The Blackfang Alphas and Slaves

Chapter 16

KAI

The past few days in this forest had been surprisingly quiet, and it was starting to freak me out just a little bit. Aside from the swarms of biting insects that seemed to think my blood was a five-star meal, we hadn't run into any more monsters or rouge scouts since that last python. I spent most of the time walking in silence, watching the way my own wounds were finally closing up and leaving behind faint white lines on my skin. I felt stronger than I did when we first got lost, but I couldn't help but look at Ivara and feel a knot of suspicion tightening in my gut.

She looked like she had just stepped out of a bath, not like a girl who had been dragged through thorns and bitten by a giant snake less than a week ago. Every scratch and bruise she had picked up was gone, and her skin was perfectly smooth again, but I didn't say anything about it. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and demand to know how a slave girl healed faster than an Alpha's heir, but I held my tongue. She had saved my life back there, and I figured it would be rude to start interrogating her about her secrets while she was busy helping me find my way home.

The real problem was the coronation. I kept counting the days in my head, and the anxiety was starting to make me feel like I was vibrating under my skin. I knew my father better than anyone else did, and once Alpha Rhordan set a date for a ceremony, he didn't move it for anything or anyone. He was a man of his word, and if he said the crown was being passed on a certain day, he would go through with it even if the world was ending. If I wasn't back in that hall to kneel before him, he wouldn't just be angry, he would take it as a personal insult to his authority. He might even declare me dead or a coward and give the title to someone else just to prove he could.

Ivara must have noticed the way I was pacing or the way I was scowling at the dirt, because she stopped walking and looked at me. "What is wrong, Kai? You look like you're trying to set the trees on fire with your eyes."

I opened my mouth to tell her about the coronation and the mess waiting for me back at the pack house, but the words died in my throat. A long, low howl ripped through the trees behind us, and the sound made every hair on my arms stand up. It wasn't a wild wolf, it was a shifter, and the sound was too close for comfort.

"Kai, look out!" Ivara yelled, pointing toward the brush behind me.

I spun around just as a grey shape lunged out of the shadows with its jaws snapping at my throat. The memory of the ambush flashed through my mind, and a hot, blinding rage took over before I could even think. I didn't care who it was or why they were here, I just wanted to destroy whatever was trying to keep me from getting back to my mother. I didn't hold back a single bit of my strength as I stepped into the attack and threw a massive, swinging punch right at the beast’s head.

My fist connected with its jaw with a sickening crunch, and the wolf was sent flying backward, slamming into a thick tree trunk with a thud that shook the leaves. I didn't give it a chance to breathe. I followed it up, my hands shifting into claws as the darkness in my blood surged forward. The wolf scrambled to its feet and managed to rake its claws across my chest, drawing blood, but I barely felt the sting. I grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into the dirt, punching it again and again until its ribs gave way under my knuckles.

I felt the shift coming on, my arm partially transforming into a massive, fur-covered limb with claws like daggers. I didn't hesitate as I drove my hand straight through the wolf's chest, feeling its heart stop as my fingers tore through muscle and bone. The beast let out one final, wet whimper before its eyes went dull, and it started to shrink and change back into a human.

I stood over the body, my chest heaving and blood dripping from my fingertips. I wiped my face and waited for the adrenaline to fade, but then I looked down at the dead man and felt my stomach drop into my shoes. He wasn't a rogue or a bandit. He was wearing a thin iron collar around his neck, and there was a distinct mark burned into his shoulder t, the Blackfang slave brand.

"No," Ivara whispered, running past me and falling to her knees beside the man.

She reached out and touched his face, her hands shaking, and then she looked up at me with an expression that made me want to crawl into a hole.

My heart was hammering against my ribs, but this time it wasn't from the fight. I had been so caught up in my own rage and my fear of the ambushers that I hadn't even checked the scent. I had just killed one of my own people, a slave who was probably just out here looking for me or trying to escape the same hell I was heading back to.