Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Silas
The scent trail went cold at the edge of Trailblazer Courtyard.
My wolf had tracked Barbie’s path, nose to the ground over every inch, and found nothing but the lingering taste of vortex magic that made my fur stand on end.
Whatever had taken the bride candidates, it hadn’t left through any realm I could follow.
It was time to return to my kingdom and demand answers from my Alpha mother. Through the leyline, I reached Fangmire Forest, where the pack gathered for our bi-weekly runs. The trees stretched overhead. The air tasted of moss, maples, pines, and the musky scent of countless shifters.
The pack had just assembled. Wolves, bears, foxes, and big cats moved through the underbrush in controlled chaos. Wolves made up the majority in my shifter kingdom.
At the center of the clearing stood Queen Melissa in her human form, every inch the alpha who had ruled our kingdom for three decades.
Frank, my stepfather, flanked her left side, a massive black wolf who had earned his place through strength and cunning.
To her right stood my half-sister, Thyra, already partially shifted with bared canines and glowing amber eyes that fixed on me as if I were prey.
The entire kingdom knew I wasn’t Frank’s blood, though the identity of my true father remained a closely guarded secret. I had my suspicions, which was why I’d never gotten along with Killian. But we had a far greater problem than our rivalry now.
“Alpha.” I pushed through the crowd toward my mother, shoving aside a few burly bears in my path and ignoring the submissive whines of lesser shifters. “I need to speak with you. The bride candidates—”
“Get in line and come back later, brother,” Thyra said, stepping forward to block my path.
In her human form, she barely reached my chest, but her warrior form towered a few inches over my human form.
“This is our run. Don’t ruin it. You haven’t joined us for so many moons, as if our traditions and family bonds mean nothing to you. ”
The whole forest fell silent as her defiant voice carried through the trees.
My face heated, but I reined in my rising rage.
“Watch how you speak to me,” I warned, my voice low. “I’m still the heir, and you are not.”
“Not for long, Silas,” she shot back, her stance radiating open challenge. “You’ve neglected your duty. While you’ve been playing house with the vampire prince, our enemy, I’ve been here doing your job: guarding our borders.”
“I’ve been defending the realm by fighting the Shriekers!” I growled. “If they breach the academy, no kingdom will be safe, and there’ll be no forest left for you to run in.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” she snarled back. “You should step down as heir. You aren’t strong enough to hold this kingdom when the time comes.”
I’d known this day would arrive. I’d hoped she might cool her head and temper her ambition, but while I was at the academy, she’d secured an exemption from attending as a bride candidate and clearly planned this move behind my back.
I looked to my mother, but she remained neutral. For the first time, she wasn’t backing me up. My stepfather nodded at his daughter in open approval.
“I don’t have fucking time for this.” I kept my voice level, proud of my control even as rage boiled beneath the surface. “Step aside, Thyra. I won’t ask twice. I need to discuss an urgent matter with the alpha.”
“What’s the matter?” she sneered.
“It doesn’t fucking concern you,” I said coldly.
“Oh yeah?” Her grin showed too many teeth. “Make me move, then. Or has the great Prince Silas grown too soft? Everyone knows you bend the knee to the chaos heir now, following him around like a trained pup.”
The crowd gasped before the forest fell into a dead silence. Even the wind seemed to still, as if the elements themselves were holding their breath, waiting for the showdown.
My stepfather’s eyes glinted with anticipation. He’d never hidden his preference for his blood daughter over his stepson. The queen remained silent, her face unreadable, a clear sign that something dark was unfolding behind the scenes, and even my mother had lost confidence in me.
I felt my fangs beginning to push through. I’d only been away from the court for a short time, fighting on the front lines to keep all kingdoms safe, and already a coup was brewing.
“Enough!” I snarled, my jaw clenching at the mention of Killian. Since childhood, I’d lived in his shadow. Stronger, faster, more ruthless, he had always outshone me in everyone’s eyes. Even after we’d formed the Covenant, after we’d moved from rivals to true brothers, the comparison still stung.
“No! It’s time everyone sees who you really are.” Thyra circled me, her movements lithe and predatory. I almost laughed at her confidence, at her belief that I would simply roll over and show my belly. “You call yourself a prince, but you’re just Killian’s—”
“Choose your next words very carefully,” I warned, my voice low yet deadly.
“—bitch.”
I roared, a grey wolf tearing free from my body, shredding my tuxedo to ribbons. The crowd stumbled back, startled by my speed.
I could have ended Thyra right then, while she was still mid-shift and slower than me, but I would give her a chance to submit, even after she’d spoken the unforgivable and challenged me openly.
A flicker of uncertainty crossed my half-sister’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a surge of ambition and boldness, as though she knew she held some secret weapon.
Thyra’s brown wolf lunged at me, still only half-shifted, her jaws snapping toward my throat. I twisted aside, but her speed caught me off guard. Her fangs sank deep into my shoulder, tearing through muscle and sinew.
I wasn’t the only one who had upgraded.
How was it possible that she was now ten times faster? What had she done to gain such power? If I hadn’t bonded with the other heirs, she might have already brought me down.
She meant to kill me. This wasn’t a challenge for dominance. It was a fight for the heir’s seat. A death duel.
Pain lanced through me as blood matted my fur.
I rolled with her attack, studying her new movements, using her momentum to throw her off balance.
She lunged again, claws slashing, aiming to disembowel me.
The vicious glint in her brown eyes said she wanted nothing more than to spill my intestines.
I darted away just in time, letting her miss by a narrow inch, feeding her arrogance.
She attacked again, flaunting her newfound speed and strength. Her supporters began to cheer openly, emboldened by seeing me at a disadvantage, no longer hiding which side they were on.
The wind picked up as our fight intensified. That was when I caught it—a scent that didn’t belong.
Dark magic. Corruption. The same foul stench that had clung to the druid’s experiments. And it was coming from my half-sister.
Chills slithered up my spine; a cold dread settled in my throat.
Thyra had sought the aid of our true enemy to gain the power to replace me as heir.
The brown wolf launched into the air with a force no ordinary shifter could muster, except, perhaps, for me. Having seen enough, I met her mid-air, a furious roar ripping from my throat.
We collided in a fury of teeth and claws, tumbling across the forest floor in a whirl of grey and brown fur. I tore into her flesh as she did mine, and then the wrongness hit me.
My wounds burned like acid, and my limbs grew unnaturally heavy.
Shit. Poison.
She’d coated her claws with black magic and spells that didn’t belong in the shifter kingdom.
Callous satisfaction gleamed in her eyes as she saw my disbelief. My vision blurred as the toxin spread through my veins. She pressed her advantage, driving me back, but I twisted aside, narrowly avoiding her next deadly swipe.
The pack howled in excitement—nothing thrilled shifters more than a battle for dominance. My own supporters, fewer in number now, whimpered in concern. My mother watched, impassive as stone, while my stepfather’s pride radiated from every pore. He howled his encouragement, urging my half-sister on.
Thyra pinned me down while the poison coursed through my veins, her jaws hovering inches from my throat. Victory gleamed in her eyes as she raised her claws to deliver the final blow.
Something inside me snapped.
Power flooded through me. Not just my own, but the combined strength of five heirs surged in my blood.
Killian’s lightning, Cade’s fire and metal, Louis’s wind, Rowan’s earth—and beneath it all, the wild blessing of a goddess and the last ember of the oldest magic.
Barbie and Sy had accepted me, marked me as worthy, and that mark burned through the poison like divine fire and ice.
My wolf exploded outward. Bones stretched, muscle swelled, and when I rose, I towered over every shifter in the clearing. My gray fur rippled with barely contained power, and my eyes blazed with an alpha dominance that went far beyond bloodline.
Thyra scrambled backward, her confidence shattering. The brown wolf looked like a pup next to what I had become.
I moved faster than thought, my jaws closing around her front leg.
The snap of bone echoed sharply through the forest. She tried to retreat, but I was everywhere—teeth, claws, unstoppable force.
When she attempted another poisoned strike, I shifted to my warrior form, nine feet of muscle and fury.
With one swift motion, I sliced off her paws.
Her poisoned claws dropped to the ground.
She howled in agony.
My claws closed around her throat, lifting the brown wolf off the ground. Power surging out of me, my alpha command magnified a hundredfold.
“Shift!”
She had no choice. Her wolf form melted away, leaving my naked sister dangling from my grip, her face purple with a mix of terror and hatred.
“How dare you use poison against another shifter!” I snarled. “And you reek of dark magic. Who are you consorting with?”
She refused to answer, trying to resist me. Her eyes darted toward her father, then our mother, pleading.
“Alpha, please stop him!” my stepfather began.
“Silence!” my mother snapped.
“Where did you get the poison?” I bellowed, my command slamming into her.
“The druid,” she gasped, her defiance crumbling. “It wasn’t my fault! He came to me! Said he could make me stronger than you. Said I deserved to be heir. I didn’t completely trust him, but…”
“You betrayed everything we stand for so you could be heir?” I snarled.
“You betrayed us first!” Tears streamed down her face. “Bowing to outsiders, forming pacts with the other heirs. The druid said you’d weaken our bloodline—”
“The druid will be dead soon. The coward doesn’t dare show his face in the realm.” I tightened my grip, my claws sinking into her neck and drawing blood. “You violated our most sacred laws. Brought corruption into our territory. Conspired with the worst enemies of Mist of Cinder.”
“Silas.” My mother finally spoke, a fragile tension in her tone. “She’s your sister.”
“A traitor—weak, unworthy, and corrupted!” I leveled my stare at my alpha mother.
“You didn’t remind her I was her brother when she aimed for a killing strike.
You see me as a threat, don’t you? You could have stopped this, but you allowed her crime to fester.
I was never weak. I never will be. My bond with the other heirs doesn’t weaken our kingdom; it strengthens it.
And do you know who stands with me now? The only goddess walking this earth and her companion, the true old magic!
You know nothing, and you’ve done nothing but enable harm.
While I bled for our kingdom, fighting to repel the Shriekers’ invasion, you withheld reinforcements and hoped I’d fall on the battlefield, didn’t you?
You wanted this weakling to replace me because she’d be easy to control.
Your neglect and weakness have allowed our enemies to infiltrate our most sacred space. You violated our shifter laws!”
Silence whipped through the clearing, then the shifters threw their heads back and howled their rage.
My claws extended.
“Please,” Thyra whispered.
“Am I soft?” I asked her.
“No,” she whimpered. “I was mistaken…”
“The mistake now costs you,” I said. In one swift motion, I tore out her throat.
Her body hit the ground with a wet thud.
Fire erupted from my fingertips, engulfing her remains.
I would not let her corrupted blood poison the earth.
Shifters’ elemental magic is water. Very few of us bore two elements like I did, water and air.
But now I wielded fire as well, a gift from my bond with the other heirs.
My parents stood frozen, their faces pale as moonlight.
I turned to them. “You let this happen.” My growl sent most shifters dropping to their bellies in submission. “You were so busy playing favorites, so obsessed with bloodlines and politics, that you allowed an enemy to turn your own daughter.”
“You killed my daughter!” Frank's wolf surged forward. “I'll tear out your throat!”
I moved faster than he could track, my clawed hand lifting him as if he weighed nothing. “This ends with you and the alpha queen stepping down,” I commanded, my eyes blazing. “Submit or die. Both of you.”
I tossed him aside.
Power rolled off me in relentless waves—not just shifter dominance, but something far greater. The blessing of the divine, the touch of old magic, the strength of our five united kingdoms. One by one, every shifter in the clearing dropped, bellies to the ground, necks bared in submission.
My stepfather fought it for two heartbeats before crashing to his knees.
My mother lasted five before she, too, knelt.
I hadn’t planned this. Hours ago, I’d called Killian a traitor for suggesting we might need to take our parents’ thrones. Now I stood over my sister’s ashes as the first heir to claim a crown.
“We’re cleaning house,” I said, my voice carrying to every corner of the forest. “Find everyone who conspired with the druid. Root out every trace of corruption. But first”—I turned to my mother, my gaze unyielding—“why wasn’t I informed about the second bride trial?”
The new shifter alpha king demanded answers.