Chapter 4

Nadia

My words hung stale in the air.

The crowd around us gasped, their cheers falling away like dust. Quiet fell over the clearing, nothing but the sound of the boy’s whimpers and Kael’s heavy breathing filling the space between them.

Kael sniffed and turned to look at me. He ran his thumb over his bottom lip, wiping at the smear of blood splatter there as he gave me a slow once-over. His face was a stoic collage of features: jaw square and rigid, golden cheekbones splattered with dark freckles. A thin scar ran across the bridge of his nose.

His presence was… overwhelming.

I couldn’t help but stare. My heart pounded in my chest, breath rising quicker in my lungs. Behind me, the crowd shifted, as if waiting with bated breath to see what would happen next.

Kael’s eyes were the green of poison. Deep and dark. His gaze spilled over me like liquid, warm and heavy. I couldn’t help but feel it. Him.

“You better move, wolfless.” His voice was rough. His lips twisted in a soft sneer.

I blinked. Slowly, my head spun back into place. What had he called me?

“My name’s Nadia,” I said dully. “Not ‘wolfless.’”

Whatever the hell that meant.

Kael raised a brow, and his gaze flickered again over my face. He scoffed out a laugh. “You don’t know what that means, do you?”

I sucked in my cheeks, biting my tongue. Of course I didn’t know, but it still stung for him to call it out, here in front of everyone. Skittered voices sprouted up behind me, and the reminder that I didn’t belong prickled across my skin. My face burned.

“It means you’re the lowest kind of wolf here because you don’t have a wolf spirit.” His mouth stretched into a biting smile. “It means,” he said, stepping closer as he ran a bloody hand through the dark locks that fell over his forehead, “know your place.”

He was close enough now to tower over me. I had to crane my neck to meet his eyes, to feel the rush of words hit my face. He smelt of blood and sweat. Of dirt and forest.

“If you offend me again, you’re done,” he snapped.

With that, he left.

The crowd parted for him, voices murmuring as they watched him go. The man he had been fighting had crawled away to sit against a nearby tree. He cradled his gushing nose in his hand, red squeezing between dark knuckles.

My mind reeled as I watched Kael go.

My first day here and I’d already been threatened.

What the hell had I gotten myself into?

Kael

The fight hadn’t been Kael’s fault. Bodhi had started it by running his mouth about Kael’s status, spewing lies about how he didn’t deserve the title of heir. Anyone there to witness it knew a fight was due.

Bodhi had practically asked for it.

That was simply the way of the law here.

Kael could have killed him, and the law wouldn’t have cared one bit. The strong reigned over justice. Blood spilled was merely a lesson learned.

A wolf didn’t challenge another wolf without expecting death; everyone knew that.

Bodhi had known exactly what he was getting into.

Still, the disbelief on the wolfless girl’s face—the fury—stuck in Kael’s mind. Challenges on campus were common. He’d never met anyone who would willingly step between two fighting wolves.

But her—

Nadia.

She’d been a feisty thing.

Though small, scrawnier even than most wolfless, there’d been an undeniable fire in her eyes. Despite looking a mess—with the braid falling apart down her back, tangled strands framing her face; the tattered bag on her shoulder nearly unstitching itself; the torn white sleeves of her t-shirt pulled over closed fists—Kael hadn’t doubted that the girl would’ve placed herself in front of Bodhi had Kael continued.

Her glare had been determined. Angry.

No one had ever looked at him like that without expecting a fight.

She’d looked at him like he deserved the blame. As if she knew anything about this world she’d just stepped into.

She wouldn’t last a week here without drowning. Not if she made it a habit of shoving her way into business that wasn’t hers to begin with.

The wolfless would learn that lesson the hard way, he was sure.

Kael huffed under his breath. The air was cold. His sharp exhales were a trail of white billowing out of his lips. But despite the rush of wind, sweat still sat thick on his skin. The heat of the fight lingered in his blood.

It made his head spin, leaving the fight unfinished as it was, with Bodhi’s threats still clotted in Kael’s brain like sot.

He’d finish it later. For now, he had other things to do.

Being the heir to the Fullmoon pack, Kael was one step away from becoming an Alpha. And he didn’t plan on letting anything get in the way of him becoming the next king of this country.

He would be the ruler the wolf packs needed, uniting them under one Alpha instead of the fractured mess the country was left with after the Lycan King and Queen died. The upheaval had been eighteen years ago, and still, the wolves were paying for it.

The Alphas in charge now were mediocre at best, Kael believed. The packs were weak under ununified leadership. He would change this. He would find the last missing piece—the princess, his fiancée—and guide the packs back to their former glory.

Though it’d been nearly two decades with no word on the princess, Kael hadn’t lost hope. He’s made sure no one forgot that she was still out there somewhere, waiting to be found. To be returned to her land. At his request, a reward had been posted, posters collected and erected all over campus and through the villages.

Someone had to know something. No one would be able to resist the intended reward. It couldn’t be much longer until she came home.

Kael trailed to a stop outside the belltower. The air shifted around him, breeze carrying a familiar, pleasant scent.

He recognized it from earlier. He’d smelt it just before the wolfless pushed him off of Bodhi. Had smelt it even stronger when he pressed into her space, warning her to back off.

His wolf spirit stirred beneath his skin, and a fresh wave of heat spread through his veins. Kael twisted his neck, inhaling despite himself.

Nadia, his wolf spirit purred. Kael rolled his shoulders and tried desperately to ignore his thoughts, to ignore the spirit shifting within him. She’d make a fine Luna for you.

Kael sputtered out a disgruntled laugh. Fuck no, he thought back, pushing down against his wolf.

Nadia as his?

That was out of the question.

No way in hell would he ever allow himself to have a wolfless Luna.