C1

"Get your hands off me, you feral mutt!"

I slam my palms flat against the cave’s stone floor, the phantom sting of silver claws still burning across my knuckles. My chest heaves under a soaked leather tunic, the scent of brine and ozone suffocating the tight air inside Skullmoon Isle's jagged mouth.

"Shut your maw and keep still before you bleed out your entire life essence," I snap. My fingers press hard against his ribcage, shoving the sticky, crushed hemlock root directly into the gaping tear at his hip.

"You dare speak to the Alpha Lineage with such venom?" His hand bolts out, thick-veined and burning with fever, crushing my wrist until the bones grind. His pupils are blown wide, a dangerous flash of golden wolf-light catching the embers of our dying fire.

"I dare speak to a dying stray however I please, David Duskbane." I twist my arm, using a low-ranking omega lever trick to snap out of his grip, though the sheer density of his dominant aura makes my inner wolf want to drop its tail. "You want to assert your dominance? Do it when you can stand without spilling half your pack's royal blood onto the dirt."

"You know my name, boy."

"Everyone in the Condex territories knows the monster they call Double D," I growl, wiping his dark, thick blood onto my thigh wraps. "The Bloodfang Raiders didn't just ambush your convoy; they tore through my sanctuary, sank the only longship leaving these waters, and left me stranded on this cursed rock for seven moons. Now strip."

"What?" His jaw tightens, the shadow of a feral snarl ripping through his chest.

"The silver venom from that blade is spreading through your torso," I say, my voice dropping to a gravelly register as I yank at the hem of his torn, mud-caked hunting furs. "Either you let me draw the poison out, or your wolf rots from the inside out before the tide turns."

"I do not take commands from a rogue." He shoves my hands away, his breathing ragged, but the weakness in his muscles betrays him. With a harsh groan that shakes the loose gravel around us, he rips the tunic over his own head, exposing the massive, heavily scarred expanse of his chest.

"Then consider it a business transaction, Alpha," I mutter, my eyes scanning the brutal lines of his torso the thick, corded muscle, the deep bite marks from old pack wars, and the jagged slice dripping black silver-slime near his flank.

"You stare too long, Franklin Sterling."

"I am checking the entry wound, not admiring your lineage," I lie, my face flushing hot beneath the dirt as I slam the wet herbs into the laceration.

"Agh! Damn your alpha-less blood!" David thrashes, his fangs fully extending, scraping against his bottom lip as the healing paste burns away the silver coating. "This is how you treat a patient?"

"This is how I treat an arrogant beast who thinks his title matters in a desolate wasteland," I deadpan, leaning close enough to smell the bitter scent of his fevered sweat. "You're lucky my mother, Mcqueen, taught me the old-world remedies before the Sterling Wolf Manor fell to ruins."

"Your tongue will get you slaughtered in the wildlands, little wolf."

"And your pride almost got you digested by the Blacktide Waters," I fire back, rising to my feet to escape the suffocating heat radiating from his large frame. "The air is dropping fast. The Skullmoon winds will freeze your open wounds before dawn. I need to keep this blaze alive."

"Hey."

"What now? More royal decrees?" I turn sharply, my boots skidding on the damp shale.

A heavy, matte-black metallic cylinder thuds against my toe. I look down, staring at a high-end plasma igniter emblazoned with the Duskbane crest.

"You watched me scrape flint against iron for two hours," I whisper, my voice shaking with sudden, violent rage. "You had a military-grade ignition tool in your tactical belt the entire time?"

"You didn't ask," David mutters, his golden eyes narrowing slightly as he shifts his massive shoulders against the cave wall, a faint, mocking curve touching the corner of his lips.

"You sadistic, royal bastard!" I kick a loose stone at his shin, but he merely closes his eyes, ignoring my wrath as the fever takes hold again.

By midnight, the storm outside turns monstrous. The crashing of the Blacktide waves sounds like a thousand war drums, and the wind howls like a mourning pack. In the dark corner, a low, agonizing whine cuts through the noise of the rain.

"David?" I approach warily, keeping my scent masked.

His massive frame is curled into a tight, defensive ball, shivering violently despite the proximity of the fire. His skin has gone completely translucent, the veins beneath his jaw pulsing with a sickly, bruised purple hue.

"Cold..." he growls in his sleep, a desperate, subconscious plea. "The silver... it’s binding..."

"No, no, no," I mutter, pressing my palm against his forehead. It feels like molten lava. The infection is rejecting the herbs; his wolf's core temperature is skyrocketing to fight the silver poisoning, but his external body is freezing. "I don't have the synthetic suppressants they use in the city. Damn it."

"So cold..." His clawed hand reaches out blindly, gripping the air.

"Fine," I growl, ripping off my own heavy leather vest and tossing it aside. "But if you mention a word of this to the Condex councils, I will personally feed you to the sea-serpents."

I slide into the narrow space between his back and the stone wall, wrapping my arms tightly around his broad chest, pulling his freezing, muscular form against my bare skin. The moment our flesh meets, a violent jolt of primal energy sparks along my spine the unmistakable, terrifying pull of an alpha-omega resonance. David stiffens, his instinctual drive instantly locking onto my heat, turning around to bury his face into the crook of my neck with a deep, territorial rumble.

"Just stay alive," I whisper into the dark, my heart hammering against his ribs. "I need your name to get past the border guards. I need to find out why my father, Cedron, sent the Bloodfang Raiders to murder me out here."

My mind spins with bitter memories of the Sterling Wolf Manor, of my sister Tahlia and that treacherous Mirelle Voss celebrating my exile while I rotted in the Ashgrove Wildlands. If my own bloodline paid for my execution, the entire Vinqlo territory will burn.

The heavy, rhythmic thumping of mechanical blades wakes me from the depths of a dreamless sleep.

The space beside me is cold. The black tactical jacket David wore is draped securely over my shoulders, smelling heavily of cedar and wild musk.

"David?" I bolt upright, my boots splashing through a puddle at the mouth of the cave.

Outside, the gray morning light cuts through the mist. Hovering just above the jagged shoreline is the Duskbane Shadowcraft, its dark alloy rotors slicing through the fog like giant scythes. A dozen heavily armed enforcers in tactical gear stand in a perfect, rigid perimeter, their silver-tipped rifles raised toward the treeline.

At the center of the line stands David Duskbane. He looks towering, completely restored, his black tunic tailored perfectly over his massive frame, the aura of a true Alpha King rolling off him in suffocating waves.

"Franklin," he says, his voice cutting through the mechanical roar of the shadowcraft as he turns his sharp gaze toward me.

"You're leaving," I say, stepping out onto the wet rocks, the oversized jacket slipping slightly off my shoulder.

"What do you want?" his tone is cold, formal, devoid of the vulnerability from the night before.

"Excuse me?" I halt, my fangs pricking my tongue. "Is that how the great Double D expresses gratitude? No thank you? No acknowledgment that my body heat kept your heart beating?"

The surrounding enforcers collectively shift their weight, their eyes widening in absolute horror at my insolence. No one speaks to the Duskbane Alpha in such a manner. David merely raises a hand, instantly silencing his guard.

"You preserved my life," David says, his golden eyes tracking the movement of my throat. "Name your price. Pack lands? A title in the Condex districts? Wealth from the Black Snake Vrig syndicates? Speak, rogue."

"I don't want your blood money," I spit out, my fists clenching until my knuckles turn white. "My wooden raft won't survive the currents outside Skullmoon Isle."

"Then what?"

"Bring me home," I demand, stepping closer until the wind from the shadowcraft's rotors whips my hair across my face. "Take me back to the Condex territories. Drop me at the gates of Sterling Wolf Manor."

David's eyes narrow into dangerous, calculating slits. "That den of vipers? Cedron Sterling has already claimed your inheritance. You'll be walking into a slaughterhouse."

"Let them try," I growl. "I want them to see what crawled out of the sea."

David stares at me for three agonizing seconds, a dark, unreadable amusement flickering across his hard features. "Board the craft."

Three hours later, the Duskbane Shadowcraft tears through the smog-choked skies above the Condex metropolis, hovering directly over a massive, gothic estate enclosed by towering silver-tipped iron fences.

"Is that the target?" David asks, leaning over the console, pointing down at the sprawling stone manor below.

"That's it," I whisper, my inner wolf clawing at my chest as the familiar scent of my family's old hunting grounds reaches my nose. "Sterling Wolf Manor."

The place that should have been my birthright now belongs to the father who abandoned me to the wildlands ten winters ago.

"Bring us down directly on their sacred lawn," David orders the pilot, his voice dripping with lethal authority.

"Yes, Alpha," the pilot responds, dropping the craft into a steep, aggressive descent.

Down below, the courtyard gates fly open. Dozens of Sterling pack guards emerge with weapons drawn, flanked by Cedron and Tahlia, their faces pale with terror as they realize the high-frequency shadowcraft belongs to the most ruthless Alpha in the northern hemisphere.

The hangar doors slide open, the wind howling as I prepare to step onto the soil of my betrayers.

"Franklin," David's hand catches my shoulder, his grip heavy, possessive, and scorching hot. "If they scent me on you, they will know you belong to the Duskbane territory. Are you ready for the war that follows?"