Chapter 4 - Kahn
He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Two days since the welcome ceremony, where this foolish human had dared him to see her worth. Two days, and she was still taking up space in his head like an unwanted tenant who refused to leave.
Perhaps it was the way she’d looked at him. No fear. No awe. Just pure, undiluted anger burning in those dark green eyes.
It was a novel experience for him. Nobody talked back to him. Not the candidates, with their practiced smiles and calculated flattery. Not the pack members, who’d been raised to respect the Alpha’s authority. Not even Gideon most of the time, and his uncle had never met a boundary he respected.
Not until she looked him straight in the eye and spat those ice-cold words at him.
His wolf had been restless ever since. Every time he got within fifty feet of her, it surged forward, demanding attention, demanding proximity, demanding things that made no sense.
He shoved it down again, for the hundredth time in two days. Finally, when he could not sit still anymore, he stood and moved to the window of his study. At the base of the mountain trail, he could see the candidates gathering for the first trial: ten miles through mountain terrain.
Early spring meant patches of ice, streams running high with snowmelt, rocks slick enough to break an ankle if you weren’t careful.
Most of the she-wolves would handle it fine. They were built for this—faster, stronger, durable. Some of them would have been training their whole lives.
The human didn’t stand a chance.
He watched her at the back of the group. She pulled his eye, even though he tried to look away. Even if she hadn’t been human, she would have stood out. Where the other women were tall, and lean, and muscled… her body was soft, all curves.
He allowed his gaze to take in all of her. He wouldn’t see her again.
“You’re staring.”
Viktor’s voice came from behind him. Kahn didn’t turn around.
“I’m observing. It’s different.”
“Is it?” His beta moved to stand beside him at the window. “Because from here it looks like you’re staring at one candidate in particular.”
“She’s human. She’s going to get hurt out there.”
“Then why not pull her from the trial?”
“Because the lottery chose her. The magic is binding. She has to complete the ritual.” Oh, how weak these excuses sounded, he had to admit. Then he sighed. “I can’t change the rules. We don’t know what the consequences would be.”
Viktor made a noncommittal sound. They watched in silence as Olivia gave the candidates their final instructions. Then the starting horn blared.
The she-wolves took off like they’d been shot from cannons. Their movements held the echo of their wolves even in human form—grace and strength that came from being born to this.
Caitlynn fell behind almost immediately.
She wasn’t slow, exactly. She moved with determination, gave it her best. And she didn’t do too poor of a job he supposed… for a human at least. Within fifteen minutes, she’d been left in the dust.
Though he told himself that he was watching all of them, his gaze followed one specific candidate for as long as he could.
The trail wound through dense forest, climbing steadily. He moved through the trees parallel to the path, close enough to watch, far enough to stay hidden. Old habit from years of running patrols. His wolf wanted to get closer. He ignored it.
She struggled over rocks the others had leaped across without effort. Slipped on patches of ice. Caught herself. Kept moving.
Her breathing became harder. Sweat dampened her hair despite the cold, but she didn’t slow down.
She was stubborn, he realized. Stubborn and beautiful and too damn proud to quit.
He followed her as she came to a fork in the road, watched her as she studied it. He held his breath as she stood, gazing down each path as far as she could. One led to the finish line. Kahn watched silently as she chose the western fork.
Wrong way.
His wolf snarled. Every instinct screamed at him to intervene. To go down there and turn her around before she walked straight into a dead end.
Still, he remained silent. Stayed hidden behind the trees.
She had no chance. It didn’t matter if she chose the right path; she had to go. Had to fall out now, had to leave.
His wolf didn’t agree. It clawed at him, demanding he help her, protect her, do something.
He forced himself to stay still.
“You could stop her.”
Kahn didn’t look at Chris. His friend had appeared beside him without sound—an old habit from years of working together. They’d been watching from different positions, but Chris had clearly seen the same thing Kahn had.
“The trials don’t allow interference.”
“She’s walking toward a ravine.”
“She has to figure it out.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will.”
“Will she?” Chris’s voice held an edge Kahn rarely heard. “Before or after she falls to her death?”
“She won’t—”
“You don’t know that.” Chris stepped closer.
Tension radiated off him like heat. “That’s my sister down there.
The girl who survived sixteen different foster homes.
The girl who learned to take care of herself because nobody else would.
And you’re going to let her walk off a cliff because of some bullshit about trials. ”
“The rules—”
“Screw the rules.” Chris’s hands clenched. “She didn’t choose this. She didn’t ask to be dragged into your world. And now you’re going to stand here and watch her die to prove a point?”
Kahn growled. “I don’t have a choice!”
He turned angrily, making his way back to the stands. “I have to be there when the first ones arrive,” he muttered, ignoring the look of betrayal on his friend’s face.
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Chris muttered, but Kahn shook his head. “You can’t…”
“Interfere, I know,” Chris shot irritably. “I just don’t want her to die!”
Still, he followed Kahn back to the stands. Sloane was first to cross the finish line—to the cheers and jubilation of the crowd. One after another, women burst through the forest proudly.
No sign of Caitlynn.
His wolf surged forward hard enough that he almost lost control. Where was she? What if Chris was right? What if she… had fallen to her death? Or was she still out there, lost in mountains that got deadly after dark?
“Kahn.”
Viktor appeared at his shoulder, looked at him with a thin frown. “The western fork leads to a ravine. Dead end. If she went that way...”
“She’ll be fine.” The words came out more certain than Kahn felt.
“Should we send someone?”
Before Kahn could answer, a small movement caught his eye.
She appeared at the edge of the clearing like a ghost.
Limping. Blood on her forehead from a cut that had started to bruise. Shivering—her backpack was gone, and she carried her supplies bundled in her sweater, arms bare to the cold. Scratches covered her hands. Her jeans were torn at both knees.
She looked exhausted. And absolutely determined.
She crossed the finish line and looked up at the assembled pack. At Kahn.
“Is there hot chocolate?” Her voice came out steadily despite the shaking. “I was promised hot chocolate.”
He felt his lips pulling at the corners, a smile forming on his face. He kept it contained.
She didn’t look away from him. Instead, she lifted her chin and faced him head-on.
I’m still here. I’m still standing. What do you have to say about that?
Kahn swallowed dryly. He couldn’t help but be a little impressed. It may have been simple for the shifters, but a human… He could hardly believe that she had made it without being able to sniff the right direction, see through the pathways…
Around him, the pack members started murmuring. A human had finished the trial. It had never happened before.
Kahn watched silently as Olivia moved forward with a blanket. She wrapped it around Caitlynn’s shoulders and led her toward the hot chocolate, her gentle smile.
Kahn stayed where he was, watching as Caitlynn sat down on the steps leading to the great hall. She looked positively exhausted as she sipped the hot chocolate—slow, hesitant sips.
One by one, members of the pack started dispersing. Kahn couldn’t. Despite every protocol telling him that he ought not to, he moved toward her. He sat down next to her without an invitation.
She didn’t look at him.
“Why are you really here?” he asked at last.
She turned her head. Her eyes were sharp despite the exhaustion. “You know why. I was kidnapped. Dragged here against my will. Forced into some insane ritual I didn’t ask for.”
“Then why did you finish?”
“What?”
“The trial. You could have quit. Sat down halfway through and waited for someone to collect you. You’d have been eliminated and been on your way home.” He studied her profile. “But you didn’t quit. You finished. Why?”
She frowned, her lips pursed. For a moment, he thought she wouldn’t answer.
“Because you called me weak.”
She shook her head, a sardonic smile forming around her lips.
“And I wanted to prove you wrong.”
Finally, she looked at him. It wasn’t just anger, he realized now. It was a desperate need to prove herself, to show people she was more than they assumed. It was that stubborn fighting spirit that he recognized.
He recognized it because he felt it too. Different reasons. Different scars. But the same bone-deep drive to be more than what people expected.
“You made it to a ravine,” he said. “The western fork is a dead end. How did you get back?”
She shrugged and let out a sound that was similar to a laugh. “Climbed down. Crossed at the bottom. Climbed back up on the other side. Took three hours, and I’m pretty sure I broke at least two fingers, but I made it.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” She took a sip of hot chocolate. “Because I’m sitting here. And you said I wouldn’t make it past the first trial.”
Kahn had met a lot of women in his life. Powerful shifters. Brilliant strategists. Warriors who could take down enemies twice their size.
He’d never met anyone like her.
“Get some rest,” he said, rising to his feet and holding his hand out to her. “The second trial is in two days.”
She took the offered hand, allowed him to help her up. Electricity shot through his entire body as they touched. She met his eyes again.
“Can’t wait.”
He walked away before his wolf could do something stupid. Like sitting back down, keep talking to her. Like acknowledging that something about her made him feel more alive than he had in years.