Chapter 24
Sienna
While the headmaster and his advisory council consisting of the topmost leaders within the magical community convene in an emergency session, I stand in the very same rotunda where the headmaster and I first spoke upon my arrival at the academy.
My emergence as, in Alistair’s words, “not only a hybrid, but an it,” has caused an uproar.
No one can agree on what to do with me.
The falling snow outside has finally ceased, blanketing the grounds in a perfect sheet of white. I stare out into the cold and wonder what the others are doing. Are they still in tonight’s Mating Games, or were they pulled out early like me?
Revyn should have woken up by now and freaked the fuck out that I’m not there. Alistair and Callum . . .
Sighing, I step past the magical barrier that keeps the winter chill from the castle and let my bare toes sink into the powder snow.
I don’t know how either of them took the news of my new shifter form.
Callum didn’t seem phased, which makes one of us, at least, but I’m pretty sure Alistair will never forgive me for ruining his pretty face.
Especially if it costs him finding a better mate.
A tragedy. I roll my eyes and wrap my arms tightly around my chest despite no longer feeling the cold. Shifters naturally run hotter, but ever since my last shift, it’s as though my body’s rejected the notion of ever cooling down.
I feel like I could burst into flames at any moment.
Voices rise behind the double doors to the adjoining conference room, and I block them out in favor of the howling in the distance.
If it weren’t for the looming threat of my expulsion—or worse—I might actually consider this moment happy.
In the valley after my pack’s death, I spent countless moons wandering, searching for someone—anyone—like me.
When a shifter showed up with tumbling autumn locks and a dimpled smile, I thought I’d been saved from a lifetime of loneliness . . . and in a way, I had.
Just not by him.
Closing my eyes, I stop the memory from resurfacing.
Those first few moons with Revyn were rough.
It took an entire season for me to trust him.
But he kept coming back from his hideout on the other side of the valley, and I kept letting him get closer and closer until there was no more room without the other in it.
Things are far from perfect, and I’m nowhere near comfortable in my situation, but being surrounded by other people provides a sense of peace I hadn’t realized I needed.
Going back to the wilds now will leave me even more desperate for a pack than I already am.
Heavy footsteps climb the spiral staircase leading into the castle, and I glance over my shoulder to find the guard stiffening as someone approaches. “You can’t be here,” the guard says, but whoever is standing in front of him clearly doesn’t give a fuck.
“Out of my way.”
A bolt of lightning strikes my heart, doubling its beat.
Alistair steps around the guard’s broad shoulders, his eyes immediately locking onto me.
Rather than venture in my direction, he takes a hard right and assumes a post against the far wall, directly opposite me.
Leaning against the stone, he crosses both arms and ankles with a glare, the heat of his gaze stoking the fires inside my soul.
I quickly turn away before he can entice me to do something stupid—like shift back into an it and cause even more trouble. The scoff that falls past his lips sets my teeth on edge, and I lean onto the icy railing and mirror his stance. Back straight, arms crossed, narrowed gaze.
We glare at each other for so long that I’m able to memorize the angry scratch of burnt skin clinging to his neck.
It’s sort of healed but looks irritated and raw, the discoloration visible even from a distance.
His gaze burns into mine without an ounce of fear or regret. He’s just . . . pissed the hells off.
“As if it’s my fault,” I mutter, rolling my eyes and tearing my gaze away.
If he hadn’t attacked me, none of this would have happened.
Revyn and I could have knocked Alistair out repeatedly throughout the night without me having to shift at all.
I already knew it was risky to participate, let alone shift. I hadn’t intended to wolf out.
Alistair is the reason everything went to shit.
Snow crunches behind me, and I continue ignoring him, determined for him not to get a rise out of me.
“You,” he seethes, “do not get to blame me.”
“I thought we weren’t on speaking terms,” I reply, keeping my voice as light as possible. I feel his anger like a whip against my back. “You’d clearly rather rat me out to Daddy than face me yourself.”
A stilted laugh rattles between us. “I can’t fix what you are.”
“Neither can he.” It’s not like shifters are known to change form as they age.
Whatever happened to me tonight wasn’t because of the full moon or Alistair’s fated mate influence—it’s because whatever is inside of me is trying to get out.
“I always thought I was . . .” I search for the right words.
“Smaller than your average wolf. But not . . .” I shake my head. “Whatever that was.”
“Hybrids are unpredictable,” Alistair murmurs, his body suddenly inches from mine. He ghosts his fingertips over my wrist then trails them up my arm. “There’s a reason they’re outlawed. You shouldn’t exist.”
Only according to an outdated shifter law. The other council members seem fascinated by my transformation. Their conversion isn’t exactly quiet.
I voice my suspicion aloud and enjoy the way Alistair flinches. “Someone will want me, Alistair, even if it isn’t you.”
His anger burns like a fire of its own, seeping through my clothes despite the distance between us. “They can’t have you, Sienna.”
It’s my turn to get angry. “You have no claim over me, Alistair Dire.”
“Being your fated mate says otherwise,” he hisses, suddenly curling his chest over my spine and gripping the railing beside me. “It’s an honor you don’t seem to understand.”
“It’s an honor I don’t want.”
A bitter laugh tumbles past his lips. “Then why are you here? Surely you didn’t come all this way to torture me?”
Right now, he’s the one torturing me. His scent is full of wild spice, a tangle of notes that smell fresh on the wind and as crisp as the day they were plucked from the earth.
There’s heat wrapped in the layers of his distinct cologne, like sun-baked rocks or the warmth of hot coals.
I hold my breath long enough that he keeps speaking.
“When you decided to enroll at Heartsflame, were you looking for me?”
The question confuses me, but so does his melancholic sigh against the burn curving from my neck to my shoulder. “I’m not sure what you mean,” I whisper, my voice scratching my throat.
“The reason,” he murmurs, his fingers grasping my wrist, “that you came here. Was it to find a mate, or did you come here to find me?”
I try to pull my arm free, but he doesn’t relent, his grip tightening until it aches. “You’re hurting me, Alistair.”
“You’ve been hurting me for years,” he snarls, pushing me into the railing.
With his body at my back and his knees around mine, I have nowhere to go as he bends me at the waist and digs my abdomen into the harsh stone.
The snow melts as my temperature rises, and Alistair’s cracking laugh is as unforgiving as the hard planes of his body.
So much for having a guard on standby.
“First, you kill my brother, and now you’ve come to kill me. Or, worse yet, mate with me.” I swallow a cry as he scrapes his teeth against the burn on my neck. My eyes sting as winter wind whips around us. The unforgiving pressure of his hard cock against my ass takes my breath away.
This can’t be happening.
“I don’t know your brother,” I gasp, fighting the urge to push back against him. Fuck, did it just twitch?
Pinning my hand to the railing, he interlocks our fingers and growls in my ear. “You killed him!”
My agitation grows alongside his. “I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I killed a Dire wolf!
” Huffing, I buck against him and earn a satisfying shudder.
His free hand latches onto my hip as he deepens the bend of my waist. One of his boots slots between my feet and pushes them further apart.
When he rolls his hips, I swallow a needy groan as he grinds against my core.
Shit, that shouldn’t feel as good as it does.
“Your accusation is baseless,” I gasp, trembling as he pulls the shoulder of my tunic down with his teeth.
Alistair presses his forehead to my flushed skin and exhales across my back. “Viserys Dire went looking for a wild wolf residing in Roane Valley. Allegedly, she was the last of her pack and living alone in dangerous territory.”
Dread snares around my heart. “Alistair, wait—”
“When Viserys didn’t come home,” he continues, drawing a ragged breath, “my father and I went to Roane Valley to find him.”
The wolf shifter with a dimpled smile. Vibrant auburn hair. Shockingly warm eyes.
Nonono—
My heartbeat stutters, and Alistair growls against my spine. “Yes, Sienna, you met my brother. Remember him now?”
“I didn’t know who he was,” I whisper, “I swear.”
Not that knowing his identity would have mattered. Revyn jumped Viserys the moment he got close to me. He’d barely had a chance to speak before Revyn tore his throat out with his fangs.
I’d watched in stunned silence as Viserys’s blood soaked the earth.
I swallow whatever apologies linger on the tip of my tongue. I don’t know if I can apologize for something I didn’t do, and I don’t dare point the blame at Revyn. They’d kill him for murdering the heir to the Dire bloodline.
But they can’t kill me since I’m Alistair’s fated mate.
“He was going to kill me,” I reason, but Alistair’s hand suddenly captures my throat, the tips of his claws breaking through the skin.
“Say that again,” he growls.
“He was going to—”