Chapter 3
Julian
In a pack, silence is a rarity. Any wolf can attest to that. My bedroom has always been my sanctuary to find reprieve, but today, even here, I can feel the electrified buzz of the pack in my veins.
Today is the day. By midnight, I’ll be alpha, and everything will be different.
No more trying to prove myself. No more endless training sessions under my father’s eye or sleepless nights enduring his lectures.
I’ll be in charge, and not just because I was the second choice, but because I earned it.
The corners of my lips twitch as I scan my reflection.
The Calderons had been rigid about attire—one of the few advantages of their presence.
As a traditionalist pack, I would have been attending my coronation completely naked if not for them.
The loose, white cotton shirt and matching trousers I wear now are a small blessing.
I take one last glance at the nearly bare room I’d called my own for the last seventeen years before I make my way through the empty house lit only by the full moon’s light.
My parents left before sundown to greet the arrivals at the Hall, leaving me to make the journey over on my own. It’s hardly a loss when it allows me a moment alone with him.
I slow at the bottom of the stairs, stealing the handful of seconds I need to arm myself before I meet the amber eyes waiting for me.
The ones that maintain so much life, even when framed in a still.
He stole them from our father, but where his always blazed with power, Oliver’s brimmed with kindness.
And Oliver certainly didn’t inherit that.
After we lost him, I could barely stand the pictures our mother hung all over the house.
To look at him overwhelmed me—with guilt for not doing more, then with the crippling sadness of having to live without him.
Sometimes, at the worst times, I felt ashamed for even daring to fill his shoes, but not today.
Today, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that if he were here, those kind eyes would still be teeming with love. That’s just who Oliver was.
“Hey, Oli,” I greet with a smile that isn’t nearly as big as his. “It’s finally time and … I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be,” I admit to him and only him. “I keep thinking something bad is going to happen, or that someone might try to ruin this.”
Only three wolves challenged me for the role of alpha in the last few months leading up to my coronation. I accepted them, as pack law demands, and won easily. But that doesn’t mean I want another.
“I know, I know. You hate when I say stuff like that—jinxing things and all,” I cut myself short with a soft laugh. “But I can’t shake the feeling. Maybe it’s just who I’m sharing this with. If it does go sideways, at least you’ll know who to haunt.”
I can almost hear his laughter, the heavy yet gentle one that had filled this house, making it feel like a home rather than the set of walls it’d turned into without him.
“I wish you were here,” I whisper as the air catches behind my ribs. “You always cheered for me the hardest.” Goddess, what an understatement.
No one supported me more than Oliver.
“I’m not going to mess this up,” I promise. “I’ll do right by you. For you.”
Oliver smiles down at me with that wide, unshakeable expression that could wash any problem away, and for him, I return it as best I can before I force myself to leave.
Outside, the fullness of Goddess’s light is blinding, but like a balm, its glow washes over me, lending comfort. I breathe in deeply while Alex stirs with a restlessness to shift.
After, I promise him. We’ll run with the rest of the pack after the coronation.
Alex huffs in begrudging acceptance while I head towards the chatter I could hear from afar. A purr of anticipation grows in the Hall as the pack gathers and the midnight hour approaches. But it isn’t just my pack.
Wolves from the Dark Woods Pack are one thing, their scent familiar, but representatives from neighbouring packs are another.
Logically, I know it’s a good thing to have them witness my rise to power, but with Alex in the state he’s in, it’s hard to stay level-headed knowing outsiders are in my territory.
I’m fine, he argues, as if most of his response hadn’t been a growl.
I don’t argue with him as I near the Hall. Keeping out of sight from the stragglers trickling in, I slip towards the back entrance where our wolves scramble to finish last-minute details. I stay out of their way and head for the room I’m meant to wait in until everything is ready.
It’s supposed to be just me and one infuriating other which is why I stop when I turn the corner and find my parents waiting just outside the door.
“Oh, Julian,” my mother breathes, hands hastily covering her mouth. “Look at you!”
For an awful second, I think she’ll hug me, but she just clutches her hands to her chest as they approach.
“You look the part.”
I resist the urge to ask exactly how that is as my father stops before me.
Again, I struggle to meet amber eyes. He offers me a rare, stilted smile as he raises a hand to my shoulder before he seems to think better of it and lets it drop.
“How are you feeling?”
“Good,” I reply.
“No nerves?” he asks while searching my eyes.
“I’m fine.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” With a nod, he takes my mother’s hand and steps back. “They said ten minutes, so we’ll see you out there.”
I nod, and while they take their leave, my mind whirls.
Ten minutes. After so long chasing this very moment, the thought of it being so close jars me, but I don’t buckle—don’t leave any room for it. I’m ready.
Shaking my fingers out, I allow myself a single deep breath, and I open the door.
“Hells’ curses.”
Aiden turns on his heel, already smirking.
I forgot he was going to be here with my parents’ impromptu send-off, and annoyance immediately flares at the sight of him, but it hardly lingers as my eyes zone in on his.
Aiden isn’t wearing his shades.
I can’t remember the last time I saw him without them. Maybe when we were kids, but I don’t remember his eyes ever being so dark— not these pits of obsidian. Where Aiden is obnoxiously full of life and spirit, his eyes are worn and bottomless.
“Jewels!”
The thrill shriek recentres my mind as I reluctantly close the door behind me, enclosing us in this small space.
“I thought you weren’t going to make it,” he says, folding his arms over his black t-shirt. “Tardy on your first day …” He tsks. “That wouldn’t have been the best look.”
I flex my fingers at my sides as my annoyance threatens to morph into rage. I can barely stand Aiden on any given day, but a full moon?
“Today is not the day to piss me off, Aiden.”
Never one to heed a warning, Aiden’s grin only widens. “No? Trying to make a good impression for the mate?”
When I don’t dignify him with an answer, he shakes his head and sighs dramatically.
“Alright, I’ll stop teasing,” he says with raised hands. “You may not give a fuck about your mate, but I do. So, I promise to be on my best behaviour.”
I roll my eyes. “I honestly couldn’t care less.”
Hands falling like his expression, Aiden’s lip twitches before he mutters, “Prick.”
“Imbecile.” I fire back.
“Asshole,” he contests with a step forward.
“Simpleton.” I take a step of my own.
“Rodent.”
“Dimwit!”
“Mutt!” he snarls on a rough exhale that brushes my skin.
A growl warms my chest, and my barely contained fury burns my muscles as I strain not to give in to the hatred that has boiled between us for our entire lives.
Aiden’s canines extend past his lips in a threat I ignore as I take a step closer, invading his space and marking it with my scent.
His onyx eyes glow brightly, shifting into a fiery red that douses my anger in an instant. Shock fills the void instead as I blink in disbelief.
Only rogues have red eyes, and Aiden Calderon is not a rogue. But no matter how I try to deny that single fact, Aiden still glares at me with impossibly crimson irises.
“Your eyes—”
The squeak of the door’s hinges cuts me off just as Aiden turns away with a muttered curse.
“We’re ready,” a voice announces at my back, but I don’t turn to acknowledge them. I keep my eyes on Aiden and his hunched back until he twists and shoves past me. He rushes out of the room, and I step after him, ready to follow until I see the confused-looking wolf standing in the doorway.
“Julian?” she breathes with the tilt of her head.
Right, the coronation.
I head out the room, following familiar paths from the rehearsal until I’m standing at the left back corner of the stage. Aiden stands on the opposite side with black eyes pointedly looking ahead.
I force myself to ignore him while I try to focus on the sound of a praying elder as they devoutly bless our packs and their futures. It’s a while still before they finally call on us to take the stage, but when they do, I don’t hesitate to step into the light.
My heart lurches at the sight of the overflowing Hall. The unique bright eyes of my kind glow back at me, illuminated by Goddess’s light that pours in unabashedly from the open full moon panel.
Without prompt or request, every wolf in the auditorium stands to their feet to cheer and welcome Aiden and me. Excitement fills the space and the blood in my veins as I stand beneath the full weight of their attention.
Elders circle the stage in their numbers with our lunas. In front of them all, where the podium awaits, our alphas—our fathers—stand tall. I take my place at my father’s left while Aiden takes his to his father’s right, the two of us bracketing them as we face our packs.
My father raises a hand, and they quiet as they take their seats.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Aiden’s father, Samson, begins with a chuckle. “We are gathered here to witness and partake in a truly glorious event for both of our packs. Tonight, a new generation steps forth to lead us across Goddess’s aligned paths, and at its head are our alphas.”