C2

"Move your heavy shoulders, Malakai Thornwolf, you are blocking my scent trail," Kade Fenrir growled directly behind my neck, his hot breath making the fur on my nape stand straight up.

I kept my eyes glued to the front of the ancient lecture hall, my hands gripping my desk so hard my fingernails nearly shifted into claws.

"Stop teasing the new male pup, Kade," Zuberi Darkclaw murmured from the row behind us, his voice a low, rumbling vibration that shook the wooden floorboards. "He is already shaking under his fur."

"I am not teasing him, Zuberi," Kade whispered, leaning closer until his lips almost brushed the scarred skin of my ear. "I am just smelling him. He smells like Wolfspring Hollow, but covered in old silver burns."

I pulled my heavy dark hood lower over my face, trying to hide the jagged marks running down my cheek and jaw. My heart went fast, hitting my ribs like a trapped bird. It had been over a year since the Crimson Fang Pack left me for dead at Bloodmoon Lake, but my body still remembered the agony. My left leg, once shattered by their Beta Commander, throbbed with a dull ache under my denim jeans.

"Johnson, look at me," Kade commanded softly, using his Alpha dominance to make my muscles lock.

"Leave me alone," I choked out, my voice tight and small. "I just want to learn the territory laws. I do not want any trouble from your circle."

"Trouble?" Kade chuckled, a dark, wealthy sound that promised absolute danger. "Pup, we are the ones who control the Moon Docks and the Trade Routes here in the Moonreach Territory. You cannot hide your scent from us under that cheap cotton cloth."

"You need to eat your raw meat ration, Johnson," Katy said, placing a wooden bowl on our stone kitchen table earlier that sunrise.

"I am too nervous to eat, Elder," I muttered, staring down at my reflection in the polished black basin.

My aquamarine eyes looked back at me, surrounded by the rough, uneven skin where the silver knives had sliced my face during the Moonrise Gathering. I was a male wolf, but I felt small, broken, and completely ruined. After the attack, the Whitmoor Elders had traded everything to escape the Midrealm Territories, bringing me to these Western Moonlands to hide my shame.

"Your father and I did not fight the Rogue Wolf Brotherhood just for you to starve yourself," Katy said gently, placing a scarred hand over my trembling fingers. "The Silvermoon Healing Lodge mended your bones, but you must strengthen your spirit-wolf."

"The boys at the old settlement said I was a broken male," I whispered, my throat tightening with old tears. "They said no Alpha would ever want to mate with a scarred, limping wolf like me."

"They are fools," my father growled, entering the kitchen with his leather hunting harness already strapped across his broad chest. "You carry the pure Whitmoor blood line. Let the pack males stare. You walk tall today."

But walking tall was hard when your left leg dragged against the earth, a constant reminder of Corwin Blackmaw’s betrayal. He had been my closest companion, the boy I promised to run the wild forests with forever, right before he joined the popular Alphas and watched them tear my white tunic to shreds.

"I will drive the Midnight Fang Rover to the pack quarters," my father said, tossing the bone-carved keys in his palm. "We do not want any rogue scouts catching your scent on the open road."

"He is staring at us again," Talia Ravenscar laughed outside the main hall, pointing her long, dark fingernails straight at my hooded figure as I limped past the massive oak trees.

"Let him look," Imani Frostfang sneered, adjusting her fur collar. "He looks like a rogue who survived a silver trap. Completely hideous."

I had kept my head down, my boots scuffing the dirt, but my eyes had betrayed me. I had looked up, and that was when I saw them. Kade, Zuberi, and Malakai. Three massive, breathtakingly beautiful male Alphas standing together under the shadow of the pack house. They had the same midnight-dark hair, the same heavy, muscular builds, but their eyes were completely different. Kade had eyes like burning blue stars, Zuberi’s were the color of golden honey, and Malakai’s shone like deep caramel.

When Kade had flashed those sharp, white teeth at me in a slow smile, my face had burned with a hot, dark blush.

Now, trapped in the classroom with all three of them sitting directly behind me, the air felt thick and heavy with male pheromones. The scent of pine, musk, and raw power was filling my lungs, making my inner wolf whimper with a strange, confusing heat.

"The professor is starting the lecture, Kade," Malakai warned, his voice cutting through the heavy tension. "Keep your hands to yourself before the whole class smells your arousal."

"He is mine, Malakai," Kade growled back, his large, warm hand suddenly sliding under my hood, his rough fingers pressing hard against the silver scars on my neck.

He looked at me and I could not move.