Challenge

Ezra

Revenge burned inside me. Unforgiving. And it was inevitable. It was like frost I had carried inside me for years, tucked deep behind my ruthlessness. 

I had waited years to take back what was stolen from me and mother — the Blue Moon pack. Not because of power.  I had more of that than all Alphas in the continent. But for justice. I wanted to tear it down. And it was time. 

I never acted out of emotion. I calculated. I dismantled. I destroyed. I didn't believe in fairy tales or mates, but only strength and loyalty. I rose through blood and pain, building my empire and business with my bare hands. I trusted no one. I relied on instinct and strategy. At 26, I was the Alpha of the New Moon pack. 

My wolf was the strongest in North America. He was a beast few had dared to face and even fewer had survived. I had built the strongest pack in North America by staying detached. I never fell. Not for weakness or for a woman.

The only person I ever loved with all my heart was my mother, Lily. She was the only warmth I ever knew. She was fierce and soft in ways the world could never understand. She had once been the Luna of the Blue Moon pack. My father had maligned my mother's name. Her honor. And even after my father expelled her out with nothing but shame on her back and me in her arms, she still loved him. 

Mother didn’t ask for pity. She didn’t look back. She raised me alone in the wild, without the protection of any pack. No one offered us shelter because rogues were seen as scum. But she raised me with dignity, and love in her eyes. And even after everything, she never spoke badly of Lou. She still loved him though he didn’t deserve it. She just existed so quietly and tragically that it broke my heart every time I saw her. Whenever I tried to bring down Blue Moon, she stopped me, time and again. 

She would look at me with those gentle eyes and say, “Ezra, he may have wronged me, but vengeance won’t bring me peace.” And each time, I held back for her. 

After Lou’s death, she faded fast. She stopped eating, and a month later she died. When she died, something inside me broke. The leash snapped. All the rage I buried burst free. Her death wasn’t natural. It was grief. And grief, I couldn’t forgive. I didn’t want peace. I wanted retribution. Now no one could stop me from destroying the pack and the pack members who never came forward to defend my mother’s honor. I hated all of them with every fiber of my body. 

So I came with five hundred of my strongest warriors who were trained, ruthless, loyal to me only to take over the Blue Moon pack. To kill Zeke, and his minions. To raze the pack to the ground. 

The night before, I circled the Blue Moon pack’s perimeter in silence, cloaked in shadow and the scent of pine and damp earth. I gave way to my wolf, Shade, to scout the land, and see where I could find a soft spot to attack easily. 

His mind was razor-sharp and he was moving like smoke between trees, when suddenly a strong smell of jasmine flowers hit his nostrils. He froze mid-step.

It wasn’t possible. Jasmine didn’t grow here. And yet the scent was unmistakable. It was fresh and delicate, reminding me of a memory. I offered jasmine to the Moon Goddess every time I stood before her. It was mom’s favorite flower.

Shade twitched, ears perked. But I shook the memory and snarled internally, asking him to ignore it. ‘Focus,’ I urged him. However, my wolf moved on his own, slinking toward the smell until we reached a lake just outside the pack territory. Here the scent grew stronger, coiling into me, wrapping my soul, tugging at me despite my better judgment. 

Shade scanned the area for the field of flowers, but instead, he saw her. She broke through the water’s surface like a vision from a forgotten dream. Pale moonlight bathed her. She was crying softly, unaware I was watching her. I had never seen such a beautiful girl in my life. With dark, wet hair plastered to her face, big blue eyes, and voluptuous body, she was a wolf’s sex dream. And goddess, she smelled like jasmine. Like something sacred. Like something forbidden. No one had elicited this reaction in me, and it made me furious. 

Shade raged to go closer, to roll in her scent, surprising the hell out of me. 

‘No!’ I commanded him. But he climbed an outcrop hidden by trees, his eyes fixed on her. 

When she swam and came to the shore, something fierce and invasive pulsed in my veins, like a dangerous threat in my blood. 

And then suddenly, Shade let out a feral howl, low, deep and guttural, echoing through the forest.

She gasped, startled. Then she scrambled out of the water, and ran in her undergarments. Shade ran after her for a while, maintaining distance, but when she turned toward the Blue Moon pack, he stopped, fury rolling off him in waves. She was from the enemy pack, and so she was my personal enemy. 

He contemplated going in after her, which was the most illogical thing he had ever thought, but I forced him to turn back. We didn’t need this distraction. We needed to focus, and eventually kill her. 

The next morning, I gathered my warriors. We set up camp around the Blue Moon pack, hidden just beyond the borders. That night, I went in the pack. Two of Zeke’s patrol guards tried to stop me, but they didn’t live long enough to raise an alarm.

Once inside the territory, I was focused until that fucking smell hit me again. Of jasmine flowers. It curled around my mind like invisible clutches. It overwhelmed my senses, overpowered every other scent, quashing my control and logic. I clenched my fists to ignore it. 

But my wolf purred inside me. What the actual fuck? What was wrong with him? He dragged me forward, threatening to take my skin if I didn’t comply. The trail led me to Pete’s bar. I paused at the door reasoning I shouldn’t go in, I shouldn’t care. But my wolf didn’t listen. He clawed at my insides, snarling, ‘Go’. I swore under my breath and stepped through the door.

And there she was. The girl from the lake. Time slowed.

Her hair was tied up, exposing the long curve of her neck. Her dress clung to her like silk over fire. It was so short, that every wolf was looking at her with lust. I wanted to gouge their eyes, kill them, and cover her skin. And why was she so beautiful? With curves made for my hands? Wait. What? 

I shook my head, hating her for distracting me, for invading my thoughts. I wanted to rip the scent of her out of the air, tear it away from me.

But my wolf? He wanted to press her against a wall and breathe her, claim her until nothing else existed. I gritted my teeth and before I knew it, I stalked forward, fury exploding in my chest. I had never done anything so reckless. Moving alone in a den of enemy wolves. 

Wolves moved away from me like leaves before a storm. She looked up just as I neared. Her eyes locked with mine, and widened in fear. I could snap her neck like butter. 

However, suddenly, Zeke stepped between us, and my focus fractured. The sight of him was bile in my throat. My blood surged. My wolf snarled, and my hatred returned with full force. 

After that, fists flew. Bodies crashed. Wood splintered. My knuckles connected with his jaw, my elbow cracked his ribs. He fought like an Alpha trained by privilege. I fought like a beast trained by pain.

I heard a shriek of jasmine flowers from behind, and Shade forced me to stop. What I said next, bewildered me as hell. 

“This pack is mine,” I growled. “Next full moon, I challenge you. And until then, I stay. If you touch me, my warriors will burn your pack. They’re camped right outside.”

I didn’t want to stay, I wanted to challenge him now and end it. But why didn't I? I turned my head toward jasmine flowers, and looked at her one last time, her scent wrapping around my fury like a noose. Then I turned and walked out, blood running down my cheek. I had to put as much distance as possible between us. 

I fucking hated myself for this blunder. Tomorrow, I will kill her for sure. 

However, I just couldn’t deny this faint pull of something—like a whisper in the back of my mind urging me to go back and see her.