I could smell blood in the air. It hung thick in the barren clearing, curdling in the pervasive heat. The slash of claws and the ring of bone against bone shuddered through the space, rolling in hard waves against the trees.
Sweat rolled down my back, matting my wolven fur. My lips pulled back from my teeth in a snarl, and I eyed the Winterpaw Warrior wolves, our deadliest, cruellest enemies, with sheer, seething hatred. They were everything my pack, my parents’ pack, were not.
And then I was moving, hurtling through the undergrowth in a flash of grey and black and white. It was hard to pick out enemies even in the thin cover the smattering of trees provided when everything I saw was painted in shades of grey. I focused on texture, hunting for a ripple of muscle or a shift of fur. I sniffed, hard. I despised the smell of blood, despised the truth of death that clung to its scent, but I needed it if the Blue Moon Pack were to have any chance of surviving this.
Until I met my fated mate, I was cursed to see the world in black and white. It was the same for all werewolves – but that didn’t make it any easier to bear. I ached to see the world in colour, to see the sunrises that broke across the dawn. I wanted to see my family, truly see them, to know their faces as well as they knew mine.
And, sometimes even more than that, I wanted to feel the pure love of the mate bond. It was a quiet desire, one shoved aside by my duty to my pack, but it was ever-present.I followed the curve of the clearing, darting alongside the main formation of the battle to pick off stragglers. We knew Winterpaw all too well, now; they attacked our pack regularly, unhappy with our luck – and theirs – in the terms of a treaty written hundreds of years ago. This meant we knew how they fought, and of their penchant to hide their most skilled warriors just out of sight. I was the best young fighter in the pack so, greyscale vision or not, it was down to me to pick off Winterpaw’s best.
‘Haile,’ Mum called through our mindlink.
Years of experience made it easy to pick her out amongst the swathes of black and white wolves tearing and clawing at one another on the battlefield. She had a distinctive white patch on the centre of her forehead, which Dad had told me was actually a very pale shade of rust-toned red. As Alpha and Luna of our pack, my parents both stood a good half a foot taller than the other wolves, too – a trait which carried over to their, and my, human forms as well.
‘Yes?’ I shot back, paws skidding in the dry dirt to narrowly avoid smacking into a tree. I nearly added that I was a little busy, but I didn’t want to deal with being chided after the battle was won. I swallowed. That was the only outcome I could envision.
‘On your left.’
I turned. My eyes widened. A wolf lunged at me, black as night and canines stained dark. Those teeth dug deep into the fur and skin of my neck. I yanked free, spitting a hiss through my teeth, my blood hot as it pooled and seeped from the wound. I roared.
Rising to my full height, I let the now-cowering wolf see every facet of my rage. I saw my reflection in their black, shining eye: a dark shade of grey against the black, glowing in the bright sunlight as though my fury had been made manifest as shrouding fire. One quick snap of my jaws and the wolf was down, writhing on the ground. I took no pleasure in it, but I was the daughter of the Alpha and Luna of the Blue Moon Pack. Protecting our wolves was my duty – and that meant fighting our enemies.
‘A little more warning next time would be great.’ There was no malice in my words – only heady, searing relief.
‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
My mouth hung open in a wolfish grin. I licked my lips, wincing at the taste of blood. I spat.
Only to be knocked sideways by a scrawny, snappy wolf. It looked white to me, with the shining, wet darkness that I knew to be blood marring its shoulder and chest. It wobbled unsteadily, and I recognised her as our youngest Warrior Wolf. I glanced around nervously, scanning the sparse trees for movement.
‘Elena!’ I mindlinked, panic making my tone sharper than intended. ‘Get back to the others.’
She stumbled. I looked around again, seeing only the ruffle of grey leaves against the paler grey sky. The battle wore on in the centre of the clearing, a heaving mess of blood-slick fur and saliva-wet canines. Would she be safer here? Or there?
Mum would leave her. Dad would help her. Quick and decisive, I nudged her with my snout and shoved her back towards the rest of the pack. On trembling legs she broke into a jog, wincing every time her weight fell on the side of her injured shoulder. I followed her into the heart of the battle.
The metallic stench of blood hung thick and heavy in the air. The dry earth crumbled beneath my paws as I pounced, turning and swiping and slashing my way through row after row of enemy wolves. Another wolf fell into step with me; this one I recognised easily as Blue Moon’s Young Beta, Etta – and my best friend.
‘Glad to see you’re still alive,’ I mindlinked dryly, even as relief twisted my heart.
She tore a chunk of flesh from a prone neck, pausing to spit it out before replying with a huff. ‘As if I wouldn’t be.’
We clawed and tore and ripped our way through the frontlines of the battlefield. Hope sunk like an anchor in my chest. I had never before worried that we would be forced to submit. It was always the Winterpaw Warrior Pack that would slither away, running with their tails between their legs back to their frozen, mountainous territory – only to begin plotting their next attack.
But our numbers had depleted, and they had only grown stronger in their misled rage. For the first time, I feared that Blue Moon would have to bend to their will if we wanted to live to see another day. Fear tried to choke me, but I trampled it down. I would wake, and I would rise, and, one day, I would see the sunrise in colour with my mate by my side.
The burning pain of the tear in my own neck spurned me on. My pack meant everything to me. I would not see them fall. Not like this.
And then more wolves – wolves I did not recognise, wolves fighting for Winterpaw, not for us – spilled into the clearing. We were outnumbered three, if not four, to one. My hope turned to despair, but still I fought on. I kept my focus on one wolf at a time, giving my all to each individual battle. I smelt the blood all around, felt the heat of it blurring with the sun. I ignored it. I became nothing but a flash of fur and eyes and claws and teeth, drawing what little hope I could from every enemy wolf that fell.
We were surrounded on all sides. The blur of grey was dark with blood, dark with torn flesh and spattered gore, but worse than that was the predatory way the Winterpaw wolves circled around us like sharks.
We were outnumbered. We were surrounded. My heart was in my throat; I could feel its every thud, feel the heat burning through my skin. I stared at the wolves, my wolves, behind me desperately. I would give my life for any one of theirs in a heartbeat, but I had no way to do so.
‘Fall back!’ Dad’s voice cried. It rung in my ears, and I was sure the mindlink had been sent to every member of our pack. I could not see him amongst the muddle of black and white and grey. My breaths came fast and shallow. Where was he? Was he injured? Was he safe?
Then claws dug into the muscle banding my front leg. It ripped clean through my shoulder, catching on the fold of skin where it became my foreleg and yanking straight through it. Nausea rose in my throat. I swung, growling, desperate. Etta took down the culpable wolf with a swift swipe of her own claws, a half-second too late. I limped forward, locking my jaw against the waves of red-hot pain.
I was so focused on the shuddering pain that, when the sky no longer looked white-grey, and when the wolves in front of me became more distinctive, distinguished in new ways from one another, I did not entirely realise. I still snarled and snapped and, leaning heavily on my good leg, hobbled further into enemy lines. I could not fall back as my father wished. I was too far forward. I had to protect those that could.
Suddenly it struck me, as hard and fast as any blow.
I could see in colour.
My mate was here.My mate was somewhere on the battlefield. I looked around desperately, the reality of the fight falling away. I had to find him.Where moments ago there had only been shades of grey, I now saw in colour. The sky was blue, the trees were green, and my parents had told me my fur was a brown so dark it was almost black – it was deep, and rich, and tears stung my eyes at the sight of it all. Everything was so vivid, so beautiful. And then I saw red for the first time. It was everywhere: soaking into my fur, soaking into the green grass, soiling the brown dirt. Overwhelmed, I stumbled. ‘Haile?’ Etta hissed through our mindlink. ‘We need to retreat.’ The same wet, shining darkness I had known to be blood was so, so much worse in colour. ‘It’s everywhere,’ I replied, glad it was a mental conversation. I would not have been able to speak through my too-thick, too-hoarse throat otherwise. I closed my eyes. Even in darkness the
I woke up in the medical centre. Blinking blearily, it took me a while to return to myself. My vision was blurred, hazy streaks of light and dark and other things, colourful things that I could not yet truly recognise, spun together and made my temples throb. There were voices, too. They were gentle, and too quiet to properly hear. It only made the buzzing between my ears worse, and I breathed through the nausea that spiked with it. My hearing felt wrong, as though one ear was stood outside, pressed up against a thick wooden door, and the other was in the room. Then came the pain. I hissed through my teeth, and opened my eyes fully to glare at whoever had knocked me down. It took me another, too-long moment to realise that I was no longer on the battlefield, and that my parents were sat on the edge of the starchy white bed, watching me with worried eyes. Sheer relief nearly knocked me over. They were okay. The talking
Try as I might, I couldn’t get that stupid dream out of my head. I scratched irritably at my chest. It was too tight across my lungs and my idiotic heart was swollen from within with need. Reckless, harmful need. This was a pointless idea and a huge waste of my time. Still, it was my own fault for lying to my parents about my mate, so I sucked it up and shoved my feet into a pair of sneakers before giving myself a quick once-over in the mirror. It felt like a miracle to see my new face. Hard green eyes stared back at me beneath neatly shaped dark brows. My eyelashes fluttered as I traced the curves of my high cheekbones, marvelling at the black crescent they formed upon my brown skin. The sun caught the curls of my black hair, which hung loose down my back. Tucking a flyaway strand behind my ear, staring at the odd translucent colour of my fingernails as I did so, I steeled myself. A muscle feathered in my jaw. I sighed, watching my lips p
“Haile!” cried Dad, a broad grin splitting his face. “Come in, come in.” A knot twisted tighter in my stomach at the warmth in his expression. I was about to ruin everything with the truth. I followed him into their office, pulling up a chair between their desks. Mum was sat behind hers, her shrewd eyes narrowed at a letter. She glanced up at me as I entered, offering me a tight smile before she looked back down at the parchment she held flat against her wooden desk. The office was large and airy. Plants in terracotta pots adorned the wide wooden shelves behind them, and more sat on the coffee table between two small sofas in the corner to the right behind me. Books and rolls of parchment were stacked haphazardly on my father’s side of the office and filed away neatly on my mother’s. As with everywhere I’d been since Medic Brown had finally let me leave the medical centre this morning, I gawped at the colours as I settled myself in my usual seat. The ri
The cart, pulled by four Omega wolves, groaned to a halt. I pulled my cloak tighter around me, eyeing the snow-capped mountains that surrounded us with disdain. No matter what expression I schooled my face into, I couldn’t deny the rapid thumping of my heart. My mate was close. I steeled myself, locking my heart away. I’d shoved down my feelings the second I’d left Blue Moon, holding back tears as my friends and family had held me. Some of the pack had glowered at me from afar, unhappy with my decision even though I had made it for them. They could hate me for leaving; I didn’t care what they thought of me for coming here, so long as they were safe. “We’re here, Young Luna,” said the Warrior Wolf to my left. I’d sworn that I’d not needed such protection, by my parents had insisted that the brawny man beside me, Logan, should accompany me. Though my arrival was agreed upon and we had been granted safe passage through their territory, my parents
My gaze snagged on the blade a half-second before it moved. It glinted in the firelight as the man raised it to my neck. I lifted my leg and kneed him in the groin. He lunged forward, crying out in pain; the knife jabbed into my skin at the base of my throat. I gasped, pressing one palm to the wound and spinning out from beneath the cage of his muscular arms. With a roar that echoed off the stone walls he twisted, catching my wrist and tearing the knife down the front of my dress. I lifted my elbow, knocking him off balance, and swung my fist at his face. My knuckles crunched on impact, but I did not hesitate before slamming it up at his jaw. “You bitch,” he hissed, spitting blood. He loomed over me, backing me up against the door as he worked his jaw. I spotted two rings on a cord around his neck, which his fingertips brushed over as if they afforded him some measure of strength. My pulse thrummed against my neck, pushing hard against the
“Mine,” I whispered, staring up at him with wide eyes. My voice broke, emotion swelling through my body and sending shivers rolling across my skin. The colours in the room flared brighter, centring on the beautiful man stood across from me. His throat bobbed. The world remained quiet, hazy, as we began to move; I did not feel the movement of my muscles or the soles of my boots slapping against the stone floor. He was everything: the sun and the moon and the stars, the earth and the rivers and the sea. My body became nothing more than a means for my soul to meet his in that instant, with fingers yearning to touch and eyes tracing every perfect inch of him. We froze a foot apart. I swallowed hard, my lips parting as I looked up at him. He towered over me, but not in a way that made me feel intimidated. It made me feel safe. Somewhere deep down I knew that feeling was ridiculous, that there was some reason this man, my mate, couldn’t be trusted, but in th
Ares was still smug and amused by the time we reached his room on the very top floor. Even so, my hand had not once left his as we’d rounded the curling staircase. My heart thundered, a traitor in our midst, and my gaze kept snagging on his strong jawline and the whorls of ink peeking out from the top of his shirt. “You wished to thank me?” he purred, dropping his gaze to meet mine. We hovered outside his room, one of his large hands pressed to the door – which was an actual door, made of wood with another ridiculous golden handle, unlike mine – and the other gripping mine, the warmth of it sending tingles down my spine. “For this agreement.” My breath caught in my throat, making my usually unwavering voice came out as a breathy whisper. I could’ve smacked myself. “I don’t see any reason for me to have refused it.” He cocked his head and pursed his full lips. It took everything in me to resist pushing onto my toes and kissing him. “My people get to live in pe