime making that moment up to Kana, as long as she’d let me near her.
Vento pointed to a bed of pine branches someone had made behind us. “Get some sleep, pup. We should reach our first checkpoint tomorrow if we leave at dawn, and there will be food when you wake,” Vento said, shifting back to his tawny wolf body. I allowed myself to do the same, the black and gold fur bringing the extra warmth I needed.
Soon, I felt the welcome pull of his alpha magic tugging my eyes into heavy sleep, and I circled the pine branches, matting them down into a comfortable nest. It was an odd sort of relief to have an alpha looking out for everyone and a pack taking care of each other.
My parents had been caring when they’d had the time, but serving in the palace didn’t leave many spare moments for family life. But pack life? I wanted this - wanted to make my own version of this with Kana and the other men who orbited her like planets. She was our alpha, and we were all drawn to her, helpless but loving every second of it.
My thoughts drifted into nonsense dreams, and long before I was ready to wake, Vento’s howl was rousing everyone.
I shook off the chill of the snow, grateful for the heavy wolf pelt that had kept away the worst of it during the night hours. As promised, there was fresh meat piled next to my nest, and I gulped it down as the others woke and did the same.
