Chapter3
2018 Words
It started out the evening like any other. There was nothing to indicate my life was about to change irrevocably in the space of half a period. No sign flashed that tonight would be the turning point in my fate.
Yet there I was.
I gathered around the flickering flames with my brothers and sisters, my father passed me a cold one, and I waited for Calla to join us.
"Appreciate it," I muttered.
I unscrewed the cap with a swift motion and tipped the bottle back for a few gulps, enjoying the cold drink as it slid down my throat.
I tuned out whatever vulgar story my juvenile sibling was recounting, ignored their raucous laughter. I’ve heard every variation; and they stopped being funny sometime around my twelfth birthday. I exhaled deeply. They were sixteen and eighteen now—when was maturity ever going to kick in?
“You guys think about growing up?” I asked, breaking into their laughter.
"Why would we?" Ryder shot back. “Being a child is so much more fun.”
“Maybe for you,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Fifteen minutes later, Calla breezed in, wearing a fitted white top and azure shorts that showed off her long, toned legs. She tossed her golden tresses over her shoulder and flashed her dazzling smile before stepping past my father to settle into my lap.
I didn’t miss the way his eyes roamed her body, the way his tongue flicked across his lips. I detested that habit. He had plenty of female wolves who would be happy to entertain him — why did he have to eye the one woman I dated as though she were just prey?
“Looking good tonight, Calla,” my father said, something in his voice that turned my stomach into a tight, quivering knot.
“Thank you, sir,” she said, and she was smiling, but you could tell she wasn’t comfortable even with her smile.
Ryder passed Calla a drink, and thankfully the conversation turned from teen boy jokes to more important pack business.
“How are things at the northern borders? I asked, keeping my line of inquiry narrow.
“Safe for now,” my father said. “But we’ll have to boost patrols next month for mating season.”
The evening continued normally. The merriment continued.
But then suddenly, I wasn’t anymore.
My life changed in a nanosecond.
An impossible energy and mouthwatering smell enveloped me. In the atmosphere, vibrating was a strange sensation, stimulating my consciousness. It was invigorating and every fiber in my body quaked, bursting with an energy I had no other way to repress.
I didn’t want to stifle it…
"Coal? "Are you okay?" Calla inquired, observing my sudden body rigidity.
I barely heard her. "Something's... coming," I managed to say.
The scent. The Power. I was instantly captivated.
And it was approaching.
No one else seemed affected, just continuing their usual conversation. Laughter and voices faded into the distance as if submerged, muffled behind an invisible wall erected by my mind in a futile attempt to block out whatever was coming.
"Do you smell that?" I said, my voice low enough to be inaudible.
"Smell what?" Ryder said, sounding confused.
And thank great spirits that the mysterious enigma was getting closer, because, otherwise, I might not have been able to resist jumping up and running over to discover myself.
And then she appeared!
I jumped up, utterly forgetting my girlfriend in my lap. Calla fell at my feet, but she might as well have been invisible.
There was only one female wolf I had my sights on...
"Coal! "What the hell?" On the ground, Calla cried.
…and she called to my very soul.
Majestic
Sovereign
Breathtaking
The most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen.
Thick, lavish black coat with a white chest, belly, and paws — and an especially eye-catching white stripe below her tail. My wolf eagerly pricked its ears forward. A deep rumble vibrated through his chest. He was way too eager to find out what was under that tail.
"Who is that?" I whispered to myself. "She's magnificent."
Her markings were not just pretty — the quality of her fur was unique, unlike anything I had seen before. The hair on her chest sprouted out in an unkempt tuft. Her tail was lengthened and caught a breeze, and her forehead had another renegade tuft, the longer strands brushing against her eyes. She shook her head in frustration, brushing the hair from her eyes to clear her vision. Enchanting.
So little time, just three seconds or so, before my joy and happiness turned to utter agony as the crushing reality hit me.
Brinley.
The one wolf who will always be out of my reach.
Alpha despised her. I never found out why, only that he did, and the one time I challenged him ended with three cracked ribs. His hatred ran deep.
And therein lay the dilemma.
Never would he allow me to have her as a mate. And it was not just disagreement. No. If he thought I wanted her, if he thought I had any desire to claim her, he'd, he made certain she'd never be my mate. He would make sure she could never be Luna...
...By any means necessary.
I feared what steps he might take to do this.
Instinctively, I knew who she was; my mate, my fated mate, but the others did not. My father turned around, angry at the interruption.
"Shift!" he snarled.
Brinley fell to the ground, trembling violently as the transformation seized her body. As soon as my father recognized her, I was filled with dread. My reaction had proven she was my mate. Concealment was impossible.
"No!! ” he bellowed, leaping to his feet and running to meet her. His obsidian irises blazed with lethal intent.
He had every intention of ending her life!”
Right before my eyes.
In mere steps, she'd be gone.
My wolf howled, his rage mirroring my own.
"You can't do this!" I yelled, stepping between them.
"What's happening?" Confusion and anger mixed in Calla’s voice.
I couldn’t let him murder her. "Stop!! "
He turned to face me, his eyes blazing with anger. “You realize this is NOT happening. "I don’t care what the Moon does. “I’m ending this right now!”
“Why do you hate her so much?” I asked, my voice quaking with emotion.
My instinct urged combat. I wanted to rip my father to pieces for being egotistical enough to threaten my mate. From deep inside me surged primal forces, raw and alive—hunger and thirst for my one true female wolf, born for me alone, destined for me.
But then the awful reality hit me.
I possessed strength...
… but his Wolf was something else entirely.
A thread of the insane streaked through him, too, bubbling just under the skin, raging vengefully at the slightest slight. He'd survived dozens of challenges, sometimes with multiple wolves at once, powerful wolves, betas and other alphas.
He'd never failed.
Not once.
“You can’t, boy, challenge me,” he growled, sensing my thoughts. "You know how this ends."
Agony struck me like a bullet to the chest.
I couldn't overcome his wolf.
And if I took him on, I wasn’t just risking my own life.
I was gambling Brinley's.
The knowledge that they could not win sent a wave of excruciating pain through me. If I fought, there were really only two possible scenarios.
Either he would murder me, and then kill Brinley in vengeance for my life. Or he would spare me and make an example of me... but still take out Brinley, just because he knew I wanted her.
If there was even the faintest chance that one day we might reconcile, he wouldn’t leave anything to chance. He would eliminate the risk. His actions, right now, offered ironclad evidence.
Either way, she perished.
If I fought, I would sentencing her to death. My choice would mean her death, the trigger that would pull the last shot in her life.
Unacceptable.
So there was only one alternative left.
I had to release her.
I barely knew her. I have maybe exchanged a couple of words with her over the years. But none of that mattered. I finally understood the soul-crushing power of the mate bond.
It was a thick living, breathing fiber within my interior that burst and metastasized through my body. And the idea of never having Brinley in my life, in my arms to love and nurture, crushed me. The grief of that loss was so vile, I literally felt my heart breaking in two.
"What are you going to do?" Ryder whispered, with a voice barely above a whisper.
Her surest damnation was being my mate. I had to set her free. If I could give her nothing else in this life, I owe this sacrifice to her.
Now all I had to do was make it believable...
I couldn't leave any doubts. Not in his mind. Not in hers.
I growled back at him, "No! And, of course, it’s not going to happen! But I will handle it. 'We can’t endorse the killing of a girl when she has done nothing wrong.’
The shocked, terrified look on Brinley’s face after I made my declaration haunted me. But her fear was justified. I needed to save her from this death sentence once and for all.
"Coal, what are you saying?" she said, her voice tiny and uncertain.
Walking forward thoughtfully, I fumbled for words. My speech would wound. We'd both be left shattered. But my words would save her life. Brinley would be liberated. But I was willing to rip apart my own heart to let her go...ın order to save her life.
Still down on the ground, she trembled when I got to her. I grabbed her by the biceps and pulled her to a standing position. Sensations shot through me at the contact, stunning me. I let go of her arm, fighting for a second to gather my thoughts.
“Please don’t do this," she pleaded, her eyes searching mine for signs of hope.
“Brinley, listen closely to me,” I said, more forcefully than I meant to. This isn't happening. You need to go out and forget it ever happened.'
Her demeanor cracked; her lip quivered. "But we're mates,” she whispered, wrapping her arms protectively around herself. I felt it — I bet you felt it too.”
“Let me be clear,” I cut her off. Her vulnerability was a knife that pierced my heart. The whimper in her tone slayed me. I gritted my teeth. “I don’t want you now, and I will not want you in the future. Do you understand?"
“You don’t mean that,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “I knew this was because of him, right?”
“It is because of me,” I lied. I chose Calla. I chose my pack. Not you."
My eyes were filled with tears, which streamed down my cheeks as I waited for an answer. I loathed myself. She looked over my shoulder at where else my family and Calla were staying. Her anguished face came back to me. But there was no answer from her lips. She shifted instead, fell to four paws and ran.
That was it...
...It was done.
“Good riddance,” my father said behind me.
I was overcome with an excruciating sensation. It left me breathless. The one thing I wanted more than anything in the world was the one thing I had to let go of.
She would go on, and somehow so would I.
"Coal?" I flinched at the light sound of Calla’s voice, shaky and alert. "What just happened?"
I turned to my family, my face purposefully flat. "Nothing important. It’s just a misunderstanding that’s been worked out.”
However, in a counterintuitive way, everything had changed inside, and nothing would ever be the same again.
- Writer
