2. Runa
Runa
My brother, Soren, paces the length of the bedroom I share with my sister.
We live in a castle with over seventy rooms, but Maren and I have shared a room ever since my parents caught me sneaking out with one of the pack enforcers.
My father, the Stormcrest Alpha, sent the enforcer away to fight with the humans in one of our many territorial wars against the Fireborns and then placed me with my sister, thinking Maren would snitch on me if I snuck out again.
But ever since the Council that rules over the world suggested we solidify the treaty with the Fireborn pack through marriage between Maren and a Fireborn alpha male wolf, my sister has been monitored by the human alchemists, and our father has restricted her movements severely. She’s barely allowed outside now.
Maren rebelled, and we started sneaking out together.
I wish the humans hadn’t pushed this on her. And I wish my father weren’t so eager to approve the marriage. It just goes to show how little power we have over our decisions.
Ash Fireborn is the single most feared person in the world.
With good reason. History recorded him unleashing his wrath and nearly immolating the entire world in a single week.
If my dad, who controlled the water element back then, hadn’t united with the human alchemists and fought against the raging fire, we wouldn’t have survived as a species.
The alchemists and my pack stopped the fire alpha from killing everyone, and we’ve been at war ever since. But that all stops tonight when the Fireborn and Stormcrest packs sign a treaty. Maren’s arranged marriage is a big deal.
“That was not the fire wolf,” Soren repeats for the tenth time.
I braid Maren’s platinum-blonde hair while she pours another glass of wine for herself. It’s her eighth glass, so the second bottle. Werewolves have a fast metabolism, and we can drink more than humans without falling over, but we can still get drunk. Maren is well on her way.
I think my sister might be upset over the marriage now more than before because she’s shagging the new Regulator, a human alchemist who lives in a werewolf pack and helps elemental alphas regulate their element.
When my father was growing up, there were no Regulators.
The position came about after Ash Fireborn lost his shit.
The laws require Soren to ingest potions that make him sick just so the alchemists are appeased.
If he refuses, they’ll kill him, and the water element will find another host, one who would obey the laws.
The Regulators are here for Soren, but they report any activity in our pack.
The new Regulator has been keeping an eye on Maren, requesting that she be confined and her movement limited.
But I think there’s something going on between them now.
My sister is very beautiful, with soft, feminine features, a small nose, and eyes that look like she’s perpetually sad.
We’ve been told that human men fetishize omega wolves. Our faces have slightly larger eyes and smaller noses, and our lips tend to be plush. There are also predators who Maren and I should stay away from. We are careful and try our best to identify males who want to hurt us.
Just last night, I caught Maren making eyes with the Regulator as we strolled past his laboratory. I hope I’m wrong. While Regulators have disappeared from our territory before, the tension and stakes are higher now with the treaty this marriage represents.
“No way it was him.” Soren stops in front of us and raises an eyebrow. “Did either of you get a look at the impostor?”
Soren wears black-on-black, a stark contrast to his platinum-white hair and stunning deep-sea-blue eyes. Sometimes, if you look close enough, you can see the waves move inside his eyes.
The water element is the best. Fire? Not so much. Besides, the fire alpha is a loner. A grumpy loner who’s not very nice.
“We don’t care if it was an impostor or not,” Maren says, her speech slurred. I’ll have to make excuses for her later tonight. Maybe that’s her game. Get drunk and piss off our father so he’ll send her away.
It’ll only work while she’s unmarried and inside our territory. The moment she marries the Fireborn Alpha, our father won’t be able to control her life anymore. Just mine.
Lucky me.
“Wait, if you think that was an impostor, do we think the fire alpha didn’t show up?” Maren asks.
I groan. “Sister, please try to sound less excited at the prospect of not meeting your betrothed.”
In the vanity mirror, I catch Maren rolling her eyes. “As if.”
I pass her the lipstick.
She rejects it.
“You must look like you’re trying. If you don’t look your best, Mother will take revenge and lock us up after the full moon.
” Werewolves get itchy if they don’t run.
The wolf wants free rein to run, and if we don’t shift often and connect with our inner nature, it feels like fire ants are running under our skin. It’s an awful sensation.
I used to get in trouble quite a bit, and Mother would lock me up during the full moon. That’s how I know.
Maren walks to the bed and dramatically falls, face-first, onto the mattress. She mumbles something we can’t make out
Soren shakes his head. “Some days, I think you’re the older sister,” he says to me.
“Luckily, I’m not, or I’d have to marry the Fireborn Alpha.”
Maren turns on her side and props her head in a hand. “Thanks, sis.”
“Welcome.” I snatch her wrist and pull her to her feet so I can apply red lipstick to her lips. Once that’s done, I step back. Maren twirls in her light blue dress. Diamond earrings dangle from her ears and end in the circular shape of a full moon.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her.
“You look like a princess,” Soren says.
“I am a princess.” Maren’s blue dress is a tribute to the color of our pack. Water is blue. Fire is red. Air is silver-gray. Earth is green. Maren looks me up and down and frowns. “I wish you were wearing the dress Helmi made for me so we could match.”
“I can’t wear a blue dress during formals. You know that.”
Maren huffs out a breath. “Those pack laws are ancient. And stupid. Why shouldn’t you wear a blue dress if I want us to match?”
“Because, my dear sister, it would confuse the males since they’re only staring at the blue fabric that stretches over our breasts instead of taking in the entire person.
” Maren and I have large breasts. Very large breasts.
While I expect males to look when I display cleavage, it’s disappointing when they don’t look up into my face, even when speaking to me.
My brother clears his throat, reminding us of his presence.
“Did you try the dress Jorna made?” Maren asks.
“No.”
She pouts. “Runa, please.”
“You should try it.”
“But she made it for you,” she says.
I tried it already. That’s how I knew it wasn’t for me. “My hips are wider. Jorna made it for you, but gave it to me after you chose Helmi’s dress.”
Maren gasps. “How do you know that?”
“Her daughter slipped and told me the other day.”
“Then neither of us will wear her dress,” Maren declares, her nose tipped up. “Jorna shouldn’t gift you secondhand gifts. For shame. In fact, I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow.”
I shrug. “It doesn’t bother me.”
A soft knock sounds before Maren’s friend Gerdie pokes her head inside. “Incoming.”
Shit. Maren scrambles for shoes but can’t find any. I throw her the pair of heels she already rejected, and she kicks them back over to me. “Not those.”
“Incoming,” Soren repeats, then assumes his regal position, standing at the foot of the bed with his hands neatly folded behind his back. We join him, standing on either side of our brother. I look up. My God, I forgot how tall Soren is.
“You look handsome,” I tell him.
“Thank you.”
Maren slouches. I reach behind him and pinch her arm.
“Slut,” she whispers under her breath.
“Whore,” I say right back.
“I fear our female genetics are severely compromised,” Soren says.
“Shut up, Soren,” my sister and I say in unison as our father, the water pack Alpha, walks into the room. He wears a lavish red fur coat made of the dead Fireborn wolves he slayed and skinned during the thick of the wars, right after the initial burning.
At that time, Ash Fireborn was in his teen years, and my dad, along with the humans, bested him in the Battle of Sutomon.
They probably would’ve succeeded in killing him had it not been for the fact that my dad slayed an entire royal family of air elementals on that battlefield.
The air element jumped out of the dead werewolf and found a home with the Fireborn Alpha’s best friend, Blade Skyrender.
After the battle, fire and air united against water and earth.
In the years that followed, the werewolf population suffered great losses. Now, only a fraction of us remain compared to humans. They united inside their walls while we divided among ourselves. This upcoming marriage is a blessing. Everyone needs to be on their best behavior.
“My beautiful girl,” our father says to Maren. He kisses the top of her head, then steps back and looks at me. “And the other one.” He sighs. “Come, you. Your mother is already on her second bottle.”
Maren is too, but I give him my best fake smile. “We’re all excited about tonight.”
Maren rests her hand on Dad’s elbow, and he escorts her outside.
She dares to turn and mouth, Help.
I press a finger over my lips.
Soren and I follow. “Try to keep Mother from embarrassing us all,” he says.
“That’s your job.”
“Please. I’m itchy.”
Oh, that’s right. Soren was in the human capital during the past full moon, which means he probably didn’t run.
It’s particularly hard for Soren since he carries the pack’s elemental power.
While most often the elemental wolf is also the Alpha of the pack, that’s not the case in our pack.
My father is the pack Alpha, while Soren is the alpha who carries the water element.
Oftentimes, the alchemical potions the Regulator makes for him are enough to tame the element Soren hosts, but sometimes, he also purges.
This can mean he either runs for days both during and before the full moon, or he disappears into the icy ocean, or he orders females to prepare their nests for him.
I wonder if Ash Fireborn has a harem.