Chapter 7, The Witness
Seventeen years
Wren
The “Devil’s Throat” gorge was a place of deep shadows and damp stone, the perfect place for things that weren’t supposed to exist. Killian had me pinned against the rock wall, his heavy frame a living furnace that blocked out the autumn chill.
“You’re mine,” he growled, his voice vibrating deep in his chest.
He leaned in, his tongue grazing the base of my throat in a slow, possessive stroke. I gasped, my fingers curling into his bare shoulders, but the air suddenly shifted. A scent hit me, sweet, cloying lilies and bitter resentment.
“How touching,” a voice drawled from the ledge above.
Killian went rigid. He didn’t pull away; he actually pressed harder against me, a silent, territorial warning, before looking up.
Selina, the Gamma’s daughter, sat on a jagged outcrop ten feet above us.
She was striking in a sharp, cold way, her pale yellow eyes fixed on the spot where Killian’s face had been buried in my neck.
She’d followed Killian like a shadow since we were pups, always positioned as his intended right hand, waiting for the day the Alpha would announce their pairing.
“Is this where you’ve been disappearing to, Killian?” Selina asked, her voice dripping with mock pity. “I thought you were out scouting the borders. I didn’t realize you were out here playing house with a... Well, I can’t even call her a wolf, can I?”
Killian’s growl was low and lethal, the sound of a predator ready to snap. “Go home, Selina. This doesn’t concern you.”
“It concerns the whole pack when the future Alpha is wasting his time on a Null,” she snapped, her eyes flashing.
She hopped down from the ledge, landing with a practiced, predatory grace on the damp stones.
She walked toward us, her gaze landing on me with pure, unadulterated hatred.
“I’ve watched you for years, Wren. Creeping around, pretending you’re one of us because your father is the Beta. But look at you. You’re seventeen and you don’t even have a scent.”
She looked at Killian, her expression softening into something desperate. “Killian, look at her. She can’t give you heirs. She can’t even stand beside you in a hunt. I’m Gamma’s daughter. My blood is what the High-Ridge needs. I’m the one who’s supposed to be at your side.”
“I don’t care about your blood, Selina,” Killian said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, quiet silk. He finally stepped back from me, but only to put himself directly between me and her. “And I don’t care what you think you’re supposed to be. Stay away from Wren.”
Selina’s face contorted, her beauty twisting into something ugly. “You’re choosing… You’re choosing her over me?”
“I’m choosing who I want,” Killian countered, his Alpha command flaring.
The air in the gorge grew heavy, a pressure that usually made wolves cower. Selina flinched under the weight of his command, her knees buckling slightly, her eyes widening as the primal urge to submit fought with her rage.
But I just stood there. I felt the static in the air, but to me, it was just a breeze. I watched her struggle with an indifference I couldn’t hide. Seeing me unfazed by the power that was crushing her only made Selina’s fury boil over.
“She doesn’t even feel you!” Selina screamed, pointing a trembling finger at me. “She’s so broken she can’t even feel her Alpha! You’re obsessing over a defect, Killian!”
“Leave. Now,” Killian commanded, his eyes glowing a vivid, blinding silver.
Selina backed away, but she didn’t look defeated. She looked like someone who had just found the weapon she needed to win. “The Rite is in a few months, Killian. Everyone will see then. And when she fails I’ll be the one laughing when they drag her to the border.”
The silence that followed her departure was suffocating, heavy with the scent of wet stone and the fading stench of Selina’s malice. Killian didn’t move for a long time. He stood with his back to me, his shoulders rising and falling in jagged, heavy heaves.
“She’s going to tell the Gamma,” I whispered, the reality of it sinking in. “And the Gamma will tell your father.”
Killian finally turned to me. The silvery glow was gone from his eyes, replaced by a dark, sharp-edged sobriety I hadn’t seen before. He didn’t look like a cocky predator anymore. He looked like a man who had just seen the cage door beginning to swing shut.
“I know,” he said, his voice barely a murmur.
He closed the distance between us, his hands catching my face. His grip was firm, but I felt the slight, microscopic tremor in his fingers.
“I’ll... I’ll do my everything to be good to you, Wren,” he said.
He tried to make it sound like a vow, but the words didn’t come out with their usual Alpha steel.
They were thin, wavering at the edges. I looked into his eyes and saw an echo of doubt so loud it was deafening.
He was the future of this pack, but he was still a son living in the shadow of Silas, a man who viewed mercy as a luxury the High-Ridge couldn’t afford.
He leaned in, his forehead resting against mine, but he didn’t look at me. His gaze was fixed somewhere on the dark stones at our feet.
“I’ll protect you,” he whispered, but his voice hitched on the last word.
He knew Silas better than I did. He knew that if the Alpha saw me as a threat to the bloodline, there was no “good” left for Killian to do. He was trying to offer me a shield, but we both knew he hadn’t yet been given the sword to back it up.
“It’s okay,” I breathed, my heart aching. He pulled me into him, burying his face in my hair, his body rigid with a tension that felt like it was about to snap.
I stayed silent, leaning into his heat. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust that his heart was stronger than the Alpha’s law. But as the shadows deepened in the gorge, I didn’t feel protected. I felt like we were both just standing in the path of a storm we couldn’t stop.