Chapter 1

Kael’s POV

 

BAM!!

 

Another hit connected with my jaw and I was sent staggering backwards.

 

I recovered my balance and charged at him once again, determined. I won't submit this time, no, not anymore.

 

In the twinkle of an eye, I dished out two blows to his face and he was able to block none. The crowd gasped, clearly not expecting that.

 

He snapped his head up, staring at me with a deadly stare, one that said, “I'm so going to kill you, you son of a gun!”

 

But I was done being pushed around, used as the scapegoat whenever something goes wrong. It's probably time to step out of the bastard’s shadows.

 

I charged at him again, this time, blinded by rage. He stopped my fist midair, strongly, staring at me with those deadly alpha eyes of his.

 

I had the chance to twist the situation and flip him over, but before I could move, he whispered into my ears, “Yield, or things will get bad for you, very bad.”

 

I wanted to call his bluff, but I changed my mind. As much as I hated him at that moment, I wasn't exactly thrilled to humiliate him in front of the entire crowd and The Seven Rings who were clad in their all-black robes, their faces covered, blending well with the darkness.

 

I had at first been thrown into this cage to fight against an amateur warrior who obviously got trained by a fool. I had taken him down easily without breaking a sweat and I guess that riled Damon up.

 

Alpha Damon.

 

He just had to prove to everyone that he was the alpha. I bet the plan was to embarrass me in front of the entire crowd, use me as a scapegoat for the failed supply raid two weeks ago.

 

He furiously got into the cage, determined to make me yield, but I wasn't willing to, not anymore.

 

He pushed me to the ground, flaunting his robes as if he had just defeated me, when we both knew he had threatened me to yield.

 

“Remember your place in this village, Kael Everdeen. A few more mistakes here and there and you might as well just get yourself into deep trouble.” He voiced out, daringly.

 

I nodded as I pushed myself up from the ground. My wolf howled in protest, angry at me for yielding and not displaying my true potential. But I suppressed it, and didn't shift. I couldn’t. I couldn’t give them the image of the “savage hybrid” they feared I was.

 

Later that night, I sat alone on the cliff-side that just barely overlooked the pack’s valley, reminiscing my birth.

 

I remembered how I was told that I was born under a blood moon. Some elders said it was an omen of death.. Others claimed it was fate punishing the pack for some forgotten sin that they must have committed.

 

I scoffed. Me? A punishment? If I had to count all the things that had been said about my birth, it’d be a near impossible thing to do.

 

But of course, none of them said it to my face and this was not because they respected me. No. I doubt they had even a sliver of it for me. It was because they feared what I might become.

 

Even as a boy, they looked at my skin like it was a curse carved into flesh. My skin was way darker than theirs. Too rich, too strange. A stain on their snow-white bloodlines that they held a lot of pride in.

 

“Don’t get too close to him,” They’d spit. “His kind doesn’t last long. He’s a stain on us. Get too close and you might just be afflicted as well.”

 

They'd call different names.

 

Impure.

Cursed.

An omen.

 

That had followed me through a major part of my childhood. It was hard making sense of anything when you had the weight of things like this breathing down your neck.

 

Now, at twenty-three, the whispers still hadn’t stopped. I doubt they ever even would. Now, they’d just grown sharper. Dressed in mock respect.

 

I was Kael Everdeen, son of a long-dead warrior, orphaned by a mother whose name was never spoken aloud. I had clawed my way to the edge of the pack’s inner circle. I didn’t do any of that through favor. No. It was through fear.

 

And the only one who had ever reached a hand toward me… was now Alpha.

Damon.

 

A branch snapped behind me. I didn’t bother turning.

 

“Kael.” His voice came.

 

Of course it was him. Always his voice.

 

I stood slowly for a while, then turned back a little. Damon was standing there alone.

 

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. “I simply did what you asked of me, “a display of power” as you described it.”

 

He looked pained. “You embarrassed me, Kael”

 

I let out a bitter laugh, trying not to lunge for him right now. The thought was tempting but I managed to hold on to the little restraint I still had.

 

He stepped forward. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

 

“No,” I snapped. “I think I do.”

 

I turned to leave.

 

“I only did what I had to,” he shouted after me, voice holding a desperation that twisted the knot in my chest even deeper.

 

“You did what you had to do?!” I yelled, turning back to him. “Or you mean you did what the people wanted?!”

 

“You know the way the Wolves look at you, the way The Seven Rings hate you. I want you to remember you're only still alive in this pack because I deemed it so. Because I'm the alpha. And I have to make sure it stays that way.” He took a few steps closer. “If The Seven Rings start thinking I'm favoring you because of how close we were before I became alpha, it might spell a great doom for you.”

 

There he goes again, acting like he cares, when he clearly only cares about his alpha status, the same status I had helped him attain.

 

“You only wanted to prove that you were the alpha, the greatest. You keep acting like The Seven Rings’ puppet. Are you even sure you're the alpha? Or you're just a “face of the council”?”

 

“You will not speak to me that way!!” He roared, his eyes reddening as his fangs and claws grew out.

 

I wasn't scared. Nor was I moved.

 

“Or what, Damon?!” I called him by his name. “You'd throw me back into the ring and beat the hell out of me in front of the crowd? Well, guess what, I'm no stranger to that routine!”

 

“Watch your tone Kael, you're only enjoying the grace of what we once shared. What I believe we still share.” His claws and fangs returned to place, his eyes holding a soft, deceitful look.

 

I ignored the look. “You do what you have to do Damon,” I said, turning to walk away.

 

“I’ll do what I have to do as well.”