Chapter 1: Cedric

I’m at home, in my pack. It’s the day of my Alpha ceremony. I turned 18 several months ago.  My father wanted to give me time to find my mate, but after traveling to nearly every pack in the country, I haven’t found her.

He finally agreed to make me Alpha, knowing I would continue to be exposed to other packs and would have an opportunity to find my mate. So, here we are, standing on the stage in front of our pack, my mother and younger brother are standing proudly behind us as my father begins the ceremony. Hundreds of our pack members are in attendance. It’s not every day that a new Alpha is sworn in. Every pack member will swear their allegiance to me, their new Alpha.

As my father says the words, cutting my hand with the ceremonial blade, they come, the hunters. They shoot arrows laced with wolfsbane, and bullets made from silver. My father, our warriors and I all shift and begin fighting. They must have killed our patrols, otherwise the howl of alarm would have given us notice. But we had none. They planned this, perfectly.

Every available wolf in my pack is here at the ceremony. I begin tearing through the hunters. If we can get to them, they are no match for our strength and speed, but we have to get to them. The guns and arrows are making it difficult, and I see wolves falling all around me. Most are not dead, they are injured, unconscious and shifting back to their human forms.

At some point through the fighting, I realize that they are handcuffing the injured with silver, keeping them from healing. They think they can take my pack members for their experiments.

With furious energy, I begin ripping the hunters apart. I hear screams and wails all around me, but one in particular catches my attention. I whip my head around just in time to see my mother’s throat sliced by a hunter. My father is fighting several hunters, but at the moment that her life slips away, he falters, and the hunters take him down. I howl a wail of pain and grief. The pack joins in and begins fighting with renewed vigor.

From the corner of my eye, I see the hunters dragging injured and unconscious wolves away. I rush forward, intending to assist when an arrow punctures my ribs, going into my lungs. I fall to the ground, but get up, continuing to run toward the hunters dragging our pack mates away. Another arrow hits my flank and I yelp in pain, coughing up blood. Again, I get up but only take another couple of steps when a third arrow hits my shoulder and the wolfsbane in my system overwhelms me and my wolf.

I snap awake, the dream causing me to jump to my feet, snarling. I look around and realize I’m in my cage under the Arena. I come back to reality, remembering that I was captured nearly a year ago and I fought today. It was a warlock and I had severe burns all over my body. I wasn’t sure I was going to win. I’m actually surprised that I’m still alive.

I turn and see Tana sitting at the bars that separate our cells. Her hand is in my cell. I look down at my body. She healed me again. It’s not the first time. I don’t know how she does it, but she is a powerful she-wolf. The most powerful she-wolf I’ve ever met.

After I take inventory of my healing wounds, I look at her and see that she has deep claw marks going from her shoulder to her hip. She was scheduled to fight after me today and she looks like she also barely won her fight. I run to the bars, taking her hand.

“Tana. Tana, can you hear me?” She has dried blood caking her entire torso and most of the front of her leather leggings. I hear a clink and I see the supe on her other side trying to steal her food while she’s unconscious.

I snarl at him, but he just smirks at me. He doesn’t realize that no one steals from Tana, not while I’m awake to protect her food. I grab a rock and swing it with all my might, breaking the shifters hand as he reaches for her food. His howl of pain means nothing to me. He is new and won’t last long. Tana has been by my side this entire time.

I can’t be sure without my full strength, but I think she must be my mate. I feel a pull to her, even without it.

I reach my hand through the bars again, tapping her face lightly. “Tana, wake up.”

She moans softly, her head turning toward me before her eyes open slowly.

“There she is.” I say, smiling at her.

She gives me a weak smile.

“You healed me again, didn’t you?” I ask her.

“You looked pretty bad, even after my fight.”

“You need to stop draining yourself to heal me, Tana. I will heal, it just takes time.”

She turns her head back, her eyes falling closed, nodding slightly.

“What can I do to help you recover?” I always ask her this. It bothers me as an Alpha male that she helps me heal, but I can’t help her.

“Keep that shit-for-brains away from my food.”

I smile, it’s good that she’s being snarky. “Already done.”

She opens her eyes, looking over at the other shifter. “Wow, you really are dumb. You tried to steal my food?”

He’s holding his broken hand in his other hand. “I’m hungry.” He whines.

“We’re all hungry, idiot. We only get fed two to three times a week in here. Haven’t you been here long enough to realize that?” Tana asks him.

She turns back to me. “Was it a warlock or a faery?” She asks me.

I cringe. For her to know it was one or the other, my burns must have been bad. “Warlock.” I tell her. ”What about you?”

She sighs and I can tell she’s trying to hold back tears. Neither of us enjoys what we do. This is survival, not for fun. We’re shifters and that may mean we kill others when needed, but this is different.

“Hey, none of that.” I say, reaching out to grab her hand. “We do what we have to do to survive in here.” She and I know that better than anyone else.

“I think I killed the last Kodiak bear shifter alive. I’m not sure if they screwed up or if they didn’t dose him enough, but he was able to partially shift.” She says, using her hand to showcase the claw marks down her torso.

“He shifted?” I ask.

“Partially.”

“And they let him continue?” I ask. This is new. Usually if they don’t dose us enough to keep us from shifting then they either kill you or they shoot you with whatever it is that keeps them weak.

“They did.”

I sit back. This isn’t good. It means that Tana is marked for death, they just need to find a shifter strong enough to do it.

“We need to get out of here.” I whisper.

She turns her head to look at me. “Yeah, did you come up with some new way to get us out of here, because we’ve been wracking our brains for months.”

I can’t let her die. I won’t. I’ve lost too many people that I care about and I refuse to lose her too.