C3

Daryl Silverfang

“What the fuck?”

Shane growls super loud when a tiny pink blur zooms right past his chest. The glass doors rattle as the girl charges inside my room like a crazy wild wolf going for a kill.

I jump out of my big wooden chair and get on my feet fast. My heart goes thumping hard against my ribs because I think we are under attack by rogues.

“Can I help you?” I growl, trying to smell if she is an enemy.

“My name is Aichonne Blackwood,” the girl says, puffing her chest out. “We need to talk right now, Alpha Heir.”

I look at her face for a long time, and I think my eyes are broken. “You do not look like Aichonne Blackwood at all.”

“Oh, so you know who I am.” She lets out a mean, barking laugh. “I did not know who you were until two hours ago. And if you are talking about my hair, I cut it all off.”

No kidding.

She stops looking at me and starts digging inside her expensive leather pack.

I hold my hands up in the air. “Whoa. Do not pull out a silver blade.”

She rolls her big eyes at me. “I am not looking for a weapon, you big beast. I am getting my pack token to prove who I am. It has my old picture with long hair, but you can see my real name.”

The girl standing in front of my desk is super pretty, but her hair is totally different from the pictures the Moon Heralds showed me before. She chopped off all that long, dark fur. Now she has a super short, sharp haircut that makes her look like a tiny pup. If I did not know better, I would think she just shifted for the first time.

“You are super loud for an intruder,” I say, making a mad face.

“Just listen to me before you tell your guards to throw me in the dirt,” she snaps.

I look at her for a second. “Okay.”

She pulls out a small leather pouch.

I can tell this tiny little wolf is not going to hurt me. And after the big mess the news made this morning, I want to hear what Miss Blackwood has to say. This is going to be fun.

I look past her and see my brother Shane standing by the door. He has a giant, goofy smile on his face.

Yeah, I see her too. She is smoking hot. “I will talk to you later, Shane.”

“Why don't I stay?” Shane laughs. “You might need me to stop you two from biting each other.”

“I got this,” I tell him.

“Are you sure, big bro?”

“Yes, get out.”

Shane closes the heavy oak door super slow, staring at her bright pink tunic the whole time.

I shake my head at him.

“Here.” She drops her silver pack token right on my wooden desk.

I pick it up and look at the wolf markings to see her age and pack bloodline. “You really are Aichonne Blackwood.”

“I told you so. Now tell me why you want to ruin my life.” She sounds super mean and rude.

I put the token down and take a deep breath to stay calm. I push my fists onto the desk and lean forward. From up here, I can see the top of her chest. Her pink tunic is super tight and looks nice, showing off her skin without looking like a dirty rogue. The bright pink colour means she wants to fight.

She looks up at me with the biggest green eyes I have ever seen in the whole wolf world. She does not have any paint on her face, and her black eyelashes are super long. Her skin is really pale, so I know she just got back from the Frostpeak Highlands and has not been in the sun.

She clears her throat loudly and takes a step back from my desk.

She stands up super straight. “I asked you a question, Alpha. Give me my answer.”

I look down at the big wooden desk. It is just a big wall between us, and I hate it.

I walk around the desk and stand right in front of her. She is so short she only comes up to my chest, but she is staring up at me like she wants to bite my nose off.

She looks really beautiful in that tight tunic that stops right above her knees. She is wearing white hunting boots with leather straps around her ankles. They look super clean.

She crosses her arms over her chest, and I have to try really hard not to stare at her.

“Well?” She taps her boot on the floor over and over because she is impatient.

I lift my eyebrows high. “You have a lot of nerve,” I say. “You break into my royal den—”

“Newsflash, big wolf. This is a public park. I am not breaking in.”

Her voice sounds totally different from her pretty face. It sounds deep and smoky, like a campfire, while her clothes look like a royal palace. If she were not yelling at me, I would like to listen to her talk all day long.

I need to focus.

“You have no right to be on the royal floor,” I tell her, getting close. “You are lucky I do not call my Ironfang executioners to drag your pretty self down to the dungeons.”

“Leave my body out of this,” she snaps.

“I said you were pretty.”

“Too bad you will never touch me.”

She has a lot of bite.

My brain starts thinking about all the fun things I want to do with this feisty girl, but this is a business room.

“Ask me nicely,” I say.

She blinks her big green eyes. “What?”

“You are in my territory, Miss Blackwood. If you want answers from the Alpha Heir, ask nicely.”

She looks at me like she wants to kill me. “You are telling lies about me. About us.” She points her finger back and forth between our chests. “Make the news stop saying we are mated.”

My jaw gets super tight.

This little girl has a huge warrior spirit. Most female wolves just bow down to me, but she does not care that I am the future king. She stands on her own two feet. She is totally different from what I thought.

“I did not make up this fake news,” I say, pointing my finger at her nose. “You did it.”

She points her finger right back at me. “You are a mean, lying jerk. You are using me for some bad plan. What did my stepmother, Andrea, promise to give you if you destroy my life?”

Her nose wrinkles up, her eyes look like sharp knives, and her chest is moving up and down super fast because she is breathing hard.

Stop looking at her chest, Daryl.

“Did Andrea tell you that you were getting a pure, untouched bride who never had a mate before?”

“What the heck are you talking about?” I shake my head because she sounds totally crazy.

“Powerful Alphas love to find young, dumb girls who never had a male so they can change them and put their pups in their bellies,” she says, rolling her eyes. “And they usually have a tiny, weak little wolf form too.”

Hearing those words come out of her mouth makes my ears feel hot.

“Andrea told me that keeping myself away from males makes me worth more money to a dirty old wolf with a huge pack dominion. I guess you are her new buyer.”

What the heck does she think I am? A rogue trader?

“Well, I am not a pure little pup,” she says.

That is good to know.

“I do not tell my stepmother anything because it is none of her business,” she shrugs. “The joke is on you, old wolf.”

“Watch your mouth, little kitty cat,” I growl.

“Kitty cat?”

“You run in here ready to scratch my eyes out as an angry kitten stuck in a tree that I am trying to save—”

“I do not need saving,” she huffs. “I need the truth.”

“First, I have never seen your stepmother’s face. Second, I do not buy females for pack resources or sex. Third, I do not like weak little pups. And fourth, I am not old.” I am dirty sometimes, but not old. “I am only thirty-one winters old. Is that enough answers for you, kitty cat?”

Her green eyes look confused for a second. But then she looks mad again. “Then what do you get from this? Why are you lying to help Andrea?”

“I am not lying. I do not know that woman.”

“Well, this whole mess smells exactly like her sneaky plans.” Aichonne moves her hand in the air to wave it away. “It does not matter. How are you going to make the Moon Heralds take down the fake mating story?”

I let out a big breath, and my anger goes away a little bit. “We cannot take it down.”

“That is why I came here,” she says, looking around my big luxury room. “I do not have the power to stop the news, but you do. You are the royal heir.”

She has a cute little smile, even when she is mocking me.

“You have a whole bunch of strong pack lawyers and heralds. Tell them to do their magic. We are not getting mated at the Blood Moon Ascension.”

My brother Shane saw the big news alerts before I did this morning. He called my mind-link to warn me. I thought he was playing a prank, but he was serious. When I read the giant words on the screens, I was sure Aichonne Blackwood was the one who started the lie. But seeing her yell at me shows she was surprised by this trick, too. The problem is, she does not know the real secret. I do. And I am about to pop her little bubble.

“There is a much bigger problem here than you think,” I say.

“No, there is not. It is just a mistake. Fix it.”

“It is not a mistake, Aichonne.”

Her long eyelashes flutter when I say her real name out loud. This is the first time I have said it since she broke into my den.

“You do not have all the pieces of the puzzle,” I tell her.

She stares at me for a long time, looking completely shocked. Then she starts laughing super loud. She holds her stomach and laughs right in my face.

“You are funny, Alpha, but you must have a loose screw in your brain, or maybe your wolf ears are deaf. We. Are. Not. Getting. Mated,” she says, speaking every single word extra slow.

“I do not like how my father did this behind my back, but I never break a sacred moon pact, especially not this one,” I tell her.

“I swear to the Moon Goddess, you are just being a stubborn jerk to make me mad,” she yells, poking her finger right into my hard chest. “We do not know each other. We are not mating. The story is over.”