All Chapters of Rejected by Five, Claimed by Ten Alpha Kings: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

The train from Cedar Ridge to Redwood Crest took three days, and Nora enjoyed every minute of the first two.She had a private sleeper, a window, and a plate of hot food she hadn't had to steal. She watched the Rockies roll past, snow-capped and gold with larches, and let herself breathe. In the Collapse, a view like that would have meant a clear sightline for snipers. Now it was just scenery.She'd cut her hair to her jaw in the train's tiny bathroom and used dark eyeliner and a bit of shadow to sharpen her face. When she looked in the mirror she saw an androgynous girl with a stubborn chin, the same face she'd worn in her old life to keep predators from looking twice. She smeared a dab of pine tar behind her ears too. It would mask her scent, and in a world of wolves, scent was everything.On the third night, the train screeched to a stop in the middle of nowhere."Rogues!" someone screamed down the corridor.Four feral wolves had torn through the roof of the dining car. Passengers

"He's going feral!" someone screamed on the stream.Nora was already on her feet. Poppy grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?""To the arena.""Are you insane? The wardens will tranquilize him in a minute. You can't...""Poppy." Nora pulled free, quiet and steady. "He's mine on paper. If he's put down, what happens to the match?"Poppy opened her mouth, closed it, and swore. "Fine. But I'm coming with you. Lucy, grab your coat!"The Moonstone arena sat at the north edge of campus, a huge bowl of white stone and floodlights, packed with hundreds of wolves on their feet. On the sand, Mason Reed had dropped to his knees. His claws were out, his shoulders were heaving, and his eyes were black from edge to edge. Two wardens circled him with sedative rifles, but their hands shook. Nobody wanted to shoot a rising star.Nora shoved through the crowd. A guard at the stairs tried to stop her. "Restricted. Guard teams and family only.""I'm his match," she said. "Nora Whitlock. Look me up."The

Nora didn't sleep.She sat cross-legged on the floor of her cottage at five in the morning with Lake Larch's deed spread across the rug and a mug of black coffee going cold at her knee. The Council clerk had mailed the paperwork on Monday. She had skimmed it on the train. Now, with two anonymous texts burning in her phone and Alexander's gold eyes still hovering at the edge of her mind, she read it properly.The cabin was small: three rooms, a dock, two acres of birch and pine. The deed named her mother as the original owner. Marian Whitlock, née Greene.Greene. Nora sat very still. She had never heard that surname in the old Nora's memories. Silver Hollow had always said her mother was a quiet Silver Hollow woman who died young.On the last page, below the signatures, was a clause in tiny type. She almost missed it.Held in trust for the daughter of the green line. To be opened by her hand alone, under moonlight.A small brass key was taped inside the folder, blackened with age.Nora

Preston's convoy left the east gate at midnight, six black trucks in a tight line with their headlights cutting the redwood dark. Nora's pickup and its motorhome trailer rode last, with the Silver Hollow crest on the door that she hadn't gotten around to scraping off."Seven seats up front," Brooks said, sliding into the trailer's kitchenette like it was his own. "And a stove. You have a stove. Who wouldn't want to marry you?""Plenty of people," Nora said. "I have a list.""Not anymore." His ears flicked up, silver and soft, and then flattened as he remembered himself. "Sorry. Too much?""Sit down, Brooks."He sat. Jackson Rowe took the far corner of the couch and folded his arms, pretending the trailer didn't interest him. Hudson leaned against the doorframe, watching the headlights ahead through the window. Nobody spoke for the first few miles.Then Brooks slid his duffel off his shoulder and set it on the table with a heavy thud."I wasn't going to show you this till Saturday," he