.Chapter 9
Simone
The king was absolutely unpredictable. And so, so hot.
Between his features that looked carved by the Moon Goddess herself and how my wolf seemed to practically vibrate with need every time she caught sight of him, I’d been having a really hard time traveling with him for the past three days. I was spending more energy suppressing my scent so he couldn’t smell how aroused I was than actually focusing on potential threats around us.
Which was ridiculous, and I cursed myself again for my stupid brain and complete lack of priorities.
“Control your scent,” I muttered to myself for the hundredth time. “You’re not a dog in heat.”
But my wolf didn’t give a damn about my internal lectures. Every time Kane moved with that
predatory grace, every time his muscles flexed as he pushed through underbrush, every time his voice rumbled in that gravelly tone, she practically purred with want. It was embarrassing as hell.
The thought of Irene and Kenzi always managed to sober me up, though. There was still nothing
from them through our pack bond. No pain, no fear, but no contact either. I feared they’d been captured by Kellan, and the thought made my stomach churn with guilt. I needed to get back to my pack and gather reinforcements. Now.
It was one thing to come to the Aerith Kingdom for a wedding with minimal guards, but it was
another thing entirely to prepare for actual war. I needed reinforcements, and not just from Wolfspire. This situation called for all four packs joining forces against the Aerith Kingdom.
The entire journey, I’d been replaying everything I’d seen in that castle. How everyone behaved,
how they spoke. At first glance, nothing had seemed wrong, but that must have been the first clue. Two weeks in a royal court, and not a single argument? Not one disagreement or bad look between courtiers? That was definitely suspicious.
Kellan was controlling more people than I’d initially thought. He had to be incredibly powerful to maintain that level of influence over an entire court. And until I knew more about the king walking beside me, that meant preparing to fight him too if necessary.
I’d allow him to escort me to the mountain, but once we got there, I’d lose him. I wasn’t stupid enough to show him the paths to my pack’s territory, the dangerous ones we’d discovered and secured when Aerith made itself known. He might be my supposed mate, but he was still the father of my enemy.
So for now, I let him walk with me and pretended not to notice his small gestures. The way
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Chapter 9
washed my clothes in a stream while I bathed upstream. How he gathered the best food he could find and always made sure I ate first. The makeshift cot he fabricated for me each night with leaves and moss, making sure I had the softest spot to sleep.
Each night, my heart fluttered at that last one, and I hated myself for it.
“He’s just a man,” I reminded myself as I watched him check the perimeter of our latest camp. “A stupidly handsome, aggravating, perfect man who probably sees you as a political asset. Focus.”
But when he came back and handed me a handful of berries he’d found, his gloved fingers careful not to brush mine, I felt that familiar warmth bloom in my chest.
He made me a bed again, I thought as I looked at the soft bedding he’d prepared. The man who’d been living alone in the woods for years was taking better care of me than anyone ever had.
Oh goddess, I was so screwed.
That’s where I was lying now, staring up at the stars through the canopy while Kane kept watch by the dying fire. My eyes were wide open, just like most nights since we’d started traveling together. I couldn’t stop the question that had been running through my head since the first day I’d found him.
“Why did you run from your kingdom?” I asked quietly, not bothering to pretend I was asleep. “Why live in the woods by yourself?”
He was silent for so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was
quiet.
“It’s my penance, little wolf.”
“What did you do?”
Another long pause. “I killed someone I loved.”
The words hit me harder than I expected. There was such raw pain in his voice, such genuine guilt, that I felt my chest tighten with sympathy. Whatever he’d done, he’d been punishing himself for it for nearly two decades.
I stayed quiet after that, not knowing what to say. What do you tell someone who’d been carrying that kind of guilt for so long?
That’s when I heard the twig crack behind us.
Kane was immediately alert, his body going rigid as his head turned toward the sound. I stayed crouched down on my makeshift bed, my claws partially shifting as my wolf rose to the surface.
We were halfway through the woods, a few more days of travel and we’d reach the mountain. Had
Kellan’s people tracked us down?
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Chapte 9
Another twig cracked, this time closer, and I slowly stood up.
“These are not wolves,” I whispered to Kane, my wolf bristling with unease. No skilled fighter would reveal their position so carelessly unless they were complete amateurs. But the way my wolf was
reacting told me it wasn’t inexperience we were dealing with.
“No,” Kane growled, just as a giant, hairless, four-legged beast lunged at where my head had been
seconds before.
I threw myself sideways, rolling away from the creature as it landed where I’d been lying. The thing
was straight out of a nightmare. It had the basic shape of a lycan, but wrong in every possible way. No fur covered its mottled, gray skin. Its face was deformed, too human in some places and not
human enough in others. Black saliva dripped from its mouth, and its eyes were white and glassy.
I recognized it immediately. My parents had told me stories about these creatures, shifters mutated by a genetically engineered virus that had been used as a weapon decades ago. They
were thought to be extinct.
What the hell was one doing so far from Shadowed Moon Mountain?
“That’s a mutation,” I breathed, scrambling to my feet.
Kane shifted in front of me, his massive black form ready to rip the creature apart. I was so
focused on the nightmare beast in front of us that I didn’t register the second twig crack.
Not until a growl sounded directly behind me.
“Behind-!” I started to shout, but it was too late.
The second creature tackled me to the ground, and all the air was ripped from my lungs as I hit the dirt hard. Pain exploded through my back as its claws raked across my shoulders, tearing through
Kane’s shirt and into my skin.
My wolf roared inside my head, demanding to be let out, to fight. But with these mutations, fighting in wolf form might not be enough. These things were bigger than normal wolves, stronger, and
they didn’t seem to feel pain the way they should.
The creature’s jaws opened above my face, revealing rows of jagged teeth and that black saliva that I really didn’t want to find out what it would do to me.
Shit. This was really not how I’d planned to die.
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