Bond of Shadows

Chapter Three

The horn ripped me out of shallow sleep. Harsh, metallic, and far too close. Urg. For a moment, I thought it was the gates again, groaning open in my dream.

Then came the voices. Guards barking orders. Cots groaning. Boys swearing as they rolled out of bed.

I sat up slowly, forcing my body into the same movements I’d watched my brothers use a thousand times - shoulders back, casual stretch, mask of arrogance. My ribs screamed against the bindings.

The barracks came alive. Wolves yanked on boots, pulled shirts over sweaty chests, shoved each other in mock fights. The air thickened with musk and competition.

“Up, you fuckers!” one of the guards barked, throwing the door wide. Really? Did he need to swear right now? The torchlight outside slashed across the room. “Food before you bleed.”

Food. Thank god. My stomach twisted, hunger and dread tangling until I couldn’t tell one from the other.

Kai, the boy from last night, fell into step beside me as we filed out. His eyes still carried that softness, though his jaw was clenched now. “First Trial, oh man” he whispered, as though the words themselves were dangerous.

I only nodded. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say, I was entirely focused on this trial.

The mess hall was a grim twin to the barracks: long wooden tables, bowls of watery porridge, bread so stale it could bruise a knuckle. Heirs elbowed for scraps as if they’d never tasted a feast. Wolves were wolves, king or beggar, always ruled by their bellies. It was almost laughable, watching a pack of alphas choke down peasant food. I half-expected someone to start bitching in protest.

I claimed a seat at the far edge. Kai hovered, then sat too, shoulders hunched like he expected to be shoved off.

“You’ll want to eat,” he said. “Even if it’s s**t. No one knows what the Trials will demand.”

I picked at the bread, more to keep up the act than to fill myself. My stomach didn’t trust me enough to eat.

Across the hall, Kaelen held court, his lackeys Brant and Torren flanking him. He laughed loud, head tossed back, every bit the heir who thought the world would bend for him. God I hated his type the most. We all know a Kaelen.

His eyes swept the room once, landed on me, and lingered just long enough to curl heat in my gut.

He looked away, smirk sharp.

A promise.

“Showers after breakfast,” one of the guards announced as bowls scraped empty. “No one goes to the Trial stinking like mutts.”

My pulse spiked. Steam. Naked bodies. Too many eyes.

“I’ll wait,” I muttered, low enough that only Kai heard.

He blinked. “Wait? Why-”

“After the Trial,” I cut in. “I just fight better dirty. I need to prepare anyways… It’s just my ritual.”

I really was laying on the excuses a bit much, but Kai nodded like it made sense to him. His trust was almost… painful.

As we rose from the table, Soren brushed past, deliberate enough to count as contact. He leaned down, his voice pitched for me alone.

“Careful, Silas. Don’t want to stand out already.”

Silas. Maybe that was too close to Sybil? Too late now, I thought. That name just came to my head when I registered.

I forced a smirk, even as my heart thundered. “Don’t worry. I know how to disappear.”

His grin was slow, sharp. “Somehow I doubt that.”

He was gone before I could answer, swallowed by the crowd of heirs funnelling toward the yard. The smell of pine and rain clung in his wake, sharper than my perfume, sharper than I wanted it to be.

Kai shot me a sideways glance. “He’s dangerous.”

“They all are,” I said.

But Soren’s words stuck, clinging sharper than the bindings around my ribs.

The guards herded us from the mess hall into the yard. The guards really had strange uniforms, weren’t they hot in those thick clothes? I could swear I couldn’t see an inch of their skin? Before I could dwell on that further, I was struck by the light.

Dawn bled pale across the horizon, the mist curling low around the fortress walls. The air smelled of wet earth and iron.

No one spoke. Not now.

The swagger from the barracks was gone, swallowed by the weight of what waited. Even Kaelen’s laugh had died down to a sneer, though Brant cracked his knuckles loud enough to make sure everyone heard. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes at that giant dickhead.

Kai walked tight at my side, shoulders hunched, lips moving in some silent prayer. His hand brushed the pouch at his hip again and again, like a talisman.

Soren, on the other hand, looked as though we were being led to a feast, not a slaughter. He sauntered, hands loose at his sides, green eyes bright in the dim light. He caught me watching once and arched a brow, smirk tugging lazy at his mouth, before turning away.

The enforcers flanked us, their movements too smooth, too still, shadows clinging to their armour. Their helms hid their faces, but the air shifted wrong around them. My skin prickled every time one passed close, like their hunger scraped against my bones.

We were led through the yard toward another set of gates, smaller but no less cruel. The stone here was darker, stained from years of use. The ground itself seemed to remember every scream, every body, every drop of blood.

One guard barked the command. “Line up.”

We did. Dozens of heirs, shoulder to shoulder, breath fogging in the cold air. My bindings cut deeper, my wolf snarled inside me, desperate to run or fight or anything but stand still.

The gates groaned.

The horns sounded.

And for the first time, the Trials opened before me.