Chapter 3

As we walked through the forest, Huxley suddenly spoke.

"I'm giving you a choice. Leave or stay."

Huxley stood on a cliff's edge, looking down at his pack's home in the valley below.

I expected to see crumbling huts and starving people.

The sight stunned me.

Neat stone houses lined the hillside.

A grand hall stood in the center, surrounded by lush gardens.

Pack members worked in the fields. Children played by a stream.

This wasn't an abandoned wasteland.

It was a hidden paradise.

The real Shadowclaw territory.

"You've been hiding this?"

"The strong don't need to prove anything." Huxley leaped from the cliff, landing solidly on a rock below.

I followed behind him, stumbling.

He was there in a heartbeat. A large hand shot out, wrapping around my waist to steady me.

Even through my clothes, I could feel the heat of his body.

"Careful," he murmured, his voice low in my ear.

I looked up at his face. Up close, his half-wolf features weren't terrifying.

There was a wild charm to them.

"I can take care of myself," I said.

"I know." He let go, but stayed close as we walked. "But I want to."

My heart skipped a beat.

The pack was kind to me.

No scornful looks. No malicious gossip.

The old women taught me to cook their local dishes.

The young mothers shared tips on raising children.

"Luna, will you be joining the hunt?" a young pack member asked.

"The hunt?"

"It's tradition," Huxley said, walking over with a silver bow in his hand. "Mates hunt together. To prove their trust in each other."

I took the bow, feeling its weight.

"I've never hunted before."

"I'll teach you."

The forest was more dangerous than I imagined.

Huge shadows moved through the treetops.

The howls of beasts echoed in the distance.

"Stay quiet," Huxley led the way, his every move filled with a deadly grace. "The boar is just ahead."

I raised my bow, aiming for the wild boar rooting in the brush.

But just as I was about to shoot, a massive silver wolf burst from the side.

It wasn't after the boar.

It was after me.

I cried out, losing my balance and falling.

The wolf lunged, its jaws wide open.

"Ronnie!"

In the next second, Huxley was in front of me.

In a blur of motion, he shifted. A giant wolf, twice the size of the attacker.

Gray-black fur, golden eyes, and an overwhelming aura of power.

He swatted the silver wolf with one paw, shattering its spine and sending it flying.

The wolf let out a dying howl and vanished into the forest.

Huxley turned.

He didn't shift back right away.

The giant gray-black wolf walked heavily toward me.

He lowered his massive wolf head, nudging my cheek gently with his wet nose, checking if I was okay.

The rage in his golden eyes was gone, replaced by a focused, clumsy tenderness.

"Hurt?" His voice was a low rumble, even in his wolf form.

"No." I stared at him, my heart pounding.

Then I reached out and touched the coarse fur on his nose.

His golden eyes flickered.

The huge wolfish body began to shrink under the moonlight.

He shifted back into his tall, powerful, half-human form.

He stood over me, still radiating that animalistic pressure.

"You're not afraid of me?"

"No." I got to my feet and stood on my toes, leaning closer. "I'm afraid of losing this."

His breathing hitched.

His golden eyes burned with a suppressed hunger. "Ronnie, are you sure? Once we start, there's no turning back."

"I'm sure."

He kissed me.

The kiss was savage. Searing. A raw, undeniable claim.

He nipped at my lips with his teeth.

His tongue, rough and hot like a wild animal's, pried my mouth open.

His arms were like steel bands, locking me against him.

I could feel the rippling muscle and hot blood beneath his half-human skin.

This wasn't a human's kiss. It was a beast marking his territory.

As we came together in the moonlit forest, I finally understood what a true union was.

Not a cold ritual, not a painful bargain, but the soul and body's most primal surrender and possession.

The power roiling inside him could have torn me apart, but he held it back with sheer will. It became a searing tenderness instead, branding me deep in my soul.

"My queen," he growled, his voice thick with reverence. "My... fate."

I stayed. Without a doubt.

Whatever happened, this time, I wouldn't be a sacrifice for an Alpha King.

Three months later, a piece of news rocked the werewolf world.

"The Icefang Pack's Luna is pregnant!"

Messengers ran from pack to pack, their voices trembling with excitement.

Colton threw a massive party to celebrate, inviting representatives from every pack.

Huxley and I received an invitation.

"We're not going." Huxley crushed the invitation in his fist.

"No," I said, smoothing down the simple dress Huxley had made for me. "We're going. I want to see just how my 'poor' sister is doing."

The Icefang hall was glittering with lights.

Selena sat on the main throne, one hand on her slightly swollen belly, a triumphant smile on her face.

But I saw her weakness immediately.

No amount of makeup could hide the dark circles under her eyes or the deathly pale of her lips.

Colton was pumping her full of stimulants to fake her health.

"Ronnie!" She saw me and stood up. "You actually came! Come see, I'm going to be a mother!"

She thrust her belly forward, her eyes gleaming with triumph.

She walked up to me, her gaze sweeping dismissively over my flat stomach.

Then she glanced at Huxley beside me.

"Can you smell that, Ronnie?" she said, taking a dramatic breath. "It's the smell of life. The smell of power. And you… all I smell on you is the dust of the wastes and the reek of a monster."

A ripple of suppressed laughter went through the crowd. S

elena's vanity swelled.

Her smile grew more vicious, her voice louder.

"Don't you worry, though. When I'm crowned Queen, I won't forget you. I'll grant you a respectable position. In the palace, you'll be in charge of cleaning up my daughter's—the future Queen's—droppings."

She let out a sharp, cackling laugh.

"As for your monster," she sneered, pointing a disgusted finger at Huxley, "I might be merciful enough to give him the largest cage in the royal menagerie. It would be a novel amusement for my court, to see what a true freak of nature looks like."

I fought the urge to gag.

The moment she got close, I smelled it.

The familiar, cloying scent of dark magic and decay.

The smell of death.

It was even stronger now.