Page 23

Her scent clashed with the one still burned into me from hours ago—salt and ash and blood and wildness. Her scent made my wolf growl, low and dissatisfied, like biting into meat gone cold and stale.

Tanya arched beneath me, lips brushing my throat. “Let me remind you who you belong to, Alpha…”

My hand caught her wrist. Hard. Her eyes opened wide as I pulled back. My gaze bored into hers, cold and sharp as a blade.

“You don’t get to remind me of anything,” I said, voice dark with finality.

She froze.

I rose slowly from the bed, tightening the belt she’d tried to undo, ignoring the confusion—and wounded pride—in herexpression.

She was beautiful. Trained. Obedient. Desired. And she no longer stirred a single thing in me. Because my wolf had already chosen something else.

Somethingferal. Somethingforbidden. Something that smelled like rebellion and ruin. And she was locked upstairs, trembling under the weight of the very nature she’d tried to kill.

I kicked Tanya out with nothing more than a look and a word that was barely a growl. She tried to linger, draping herself in the doorway with that desperate smile Omegas wear when they know they’re losing their grip—but I didn’t touch her again. Didn’t even look twice.

When the door slammed shut behind her, the silence that followed was unbearable. I didn’t sleep.

The fire burned down to embers. Shadows stretched across the stone walls like claws. I paced the length of my chamber like a beast in a cage, muscles twitching with need.

My wolf gnawed at me from the inside out. I could still feel the warmth of her skin, those cursed runes like chains burned into my memory. And worse—when I closed my eyes, I imagined herwithoutthem.

I left my chamber before dawn, half-wild with thoughts I didn’t want to name. Snow had started to fall by the time I reached the training grounds. The courtyard was still, the sky bruised with early light. The air was sharp, biting at the lungs, perfect for war.

Steel clanged in the distance—some of the younger wolves were already sparring. They stopped when they saw me. One look sent them scattering, giving me the ring without a word.

I drew my blade—black steel, forged in fire and violence—and took my place in the centre of the yard.

That’s when Garrick stepped in, shirtless, steam rising from his skin like smoke off a fresh kill. He wore that damned grin healways had when he thought he might land a hit.

“I figured you'd still be buried between thighs this morning,” he said, circling me slowly.

I said nothing. Let my silence speak for me. Let my rage speak for me. We lunged at the same time.

The crack of our blades colliding echoed like thunder. Sparks flew as steel screamed against steel. I moved faster. Hit harder. I wasn’t sparring—I was purging.

He grunted, staggered, blocked just in time as I drove him backward, each strike more vicious than the last. My blade skimmed his ribs, drawing blood. He laughed.

“Still thinking about her?” he said, breathless. “I would be.”

I snarled and slammed into him, shoulder to chest, knocking him into the snow. He rolled, sprang back up, and came at me harder.

“She’s got your wolf twitching, doesn’t she?” His blade met mine with a jarring clang. “No surprise. She’s wild. Untouched. Broken in all the right places.”

I caught his wrist and twisted—hard. He hissed and dropped his weapon. I swept his legs out and drove him to the ground with my knee at his throat.

“I should kill you for speaking about her like that,” I growled.

But I didn’t. Because he wasn’t wrong. And that infuriated me more than anything.

He coughed, breath fogging in the morning air, grinning even with blood on his lip. “Three years,” he said hoarsely. “Three fucking years we hunted Crescent Moon. Burned their dens. Crushed their warriors. Slaughtered their heirs.”

I stood, my breath hard and fast. The sword in my grip trembled with how tightly I held it.

“You found the last one yourself,” Garrick said, dragging himself upright. “Didn’t even blink when you cut off his head.But now? You don’t even celebrate. You don’t drink. You don’t fuck. You don’t breathe. You just watch her.”

“Because she is dangerous.” I turned away from him, blood roaring in my ears.