Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Rynn
I realized I’d stopped walking, and Remy was giving me a concerned look.
The conversation in the meeting room had moved on. They were now discussing the specifics of what Gavril and the Fervis Order would offer the Alpha pack for accepting Selene.
“Fuck them,” I muttered under my breath, not caring if the others picked up on it.
Straightening my shoulders, I stalked towards the room and didn’t slow when I entered.
Cade briefly paused mid-sentence to track my movements as I placed the food on the table they were all gathered around.
I ignored him and the open seat available next to him on the settee, instead choosing to sit in the chair located several feet away from him and the other Alphas.
It put me closer to Alexis than them, but if I was going to punch anyone in the face at the moment, it would be the Alphas.
They all believed I was a traitor.
A brief, sharp pain raced along my fingertips as nails shifted to claws. I wrapped my fingers around the arms of the chair and dug them into the wood.
“So,” I drawled, meeting Cade’s piercing stare, “adding a new member to your pack?”
Cade narrowed his eyes at me, but it was Bastian who corrected, “Our pack, Rynn dear.”
“She’ll be just as welcomed as me, I’m sure.
” I looked away from Bastian in pure dismissal and focused on Gavril instead.
Remy had taken a seat next to them and was eying the Alphas with a bored expression that I knew meant he was daydreaming about killing them all.
Should have talked to me about your plan first, Remy.
Selene might not be as happy here as you thought.
“There are three pending trade deals with the Moroi that Fervis has been stalling on. They will be approved as part of this arrangement.”
Crops were easier to grow in the Moroi realm, but they were often low on meat, which was something the Velesians had in abundance, thanks to all the deer herds in our realm.
Two of the trade offers Samara had sent over were for food and the other was for resources required to power the wards around the Moroi Houses and outposts.
Samara had been more than generous in her offer, something that had probably frustrated Alaric, but I knew her goal was to get what the Moroi needed to survive but also help heal the rift between the Moroi and Velesians.
Gavril had been sitting on those offers for four months.
He hadn’t rejected them; he’d simply ignored their existence.
The Alpha pack had a lot of power in the Velesian realm, but they couldn’t force the Orders to accept trade deals, not without significant backlash, which wasn’t something they could afford at the moment.
The Alphas didn’t trust me? Fine. They didn’t want me here?
Fine. But I was here, and I was damned sure going to make use of whatever power I could wield.
None of them had disagreed with Gavril when he’d suggested I was a spy, but they hadn’t voiced their agreement either, which meant we were still doing this song and dance of pretending I was a legitimate member of this pack.
I was betting they wouldn’t directly undermine me in this, not while I was sitting in the room with them.
Cade and Bastian would take me to task later, but that just meant I had to get what I wanted now.
“I haven’t had a chance to review what the Harker Hei—”
“The Blood Sovereign,” I cut him off. “Samara is a member of the Blood Sovereign. She always addresses you as the Fervis Alpha; the least you can do is treat her with the same respect.”
In private, she called him a limp-dicked jackass, but I kept that to myself.
A muscle under Gavril’s eye twitched. “I am unfamiliar with the terms the Blood Sovereign sent over.”
“I’ve reviewed them,” Remy chimed in. “They are excellent terms for the Fervis Order.”
Thank you, Remy, I said silently, keeping my gaze on Gavril.
Gavril broke his stare with me to look at the Alphas. “Does the Alpha pack agree with Rynn’s demand?”
A beat of silence, and then Cade’s rumbling voice. “Yes.”
I felt Alexis’ pissed-off stare on me, but I didn’t look at him. Only Gavril’s agreement mattered.
“Fine,” the Fervis Alpha reluctantly agreed, his eyes still on the Alphas.
“Great.” I leaned back in my seat and pasted on a polite smile before turning to Gavril. “So when should we expect Selene to arrive?”
An hour later, I watched the retreating forms of Gavril, Remy, and Alexis as they vanished into the forests surrounding the stronghold.
They would be staying at a nearby outpost before starting the two-day trek back to Fervis territory.
The agreement had been hammered out and Selene would be joining us in three weeks.
I still didn’t know how I felt about that.
Things with the Alphas had already been strained, but now it felt like a dry forest waiting for the spark of a lightning strike.
For Selene’s sake, I hoped she wasn’t that spark, and for my sake, I hoped she and I got along because I couldn’t handle yet another enemy in these walls.
And that’s what the Alphas were to me now.
Cade and Bastian stood silently on either side of me. I could hear Ryker pacing in the meeting room, but he hadn’t come out to see the Fervis pack off.
“Rynn, about what you overheard . . .” Cade sighed.
The rage that had been stoking since learning they all believed I was a traitor erupted. If I didn’t get out of here, I was going to punch Cade in the face, or maybe cry. Probably both.
They didn’t get to see me lose it.
“I’m going for a run.” I started forward, only to be halted when Bastian wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back.
“No,” he said simply. “You’re going to be a good girl and listen to what we have to say.
It’s not like this should have been news to you.
You’re smart. You understand how Velesian politics wor—fuck.
” Bastian wheezed and released me, dropping to his knees and clutching his balls that had been introduced to my fist a second ago.
The angle had been awkward, so it wasn’t as hard as it could have been.
“I understand perfectly.” I darted forward before Cade could grab me and spun to walk backwards towards the forest in a different direction than the Fervis pack had gone.
“Never touch me again without permission, Bastian.” My gaze cut to Cade, who watched me carefully but made no moves to stop me.
“That goes for you and everyone else as well.”
“It’s late.” Cade crossed his arms. “The rules haven’t changed.”
“I’ll be back before sunset.” With half a thought, I called on my magic. The shift raced through my body, and in a blink, I was sprinting towards the woods on four feet instead of two.
“Rynn!” Cade roared after me, but while he was far stronger than me, he was also slow as shit. A bear stood no chance of catching up to a wolf in the woods. Bastian could do it, but I suspected he’d be whining about his balls for at least another five minutes.
Bastian and Cade weren’t the problem though.
They were pushy assholes, but they were usually willing to give me space.
Ryker would not. He had no concept of personal boundaries, and if I ripped out his throat, he’d be back the moment he was healed, asking what the fuck was wrong with me.
I didn’t know why he’d hung back in the meeting room, but it wouldn’t take him long to realize I’d run off into the woods, and then the persistent lycan would be hot on my trail.
Which meant I needed to put as much distance between us as possible because I had zero interest in seeing him right now.
Silently, I raced through the woods. It was difficult not to leave an obvious trail thanks to the snow, but I’d picked up a few tricks since moving here.
Not only was the climate different this far north, but so were the trees.
In the southern half of Lunaria, the trees grew thick trunks and their branches spread out all around them, sometimes twisting into the tree next to them to create a gnarled web.
Every fall, their leaves changed color and we’d get treated to a fiery sea of red, orange, and yellow before they finally gave way to winter.
Up here, the trees grew impossibly tall but were far more narrow with needle-like leaves that stayed on them year-round. They also tended to have wide branches that jutted straight out from the trunks and were low enough that I could reach them in my wolf form.
No climbing required.
An enraged howl sounded two miles or so behind me.
Part of me wanted to answer. It was instinct to answer the call of your packmate.
It’s more than that and you know it, a voice whispered in my mind.
I ignored that voice just as I did Ryker’s howl. My claws dug for purchase in the compact snow, and I pushed myself to run faster, straight for a tree with just the low-hanging branch I needed.
Ten feet away, I slowed enough to gather myself before springing up. My feet hit the snow-covered branch and it bounced under my weight, but I was already leaping to the next one. I lacked Bastian’s grace, but all that mattered was I wasn’t leaving a visible trail or scent behind.
Another howl echoed through the forest. He was getting closer, but he’d lose my trail soon enough.
For another half mile, I made my way through the trees, almost slipping a couple of times on branches that had more ice than snow but still making it far enough that I was confident Ryker wouldn’t be able to find me.