Betrayed by the Alpha, Bound by Destiny

The Ghost who Hunts Us

The firelight flickered, and long shadows across the clearing as the figure stepped into sight.

Selene's breath caught.

It couldn't be.

The man was tall, shoulder-wide, his dark hair longer than she remembered, his face gaunt but unmistakable. A deep scar bisected his jaw, vanishing beneath his collarbone. His once-brown eyes blazed an unnatural crimson in the firelight.

Darius.

Kael's former Beta.

Dead for almost a year.

Selene's wolf snarled, hackles raised. This was not correct. Darius had been faithful to Kael once, fiercely so, willing to kill for him. He had killed for him.

She remembered the night she received word: rogues had beset Kael's warriors on the northern pass. Darius had not come back. Kael had grieved for weeks, blaming himself for his friend's death.

But Darius stood here now, living and hugely changed.

Kael stiffened at her side. His wolf ran so close to the surface that his eyes sparkled silver.

"Darius," Kael growled, and his voice was thunder.

Darius's lips twisted into something less than a smile.

"You left me to die," he answered, voice low and husky, as if the words themselves were poison. "The rogues picked me up first. And I learned, Kael. I learned to survive."

Selene's stomach churned.

"You've been hanging out with rogues," she said to him, her voice slicing.

“Not just allied,” Darius said, baring his teeth in a grin that was all wrong. “I lead them now. And we’re done hiding in the shadows. The packs will fall, one by one. Starting with yours.”

Her wolves bristled, growls rumbling through the clearing. Lyra stepped closer to Selene, ready to attack at a word.

Selene forced herself to stand still, shoulders squared. She was Alpha, she could not show fear.

You think you can just waltz in here and threaten my pack?" she spat coldly.

Darius chuckled ominously. "This is not a threat, little Alpha. This is a promise."

He snapped his fingers.

Still more of the red glowing eyes were viewed from the treeline. dozens of them, all of them forming a circle around the clearing.

Selene's wolf sprang forward, claws screeching against the earth. She hungered for blood.

But before she could move, Kael positioned himself between her and the trees, his tension-rigid body bracing to shield her instinctively.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She hated that her first response was to move closer to him. To allow him to shelter her.

The mate bond beat like a drum in their minds, hot and inescapable.

Selene showed her teeth, rage and lust coiling together until she could barely breathe.

"Move out of my way," she growled.

Kael did not look at her, his eyes on Darius. "Not going to happen."

For a moment, they were back in Kael's pack, before the rejection, Kael between her and danger, their wolves in synchrony.

And that made it intolerable.

The atmosphere shifted.

The first rogue snarled, advancing.

Selene's entire pack tensed, poised to strike.

And then, out of nowhere, the clearing erupted.

The clearing descended into chaos.

The first rogue leapt out of the shadows, claws flashing in the battlelight. Selene's wolf bounded forward, and she shifted while in mid-leap, her body tearing asunder and reassembling in a blur of fur and muscle.

Her claws sank deep into the ground, biting hard as she closed jaws around the rogue's throat. The metallic tang of blood filled her mouth.

All around her, her pack shifted one at a time, a symphony of cracking joints and snarling wolves, until the clearing was only fur, teeth, and moon.

Kael shifted beside her, and the sight of him as wolf nearly broke her.

Huge, silver-gray, with a new scar above his muzzle. His wolf radiated power, authority, familiarity. Her wolf responded without her will, pushing in closer, moving in synch.

The connection between mates blazed like flame.

She had no time to fight, for a second renegade bit at her side.

Kael went first, biting his wolf jaws around the intruder's spine with a sickening c***k. He flung the corpse away and growled at her, not a warning, but a silent command to stay near.

Once, she did not resist.

They battled together, as if time had not passed, as if no betrayal had come between them.

He moved left, she moved right. He deflected, she struck. When she was repelled, he stood ready, his massive frame shielding her until she was back on her feet.

The clearing whirled with motion. Blood splattered on the ground. Wolves yelped and snarled.

Her troops fought their ground, but the rogues just did not cease.

And Darius acted.

He hadn't altered. He didn't need to.

Quick as a human, even, he was gliding between the battle like a specter, striking where they were weakest. Selene watched him execute one of her younger wolves, and something inside her shattered.

She freed herself from the rogue she was fighting and flung herself at him, her wolf a flurry of fur and anger.

But she never got a chance to get to him, for Kael intervened, crashing into Darius with bone-crushing force.

The two men wrestled on the ground, growling. Kael's wolf against Darius's human might. Darius fought like a madman, claws bursting out, eyes burning brighter.

Selene paced around them, nipping at any rogue stupid enough to venture near.

When Kael finally threw Darius off him, the rogue Alpha landed in a crouch, his chest heaving, and then he laughed.

A dark, twisted sound that raised every hair on Selene’s body.

“This was just a taste,” Darius said. “You think you’re ready for what’s coming? You’re not.”

He whistled loudly, and as if by magic, the last of the rogues stepped back into the shadows, disappearing into the trees as if they had never been.

The clearing immediately went silent.

Selene transformed back into human form, chest heaving, blood smeared on her arms and face. Kael followed a moment later, also covered in blood, also panting.

For what felt like an eternity, they just stood there, looking at each other over the bodies, the silence between them louder than the fight had been.

She hated him.

She wanted him.

Her wolf wanted him more.

And by the glint in his silver eyes, his wolf did too.

Lyra limped up next to her, panting. "We lost two," she told her grimly. "Five others are badly hurt."

Selene's throat closed, fury and grief fighting there.

This was her home. Her pack. Her burden.

And Darius had just declared war.

The air was thick with smoke and blood.

Selene moved in the center of the clearing, looking where Darius was gone. Her pack labored silently around her, dragging corpses into a pile, tending to the wounded.

The fire crackled. The moon hung heavy above.

"Say it," Kael said at her back.

She didn't turn.

"Say what?" she said, voice flat.

"That you need me."

Selene's hands clenched so tightly her nails bit into her palms.

She turned with a slow deliberateness, meeting his silver-gray eyes head-on. His face was covered in blood, his chest still heaving and falling from the fight. Even battered, he appeared like the Alpha that he was; unyielding, powerful, impenetrable.

She hated that her heart rushed just by looking at him.

"I don't need you," she said to him with cold detachment. "Never did."

His jaw muscle twitched.

"You just lost two of your wolves," he said, voice low and glacial. "You think Darius is finished? This was a warning, Selene. He's coming back, and next time, he won't leave until this entire pack is reduced to ash."

Her chest burned. He was right.

And that made her hate him even more.

Lyra moved forward, her expression serious. "Alpha," she breathed, "what do we do?"

Selene looked around at her warriors — battered, exhausted, waiting for her permission.

Her throat was sore.

"We bury our dead," she said. "And we prepare. If Darius wants war, we'll war with him."

A shudder of agreement ran through the pack.

Kael stepped forward, his presence a shadow on her skin.

"You're not prepared for what he's bringing," he said. "You need me."

She turned on him, fury burning through her blood.

"You turned us down," she snarled. "You turned me down. You don't get to stand there and act like"

"I was wrong." His voice boomed like thunder, and the clearing was silent.

Nobody breathed for a moment.

Selene seethed at him, her ribcage racing.

He advanced until their mouths were almost touching. His scent, cedar, smoke, rain, closed in around her, drawing her back to every night they'd ever had together.

"I am not leaving," he said, every word a vow. "Not until Darius dies. Not until you and your pack are safe. Even if I have to battle you to stay."

Her wolf surged forward before she could stop it, fury and need tumbling together in one unstoppable tide.

Her bones snapped, her body reformed and reformed, and she was no longer standing, she was growling, bristle of fur raised, golden eyes locked on Kael.

The clearing went silent.

Kael's wolf lunged forward in reaction, holding back his shift, silver-gray fur rippling in the moonlight.

Two wolves stood in the center of the clearing now, circling one another. the space between them charged, the bond of mates burning so intense it was painful.

Selene's wolf growled half-challenge, half-plea in the back of her throat.

Kael's wolf lowered his head and bared his teeth, not submission, but warning.

The pack backed off, creating a wide circle around them. No one dared interfere.

The entire forest was suspended in breath.

And then, with a snarl that echoed through the night, Selene's wolf charged, straight at Kael.