Claimed by Wolf King

The King's Instinct

Ethan Knight stood by the tall windows of Alpha Carter’s conference room, looking out over Ashbourne while the most powerful wolves in the Western Territories talked through the evening’s security behind him. The last bit of sunlight was fading beyond the mountains, leaving the valley in shadow as cars followed the winding road toward the estate.

Under any other circumstances, Ethan would have been paying close attention, but tonight he hadn’t heard much of what was being said. Something had felt off from the moment they crossed into Ashbourne less than an hour earlier. The land looked peaceful, and nothing about the estate suggested an immediate threat, but a strange uneasiness had followed him through the gates and into the meeting.

It had taken Ethan only a few minutes to realize the feeling wasn’t his. It belonged to Onyx.

His wolf had stayed silent throughout the journey, which was unusual enough to put Ethan on edge. Onyx normally had an opinion about everything, from patrol routes and unfamiliar scents to nervous guards who avoided Ethan’s eyes. His instincts had saved Ethan’s life more times than either of them could count, so when he suddenly went quiet without explanation, Ethan paid attention.

“Ethan.”

Alpha Carter’s voice pulled him away from the window. “I was asking whether the security arrangements meet your standards.”

Ethan turned to face the older Alpha. Carter had ruled Ashbourne with a firm but fair hand for years, earning the respect of the surrounding packs long before Ethan became Wolf King, and the estate reflected that discipline. Guards stood at every entrance, cameras covered every access point, and trained warriors patrolled the forest beyond the grounds.

“Your preparations are excellent,” Ethan assured him. “No one’s getting onto this estate without your people knowing.”

Relief crossed Carter’s face. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”

Mason, Ethan’s Beta and oldest friend, closed the folder with the final security reports and studied him from across the table. “You don’t sound convinced.”

The other Alphas fell silent. Few wolves would have questioned Ethan so openly, but everyone in the room knew Mason had earned that right after years of fighting beside him.

Ethan walked back to the window and slipped one hand into his trouser pocket. Below, more cars passed through the gates while staff directed guests toward the ballroom. Music had started somewhere on the lower floor, muffled by the distance and the estate’s thick walls, and everything looked exactly as it should.

“It isn’t the estate,” Ethan said at last. “Something changed when we entered Ashbourne.”

Carter exchanged a concerned glance with Mason. “What kind of change?”

“I’m not sure.”

Mason’s brow furrowed. Ethan rarely admitted he was unsure, especially during a security meeting. He had built his reputation by trusting facts instead of guesses and waiting until he understood a threat before deciding what to do.

“What did you feel?” Mason asked.

Ethan rested his hands on the back of an empty chair. “Onyx sensed someone.”

“A powerful Alpha?” Carter asked.

“No.”

“A rogue?”

Ethan shook his head. “I asked him the same thing. He couldn’t identify the presence.”

Carter leaned back slowly. An experienced wolf could recognize most supernatural scents almost instantly, and Onyx’s instincts were stronger than those of any wolf Ethan had ever encountered. If he could sense someone but couldn’t figure out what she was, something powerful had to be hiding her nature.

Deep inside Ethan’s mind, Onyx finally stirred, and Ethan felt the great black wolf lift his head and open his golden eyes.

She carries silence, Onyx said.

Ethan frowned. What does that mean?

Onyx took a moment to answer, as if he were still trying to understand it himself. She should have a scent strong enough to draw every Alpha in these mountains to her, but someone has buried it beneath layers of ancient power. I can feel her, but I can’t find her.

The answer sent a chill down Ethan’s spine. Can you tell where she is?

Close.

Is she dangerous?

Onyx’s attention turned inward again as he followed something Ethan couldn’t sense for himself. No. She is hidden.

Ethan looked toward the darkening valley. Whoever the woman was, her scent hadn’t faded naturally. Someone had hidden it so completely that even Onyx could barely detect her.

Mason watched him carefully. “What did he say?”

“That it’s a woman,” Ethan replied. “Her scent has been masked.”

“By whom?”

“He doesn’t know.”

Alpha Carter’s concern deepened. “Do you think she came here for the gala?”

Ethan considered the steady stream of vehicles below. Hundreds of guests would pass through the estate before the night was over, including wolves from nearly every important family in the territory. If the woman Onyx sensed was among them, finding her without a scent would be almost impossible.

“I don’t know if she’s coming here,” Ethan said, “but she’s somewhere in Ashbourne.”

Mason rose from his chair. “Want me to send out a patrol?”

“No. We don’t know what we’re looking for, and I’m not going to scare the whole town because Onyx sensed someone he couldn’t identify.”

Ethan gave Carter a firm look. “Keep the guards where they are and tell them to report anything unusual. No one else needs to know about this yet.”

Carter nodded. “Understood.”

The other Alphas went back to the security reports, but Ethan looked through the windows once more. Onyx had gone quiet again, although Ethan could still feel his attention fixed on the valley.

Somewhere in Ashbourne was a woman whose presence should have been impossible for a wolf like Onyx to miss, yet someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure no one would recognize what she really was.

A few miles from the estate, Ava sat on the edge of her bed and finished the last stitches on the gray dress Vivian had ordered her to wear. Outside the attic window, Ashbourne was busier than she had ever seen it, with expensive cars passing along the road every few minutes as they carried guests toward Alpha Carter’s estate.

The Wolf King was all anyone wanted to talk about, but Ava couldn’t bring herself to care about the gala or the powerful man who had inspired it. She was still thinking about what had happened in the kitchen that morning.

After setting the dress aside, she turned her hand over in the fading light and studied her palm. There wasn’t even a scar.

The broken porcelain had cut deeply enough to draw blood. Ava remembered the sting and the warmth running across her skin, but the wound had closed within seconds and left no proof that it had ever been there.

Strange things had happened to her before. Sometimes she heard a woman singing in her dreams, though the melody disappeared whenever she woke. Other times, silver light moved at the edge of her vision and vanished when she turned toward it. She had always brushed those moments off as tricks of an exhausted mind, but what had happened downstairs was different. She had felt the porcelain slice her palm, watched the silver light move beneath her skin, and seen the wound close.

The shard was now hidden beneath her mattress. Ava didn’t know why she had kept it, but throwing away the only evidence felt wrong. She needed to understand what had healed her and, more importantly, why it had happened now.

A quiet knock interrupted her thoughts. Before she could answer, the door opened and Eleanor stepped into the attic carrying a small tray.

“I thought you might be hungry,” the elderly housekeeper said, placing a bowl of soup and a piece of fresh bread on the bedside table. “You barely ate anything this morning.”

Ava looked at the food, then at Eleanor. “Vivian will make trouble if she catches you bringing that up here.”

Eleanor waved off the warning. “At my age, I’ve stopped worrying about Vivian Marlow’s temper.”

A quiet laugh escaped Ava before she could stop it, surprising them both. Eleanor smiled, and for a moment the attic didn’t feel quite so cold or lonely.

“Thank you,” Ava said. “I mean it.”

“I know you do.”

Eleanor sat beside her and looked at the gray dress spread across the bed. Her expression changed as she ran her fingers over the old fabric.

“Did Vivian choose this?”

“She said it belonged to Charles’s sister.”

“It did.”

Ava waited for Eleanor to explain, but the housekeeper let go of the fabric and turned her attention to Ava instead.

“Let me see your hand.”

Ava’s faint smile disappeared. “Why?”

“Please.”

She hesitated before placing her hand in Eleanor’s. The older woman examined her palm closely, running her thumb over the place where the cut had been.

“How did you know?” Ava asked.

“I saw the blood on the porcelain when I cleaned the kitchen.”

“It healed before I could do anything. There was a silver light, and then the cut was gone.”

Eleanor closed her eyes briefly, and the worry on her face told Ava that the healing meant something to her.

“You know what happened, don’t you?” Ava asked, leaning closer.

“I know you need to be careful tonight.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“No, it isn’t.” Eleanor tightened her hold on Ava’s hand. “But it’s the only one I can give you right now.”

Ava pulled her hand free. “Vivian has spent my whole life refusing to tell me anything about where I came from. Please don’t do the same.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“From what?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Ava stared at her. Eleanor had always been one of the few people in the Marlow household who treated her with kindness, but she had never spoken to Ava this way before. Whatever she had seen in Ava’s unmarked palm had scared her.

Eleanor reached for her hand again. “Listen to me carefully. When you get to the Alpha’s estate, stay away from the biggest crowds. Don’t argue with Vivian or Charles, and don’t let Liana provoke you.”

“That might be difficult.”

“I’m serious, Ava. Whatever happened in the kitchen could happen again if you become frightened or angry.”

Ava remembered the cold that had rushed through her arm when the porcelain cut her. “What am I supposed to do if it does?”

“If you feel that power building inside you again, leave.”

“Leave the ballroom?”

“Leave the estate if you have to.”

The urgency in Eleanor’s voice made Ava’s stomach tighten. “Why?”

The older woman looked toward the attic door, as though she was worried someone might be listening on the other side.

“There will be powerful wolves at that gala. If they see what you can do, they’ll start asking questions neither of us is ready to answer.”

“Neither of us?” Ava repeated. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Before Eleanor could respond, Vivian’s voice rose from downstairs.

“Ava! If you aren’t dressed in ten minutes, you can explain the delay to Charles!”

Eleanor stood and picked up the empty sewing basket. “We’ll talk when you come home.”

“You promise?”

She hesitated before nodding. “I promise.”

After Eleanor left and closed the door behind her, Ava looked down at the gray dress. A few minutes earlier, going to the gala had seemed like another humiliation she simply had to survive. Eleanor’s warning made it feel like something much more dangerous.

Ava ate several hurried spoonfuls of soup before changing. The gray dress was old, but the repaired sleeve held, and the fitted waist made it look better than she had expected. When she fastened the silver crescent pendant around her neck, the metal felt strangely warm against her skin.

Another car passed outside, its headlights sweeping across the attic walls before disappearing toward the estate. Ava moved to the window and watched it go.

Somewhere beyond the trees, the Wolf King was waiting with the rest of Ashbourne’s most powerful wolves. Ava had no reason to think Ethan Knight would notice her among hundreds of other guests, and after Eleanor’s warning, staying unnoticed seemed wiser than ever.

She had just reached for her coat when a low growl stirred at the edge of her mind. Ava froze and listened, but the sound disappeared before she could decide whether she had really heard it.

Vivian called her name again from downstairs, forcing Ava to stop thinking about it and leave the attic.

Several miles away, before the Marlow family’s car had even reached the estate gates, Ethan turned toward the approaching vehicle.