Feral Fates (Shadowmist Pack #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Blood.

It pools beneath my bare feet, dark and warm against ancient stone. I try to step back, but my legs won’t obey. The scream builds in my throat. Terror or triumph, I can’t tell which.

A massive shadow moves at the edge of my vision. I can’t see it, but I know it’s fixed its gaze on me with an intensity that should terrify me. Should. But the fear bleeding through me feels wrong, misplaced. As if I’m afraid of the wrong thing entirely.

The shadow speaks, voice rough as granite grinding. “Mine.”

I reach toward him, fingers trembling, desperate to touch—

—and he’s gone. The blood, the stone, the burning eyes. All of it, gone.

What remains is worse. Silver chains bite into my wrists, cold fire against skin. I’m alone, cut off from everything warm and alive, floating in a void that tastes of metal and despair. A woman’s voice echoes from somewhere I can’t see.

“It ends here.”

I jolt back to consciousness, my heart hammering against my ribs like a caged bird. The rough bark of the ancient oak bites into my spine as I press against it. My hands shake as I press them to my face, feeling the wetness on my cheeks.

Blood and tears.

The visions always leave me like this, hollow and aching, with fragments of futures I can’t quite grasp rattling around in my skull like broken glass.

I scramble in my pocket for a handkerchief, pressing it to my bleeding nose.

Blood and shadow. Silver and chains. And that voice...

“Mine.”

The word echoes in my mind, and I shiver.

Whose voice was that?

I drag in a shuddering breath, forcing myself to focus on the present. The annual Claiming ceremony will begin soon. I can hear the other females’ excited chatter and nervous laughter drifting through the trees.

For them, tonight represents possibility of being chosen by a strong male who’ll value and love them.

For me, it represents the inevitable.

Every unmated female must run, and the males will give chase. Whoever catches you becomes your mate—no exceptions, no appeals.

No escape.

I close my eyes, seeking calm. The wolf within me reaches out, nuzzling me gently with a wave of calm.

A mate cannot harm you.

The ceremony exists to ensure the survival and strength of the pack.

In our world, a female may hold knowledge, skill, and even influence, but at its core, our society is still ruled by the strength of its males.

If you haven’t been claimed by the time you come of age, you’re required to participate in each Claiming until a mate takes you.

Because an unclaimed female is seen as a resource left untapped. And every resource must serve the pack.

I close my eyes, trying to make sense of the vision’s fragments. The blood, was it mine? The shadow with burning eyes, friend or enemy? And those silver chains...

A chill runs down my spine. Silver suppresses wolf gifts. If someone bound me with silver chains, I’d lose access to my visions entirely. I’d be truly useless then.

I shake my head, frustrated with myself. Visions aren’t prophecy, they’re possibilities. Fragments of potential futures that may never come to pass. I’ve learned not to trust them too completely, especially when they’re as chaotic as this one.

A twig snaps behind me.

“Well, well... what do we have here? A little kitten trying to hide from the big bad wolves?”

Our pack’s most lethal enforcer towers over me, broad-shouldered and thick with muscle, a wall of violence barely contained by skin. His blond hair is cropped short, neat and orderly, a sharp contrast to the chaos he brings. He uses his bulk like a weapon, cornering, crowding, crushing.

His voice drips mockery, his presence pressing in. Kieran doesn’t just enforce pack law, he is the punishment. His steel-gray eyes lock onto mine with predatory focus, and I feel my throat go dry. When he smiles, it’s slow and sharp, full of teeth and threats.

“I’m not hiding,” I lie, lifting my chin despite my trembling legs.

His laugh is dark velvet. “No? You’re certainly acting like it, crouching here in the shadows, ready to scatter at the first sign of danger.” He leans down, bringing his face close to mine. “But we both know there’s no hiding, don’t we, Kitara?”

I can’t stop the shiver that runs down my spine.

“The ceremony begins soon,” he says, reaching out to brush a fallen leaf from my hair. The casual touch sends cold dread racing along my skin. The wolf within me bristles, but we both know she’s unable to protect me.

“I’d recommend finding a better hiding spot than this, kitten. Unless...” His smirk widens. “You want me to catch you.”

My stomach turns at his words. For the past few weeks, Kieran has been my constant shadow.

He’s Alpha Varick’s chosen enforcer, tasked with keeping me in line.

Every time I left my room, he was there.

Every time I was forced to speak to a wolf from another pack, he appeared.

He’s made it his mission to remind me daily that I belong to the Silvercrest Pack.

To him.

“Alpha Varick has chosen me as your mate,” he tells me, crowding me into the tree. “No more games, no more delays.” His fingers trace my cheek, and I see the cruel intent in his eyes. “I know how to make you behave, little seer.”

All will be well, my wolf says once more. A mate cannot harm you.

But I know better. I’ve seen the bruises on claimed females, heard the whispered stories of mates who view their bonds as ownership. A claiming mark doesn’t guarantee kindness.

Besides, I’m nothing but a broken wolf with little to offer a pack. I’ve always known my place. I’m the seer who can’t shift.

The vision flickers once more at the edges of my consciousness—blood, hot and crimson, a dark silhouette, eyes watching from shadows—I push it away before it can take hold.

I can’t afford the weakness now, can’t risk collapsing in front of Kieran, and each vision has the potential to leave me bleeding and shaking for days.

I meet Kieran’s gaze directly, remembering the burning eyes from my vision. “What if you’re not meant to catch me?”

His expression darkens. “Who else will want you?” He laughs, but there’s an edge to it now. “You’ll learn your place soon enough.”

Before I can respond, a howl pierces the night—the signal for all females to take their positions. Kieran’s eyes flash amber as his wolf stirs just beneath the surface.

“Run well, little Kit,” he growls. “But know this—no matter where you hide tonight, I will catch you. I’ve seen how you move, how you think... and unlike the others, I know exactly what that pretty little head of yours can do. You’re mine, kitten. You just don’t know it yet.”

With those words hanging in the air between us, he melts into the shadows, leaving me trembling against the ancient oak.

If he catches me tonight, I’ll never be free.

Please, Mother Wolf. Help me.

I close my eyes, seeking calm. Instead, my earliest memory surfaces, my mother’s face crumpling in disappointment during my first attempted shift.

While other pups exploded into fur and fang with pure joy, I remained stubbornly human.

No matter how hard I tried, my wolf stayed locked away, just out of reach.

“Again,” my father demanded, his patience wearing thinner each time at my childish attempts. “Focus.”

But focusing wasn’t the problem. Even as a toddler, I could feel her, my wolf, coiled tight inside me, fierce and wild.

I could sense her power, her heartbeat echoing mine.

My wolf wasn’t silent. She spoke in instincts, howled behind my ribs when danger neared.

She simply couldn’t shift. Her body—our body—wasn’t built for the change.

The healers called it a curse. The elders called it a weakness. Until I turned seven.

I breathe out slowly and step forward, feet crunching over dried pine needles. The air is thick with tension. Wolves gather, murmuring, waiting for the moon to rise and the challenge to begin. My stomach flips as I move through them, head high, spine locked tight with practiced calm.

They can smell my fear. Taste my difference.

But they don’t know the whole of it. Not yet.

The first time I saw death was in a vision.

It had come to me as I stood watching the pack’s hunters prepare for a raid on Redclaw territory. Pups my age had drifted between the hunter’s legs as they listened to Alpha Varick outline their plans.

I’d watched them, aching to be included. To feel as connected and whole as they were. Then my world had turned white before snapping into sharp contrast in a time and place unlike our own.

A shadow at the edge of the woods. A warning on the wind. I screamed for the others to run, but they didn’t listen and the trap sprung.

I woke from my faint, bloody, shaking, screaming warnings until my throat became raw and my tears stopped flowing.

They didn’t believe me at first. But when Varick sent scouts ahead, they found exactly what I’d seen—a massacre avoided because of my gift.

In that moment, everything changed. The disgust in my parents’ eyes transformed into something far worse—cold calculation.

I was no longer just the girl without a wolf. I was the girl who knew things she shouldn’t.

Naked females hurry past, jostling me in their haste. I follow suit, folding each piece of clothing carefully with shaking hands.

My only hope lies in being caught by a wolf from another pack, I think, placing my clothes at the base of a tree. But who is powerful enough to stand against Kieran?

The grass is cold under my bare feet as I step forward.

The last of the trees part, and the grove opens before me, a perfect circle of ancient oaks with the claiming stone at its center.

Torches flicker around its edges, casting long, swaying shadows across the crowd.

The Claiming has drawn alphas and unmated males from four territories.

I feel their hungry, assessing stares as I enter.

Naked. Human. Alone.

I’ve never felt more vulnerable.