Chapter 5

Elara's POV

We dig in at my small coffee table, and for a few minutes, the cottage feels warm and normal. These two women—a healer who could be stripped of her position for associating with me and a warrior whose uncle would disown her if he knew she was here—are the only family I have left.

“By the way, I heard something interesting,” Daciana says as we eat. “News came from the palace in the capital today. I overheard my uncle talking about it.”

“The royal family contacted us?” I ask curiously. “What could they want with a pack that’s so isolated?”

“King Alaric has issued a decree,” Daciana says as she chews a turkey leg. “Each of the eight packs must send one female to serve as a mate to a warrior in another pack. I think the King has been trying to encourage cross-mating ever since the Umbra Council’s divide.”

Selene and I exchange a look.

The Umbra Council is the highest authority after the royal family. However, in recent years, there has been a divide in the Council based on their ideologies. It is normal for shifters, or at least it used to be, to mate outside their own kind. The offspring that result from such matings have special abilities. Even cross-matings between packs have often produced gifts among the children. However, one faction of the Council does not like the idea of different abilities or changes that might lead our kind to evolve.

This has resulted in packs taking sides and a sharp drop in cross-matings between packs. But for the King to announce a mandate like this is strange.

“I didn’t know King Alaric had chosen a side.”

“He has always been pro-unity among the supernatural beings,” Daciana explains. “The other faction wants to get rid of all hybrids, which is insane. Do you know how many of them are around? It would be a massacre.”

I shudder.

“Our pack has been ordered to send someone to the Blue Crest Pack,” she adds. “And according to the decree, it must be our most powerful female.”

The cottage falls silent except for the purring of Luna in my lap.

“That means Harper,” Selene says quietly, referring to the Alpha’s daughter. “She’s the strongest healer we have, the most magically gifted female in the pack.”

The Silver Stone Pack is known for producing both powerful healers and warriors, and Harper is the most gifted out of everyone. But if my mother were still alive, who knows?

Harper. Beautiful, talented, perfect Harper, who can heal mortal wounds with a touch and commands respect from every pack member. The thought of her being sent away to mate with some stranger in a rival pack makes my stomach turn, even though she torments me to no end.

Harper used to be nice to me when we were younger. She didn’t go out of her way, but she never joined in if I was being harassed in public. For me, that was nice.

Sometimes I wonder about my own standards.

“It’s going to be her, but her father is not happy about it. Neither is she. The only way out of the decree is if you’ve found your fated mate.” Daciana’s voice lowers even though it is just the three of us. “I think Alpha Blackwood is going to summon all the eligible males in our pack to check.”

I exchanged a look with Selene. “If Harper had a fated mate within the pack, she would have found him already.”

Daciana shrugs. “They’re desperate. I mean, who would want to send their daughter to the Blue Crest Pack? They’ll probably imprison Harper or torture her. They hate Blackwood, especially since he denied their pack a healer when they were attacked and all of theirs were killed.”

I wince, remembering the incident from two years ago.

The Blue Crest Pack had been in need of healers desperately and had reached out to us, the pack that produced the most powerful healers, only to be turned away. Alpha Blackwood’s reasoning was that the Blue Crest Pack hated hybrids and had sided with the faction of the Council that was determined to exterminate them. The Blue Crest Pack’s grudge has been festering ever since. Having Alpha Blackwood’s precious daughter delivered straight to them will be their wettest dream.

I don’t even think they’ll care that she is a powerful healer. They’ll just want revenge.

My heart sinks as I gaze out the window. This is not going to end well.

*****

I tend to stay away from pack affairs. While I’m always up to date on the gossip because of my two friends, I hover around the outside. Therefore, although I feel sorry for Harper, I know this situation has nothing to do with me. Besides, knowing how sneaky and cunning Alpha Blackwood is, there’s no way he won’t find a way to save his precious daughter.

Whatever happens, it won’t affect me. I’ll just keep doing odd jobs around the settlement, anything to make money and feed myself since I’m not allowed to partake in anything that belongs to the pack, not even the rations that every other pack member receives on a weekly basis.

Not that I’ve ever let myself get down over it.

Humming to myself, I stand at the edge of the forest, near the road that leads to the human towns. Our pack’s settlement is isolated within the mountainous forest because that is how our alpha prefers it. I know other shifter packs interact with humans, but ours doesn’t, at least not much. But I have to survive, and there are certain herbs that grow here that humans want and don’t have access to because of this being private land and all.

The knapsack is heavy on my shoulders, so I lower it to the ground, my heart thudding in excitement. After checking my watch, I lift my head to gaze down the road. Sure enough, a blue car is approaching.

My kind doesn’t rely on cars, not even in the big cities from what I know. We’re faster without them. I’ve seen several of these sleek machines in the human town I’ve visited but I don’t trust them. Inside one of them, all escape routes are cut off. I watch it reach me and my lips curve in anticipation.