CHAPTER 3: I Woke Up Covered in Goat Blood

Kaia

The metallic sting of blood was the first thing to hit me. It coated my tongue, thick and heavy like honey but with a sharp iron kick that made my stomach lurch.

'Kaia.'

The voice was a ghost of a memory. Soft. Safe. Like a mother’s hug before the world went to hell.

"Mom?" I tried to ask. My jaw felt unhinged, too heavy to move. No words came.

"Kaia, I said wake up!"

The softness shattered. The voice was loud now, vibrating against the concrete walls. I blinked, the overhead lights searing into my retinas. I went to rub my eyes, but I didn't have hands.

I had paws. They were huge, heavy, and matted with white fur. Only the white was gone. It was replaced by a deep, crusty crimson that bled into black. I looked down. A goat lay in a heap of shredded meat and white bone. My stomach did a sick flip, even as my nose twitched, craving more of that earthy, raw scent.

I licked a patch of red off my fur. It tasted like life. It tasted like the best thing I’d ever had.

"Kaia," the voice barked again.

I stood, my claws clicking and sliding in the puddle of gore. I tried to run toward the sound, but a heavy jerk nearly snapped my neck. I looked back. A thick steel chain was bolted to my rear leg, anchoring me to the center of the bloodbath.

'You need to turn back,' Astra’s voice crackled through the speaker in the ceiling.

"How?" I tried to scream. A sharp, pathetic bark was the only response.

'Focus. Picture your skin. Picture your bones moving back. Do it now.'

I closed my eyes and tried to remember being a girl instead of a monster. I thought of my blonde hair and my hands.

Then the world broke.

My ribs snapped inward, grinding against each other. My skin felt like it was being scorched off by a blowtorch. I screamed, but it was half-howl, half-sob. The sound of my own bones reshaping was like dry wood snapping in a fire.

Then, silence.

I lay on the cold floor, gasping. My skin felt raw and sensitive, every inch of it pressed against the freezing concrete. I was naked, shivering, and smelled like a butcher shop.

The door creaked open. Astra didn’t look at the mess. She just draped a heavy wool blanket over my shaking shoulders. She didn't say a word as she hauled me up and led me to the elevator. The hum of the machine felt like a heartbeat against my bare feet.

I remember my bed. I remember the smell of clean sheets and Astra pulling pajamas over my limp limbs.

"Just sleep, Kaia," she whispered.

I went under before my head even hit the pillow.

A fist pounded on my door, echoing like a gunshot.

"Kaia? Your father is waiting."

I bolted upright. My head throbbed with a rhythmic, dull heat. My pajamas were soaked in sweat, clinging to my skin. I looked at my hands. They were clean. No blood. No fur.

Was it a dream?

I swung my legs out of bed. The carpet felt strangely sharp against my toes. The air felt heavier. I could hear the hum of the ceiling fan like it was a jet engine, and the scent of the guard outside: stale coffee and cheap spice. It hit me like a physical wall.

"Miss Kaia? Now."

"Coming," I croaked.

I threw on a sweater and jeans, my skin itching with a restless energy I couldn't explain. I walked down the hall, and for the first time, I felt the house watching me. I could smell every guard in every corner: their sweat, their leather holsters, the oil on their guns.

My father’s office was a tomb. Dark wood, cold air, and the massive Lykaois crest carved into the wall. No photos of me. No photos of Mom. Just the symbol of the wolf.

"Sit," he said. He didn't look up from his desk. He never did. "You’re late."

I sat on the edge of the hard chair, my heart drumming against my ribs. I tried to give him the fake, polite smile I’d spent years perfecting, but my muscles felt tight. Aggressive.

"Now that you’ve shifted, Kaia," he said, finally looking up. His eyes were like two pieces of flint. "You must choose a mate."

Mate.

The word didn't just hit my ears. It hit my blood. Deep inside, something that wasn't quite me growled in recognition, pacing behind my ribs, waiting to be let out again.

"Mate? What do you mean?" I tried to keep my voice steady. "Like a friend?"

I knew I was playing dumb. I just wanted to see him blink. He didn’t.

"No," he said. His voice was like a blade. "A soulmate."

I stared at him. The silence in the room felt heavy, pressing into my lungs. The man who had kept me locked in this house for years, treating me like a prisoner, suddenly wanted me to find love?

"You want me to date?" My words were sharp, dripping with sarcasm. "How am I supposed to do that? Is there an app I don't know about?"

I thought of Cain and Selene. The way they had pressed their faces into each other’s necks last week. The raw, animal hunger in their eyes. Was that how we did it? Just sniffing each other like dogs?

My father’s eyes darkened. His fingers began to drum on the desk. Tap. Tap. Tap. "Don’t be ridiculous, Kaia. Your wolf is white. You need a black wolf mate."

I felt a chill. Great. My dating pool just shrank to nothing.

'Mate.'

The word echoed in my skull. It wasn’t my father’s voice. It was deep, vibrating in my marrow. I looked down at his hands. His nails were jagged, his skin spotted with age. That voice didn’t belong to him. It felt like a dream I’d forgotten.

'Selah?'

'Yes.'

Her voice was a low vibration in my skull, restless and sharp. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I dug my nails into the leather armrest, the material popping and tearing under my grip.

'You’re really in here?' I whispered into the dark corners of my mind.

"And as your father," he cut in, his voice snapping the thread of my thoughts, "I won't let your mate be anything less than an Alpha."

My stomach turned. This wasn't about love. It was a transaction. I felt a sick flicker of pride that he thought I was worth an Alpha, but it was drowned out by a wave of dread.

"Father, I don't—"

"I’ve already made the arrangements," he said, his voice rising to drown me out. "The future Alphas of the four packs will each have their chance to claim you."

The room tilted. I gripped the chair to keep from sliding off. I was a prize. A piece of meat dangled in front of four predators.

"Four?" I breathed. "I didn't even know I was a wolf until a week ago."

"You will meet every candidate," he said, his face a mask of stone. "And then you will choose."

I raised an eyebrow. There was always a catch with him. I could feel Selah pacing inside me, her claws scratching at the walls of my consciousness.

"For a normal wolf, the bond is simple," he said. A spark of something like life finally touched his eyes. "But you are like your mother. You aren't ordinary. You have to engage with all of them before the choice is made."

My breath hitched. He never spoke about her. Never.

"Engage?" I asked. "What does that even mean?"

"I’m sending you away." He stood up, looming over me like a judge passing a sentence. "You’ll spend one month with each pack. Voreios, Anatolikos, Notios, and Dytikos."

The thought of leaving this cage made my blood sing, but I knew him too well to trust the gift.

"And do what?"

His lips twitched. It wasn't a smile; it was a threat.

"Study them. Their history. Their strength. Figure out which Alpha is powerful enough to hold you. Then, you pick."

A punch to the gut would have been kinder. He was selling me for my utility, not my heart.

"Strength?" I asked. A spark of heat flared in my belly. "You mean I'll be training?"

He nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. "Selene and Cain were supposed to take you. But they’re... occupied. You’ll go alone for the first month."

"Occupied?"

"They’re mating," he said. He sounded annoyed, as if they were late for a meeting instead of drowning in a primal bond.

My skin flushed hot. I thought of the "bleeding episode" from last week. The heat in my blood that wouldn't die down.

"I’m not going alone," I whispered. The thought of the open world without a single person at my back felt like a death sentence.

I didn’t look away. I watched his spine stiffen as I spoke.

"I don't know what I'm doing," I said. My voice cracked, but I hardened it. "Cain is my trainer. I’m not going anywhere without people I trust."

My father’s eyes were chips of ice. "In their current state, they are unstable. Distracted. They’re useless to you."

"Those are my terms," I snapped.

I took a breath and immediately regretted it. His scent—bitter and overbearing—filled my lungs. I’d been a prisoner in this house for seventeen years, and the idea of the road felt like peeling back a fresh scab. I didn't know Selene well, but she was the only one who didn't treat me like a broken tool. And she wouldn't go anywhere without Cain. They were a single, pulse-pounding unit.

"Fine," my father said. His voice was flat. "You’re dismissed."

He didn't order me out like a servant. He just let me go. I walked out with my heart thumping against my ribs, the taste of a small, terrifying victory like copper in my mouth.

That night, sleep was impossible. The shadows in my room felt heavy, pressing down on me. I pulled my laptop into bed, my fingers hovering over the keys. If I was going to be around real wolves, I needed to know what was coming.

I found a site crowded with stories. Millions of hits. My eyes skimmed the titles, and a flush started at my chest and crept up my neck.

Alpha Maximus. 23 million reads.

I clicked. My breath caught as I read the first page.

"Tell me, kitten, how badly do you want me?"

The words felt like a physical weight. The description of his scent, the way his muscles moved, the raw, predatory hunger. My skin prickled.

"My mind screamed to run, but my body betrayed me. I was slick with arousal."

"Arousal?" I whispered to the empty room.

I tried to look away, but I couldn't. I read about his hands knotting in her hair, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin of her throat. Then his hand moved down to his fly.

"Skip," I muttered, my face burning. I shut the tab so hard the laptop groaned.

I tried another one. Alpha Noah. The cover was a guy with no shirt, his veins bulging as he gripped a girl.

"No!" she screamed as his hand crushed her throat. "You. Are. Mine."

He ripped her clothes open. He talked about her body like it was a piece of meat he owned. He told her to get on her knees.

I felt sick. My stomach did a slow, greasy roll as I clicked through title after title. The Alpha’s Pet. The Alpha’s Toy. It was all the same. Brutal men. Forced touches. Women who screamed 'no' until their bodies betrayed them and forced a 'yes.' They were narcissistic, territorial, and cruel.

I shoved the laptop away, my breath coming in shallow hitches. I stared at the ceiling, my heart a frantic bird beating against a cage. Was this what Cain was behind closed doors? Was this the version of reality waiting for me out there in the dark?

"Is that what it's like?" I whispered to the empty room.

I pressed my palms to my burning cheeks, trying to rub away the heat. I didn't sleep. I just lay there in the silence, shivering, wondering if I was finally leaving my cage just to walk straight into a wolf's den.