Chapter 1 #3
When Alpha Varick steps forward, tension crackles through the grove. His steps are slower, shoulders tight. The weight of eyes and whispers trails him like smoke. Before he can speak, Thaddeus raises a hand.
“Make your offer generous, Alpha Varick.” His tone is icy. Controlled. Deadly. “You’ve committed a grave offense, hiding a seer from the packs.”
Varick had kept me hidden for years. He would have continued to do so, if not for the Grand Pack’s enforcers catching my scent when they’d come to summon the unmated females to the Claiming. After that, hiding wasn’t an option.
I watch Varick duck his head. He’s tall, broad through the shoulders, with graying hair tied neatly at the nape of his neck.
His clothes are rich, showing a wolf who rules with pride and confidence—or he did.
Tonight there’s a crack noticeable in the way his jaw is clenched tight, and his eyes flick nervously to the crowd, then to Thaddeus.
Strength and confidence mean little when the Grand Alpha’s judgment has already turned against you.
I shrink back, trying to stay hidden within the crowd, but it’s too late. Thaddeus’s gaze sweeps the grove and locks onto me. His nostrils flare as he confirms my scent, and a smile touches his lips.
“Bring forth the seer,” he commands.
The crowd parts like water, leaving me exposed. Bare feet, bare skin, bare soul. I stand frozen as all eyes turn to me.
“So this is her?” Thaddeus’s voice carries across the silent grove. “A seer who cannot shift. Step forward, girl.”
My legs move without my permission, carrying me toward the claiming stone. I feel the weight of a hundred stares burning into my skin.
I stop at the base of the stone, looking up at Thaddeus. This close, I can see the cruel intelligence in his pale eyes.
“Your name?” he asks.
“Kitara,” I whisper, then clear my throat and speak louder. “Kitara Silverbrook.”
He circles me slowly, like a wolf inspecting prey. “Show us your gift, seer.”
Fear claws at my throat. “I-it doesn’t work like that.”
“Try,” he says, and it’s not a request.
I close my eyes, reaching for the currents of possibility that sometimes wash through me. Nothing comes. Only darkness.
“I’m sorry, I—”
His hand shoots out, gripping my chin with bruising force. “Look at me.”
Our eyes meet, and the world falls away.
My body goes rigid, my head snapping back.
The familiar burning starts behind my eyes, spreading through my skull like wildfire.
Someone gasps, maybe me, maybe the crowd.
When I speak again, it’s not my voice that comes out, but it’s a feminine voice far older and deeper, as though the Moon Goddess herself speaks through me.
“The crown will fall, the throne will shatter. You shall kneel, throat bared to the prince with eyes that pierce truths. Some howl in rage, others in triumph, but all will bow to the new order when darkness claims what was promised.”
Blood trickles from my nose, metallic on my tongue. The ground sways beneath me as the vision releases its grip. The grove has gone deadly silent, every wolf frozen in shock.
Thaddeus’s face has gone pale. “What does it mean?” he hisses, his hand now trembling against my skin.
I blink, confused. “I... I don’t know. That’s not how a vision works.”
Murmurs ripple through the crowd. A prophecy spoken aloud cannot be taken back. The Moon Goddess has declared a truth that will come to pass, no matter what any wolf might do to prevent it.
“Who?” Thaddeus demands, his voice cutting through the ringing in my ears.
I shake my head, trying to clear it. “I didn’t see any one wolf. Just... shadows. Fragments.”
Thaddeus studies me, suspicion in his eyes before tossing me away. “You must run tonight, but know this—our business is not yet complete.” He turns, dismissing me in the same movement as he approaches Varick. “Now. Your offering?”
Varick ducks his head. “I offer my vote on the Alpha Council to the Grand Alpha’s appointed heir and double tithings for two years. In exchange we ask to run four wolves.”
A low murmur ripples through the gathering.
Varick’s offering is no small thing. Giving up his Council seat and promising double tithings will cripple the pack for years. It’s a sacrifice born of desperation, not honor.
Thaddeus smiles, slow and sharp. “I accept, but in punishment for concealing the seer, you may run only one wolf.”
A muscle in Varick’s jaw twitches but he nods, accepting his punishment.
The wind brings me the scent of the wolf meant for me, and once again, the bond in my chest tugs—harder this time—a reminder that somewhere among the gathered is my mate.
May they be strong and kind.
My wolf nuzzles me, reassuring me that they will be everything we’ve hoped for.
Thaddeus turns to the Shadowmist alpha. “And what do the Shadowmist wolves offer?”
Ryker’s laugh is as dark and humorless. “We offer nothing. Our debt has already been paid in the blood we’ve shed in your great war, old wolf. We will run five wolves, one for each of the lives given by my pack.”
The air crackles with tension. No one speaks to the Grand Alpha this way. But Thaddeus merely nods, though his eyes narrow dangerously.
“The old debt is honored... one final time.”
Mara, an unmated female, shifts beside me, her golden wolf already rippling beneath her skin. “Ready to run, little prophet?” Her smile is cruel. “Or should I say, ready to stumble?”
My fingers tremble as I stand naked among the other females, watching as they shift into their wolf forms. I might not be able to change, but I refuse to show fear. “I can still run.”
“Not fast enough,” she laughs, then throws back her head as her wolf bursts forth.
The first howl comes—the signal to take positions. I move to the edge of the grove with the others, my bare feet already aching against the rough ground. Behind us, I hear the males gathering, their energy wild and hungry.
I risk one glance back. Kieran stands at the front of the Silvercrest hunters, his eyes locked on me with possessive intent.
The Moonclaw wolves flank him, their silver-tipped fur catching the moonlight.
Grayback’s massive gray wolves pace behind them, nearly twice the size of normal wolves.
The Red River Pack spreads out strategically, clearly planning to control the chase paths.
Only the Shadowmist wolves remain in the darkness. I catch glimpses of scarred black fur, of eyes that seem to glow in the shadows. And before them stands their alpha, his gaze locked on me.
My pulse spikes.
“Don’t look at him,” Kieran calls across the grove. “You’re mine, little seer.”
A cold jolt zips down my spine. I whirl toward the chase trails, yanking my focus forward.
Adrenaline floods my system, fire licking beneath my skin. My limbs vibrate, tense and twitching, caught between fight and flight. The scent of moss and loam hits me. Every nerve is alight, screaming run, run, run.
The second howl pierces the night.
Time to choose my path. I know these woods, have memorized every bend, every hidden dip, every trick root that might snap an ankle.
But knowing a maze doesn’t mean you’ll outrun the monster inside it.
And Kieran knows them too.
My only chance is to do the unexpected. Something no one would predict.
As the moon crests the horizon, bathing the grove in light, a third howl splits the night.
The Claiming has begun.
I run.