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Alle Kapitel von The Wolf's Game: Kapitel 1 – Kapitel 10

120 Kapitel

1: The Rejection

AriaThe moon burns tonight. Its silver light pours down on the altar like judgment. I can feel it, and it feels too heavy, as if even the goddess can’t bear to watch what’s about to happen.The clearing is silent except for the rustle of hundreds of bodies. My pack. My family. My witnesses. Every face is turned toward me. Every gaze is waiting for my perfection to crack.The hem of my ceremonial cloak trembles between my fingers. I bite my lip until I taste iron, praying no one sees my hands shake.Tonight should have been my ascension, the night I become Luna of the Jasper Pack. The night my fated mate chooses me. I have trained for this moment since the day I found out Riven was my mate. I was sixteen and he was eighteen. I was swimming in the pond behind the pack house, enjoying the summer air, when he burst through the trees with his nose in the air. His eyes searched the water frantically, searching for something. Searching for me. When he spotted me in the water, a gro

2: Goodbye

AriaThe night hasn’t ended yet, but I can’t breathe in my cabin anymore.The humiliation still clings to me like skin that can’t be shed. Every time I close my eyes, I see Riven’s hand closing around Morgan’s instead of mine, see the pack’s faces turning away as if my heartbreak were contagious.I need my father.The stone path to his house seem to glow in the early morning light. My boots scrape against it, loud in the silence. The forest feels emptier than usual, like even the trees are ashamed for me. The lights of the Beta’s estate flicker through the mist, and I think absurdly that it looks like salvation.When I reach the porch, the door opens before I can knock.“Aria.”His voice stills everything inside me. Elias Vale, Beta of the Jasper Pack, the man who raised me to stand tall even when bleeding, fills the doorway, shoulders squared, jaw tight. His wolf is close; I see it in the yellow rim of his eyes.“I didn’t want you to see …”“I saw enough.” His hands clench into fists.

3: The Watcher

KaelAnother batch of desperate souls staggers through the veil, and I can already tell they’re going to die. They always do.They stumble into the courtyard wide-eyed, clutching bags and weapons, like those will make a difference. I lean against one of the obsidian pillars overlooking the grand steps and let out a low whistle. The castle hums under my skin. It is alive, hungry for the souls of the contestants that won’t leave this place.“Here we go again,” I mutter.The air smells of fear and arrogance. Both have become familiar perfumes. Half of them are terrified, and the other half are assholes. This is the part I hate most, the arrival. And the hope they bring with them. Every year they look the same: warriors, lovers, cowards, killers. And every year, I have to pretend that one of them might survive long enough to set me free.They never do.“Are you enjoying the show, little wolf?”Her voice slides into my head like silk soaked in poison. Nyxara. The goddess who built this

4: Through the Veil

AriaThe forest stills the moment I reach the clearing. I followed the map that appeared on the back of the invitation carefully, but there is nothing here. No archway, no castle, nothing. Just an empty clearing with decayed trees. I stomp my foot on the ground, mumbling a curse under my breath. Suddenly, the air begins to hum around me. Music, too low for human ears, fills the space, echoing in my head. Mist curls between the trees, glowing like silver, and when it parts, I see it. The heart of the veil. An arc of light that ripples like water. It is both beautiful and wrong, and most definitely calling my name. I pause a few feet away, my pulse pounding in my chest. The invitation’s words repeat in my mind: Survive the Game. Win what your heart desires most.I don’t know what that means exactly. I only know the bond still burns faintly beneath my skin, and I can’t live with it anymore. I can’t be reminded of what Riven promised and then stole away. If what is through that

5: Feast of Shadows

AriaThe mirrors breathe. At least, that’s what it feels like, the air pulsing soft and slow against my skin, the glass fogging and clearing as if exhaling. This castle is alive, and I don’t mean with energy. It is actually alive. I don’t know how to explain it, but I can feel it calling to me. I do my best to ignore it, but each shift of my back against the hard wall feels like a forbidden touch. I’ve been sitting on the cold floor of the hall for what feels like hours when the change comes.A low hum threads through the walls. Then, with a sound like distant thunder, a long table rises from the marble floor. One blink it isn’t there, the next it’s carved from black wood and set for twelve. Candles spark to life along its length, their flames silver instead of gold. Steaming platters appear filled with roasted meats, fruit glistening like jewels, and goblets filled to the brim.The smell is enough to make my stomach twist in protest and hunger all at once.Someone laughs nervou

6: Unforgivable Favor

KaelI should let her walk away. That’s the rule. No interference, no favoritism, no attachments. But rules have never suited me, and Aria Vale already looks like one rule I’m going to break.She leaves the mirrored hall without looking back, shoulders tight, jaw set. The others drift off in clusters. The wolves are sniffing out alliances, the humans are whispering about the first trial, but she moves alone.The torches along the corridor flare as she passes, sparks licking higher as if the castle itself wants to light her way. The place likes her. Of course it does. The castle always did have impeccable taste.I follow at a distance, quietly, so I don’t startle her.“Following contestants again, are we?”Nyxara’s voice slides into my mind, sweet as honey and twice as sticky.“Just making sure she finds her room,” I murmur.“How noble. Or is this the part where you trip over your principles and fall in love again?”I roll my eyes. “You wound me. You know I don’t have principles.”

7: A Bell

AriaA bell wakes me the way fear does, with no mercy.It starts as a single, low vibration that rattles the floorboards beneath my bed, then grows until it thrums through the walls and into my bones. I bolt upright, heart hammering, breath fogging the air. The castle is never quiet, not really, but this sound feels deliberate. It is a summons. The Game has begun.I dress quickly. The clothes I laid out last night are still damp from the forest’s humidity that somehow seeps into every room: a leather vest, dark trousers, and boots that pinch my left heel. Everything is practical. I don’t need to be pretty. Not here.When I step into the corridor, other doors are opening too. Faces peer out, either bleary-eyed or tense. The vampire looks perfectly put together, of course. Elyra glides past like she’s been awake for hours, her white eyes bright with knowing. I fall in with the flow of footsteps, following the pulse of sound toward the mirrored hall.By the time we reach it, the bell’s

8: Edge of the Woods

AriaThe forest doesn’t start so much as it swallows.One step past what used to be the hall of mirrors, and the ground changes. The stone turns to moss, and the air thrums against my chest like a breath. The trees rise out of fog, tall and pale, with their trunks smooth as bone. They stretch up forever, vanishing into light that isn’t sunlight at all. Every leaf glows faintly, and the sound of the wind is wrong. It whispers names instead of rustling the leaves.The others fan out behind me. No one speaks. The Herald’s command still echoes in my head: Return with one rabbit and only one.White shapes flicker in the mist ahead. Too quick to follow.Violet presses forward under my skin, scenting the air, trying to catch the scent of rabbits, but it is impossible. Everything smells alive here. It is too strong and too overwhelming to distinguish between them.Kael ends up beside me again. Of course he does.“Lovely morning for a murder,” he says quietly.“Go hunt your own rabbit.”“Tem

9: Insurances

KaelThe Living Forest doesn’t sleep. It dozes, pretending to be asleep, when in reality it is waiting for movement. I’ve learned to listen to it the way you’d listen to an old man complain. With half affection, half resentment. This place has been my home for too many years. I both love and hate it. Still, I always played the Game. Sure, I would pick favorites throughout the years, but Aria is different. She is more than a favorite. I can feel it, the castle can feel it, and so can the forest. I just fear that Nyxara feels it too. The urge to protect her is too strong, and I know what I have to do. Aria is asleep. Somehow. Curled on her side in the hollow tree, breath steady, and the knife still clutched in one hand. Her hair has come loose, a dark curtain against the moss. She looks softer like this, and that’s dangerous. Everything soft in this place gets eaten first.I crouch near the entrance, tracing sigils in the dirt. Small, quiet ones. The kind that the Game doesn

10: The Fallen Wolf

AriaDawn comes slowly in the Living Forest. The sun does rise above the trees. It seeps in like a thief. Light filters through leaves that glow from within, washing everything in a cold, golden hue. My bones ache from sleeping on roots, and the air tastes like dew and earth. Kael stirs at the entrance of the hollow, stretching as if we didn’t almost die yesterday. Typical.“You snore,” he says.“I have a knife.”He grins. “Noted.”I crawl out into the clearing, every muscle tight from tension instead of rest. The forest hums softly, more awake than it should be. Far off, a crow, or possibly something pretending to be one, calls once. It marks the beginning of the second day of the hunt. Then there is silence.I wonder if anyone has found a rabbit and returned to the hall of mirrors, and my brows furrow at the thought. I am not sure I would be able to find my way back to the hall if I tried. I push down the feelings of doubt and push forward. I am here to win. Kael walks beside

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