CHAPTER ONE
The first thing Rhydian Vael smelled was blood.
Not the metallic scent of a fresh wound.
This was thicker.
Older.
It clung to the air like something that had soaked into the walls and refused to leave.
Rhydian stopped outside the council chamber.
He was twelve years old.
Old enough to understand that grown men did not scream unless something was terribly wrong.
And someone was screaming inside.
“Father!”
Rhydian shoved the doors open.
The world stopped.
His father was on his knees.
Blood covered the front of Aldric Vael’s black tunic, dripping from his mouth, running down his fingers as he pressed one hand against the wound beneath his ribs.
His Alpha.
His father.
The strongest man Rhydian had ever known.
Was dying.
But that wasn’t what froze him.
It was the man standing over him.
Evander Veyra.
Rhydian knew him.
Everyone did.
Evander was the Alpha of the Veyra bloodline and one of his father’s closest allies.
Or at least
That was what Rhydian had always believed.
Now Evander stood only a few feet away from Aldric.
And in his hand was a blade.
Rhydian’s eyes dropped to it.
The weapon was unlike anything he had ever seen.
Its blade was black.
Not dark silver.
Not steel.
Black.
Thin veins of silver ran through it like cracks in moonlight, glowing faintly beneath the surface.
Blood slid down its edge.
Rhydian’s stomach twisted.
“No.”
The word barely left his mouth.
His gaze snapped back to his father.
Aldric lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
For one terrible second, Rhydian saw something in his father’s expression.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Something worse.
A warning.
His father’s lips moved.
“Rhydian…”
His voice was barely audible.
Rhydian ran forward.
“Father!”
Evander turned.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then something inside Rhydian snapped.
“YOU KILLED HIM!”
His wolf roared inside his skull.
The Moonfang lay between them.
Rhydian picked it up.
It was heavier than he expected.
Cold.
Almost alive.
Evander stared at the blade.
Then his eyes lifted to Rhydian’s.
There was something in them.
Fear.
Not of death.
Of what Rhydian was about to do.
“Put the blade down,” he whispered.
Rhydian tightened his grip.
“Why?”
Evander’s mouth opened.
Closed.
He looked toward Aldric.
For one second, his expression broke.
“You have no idea what you’ve just done.”
Rhydian didn’t understand what he meant.
He didn’t care.
He drove the blade into him.
Silence.
Evander’s body went still.
The Moonfang slipped from Rhydian’s hand.
It hit the floor with a metallic crack.
And then he heard footsteps.
Fast.
Heavy.
Someone came running into the chamber.
Aurelian.
His father’s younger brother.
His uncle.
The man who had taught Rhydian how to hold a sword.
The man who had sat beside his bed when he was sick.
The man who had always told him that an Alpha never cried.
His face changed when he saw his brother.
“Brother…”
He rushed to Aldric.
Rhydian stood frozen.
Blood covered his hands.
His father was dying.
Evander was dead.
And the man who had been like a second father to him dropped beside his father’s body.
“Aldric.”
His father looked at him.
For the first time that night, Rhydian saw fear in his father’s eyes.
Not fear of Evander.
Not fear of death.
Fear for him.
Aurelian grabbed Aldric’s hand.
“I’ve got you.”
His father’s gaze moved toward Rhydian again.
His lips parted.
“Rhydian…”
Rhydian stepped closer.
“I’m here.”
Aldric’s fingers tightened around Aurelian’s.
Then he looked at Rhydian.
“Don’t…”
His voice was barely a whisper.
“Don’t what?”
His eyes flickered.
The room seemed to grow colder.
“Trust…”
He stopped.
Rhydian leaned closer.
“Dad?”
His father’s eyes closed.
“Dad!”
Rhydian dropped to his knees.
He shook his shoulders.
Nothing.
“No.”
He shook him harder.
“No. No, no, no.”
Aurelian pulled him into his arms.
Rhydian fought him.
“Let me go!”
“Rhydian”
“LET ME GO!”
“I know.”
His uncle’s voice broke.
“I know.”
Rhydian buried his face against his uncle’s chest.
For the first time in his life, he cried.
Not like an Alpha.
Not like the heir of Vaelcrest.
Like a child who had just lost the one person he believed could never leave him.
Outside, the moon disappeared behind the clouds.
And somewhere in the darkness, the wolves began to howl.
Three days later, Rhydian became Alpha.
He was twelve.
Too young.
Too angry.
Too broken.
But nobody questioned the decision.
Because the old Alpha was dead.
And the Alpha’s son was standing.
That was all the pack needed.
Rhydian stood before the council with his father’s blood still haunting his dreams.
One by one, they lowered their heads.
“Alpha Rhydian.”
The title sounded wrong.
Too heavy.
Too soon.
Aurelian stood behind him.
He placed a hand on Rhydian’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to do this alone.”
Rhydian looked at him.
He was the only person in that room Rhydian trusted.
The only person who had remained beside him.
Rhydian nodded.
“I know.”
Aurelian squeezed his shoulder.
And for the first time since his father’s death, Rhydian felt something that almost resembled safety.
Then he looked toward the northern border.
Toward the land belonging to the Veyras.
His father’s killers.
His hand curled into a fist.
“I will destroy them.”
The council went silent.
Aurelian didn’t stop him.
He simply looked at him.
And said quietly,
“Then become strong enough that no one can ever take something from you again.”
Rhydian remembered those words.
He remembered them for years.
That night, he returned to the council chamber alone.
He couldn’t sleep.
He couldn’t stop seeing his father’s face.
His final words.
His unfinished sentence.
Don’t trust…
Who?
Evander?
Someone else?
He didn’t know.
He only knew he hated the unanswered question.
The Moonfang was still lying where he had dropped it.
Rhydian stared at it.
The ancient blade had been kept beneath the protection of Vaelcrest for generations.
And now it was his.
He picked it up.
For a moment, the black blade shimmered beneath his fingers, the silver veins pulsing faintly in the darkness.
Then he remembered Evander holding it.
His father’s blood on its edge.
His rage returned.
He carried it outside.
To the old forge.
The fire was already burning.
Rhydian placed the Moonfang into the flames.
The metal began to glow.
He struck it.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
The ancient blade cracked.
He struck harder.
The sound echoed through the empty night.
Until finally
CRACK.
The Moonfang shattered.
Its black fragments fell into the fire.
Rhydian watched them melt.
Disappear.
Gone.
The weapon that had started the bloodshed would never be used again.
He turned away.
He thought that was the end of it.
He thought he had destroyed the last thing that connected his family to the Veyras.
He was wrong.
Very wrong.
The blade had never been the source.
It had only been the vessel.
And the power Rhydian believed he had buried that night…
was still alive.
Inside someone he had never known existed.
A girl.
An Omega.
A girl carrying Veyra blood in her veins.
A girl who would eventually become the most dangerous person he had ever loved.
Her name was…
Sera Veyra.
