THE WHITE WOLF WAKES

His bite was still burning on my neck.

Kael's forehead was pressed to mine, his claws gently tangled in my hair, his breath shaking against my lips. He had just marked me. Possessively. Obsessively. Like I belonged to him.

And then I heard it.

Not with my ears. With my soul.

A low, furious growl, from deep inside my own chest. From a place that had been silent for 21 years.

....Mine.

I jerked back, eyes wide.

"What was that?" I whispered.

Kael froze. His gold eyes, still glowing from his wolf snapped to mine, wide with shock.

"You heard her?" he breathed.

"Heard who?"

He stared at me like I had grown a second head. Slowly, his hand left my hair and pressed flat against my chest, right over my heart. His palm was huge, burning hot through my thin slave dress.

"Again," he whispered to my chest, not to me. "Growl again."

And she did.

A second growl ripped through me — louder this time, angrier, vibrating through my ribs. My back arched off the floor. White-hot pain shot down my spine, like something was clawing its way out from inside me.

I screamed.

Kael caught me as I convulsed, pulling me into his lap, holding me tight against his chest while my body shook.

"No, no, no — Elyra, breathe! Breathe for me!"

"Something — something is inside me!" I gasped, clawing at my chest. "It hurts! It burns!"

"It is your wolf!" Kael growled, but his voice was full of awe, not fear. "Goddess, Morvath lied! You were never wolfless!"

The pain peaked, and then....flash.

For a split second, I wasn't in his bedroom anymore. I was somewhere white. Endless snow. And in front of me stood a wolf.

Not black like Kael's Nox. Not brown or grey like normal wolves.

White. Pure, glowing white, bigger than any wolf I had ever seen, with eyes like moonlight. And she was looking at me, furious.

He bit us,_she snarled in my head, voice female, ancient, furious. He marked us without asking. He thinks he owns us.

"I — what?" I choked out loud.

Kael's arms tightened. "What did she say?"

"She...she says you bit us without asking!"

To my shock, Kael's eyes widened, then he threw his head back and laughed. A real laugh this time, rough and shocked and relieved.

"She talks already? She is strong. So strong."

The white wolf in my vision bared her fangs at him.

Touch her again and I will rip your throat out, Lethal Alpha.

Kael, as if he heard her, looked down at me, gold eyes blazing.

"Tell your wolf I had to," he said to me, but loud enough for her to hear inside. "Another Alpha's scent was on her. My wolf would have killed everyone in this territory. I had to cover it."

The white wolf growled again, but less angry this time. More... curious. She circled me in the snow-vision, sniffing.

_His scent... it smells like home. Like mate. Is he mate?_

My face burned. "I — I don't know! He says I am!"

_He is,_ the white wolf said, and her voice softened for the first time. _I have waited 21 years to tell you. He is mate. My mate is Nox. But he is letting them sacrifice us?_

That question hit me like a slap.

The white vision shattered. I was back in Kael's bedroom, shaking in his lap, his shirt torn, his bite throbbing on my neck.

Kael was staring at me, pale.

"What did she say at the end?" he asked quietly.

I swallowed, tears burning my eyes. "She asked why you are letting them sacrifice us if we are mates."

Kael's jaw clenched. He looked away, that lethal mask slamming back down. He gently moved me off his lap and stood, walking to the broken doorway, his back to me. His fists clenched.

"Because I have no choice," he said, voice cold again. "You don't understand, Elyra."

"Then make me understand!" I shouted, scrambling up, anger finally breaking through fear. My neck burned, my chest burned where my wolf was growling. "You mark me like I am yours, you sit on the floor and guard me all night, you almost kill an Alpha for touching me, and then you say you will watch me die on an altar in 48 hours? What kind of mate does that?"

He spun around, eyes black again.

"The kind that wants you to live more than one more day!" he roared, and the walls shook. "Do you think I want this? Do you think I want to hold the dagger?"

He stormed toward me, grabbing my shoulders, not hurting, but holding me in place, his face inches from mine, eyes black and gold and tormented.

"If I save you, Elyra, the treaty breaks. Twelve packs go to war. Thousands die. Children die. Your pack, my pack, every pack burns. Morvath will tell everyone I stole the sacrifice because I am selfish, because I want an Omega slave as a Luna. They will challenge me. They will kill me. And then they will kill you anyway, but slower."

His voice broke.

"I have killed hundreds, Elyra. I am called Lethal for a reason. But I have never — never — had something that was mine to lose. Until you spilled wine on my shirt."

Tears finally spilled down my cheeks. "So that's it? I die?"

He stared at the bite on my neck, his bite, and his thumb brushed over it with such tenderness it made me sob harder.

"No," he whispered, and it was so quiet I almost missed it. "You don't die. Not if I can find another way in 48 hours."

My heart hammered. "Another way?"

Kael leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine again. His scent wrapped around me, and this time, my white wolf didn't growl. She purred. Loudly. Inside my chest.

Kael heard it. His eyes widened, then softened.

"She likes me," he murmured against my lips, not quite kissing, just breathing.

"She says Nox is handsome," I whispered, blushing furiously.

Kael chuckled, dark and low. "Tell her thank you. And tell her... tell her I will not let her human die. Even if I have to burn the altar down myself."

For the first time in two days, hope flared in my chest.

Then — BANG BANG BANG — loud pounding on what was left of the door frame.

"ALPHA THORNE! The Priestess demands the sacrifice be inspected for purity! NOW!"

Kael's entire body went rigid. Black flooded his eyes again. He pulled me behind him instantly, claws out, fangs bared toward the door.

Priestess Morvath stood there, with six guards, and she was staring straight at the bite mark on my neck.

Her face turned white, then purple with rage.

"What," she hissed, pointing a shaking finger at my neck, "is THAT?"

Kael stepped in front of me fully, blocking her view.

"It's my claim," he said, voice deadly calm. The calm before a kill. "She was touched by Jaxx. I covered his scent. As is my right as her guard."

"Your right? She must be PURE! Untouched! No bites! No marks! The moon goddess demands a pure vessel! You have ruined her!"

"She is still pure," Kael snarled. "A bite on the neck is not—"

"It is a claim! A mating claim! You have tainted the sacrifice!"

Morvath's eyes glowed white, and suddenly the air went ice cold. She raised her hand toward me, and pain — white-hot, crippling pain — shot through my chest, exactly where my white wolf was.

My white wolf howled inside me in agony.

I collapsed to my knees behind Kael, screaming.

"Elyra!" Kael caught me, turning, eyes pure panic. "What did you do to her?"

"I caged that mutt for 21 years, I can cage her again!" Morvath screamed. "She is not supposed to wake until after death! What did you do, Thorne? What did you wake?"

Kael's roar shook the entire wing. He laid me down gently and stood, turning to Morvath, his body growing — bones cracking, black fur sprouting on his arms.

He was shifting. Partial shift. The Lethal Alpha was about to shift inside the castle, something he never does because when Nox comes out fully, people die.

"If you ever touch her again," he said, voice no longer human at all, two wolves speaking at once, "I will tear your throat out with my teeth and offer YOUR head to the moon goddess instead."

Morvath stumbled back, terrified, because for the first time, she saw it too — a faint white glow coming from my chest, from under my skin, where my wolf was fighting her cage.

The sacrifice was glowing.

And the Blood Moon was only 48 hours away.

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