C4

Daryl Silverfang

“You have a super loud mouth,” I growl.

My eyes move back and forth from her tiny finger to her moving lips, and then to her bright green eyes. She thinks she can bully a royal heir in his own den. I want to pull her right onto my lap and show her who is the real boss of this pack.

“Good for you, you can see things,” she snaps right back. “But that does not change the truth. We are not getting mated.”

This girl is making my head hurt. “Did you even talk to your pack elder?”

Her mean little smile disappears fast.

She stays completely quiet.

“If you talked to your father before running into my keep, breaking my pack laws, screaming like a crazy wild rogue, and making a huge scene, you would know how big this problem is.”

She squishes her lips together because she knows I am right. “I tried to call his mind-link, but he is having a giant fight back at our pack house.”

“I bet all my pack resources that your father is the one who told the news heralds to do this.”

“My—my dad did this?”

A little bit of her brave face cracks open.

“I am totally sure,” I say, taking a step closer. “He gets the biggest prize from this big public trick.”

“You are talking nonsense,” she says, shaking her head. “Pack Elder Hershel would never do that to me.”

“He would if he needed a big favour from the royal family.”

“What kind of favour?”

“Your father and I made a sacred moon pact.”

“A pact?”

“Yes,” I nod. “An ironclad pact. That is why I do not know why he forced my hand by telling the news heralds early.”

“What did you promise him?”

“As I said, you should have talked to your dad before you came to bark at me.”

“Well, I am standing right here, and I am asking you. You are hiding the truth like a sneaky rogue liar.”

“I am not the one playing dirty tricks, sweetheart. Your father is the master of lies.”

Her green eyes look like a giant thunderstorm.

She runs at me super fast, like a wild beast trying to bite my face off.

I am way too fast for her.

I reach out and grab her small wrist right before her hand hits my cheek, and I hold her palm flat against my chest.

She jumps a little when our skin touches.

My wolf jumps inside me, too.

For a second, we both just stare because we are standing so close.

It is a good thing I am super mad right now, or I would be enjoying how warm her body feels against mine.

She breathes in and out really hard, like she wants to hit me again.

“I would not try that again if I were you,” I growl, trying to keep my voice steady even though my heart is beating like a drum.

“Stop lying to me,” she says, trying to pull her hand away, but she is too weak.

Even when I have her locked down, she still wants to fight me with everything she has.

“The blood ink is already dry on the pack skin,” I tell her. “Since two days ago, my royal pack owns the Mooncrest Alpha Citadel.”

She blinks once.

She blinks twice.

She keeps blinking like she cannot believe it.

“My dad gave away our citadel?” The news makes her legs look shaky.

I nod my head. “Yes, he did.”

She looks into my eyes for a long time.

I do not look away from her angry face.

Then she lets out a crazy, loud laugh. “You are a total liar.”

Wow, I have no idea what this girl is thinking.

“And you are completely blind,” I tell her.

“You are a stuck-up jerk.”

Okay, time to stop being nice. “If you got off your high horse and looked at your pack house, you would see your father is drowning. He owes a ton of pack resources that he cannot pay back. But no, you come in here acting like a big alpha, but you know nothing. You are just barking loudly.”

Her shoulders go stiff because I insulted her.

“That is right, sweetheart. You are not the only wolf who can bite,” I say.

We stand there staring at each other like two wolves ready to fight in the dirt, our noses wrinkling and our breath mixing in the hot room.

“I do not believe a word,” she whispered.

Pack Elder Hershel was supposed to sit down and tell his daughter about his bad trouble. I was not supposed to be the one to tell her.

Aichonne is still looking at me like she wants to poke my eyes out with a sharp stick.

“Every wolf has a price, Miss Blackwood,” I say coldly. “Hershel made a big promise to your Moon Blessed Luna mother before she passed away. But a lot of bad things happened, and he could not keep that promise. His back was up against the wall. He needed a quick way out, and I wanted to buy a new citadel in the Alpha Metropolis.”

Her mouth makes a big O shape.

I knew she would not be sweet, but she is extra mean because she does not know how much trouble her dad is in.

“We made a merger-mating deal,” I say. “It is part of the contract. Your father had a lot of rules, and I said yes to all of them.”

“A merger-mating?”

“Yes.”

“What does that even mean?”

“The merger means I give your family pack resources so your citadel does not go bankrupt and get ruined.”

“Ruined?” Her voice sounds super small and scared.

I nod.

“So the citadel is not ours anymore?”

“Not until your dad pays back every single piece of silver.”

“But that will take forever,” she says.

“There is a way to make the years go away super fast.”

“How?” She is not yelling at me anymore.

“That is where the mating comes in.” I stay quiet for a second so she feels the weight of it. “You and me… together with an Eternal Moonmark.”

She catches her breath. Her green eyes get as big as saucers.

“I am locked to you because of my dad’s trouble?”

I tilt my head side to side. “Pretty much.”

She looks at me in total shock.

“No. No way,” she says, shaking her head fast. “That is not happening. We are never getting mated. Not now, and not in the next life.”

Let me tell you the real numbers, girl. “I am putting two hundred million silver pieces into your pack, and you have to be my Luna wife for three hundred and sixty-five days.”

Her jaw drops all the way down.

“My dad sold me to a royal wolf?”

“He did what he had to do to save his people.”

The whole room goes completely quiet.

I can see a million feelings passing through her green eyes.

I do not know her enough to know what they all mean, but I can tell I am her least favourite wolf in the whole world right now.

I do not rush her.

I let her think about it.

Once she knows this is real life, we can talk about what to do next.

“Let go of my arm,” she says.

That was not the answer I expected.

“I said, let go of my arm right now.” Her voice sounds like a sharp silver blade.

I open my fingers and let her go.

She looks up at me like a rebel. “This meeting is over.”

My eyebrows jump up high. “Are you kidding me?”

She squares her shoulders. “Do I look like I am playing a game?”

She turns around on her boot before I can even answer her.

“Where do you think you are going?”

"I know you are trying to trick me. My father would never give away the Mooncrest Alpha Citadel. Never. He would die first. And if he was in trouble, he would have told me." Aichonne yells over her shoulder while she runs toward the glass doors. "I would not have to hear it from a total stranger like you." She stops fast and turns around to look at me one last time. "I bet you love to step on small packs, you mean royal monster."

A royal monster?

"But we are going to fight you. I do not know what kind of sick, twisted game you are playing, you cruel alpha jerk, but I am leaving."

I am so shocked that I cannot even find any words to say.

Wow.

Her tongue is sharper than a hunting knife, and she is as rough as wild briars.

"I hope the Moon Goddess never lets me see your face again, Daryl Silverfang." She flashes me a mean sign with her finger and runs out of the room like the fires of the Shadowfang Wilds are burning her boots. She slams the heavy glass door so hard I think the walls are going to break.

Who does she think she is?

She runs in and out of my royal den like she owns the whole keep.

I should be super angry. I should be roaring.

But that tiny girl just did something crazy to my wolf.

Every single cell in my body is shaking.

My blood is rushing super fast. I feel hot.

My brain tries to stop it, but my wolf wants her badly. I can see a vision of her with no clothes on, pushed down on my wooden desk, my tongue tasting her sweet skin before I claim her like it is my only job in the world. That would teach her a real lesson. And I know she would love it just as much as I.