CHAPTER 4: She's white... pure as snow

Kaia

The heavy thrum of a headache pulsed behind my eyes, the kind that came from sleeping too long in a room that felt like a cage.

"Wake up."

Selene’s voice sliced through the haze. I felt her hand on my shoulder, a firm shake that rattled my bones. My eyes lurched open, stinging against the dim light.

"What?" I croaked. My throat felt like I'd swallowed sand. I pushed myself up, my hair a knotted mess. "Selene? What’s going on?"

A floorboard creaked near my desk. "We don't have all day, Princess."

Cain was leaning there, arms locked over his chest. He looked bored, but his eyes tracked the way my shirt slipped off one shoulder. A sharp, mocking glint danced in his gaze.

"What are you doing in my room?" I rubbed my face, trying to scrub the sleep away. "Looking for another chance to throw me on the floor?"

He clicked his tongue, a slow, predatory sound. "Tempting. But not tonight."

"Tonight?" I glanced at the clock. I’d crashed after the morning run, falling into a black hole of exhaustion for four hours. "What happens tonight?"

"Confirmation," Selene said. Her voice was stripped of its usual warmth as she hauled me out of the sheets. "Move. Now."

I stumbled, my legs heavy. "Should I change?" I looked down at my wrinkled T-shirt and the gray sweatpants hanging off my hips.

"Don't bother," she muttered, gripping my elbow and steering me toward the door.

As we hit the hallway, Cain’s pace matched ours. He didn't look at me. Instead, his fingers grazed the underside of Selene’s arm. The spark was instant. Her eyes caught his and softened, a private heat passing between them that made my stomach twist. I felt like a ghost haunting my own life.

We stopped outside my father’s office. The heavy oak door was cracked just enough for the cold air to bleed out. Then came the voice—Thorne’s. It was a low, gravelly rasp that made the hair on my arms stand up.

"So... she’s white," Thorne said. He sounded like he was discussing the coat of a prize horse.

"Yes, Thorne," my father replied. His voice was a blade of ice. "Pure as snow. Selah."

"Is she ready?" Thorne asked, a dark edge to his words. "The warriors are already losing their minds over the links. The future Alphas won't be able to keep their hands off her."

I knew Thorne’s type. He was a mountain of scarred muscle and blind loyalty, the man who did the dirty work my father didn't want to get his hands on. He’d spent decades breaking bones for the Kentrikos pack, and he enjoyed every snap.

"She doesn't have a choice," my father stated. There was no emotion in it, just the flat finality of a death sentence. "You’re heading up security. Take thirty warriors with you."

"Thirty, Alpha Narcisse?" Thorne let out a jagged laugh. "That’s overkill for—"

"That is an order," my father snapped. "Thirty-one, including you. The rogues are circling. I’ve smelled them. I’m not losing my investment."

Cain’s eyes shifted to me. He didn't move a muscle, but he pressed a single finger to his lips. 'Stay quiet,' his look warned.

"I’m no babysitter," Thorne grumbled. "My place is here, breaking the new recruits. Send Gamma Rook instead."

My eyes drifted to the corner of the room. Rook stood there like a statue carved from shadow. He was a man who existed in the silences, loyal and lethal.

"Rook is occupied with the Notios borders," my father said, his shadow falling over Thorne as he leaned forward. "Unless she picks Notios first, you are going, Beta. I want my interests protected in Voreios and Anatolikos."

He didn't mention Dytikos. The omission hung in the air like a bated breath.

"Yes, Alpha," Thorne spat, the words sounding like they cost him a tooth.

"Rook," my father called. The Gamma stepped into the light, his massive frame blocking the doorway. "Before you head out, cancel Kaia’s pack ceremony."

Beside me, Selene and Cain went rigid. Their breath hitched, jaws dropping. I just stood there, a cold confusion rooting me to the floor. Cancelled?

"You’re dismissed," my father’s voice dropped an octave. "We have an audience."

Selene and Cain scrambled back, but I was too slow. Rook yanked the door open. His dark, hollow eyes collided with mine for a fraction of a second—no pity, no heat—before he shouldered past me.

Thorne followed, and he didn't hide his disgust. His lip curled back, baring yellowed fangs in a silent snarl. As he passed, he slammed his shoulder into mine, sending me reeling against the wall.

"Always a gentleman," Cain whispered with a crooked smirk once the hallway cleared.

"Kaia. Cain. Selene. Inside."

I felt like a prisoner walking toward the gallows. I straightened my shoulders and pushed the door open, the others trailing in my shadow.

My father sat behind his desk, as still as stone. But it was the man behind him who caught my breath. He was skeletal, tall and thin with eyes like gray flint. He clutched an ancient, leather-bound book to his chest, his nose wrinkled as if the very air I breathed was tainted.

"Kaia," my father said, nodding toward the stranger. "This is William. Elder of the White Moon."

"Hi," I said, reaching out a hand. It was a reflex, a desperate grab for some kind of normalcy.

William didn't move. He looked at my hand like it was covered in filth and pulled back, his chin tilting up.

"This is highly unorthodox, Narcisse," William said, his voice trembling with disdain. "I strongly advise against—"

"Just do it," my father barked. He looked at me, his eyes two black pits. "Kaia, William is here for your transformation. It’s time."

William’s cold gaze pinned me to the spot. He flipped the book open.

The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. William stood behind the desk like a skeletal vulture, his gray eyes tracking my every move with pure, unfiltered disgust. I felt like a bug pinned under a microscope. My father didn't care. He never did. He just sat there, cold and immovable, pulling the strings of a game I was only just starting to see.

William’s fingers dug into the cracked leather of his book. He looked like he wanted to spit on the floor.

"This should be followed by a full pack ceremony immediately, Narcisse," William said. His voice was thin and brittle.

I blinked. He’d used my father’s first name. No "Alpha," no "Sir." Just Narcisse. I stared at him, wondering who this old man was to speak to a monster as if they were equals.

My father didn’t even flinch. He just leveled a stare at the Elder that would have frozen water. "Just do it."

William didn’t look away. He held my father’s gaze as he began to speak, his voice taking on a rhythmic, haunting quality. "I, William, First-Order Elder of the Kentrikos White Moon, hereby verify you, Kaia Wren Lykandros. Daughter of the blood. Direct descendant of Narcisse France Lykandros."

'Yes.'

Selah’s voice purred deep in my chest. She was pacing behind my ribs, her power thrumming through my veins. I didn't understand the legalities of the words, but the way my wolf reacted told me this was the moment my life stopped belonging to me.

"Um... thanks?" I muttered. The word felt small and stupid in the heavy silence.

"Give me your wolf's name," William rasped. He sounded like he was choking on the request.

"Selah," I said. I kept my chin up, making sure he heard the steel in it.

His white brows pulled together, creating deep canyons in his forehead. "And do the witnesses confirm this union? Kaia Wren Lykandros and Selah?"

"Confirmed," Selene and Cain said together.

Their voices echoed in the small office. It felt less like a sacred rite and more like a rushed deal in a dark alley.

"Then it is recorded." William’s pen scratched violently against the parchment. He slammed the book shut with a crack that sounded like a bone breaking.

He didn't say another word. He shot one last look of loathing at the back of my father’s head and vanished through the door. I looked around, realizing Cain and Selene had already slipped out while I was distracted by the thud of the book.

That was it? Some old man scrawling in a ledger was the big "transformation confirmation"?

I turned to my father, my mouth opening to demand some kind of real answer. "So, what does—"

He raised a hand. He didn't even look up from the papers on his desk. "You’re dismissed."

The dismissal stung like a slap.

I turned and bolted out of the office, my heart hammering. I caught up to Selene and Cain a few hallways down, their shadows stretching long against the stone walls.

"Wait!" I breathed, matching their stride. "Talk to me. What just happened in there?"

"The pack officially recognizes your shift," Selene said. She didn't stop walking, her heels clicking a fast, sharp rhythm.

"That’s all?" I frowned. My skin still felt itchy from the Elder's gaze. "It felt... fast. Like he hated being in the same room as me."

"It’s anticlimactic, I know," Selene whispered. She shook her head, her eyes focused on the path ahead. "I have to get to the library. I need to log this in your family’s records."

Cain slowed down, his hand sliding into Selene’s. He pulled her closer, his thumb stroking the back of her wrist in a way that made my face heat up.

I looked away, staring at the floor. "But why the rush? Why did it have to be tonight?"

"It means you're on the map, Princess," Cain said. He flashed a grin that was all teeth. "Open for business."

Selene swiped at his arm, though she was fighting a smile. "What he means is that you’re officially a werewolf in the eyes of the law. You aren't a rogue anymore. You’re registered under the White Moon."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. The word "registered" made me feel like a piece of livestock.

"More importantly," Selene continued, her voice dropping to a softer, more serious tone, "you’re legally allowed to hunt for a mate. Every territory will see you in their records now. The Alphas will start making travel plans for us."

My stomach did a slow, sickening roll. "So the pack ceremony is next?"

She nodded as we reached my bedroom door. "Once that’s done, you’ll have the link. You’ll be able to hear us, and we’ll hear you. It keeps things private when we’re on the road."

"The link?" I leaned against the doorframe, trying to process the idea of voices in my head. "Like... telepathy?"

I'd read about this in those trashy stories, but the reality was terrifying. The thought of every wolf in this house having a key to my thoughts made me feel naked. They’d already seen me shift; they didn't need to see my secrets, too. Especially not Cain and Selene. I definitely didn't want a front-row seat to whatever was happening between them.

Cain’s fingers were tracing slow, lazy circles on Selene’s elbow now. She bit her lip, her breathing hitching as they shared a look that was purely carnal.

"Sort of," Selene said, her voice a bit breathless. "It’s communication. You learn to toggle it. You can shut it off, just like you do with her."

I looked inward. I had no idea how to shut Selah up.

'As if I'd let you,' Selah teased.

I could feel her mental grin, a warm, fuzzy vibration in the back of my skull. She was loving every second of my panic.

Selah, shut up. This isn't a joke.

I could still feel her laughing as I watched Cain lean into Selene’s space, his scent of pine and predatory heat filling the small hallway.

I was pretty sure my head was just a cluttered mess of nerves and static right now.

'I am staying out of that disaster,' Selah muttered.

"That makes one of us," I said. I gripped the cool metal of my doorknob and shoved the door open. "Thanks for the talk."

Selene gave me a small, pitying smile. "Get some sleep, Kaia. Goodnight."

I stepped inside and clicked the door shut. A sharp, bitter pang of jealousy twisted in my chest. Watching them was exhausting. Their bond was so easy, so heated, and so full of a life I didn't recognize. I bit down on my lower lip, the skin sensitive under my teeth.

Outside of Cain and the wall of muscle that made up my father's security team, I’d never actually spoken to a guy. Not for real.

I wondered if anyone would ever look at me like I was the only thing in the room. I wondered if my skin would ever buzz under a touch that didn't feel like a threat or a chore.

Was there actually someone out there who would love me?

I guess I was about to find out.

I tried to keep that thought buried deep where no one could find it, but Selah wasn't about to let it slide.

'Mate,' she whispered. The word felt like a promise and a tease all at once.

You’re useless, I thought back.

"So..." I let the word hang in the empty room, my lips tingling as the sound died away.