Page 2 of Tempting the Wolf (Rebellious Mates #1)

TWO

KIERAN

K ieran stood by the window in his father's study, watching the morning light filter through the ancient pines surrounding the Silvercrest estate.

His broad shoulders tensed as his father Alpha Alaric paced behind him, each footfall landing with deliberate force on the hardwood floor.

The familiar scent of old leather, wood smoke, and his father's distinct cedar-and-iron aroma filled the room.

"I think I was spotted." Kieran turned, squaring his shoulders as he faced his father. "Three nights ago. During the full moon."

Alpha Alaric halted mid-stride. His dark hair with silvered temples caught the morning light, giving him an almost ethereal appearance that belied the ferocity lurking beneath. "Explain."

"I was camping near the eastern ridge in Granite Ridge territory," Kieran said, his deep voice steady despite the storm building in his father's eyes. "Went for a run under the moon when I needed to clear my head. I was already shifting when I caught a flash of red light from the trees."

"A light?" his father's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "What kind of light?"

"A camera. Motion-activated, from what I could tell.

" Kieran ran his hand through his black hair that rested just above his shoulders, pushing it back from his face.

The scar on his jaw pulled tight as he clenched his teeth.

"I didn't think anyone would be out there.

Hell, I've never seen cameras in those woods before. "

Alpha Alaric slammed his fist against his desk, sending a stack of papers fluttering to the floor. "Your carelessness could've exposed our entire kind! Centuries of secrecy destroyed because you needed to 'clear your head'?"

"It was an accident." Kieran's silver-blue eyes flashed, his wolf stirring beneath his skin at the challenge in his father's tone.

He tamped down the urge to growl—that would only escalate things.

"I've run those woods a hundred times without incident.

There's no reason for cameras to be out there. "

"And yet they were." Alpha Alaric stalked closer, standing toe-to-toe with his son. Though Kieran matched his height, there was an undeniable power to the older wolf shifter that came from three decades as Alpha.

Kieran met his father's gaze without flinching. "The cameras must be new."

"New cameras mean new interest in our territory." Alpha Alaric turned away, his rigid movements betraying his agitation. "Human hunters, perhaps. Or worse—human scientists."

"Who would put cameras in Granite Ridge territory? It's protected land with no development plans." Kieran crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles of his forearms flexing. "It doesn't make sense."

"Nothing humans do makes sense," Alpha Alaric growled. "That's what makes them dangerous. They're unpredictable and chaotic." He paused, his eyes narrowing. "How much did the camera capture?"

Kieran considered lying but thought better of it. His father would sense the deception. "I'd already begun the shift. Face elongating, fur starting to emerge. If the footage is clear enough?—"

"Then we're exposed." Alpha Alaric closed his eyes briefly, a rare display of vulnerability.

When he opened them, they were cold as winter ice.

"The High Council must be informed immediately.

This requires an emergency session. This incident of yours endangers the four major packs of the Pacific Northwest's Cascade Territory. "

"The Council won't be pleased to be disturbed," Kieran noted, feeling a twinge of guilt for creating this situation.

"The Council's pleasure is irrelevant when our entire kind faces exposure." Alpha Alaric retrieved his phone. "You'll accompany me to Moon Hollow. The session will be called for noon."

Kieran nodded, already calculating the quickest route to the neutral meeting grounds.

His wolf paced restlessly beneath his skin, sensing the gravity of what was coming.

Whoever had placed those cameras had unknowingly triggered what could become the most significant crisis their shifter kind had faced in generations.

Alpha Alaric paused, his finger hovering over his phone. "The Council will ultimately decide our course of action."

The air in Moon Hollow hung thick with tension as Kieran stood before the High Council at noon that day.

Seven pairs of ancient eyes bore into him from their elevated semicircular table.

Each elder represented one of the four major packs, along with three esteemed elders from their Silvercrest pack.

Sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees surrounding the open-air meeting pavilion, dappling the stone floor with shifting patterns that seemed to mirror the restless energy of the wolf shifters gathered there.

Kieran's jaw tightened as his father finished recounting the incident. Kieran kept his posture rigid, his shoulders squared, refusing to show weakness despite the weight of judgment pressing down heavily on him.

"So," Elder Isolde of the Shadow Pack broke the silence, her silver-streaked hair cascading over her narrow shoulders, "the Silvercrest heir has potentially exposed us all because he needed to stretch his wolf legs under the full moon."

Kieran met her intense gaze with his own. "I accept full responsibility for my carelessness."

"Responsibility won't erase footage that could destroy centuries of secrecy," Elder Thorne of the Granite Ridge Pack growled, his voice rough as the mountain territory his pack claimed. "What exactly did the camera capture?"

"The beginning stages of my transformation," Kieran replied, his deep voice carrying across the hollow. "Enough to raise questions, not enough to provide conclusive proof."

"Even suspicion is dangerous," Elder Merrick of the Tidewater Pack leaned forward, the beads woven into his beard clicking softly.

"Humans with their technology are more dangerous than any hunters of old.

They'll dissect the footage, enhance it, and analyze it until they find exactly what they're looking for. "

Alpha Alaric stepped forward, his presence commanding the space. "The solution is clear. We must eliminate the threat."

The word 'eliminate' echoed in Kieran's mind, causing his wolf to stir uneasily beneath his skin.

"The human with the camera must be silenced," Alpha Alaric continued, his authoritative voice filling the hollow. "Permanently."

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the Council. Kieran's blood ran cold despite the warmth of the day.

"I agree," Elder Isolde nodded. "We've maintained our secrecy through far worse threats by taking decisive action."

"A human life weighed against the safety of all shifter kind is no contest," Elder Thorne added.

Before the Council could continue their grim deliberation, Kieran stepped forward. "I'll handle it."

The elders fell silent, evaluating him with renewed interest.

"This was my mistake," Kieran continued, his silver-blue eyes intensifying as he addressed the Council directly. "I'll track down the camera owner and contain the situation. Alone."

Alpha Alaric scowled. "This isn't a training exercise, Kieran. The threat must be eliminated."

Kieran locked eyes with his father. "And it will be. By my hand." The challenge in his voice was subtle but unmistakable, a reminder that while he might not yet be Alpha, he wasn't a subordinate to be dismissed.

The Head Elder, Callum of the Silvercrest Pack, leaned forward. "You're volunteering for a containment mission against an unknown human threat?"

"Yes." Kieran's voice carried no hesitation. "It was my error that created this situation. I won't risk anyone else cleaning up my mess."

The elders exchanged glances, their silent communication honed by decades of leadership.

"Very well," Elder Callum finally spoke. "The Silvercrest heir will handle the human witness. The evidence must be destroyed and the threat eliminated. That is our ruling."

As the meeting adjourned, Kieran's thoughts churned beneath his impassive expression.

The casual way they'd ordered a human's death disturbed him more than he cared to admit.

Who was this person with the camera? A hiker?

A researcher? Did they deserve to die simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

He'd spent those two years traveling among other supernatural communities far away, seeing firsthand that coexistence was possible. The old ways—the swift, merciless elimination of threats—seemed increasingly archaic. Barbaric, even.

Yet here he stood, tasked with murder by the very Council he would someday need to work with when he became Alpha.

The irony wasn't lost on him that his father, who preached pack loyalty above all else, seemed coldly indifferent to killing someone who likely had family and friends—a pack of their own.

Kieran flexed his hands, feeling the power in them. He would find this human, yes. But what he'd do after that... he wasn't as certain as he'd led the Council to believe.

Kieran stalked away from Moon Hollow, the weight of the Council's decree hanging heavy on his shoulders. The forest around him blurred into a green haze as his mind churned with conflicting thoughts.

"Eliminate the threat," he muttered under his breath, kicking at a fallen branch. The wood splintered beneath the force of his boot. "As if killing is the only solution we have."

His father's rigid stance on humans had been drilled into him since childhood. Humans were dangerous. Unpredictable. Enemies to be avoided or eliminated. Never allies. Never friends. Certainly never mates.

And yet, during his two years of self-imposed exile, Kieran had witnessed vampire covens with human servants who knew their masters' true nature.

He'd seen fae who openly practiced magic in special human nightclubs.

Hell, even the selkie colonies along the eastern coast occasionally revealed themselves to select human partners.

"Why are we the only ones still hiding in the shadows?" Kieran's voice echoed through the empty forest. His wolf prickled under his skin, sensing his agitation.

The solitude that had once felt natural now seemed stifling.

In the Silvercrest pack, every interaction was layered with politics and hierarchy.

Every conversation carefully constructed to maintain order.

What would it be like, he wondered, to speak freely with someone who had no expectations of him?

Someone who didn't see him as the future Alpha, but simply as Kieran?

"Damn it," he growled, pushing his hair back. "I'm not going to become my father."

The certainty of that thought surprised him. For so long, he'd accepted that becoming Alpha meant becoming like his father—cold, calculating, and ruthless. The crown and the man were inseparable. Or so he'd been taught.

As he approached the clearing where he'd shifted three nights ago, Kieran's senses heightened. The forest smelled different today—pine and earth and something else. Something that hadn't been there before, or at least not this strong.

A human scent. Female. Fresh.

Kieran froze, inhaling deeply. The scent hit him like an electric shock, shooting straight to his core and settling low in his belly. His wolf lurched forward in his mind, suddenly alert and interested in a way that Kieran had never experienced.

"What the hell?" he whispered, his voice rougher than before.

He tracked the scent to the remains of a small camera mounted to a tree—now in pieces on the forest floor. Someone had been here recently. Very recently.

Following the trail deeper into the woods, Kieran moved with predatory silence. Each breath brought more of that intoxicating scent—vanilla and jasmine and something uniquely her. His chest tightened as if an invisible thread was pulling him forward, drawing him toward its source.

The realization slammed into him with the force of a physical blow.

"It can't be," he murmured, but his wolf knew better. This pull and instant connection meant only one thing.

A mate. His mate. A human.

The absurdity of it would have made him laugh if he wasn't so shaken. His father would sooner disown him than accept a human daughter-in-law. The Council would see it as further evidence of his unfitness to lead.

Yet the pull remained, undeniable and powerful.

Kieran crested a small hill and finally spotted her—a woman kneeling beside a fallen log, scribbling something in a notebook.

Her copper-red hair caught the sunlight filtering through the trees, creating a halo effect around her pale face.

She wore practical hiking clothes, a worn leather backpack at her side.

The sight of her sent another shock wave through his system. His wolf howled within him, recognizing what his human side was still struggling to accept.

"Eliminate the witness," his father had suggested. The Council had agreed.

Kieran's hands clenched into fists. No. He couldn't kill her. He wouldn't. But he couldn't let her expose their kind either.

His cabin in the remote reaches of Granite Ridge territory flashed through his mind. Isolated. A place where he could keep her safe while figuring out what the hell to do about this impossible situation.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, watching her from the shadows, already formulating his plan. "But I need to know who you are... and what this feeling means."