HIS WOLF VS HER PRIESTESS

Morvath was on the floor.

Not because Kael had hit her. Because she had fallen back when he shifted.

Half-man, half-beast. Black fur rippling up his arms, claws like daggers, fangs bared, gold eyes burning black. The Lethal Alpha. The thing they whispered about in other packs to scare pups at night.

And he was standing between me and her like a wall.

"Get. Out." His voice was two voices now. Kael and Nox, speaking together.

Morvath scrambled up, her white priestess robes tangled around her legs. Her face was twisted with fear and fury.

"You will regret this, Thorne! The Council will hear that you tainted the sacrifice! That you woke the white mutt!"

"Then let them hear it!" Kael roared. "Tell them I did it!"

The six guards behind her had their swords out, but their hands were shaking. None of them wanted to be the first to step into that room.

Morvath pointed a trembling finger at my chest. My chest was still glowing. Faint white light pulsing under my skin, like a heartbeat that wasn't mine.

"That light," she hissed. "That is not a normal wolf. That is..."

She stopped herself. Her eyes went wide, like she had said too much.

"What is she?" I gasped from the floor. My chest was still burning where she had tried to cage my wolf again. "What is my wolf?"

Morvath's face snapped shut. Cold. Cruel.

"Nothing. She is a defect. A wolfless Omega who should have stayed caged."

She spun and fled, robes flying, guards stumbling after her.

The door and what was left of it - slammed shut behind them.

Silence.

And then Kael collapsed.

Not fell. Collapsed to his knees beside me, his body shaking as the fur receded, the claws shrinking back, his breathing ragged like he had run for miles.

"Kael!" I crawled to him, ignoring the pain in my chest. "Kael, are you hurt?"

He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his chest. His heart was hammering so hard I thought it would break his ribs.

"She hurt you," he said, voice raw, human again. "I felt it through the mark. I felt her cage your wolf."

My hand was still on his chest. I could feel Nox inside him, pacing, furious, protective. And I could feel my own white wolf inside me, whimpering, curled up tight, scared.

She had been awake for less than ten minutes and Morvath had already tried to put her back to sleep.

"She said she caged her for 21 years," I whispered. "How? How can a priestess cage a wolf?"

Kael's eyes darkened. He looked at my chest, at the faint glow still there.

"She can't. Not alone. A priestess can suppress, not cage. Unless..." He paused, his jaw clenching. "Unless she used blood magic. Unless she put something in you when you were a baby."

A chill ran through me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean your wolf is not a defect, Elyra. I have seen white wolves once before. In the old books. They are called Moon Wolves. They only appear once every hundred years. And the packs kill them because they are too powerful."

My breath stopped. "Moon... Wolf?"

He nodded slowly. "Nox has been screaming since he smelled you. He says your wolf is not just a wolf. She is... the Moon's daughter."

Before I could ask what that meant, my white wolf stirred again inside me.

Pain,....she whimpered. Cage hurts. Cold,... Cold.

And then I started shaking. Not from fear. From cold. Ice spreading from my chest outward, my teeth chattering, my fingers going numb.

Kael saw it instantly. He scooped me up like I weighed nothing, cradling me against his chest.

"Her wolf is going into shock," he growled. "Morvath's spell is still on her. I need to get her warm. I need water. Moon water."

He carried me out of the bedroom, down a hallway I had never seen, past guards who bowed and stepped aside without a word. No one dared to stop the Lethal Alpha when he was carrying his marked mate and his eyes were black.

He kicked open a door at the end of the hall.

Steam hit my face.

A private hot spring. Inside his own chambers. A huge stone pool, steaming, glowing faintly blue in the dark, surrounded by black rocks. The smell of herbs and pine and him.

He didn't hesitate. He stepped into the water with me still in his arms, clothes and all, and lowered us both in until the hot water was up to my chin.

The heat hit me like a hug.

I gasped. The ice in my chest melted. The white wolf inside me sighed in relief.

_Warm... warm..._

"Better?" Kael whispered, his forehead against mine, his arms holding me tight in the water so I wouldn't sink.

I nodded, too weak to speak.

He held me like that for a long time. Just holding me. His big hands rubbing slow circles on my back, warming me. His breath on my neck, right over his bite.

And then I felt it.

His body changing again.

Not the violent shift from before. This time slow. Controlled. His arms getting thicker, fur sprouting, his chest broadening against mine.

"Kael?" I whispered, panicked. "What are you doing?"

"Nox wants to meet her," he said, voice going deeper, rougher. "Properly. Wolf to wolf. He says your wolf is scared and she needs to see that we won't hurt her."

I stared up at him as his face shifted, jaw lengthening, ears growing, gold eyes turning completely black and gold.

And then he was gone.

And Nox was there.

A massive black wolf, bigger than a horse, standing in the hot spring with me, water dripping from his black fur. His eyes were Kael's eyes, but wilder. Older.

I should have been terrified. Every slave is taught to fear the Lethal Alpha's wolf. They say Nox has killed Alphas twice his size.

But my white wolf inside me... she didn't whimper.

She purred.

Nox, she said, and her voice in my head was soft, shy....You are big.

Nox lowered his huge head, slowly, carefully, until his wet nose touched my chest, right where my heart was. Right where she was.

He huffed. Warm breath against my skin.

And for the first time, I felt her move.

Not pain. Movement. Like she was stretching. Like she was trying to come out.

White light flared from my chest, brighter than before. It wrapped around me, warm and soft, and for a split second, I wasn't just me.

I was her.

I saw my own hands, but they were paws. White paws. I felt fur, long and soft. I felt power, huge and ancient, humming in my bones.

Nox took a step back, his head tilting, his tail wagging once - once - like a pup.

There you are, he rumbled in my head, and I could hear him now too, because my wolf was letting me hear....There is my little Moon.

My white wolf - my wolf - lifted her head inside me and howled. Not out loud. Inside. A silent, beautiful howl that made the water in the spring ripple.

Kael shifted back in a flash, gasping, pulling me tight again, his human arms around me, his face buried in my neck.

"Did you see her?" he breathed. "Did you feel her?"

I nodded, tears mixing with the spring water on my face. "She's... she's beautiful. She's not a defect. She's..."

"She's a Moon Wolf," Kael finished for me. "And Morvath has been trying to kill her since you were born because if the packs find out a Moon Wolf is alive, they will either worship her... or kill her to steal her power."

My heart stopped. "Steal her power? For what?"

Kael looked at me, his face grim. "For the Blood Moon sacrifice. That's why Morvath chose you. Not because you are a wolfless Omega. Because you are the only sacrifice powerful enough to actually open the Moon Gate."

The water went cold around me.

"What is the Moon Gate?"

Kael's hands tightened on my waist.

"A door. To the first wolves. To power no Alpha has ever had. Morvath doesn't want to close it. She wants to open it. And she needs a Moon Wolf's blood to do it."

He pressed his forehead to mine, his voice breaking.

"Elyra, if you die on that altar, she won't just kill you. She will take your wolf. She will become a god."

And then....BANG.

Not on a door this time. On the stone wall behind us.

A guard's voice, panicked, shouting through the stone:

"ALPHA! THE COUNCIL HAS ARRIVED EARLY! THEY ARE DEMANDING TO SEE THE SACRIFICE! THEY SAY IF SHE IS MARKED, THEY WILL TAKE HER TONIGHT!"

Kael's eyes went black again. He lifted me out of the water in one motion, water pouring off us both, and pressed me against the stone wall, his body shielding mine.

"Nox says," he whispered, his lips against my ear, "if they try to take you tonight, we run. We leave the castle. We leave the packs. We run and we don't stop."

My white wolf howled inside me in agreement.

Run with mate. Run with Nox.

I looked up at him, soaking wet, his shirt clinging to him, his bite burning on my neck, his eyes wild and desperate.

"Kael," I whispered, "if we run, they'll hunt us. All twelve packs."

He smiled. A dark, lethal, beautiful smile.

"Let them hunt," he said. "I am the Lethal Alpha. And you are a Moon Wolf. Let them try."

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