All Chapters of Bound To The Wolf I Was Sent To Kill: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The first thing you learn about war is that it never smells like blood.It smells like wet earth churned to mud, like fear-sweat and pine sap and the sharp copper tang that comes after. Blood is only the last note.I stood in the middle of it all with my claws dripping, and I breathed it in like it was air.Three Blackmere wolves circled me. Gray, brown, and a scarred black one with a torn ear. They thought they had me. They always think that, right up until they see the fur."Blade," the gray one whispered, and the word shook. "That's the Blade.""Yes," I said, through my teeth, through my jaw, through the low grumble of a body that was built to do exactly this. "It is."I moved.The gray one died first, because he hesitated. I took his throat and let his weight drag me down, then rolled with it, using his body as a shield when the brown one lunged. Teeth met fur. Not my fur. I felt the impact through the corpse, and then I was up again, spinning, my claws opening the brown wolf from

I told myself I would not go.I told myself that for nearly an hour, sitting on the ridge with my knees drawn up and the cloak pulled tight around my shoulders, while the voice in my head went quiet and the ache under my ribs grew louder.It was not a metaphor. It was a physical ache, deep and hollow, like a tooth pulled from the root. Every breath tugged at it. Every heartbeat made it worse.At some point, when the stars had turned a full quarter across the sky, I stood up and walked to the healers' tent instead.It was the sensible thing to do.Morwenna's tent sat at the edge of camp, apart from the others, lit by a single lantern that swung gently in the wind. She was awake. She was always awake. In seven years I had never once seen her sleep.She was not old, exactly, and not young either. Her face had the kind of stillness that made it hard to guess. Brown hair streaked with a little gray, tied back with a plain cord, hands stained green from a lifetime of crushing herbs. The Fro

Jory was sitting on a stool in Morwenna's tent when I came in, grinning like a boy who had just won a prize."Blade!" He tried to leap to his feet. Morwenna put a hand on his shoulder without looking up from the splint she was tying, and he sat back down with a wince. "Sorry. Sorry. I meant to salute.""You don't have to salute me. You have a broken arm.""It's a clean break, Blade. Auntie says so." He held the arm up proudly, half wrapped in linen and green willow bark. "Honestly? Best thing that's ever happened to me. I've got a story now. The Blade of the Alpha broke my arm.""I'm so sorry," I said, and my voice came out thinner than I wanted. "It was my fault. I lost control, and I—""Blade," Jory said, kindly and firmly, the way you'd speak to a nervous horse. "It's fine. Everyone loses control sometimes. I've seen you cut down forty Blackmere wolves. I'm just glad I was on your side."My stomach twisted.Forty Blackmere wolves. I could still hear Luca's voice saying, You've been

The parley began the way all bad ideas begin... politely.Harrow and I crossed the ford on foot, boots splashing in the shallows, leaving the rest of our column waiting on the western bank with the white banner. Luca and Dax came out to meet us at the middle of the river, where a long spit of gravel rose out of the water like a spine. Twelve paces separated the two groups. No one drew a weapon. No one so much as touched a hilt.But I could feel Dax's hatred from where I stood, like heat from a forge."Blade of the Alpha," Luca said.His voice was cool, level, without a trace of the low rough warmth I'd heard at the river. He looked at me the way a king looks at a stranger, and something in my chest twisted so hard I nearly flinched."Alpha king," I answered. My own voice came out flat. Good."I did not expect you.""Your message requested her by name," Harrow growled."My message?" Luca's brows rose, just slightly. "I sent no message.""You sent a rider to our Alpha's camp at dawn fiv

Dorian came down the ridge on foot.He did not ride. He did not shout. He walked down the long slope at the head of two thousand wolves, silver hair lifting in the wind, one hand resting on the pommel of his sword, and the army came behind him in perfect silence, banners furled.It was the most frightening thing I had ever seen.I stood in the mud with blood drying on my hands and did not move. Luca had stepped up beside me. Not close enough to touch, not close enough to be noticed, but close enough that the thread between us hummed like a drawn wire. Behind him, Dax and the rest of the twelve stood tight and grim and unblinking, and I could feel the Blackmere waiting for a single word from their king.Stay calm, Luca said, inside my head, so gently it made my throat close. Whatever happens. Let him come.Dorian reached the bank.He stopped. He stood there for a long, terrible moment, looking down at the ground where forty of his warriors lay sprawled in the mud, some of them still mo