Chapter 4: Silver Blood

SERA POV

"I need to go home," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Let me go. Please."

"No."

The flat refusal stunned me. "What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no, you're not going anywhere." Kade stood, and I realized just how tall he was. Easily six-three, broad shouldered, moving with a predator's grace. "Do you have any idea what you are, Sera?"

"I'm..." I stopped. What was I? An Omega? A rejected mate? A girl who'd somehow exploded with silver light and made an entire pack drop to their knees. "I don't know."

"You're a Silver Blood." He said it like it should mean something. When I just stared at him blankly, he sighed. "Your grandmother never told you the old stories?"

My grandmother. A flash of memory, sitting by the fire while she told tales of ancient wolves with silver eyes who could challenge the Moon Goddess herself. I'd thought they were just fairy tales.

"Those are legends," I whispered.

"Legends based on truth." Kade moved to the window, looking out at the forest. "Silver Bloods were real. They were the original werewolf royalty, before the Alphas and the Council. They had power that made Alphas look weak, the ability to break mate bonds, to reject pack hierarchies, to challenge any wolf's authority."

"That's impossible."

"You made an entire pack submit with one scream last night," Kade said, glancing back at me. "You shattered a mate bond that should have been unbreakable. You glowed silver. Still think it's impossible?"

I looked down at my hands. They looked normal now, just regular human hands, a bit pale, nothing special. But I could feel it, burning just beneath my skin. Power. Massive, terrifying power that I didn't understand and couldn't control.

"The Council hunted Silver Bloods to extinction," Kade continued. "Or so everyone thought. They were too dangerous, too powerful, too much of a threat to the established order. So they killed them all. Men, women, children. Erased them from history."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you need to understand what you are. And what they'll do to you if they find out." He turned to face me fully. "Right now, half the region knows a Silver Blood awakened at the Silvermoon ceremony. By tomorrow, the Council will know. And they will come for you."

Fear spiked through me, cold and sharp. "Then I need to hide, I need to protect my family..."

"You need to learn to control your power," Kade cut in. "Because right now, you're a bomb waiting to go off. One strong emotion, one moment of panic, and you could kill everyone around you."

I shook my head frantically. "I would never."

"You wouldn't mean to. But intent doesn't matter when you're dealing with that much raw power." He moved closer, and I pressed myself harder against the headboard. He stopped a few feet away, giving me space. "I can teach you, I can show you how to control it, how to use it, how to survive."

"Why would you help me?"

Something dark flickered in his eyes. "Let's just say the Council and I have unfinished business. And you're the key to making them pay for what they've done."

"I'm not a weapon."

"No," he agreed. "You're much more than that. But you could be, if you choose to be." He studied me for a long moment. "Or you can go back to your pack, hope they'll protect you, and wait for the Council to show up and kill you. Your choice."

I wanted to tell him he was wrong. That my pack would protect me. That my father, my friends, even Thorne...

But Thorne had rejected me. In front of everyone. He'd chosen a political alliance over the mate bond the Moon Goddess herself had forged.

Why would he protect me now?

"I want to see my sister," I said finally. "If I'm staying here, I need to know Lila is safe."

Kade nodded slowly. "I can arrange that but Sera..." His voice took on a harder edge. "If you try to run, if you try to contact your old pack behind my back, if you do anything that puts my wolves in danger, the deal is off. Understood?"

I met his eyes, those dark, dangerous eyes that promised violence as easily as protection. "Understood."

"Good." He moved toward the door, then paused. "There's a bathroom through that door. Clothes in the closet should fit you. When you're ready, come downstairs. We'll get you some food, and then we'll start your training."

"Training?"

"You think that power is just going to sit quietly inside you?" He smiled, but there was no humor in it. "It's going to keep trying to break free. Better you learn to control it before it controls you."

He left, closing the door softly behind him.

I sat there for a long moment, trembling. Everything had changed in one night. My mate had rejected me. My dormant bloodline had awakened. And now I was trapped in a rogue's territory with a dangerous man who wanted to use me as a weapon against the Council.

I should have been terrified.

And I was.

But underneath the fear was something else. Something that had sparked to life the moment Thorne rejected me. Anger, Rage. A burning desire to make them all see that I wasn't weak, wasn't worthless, wasn't something to be thrown away.

I looked down at my hands again. This time, when I concentrated, silver light flickered across my skin. Just for a second, but it was there.

Real power.

Maybe Kade was right. Maybe I did need to learn to control this. Not to be his weapon but to protect myself. To protect Lila. To make sure no one could ever hurt me like Thorne had again.

I slid off the bed, washed my face, trying to scrub away the evidence of tears. In the closet, I found clothes like Kade had said, practical things.

When I finally emerged from the room, I found Kade waiting in the hallway, leaning against the wall like he had all the time in the world.

"Ready?" he asked.

No. I wasn't ready for any of this.

But I nodded anyway.

He led me through the house and it was a house, not a prison. Expensive furniture, art on the walls, windows that let in natural light. We passed other wolves in the hallways. They all stared at me, some with curiosity, others with wariness.

They were afraid of me, I realized. These hardened rogue wolves were actually afraid of me.

The thought should have made me uncomfortable. Instead, it made me stand a little taller.

We ended up in a large kitchen where a woman in her fifties was cooking something that smelled amazing. She looked up when we entered, her face breaking into a warm smile.

"You're awake! Good. Sit, sit. You must be starving." She gestured to a chair at the large wooden table. "I'm Elena. I checked you over last night, you're healing beautifully."

I sat, overwhelmed by her motherly energy. She placed a plate in front of me.

"Eat," Kade said, taking a seat across from me. "You're going to need your strength."

I picked up a fork. The food was incredible, and I found myself devouring it while Kade watched with what might have been amusement.

"So," he said when I'd finished. "Let's talk about what happens next."

I set down my fork. "You train me. I learn to control this power. And then what?"

"And then you decide what you want to do with it." He leaned forward, his eyes intense. "You can use it to hide, to protect yourself and disappear. Or you can use it to fight back. To expose the Council for what they are, to change the entire werewolf world."

"That's a lot of pressure for someone who just had their life destroyed."

"Your old life was destroyed," he corrected. "This is your chance to build a new one. A better one."

Before I could respond, a man burst into the kitchen, tall, scarred, with silver in his dark hair. "Kade, we have a problem."

Kade was on his feet instantly. "What kind of problem?"

"Thorne Ashford is at the border. With about fifty wolves." The man's eyes flicked to me. "He's demanding we return Sera. And he says if we don't, it's war."