Below the Hunter Moon (Silver Rapids #2)

Prologue

SILAS

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO

S ilas was six the first time he met the boy who smelled like toasted marshmallows.

“Where are we?” he asked, bouncing in place and trying to undo the seatbelt, eager to go explore.

His parents had parked outside of a huge building made of concrete and wood, right in the middle of a real-life city.

It was the biggest place Silas had ever seen. Well, the main gathering hall in the pack den was probably the same size, but there were always so many people packed inside that it felt smaller.

While driving into the city— Anchorage, his parents had called it—Silas had seen so many buildings of all different sizes; he’d pressed his face up against the glass to gape as they drove by. And there were houses everywhere!

Back home, only a handful of families lived in their own houses, his included, but the rest of the pack lived in small private dwellings crammed into several large buildings surrounding the main den. There were a lot more people here in the big city, but it felt different—it didn’t seem as crowded.

And there were so many cars. The whole lot in front of the building was full of them, coming and going as they pleased. And in those cars, were humans.

Real-life humans!

His mom and dad’s hushed murmurs quieted, and they lifted their heads from where they were bent close. Turning to look from the front seat, his mom’s face transformed into the smile she always gave him. “Your dad has some things to do for Alpha Cain, so you and I are going to wait in the library until he’s finished. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

He beamed. A library! “Yes! Let’s go, let’s go!”

Maybe he could talk to a human in the library. Or, even better, maybe he could make a friend in the library!

All of the other pups back home looked at him funny, like they were scared of him, or trying to see whether they were as strong as him.

None of them actually wanted to be his friend.

But a human wouldn’t know any of that. His dad said humans couldn’t even smell each other. They wouldn’t know he was meant to be an alpha someday, so there wouldn’t be a reason he couldn’t be their friend.

Silas hopped out of the car, his boots splashing in the dirty, salt-clogged slush.

His father shut the door and swooped him up into his arms. “You’ll be good for your mother, yes? No running off?”

Silas nodded vigorously. “I’ll be good, I promise!”

“Hmm…” his dad said, adjusting Silas’ stocking cap down against the cold nipping at his soft human ears. “If you are, maybe we’ll get hot chocolate after this. Would you like that?”

Silas couldn’t keep his voice down. “Yes!” he exclaimed.

When his father pressed growly kisses all over his face, he giggled and squirmed until he was gently set back on his own two feet. Silas took his mother’s hand and looked up to see his parents staring at each other for a long time.

“I’ll be back soon,” Dad said.

“Be safe,” Mom replied, wiping at her face.

His father cupped the back of her head and gave her a firm kiss. “Just a little longer,” he whispered.

She nodded and pulled Silas toward the library entrance.

“Why can’t Daddy come with us?” Silas asked, watching his father wave and drive away.

She was smiling again even though her face was still wet and squeezed his hand. “He has important things to do, baby, but he’ll be back soon. Now, what kinds of books should we look at?”

Silas ran ahead, tugging her along behind him. “Oh, firetrucks! No, volcanos! Wait, what about dinosaurs?”

She chuckled. “I bet we can find books about all of those things.”

Twenty minutes later, Silas wandered up and down the aisles of the children’s section, his arms full of books about anything and everything that caught his eye.

His mom was sitting at one of the tables near the entrance, next to a woman trying to soothe a fussy toddler, but he wasn’t worried about wandering off. He could hear people talking all the way on the other side of the library—she could certainly still hear him.

Humans were so loud! No one tried to keep their voice down or hide what they were saying.

Just as he rounded the corner of a shelf, adding a book about foxes to his stack because the one on the cover had pretty red fur, he caught a scent. It was warm and sweet—nothing like the fake flowers or fruit that some of the humans stank of.

He’d never smelled anything like this before—it crackled in his nose like an ember popping in the great den fire. It was so overwhelming he nearly sneezed.

But it was good.

Silas needed to know where it came from.

Curious, he followed, tracking the scent between the shelves as he wove further into the children’s section, thinking he’d find the source to be someone handing out a sweet, hot treat.

Instead, he found a human boy.

Silas blinked.

He was small. Well, smaller than Silas, and the fur on his head was a shade lighter than the fox on the cover of the book he’d just picked up. But when Silas cautiously padded over, head angled to show he meant no harm, the boy looked up at him without any of the fear or submission he saw in the other pups’ eyes back home.

It warmed him, just like that sticky-sweet smell.

Looking down at where the boy was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, Silas asked, “Why do you smell like that?”

The boy cocked his head. “Like what?”

Oh, right. Humans can’t smell each other.

Scrunching his nose, Silas said, “Like marshmallows.”

That wasn’t quite right, but it was close enough.

The boy paused, thinking. “I had Lucky Charms for breakfast; maybe that’s why?”

Silas smiled, remembering at the last second to hide his teeth. He wasn’t good at putting them away, yet. “I love Lucky Charms!” His mom and dad brought them home anytime they bought groceries from the little town near the den. “Can I sit with you?”

The boy nodded, and Silas plopped down next to him, only just remembering he shouldn’t lean in to get a better whiff of his new friend.

Even if he was the best thing Silas had ever smelled.

He stayed quiet, his own collection clutched to his chest, and watched the boy flick through the pages of his book. For having never met a human before, Silas thought he was doing pretty well. Maybe he had more in common with them than he thought, and he really could make a friend!

When they finished the first book, Silas sprawled his stack all over the rainbow-colored carpet. “What should we read next?”

The boy scanned the titles before pointing to one that had an eagle on the cover. “That one. Birds are so cool, I wish I could fly way up high to see everything!” he said.

His enthusiasm was contagious, so Silas nodded along. “Yeah! My dad’s friend can shift into a hawk, which is awesome .”

His cheeks flamed at the outburst, remembering humans didn’t know about shifter forms, and he wasn’t supposed to tell them any pack secrets anyway.

But didn’t friends tell each other secrets?

Were they friends?

Probably not , Silas thought glumly. He’d probably messed that up already, and the boy thought he was weird now, or some kind of freak.

Silas peeked over, expecting to find him gaping or pointing and laughing, but he just cocked his head at Silas again and shrugged, saying, “Huh, that’s cool!”

Silas smiled and forgot to hide his teeth. “What’s your name? Can we be friends?”

The boy smiled back. “Sure! I’m Sammy. What’s yours?”

“Awesome! I’m?—”

“Silas!” his mother called.

He looked up to see her and his father hurrying over, accompanied by another wolf he vaguely recognized from the pack. His mother’s face was pinched, her voice tight. “Come on, baby, let’s go,” she said, taking his hand to pull him to his feet.

The unfamiliar wolf stared at Sammy in a way that raised Silas’ hackles. Like he was a pest; one of the mice that made its way into the den during the cold months and chewed through their pantry stores.

“Sammy is my friend,” Silas said to him, frowning.

When the other wolf raised an eyebrow and tilted his head in challenge, Silas didn’t break eye contact.

The wolf smirked but turned away first. “I’ll wait for you outside,” he said to Silas’ dad.

“Sammy?” The woman who’d been sitting near his mom came up to them, the fussing toddler on her hip. “Let’s put those on the return cart and go home,” she said, looking at his parents with wary eyes.

“But we just got here. I made a friend, Mom, look, this is Silas!”

Her eyes crinkled when she smiled. Silas’ mom looked at him like that, too. It soothed his frayed nerves. “Hi there, sweetie. It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry, Sammy, but we’ve got to go home for your brother’s nap.”

Sammy huffed, pouting, but gathered his books and stood. “Bye,” he said, waving at Silas.

“Bye,” Silas whispered, waving back while he watched Sammy, his very first friend who smelled like toasted marshmallows and talked to him like he was normal, walk away.

He hoped they would see each other again soon.

Something was really wrong.

The car was silent for the whole drive home.

His dad held his mom’s hand across the console, and his eyes kept darting up to check on Silas through the rear-view mirror, looking at him like he was going to disappear.

He didn’t look mad, but still, Silas couldn’t help but think this was all his fault.

Were they angry with him for making a human friend? Or maybe they’d heard him tell Sammy about the hawk shifter? And why had the other wolf been there?

When they arrived back at the den, they parked outside Alpha Cain’s house instead of home. His mom held his hand the whole way inside. He knew his uncle would disapprove, confirmed by the angry look on his face when they stepped into the foyer, but Silas didn’t let go.

An alpha stands on his own, Silas. He isn’t coddled by his mother.

He’d scolded Silas for hugging her goodbye after she’d dropped him off for alpha lessons a few weeks ago. She didn’t drop his hand though, even when they all followed Alpha Cain into the study.

No, she held him tighter, and for some reason, Silas felt like he was going to cry.

Stop whining like some pathetic human. You are a wolf, Silas, and someday you will be alpha. Alpha’s don’t cry.

He blinked away his tears before anyone saw them so that his uncle wouldn’t discipline him like he had the time he’d caught Silas crying at the end of Homeward Bound.

“Wait out here,” Alpha Cain said to them both, his piercing yellow eyes drilling holes into Silas before he directed his dad into the study and shut the door.

Silas could feel his mother’s trembling, but she never let go of his hand—not even when she lurched toward the door after they heard both men begin to shout, followed by a scuffle and the rip of sharp claws through flesh.

The study door flung open.

Silas nearly didn’t recognize the man who stumbled out after Alpha Cain, and not only because of the jagged, bloody scratch marks down his cheek, already knitting themselves together.

No—it was the defeat and fear in his eyes.

He looked nothing like Silas’ strong, confident dad; nothing like the warm, loving man who’d wink at his mother to make her laugh, and scoop Silas up after dinner to dance them around the living room before tucking him into bed, promising he’d always be there to protect him.

This man looked hollow, staring at his feet.

“We had an agreement, Meera,” his uncle said. The jagged claw marks slashed across his face were deeper, taking longer to heal. “Silas is an alpha—my heir. He'll live with me from now on so I can raise him properly. You're far too soft on the boy. He needs to learn what it is to be strong and how to run this pack.”

His father’s gaze remained lowered, but when his mother recoiled, looking back and forth between him and Alpha Cain, he gave the smallest shake of his head. It was so tiny, that Silas wondered if he’d made it up.

She didn’t seem to see it, though, because she shakily said, “He is ours, Cain. You cannot take our son.”

Alpha Cain's snarl was vicious, and he reached out, gripping the back of his father’s neck. “ Kneel,” he commanded in that deep, scary alpha voice Silas hated so much.

Silas began to cry harder when his father dropped to his knees, helpless to disobey. Was this his fault? Had he gotten his father in trouble somehow?

“Daddy,” he said, stepping forward and wiping the tears from his face. “I’ll be better, I’m sorry I?—”

“ Quiet!” Alpha Cain growled, stealing the words right out of Silas’ mouth and preventing him from speaking. He wasn’t strong enough yet to fight the order.

“Don’t speak to him that way,” his father hollered, trying and failing to stand, earning a backhanded slap from Uncle Cain.

Silas shoved a fist into his mouth and quickly shuffled behind his mother, afraid his tears would only make things worse.

“You made your choice,” Alpha Cain said with deadly calm, looking back up at his mom. “Don’t blame me for the consequences. I am your alpha, and you will do as I say or your mate will pay the price for your insubordination.”

Confused and afraid, Silas remained quiet. He was frozen by the terror on both his parents’ faces.

Alpha Cain nodded in the silence. “I’ll give you the night to pack up his things. You’ll bring him to my home in the morning,” he said, lacing his words with another command.

Once released, his father stumbled to his feet and stepped over to them, placing a hand on his mother’s shoulder and Silas’ back, quickly shuffling them out at the dismissal.

Just as they were almost to the door, Alpha Cain's voice cut through the heavy silence. "Cal? If you seek to break our bargain again, you know how it will end.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping the blood from his face and claws. “I always collect what’s owed to me, one way or another.”