CREVEN
I looked down at my phone to see my father’s name lit up. Great. That was the last thing I needed.
It was my day off and my plan had been to spend the morning drinking coffee on my back porch, ignoring the world around me. Of course, being the son of the den Alpha meant that I, of all people, couldn’t ignore his call. If I did, he’d make an example out of me… a very public example.
It was one of the bazillion reasons my father and I didn’t get along. He believed that the son of the Alpha had to be the perfect role model. In his mind, if I did something wrong, that showed that he was somehow less than.
“Hello.”
“It rang three times.” Great. He was in a bad mood, too.
“I’m sorry about that. It was in my pocket, and I didn’t realize at first.” It wasn’t a lie, but I should’ve known better than to mention it.
“Just apologize. Don’t make excuses.” If I’d been in his presence, he’d have had me on my knees as he reprimanded me.
“Yes, Alpha. I apologize.”
There had been a time when I’d have pushed back. That time was over. Keeping the peace was always better, especially since my dad died. I no longer had anyone to be a buffer.
“I need you to get the van keys and head up to the warehouse store.” And suddenly he had his business voice back on.
“Isn’t that Ryan’s job?” I instantly regretted the words. Never poke an Alpha. “I… I mean, yes, Alpha.”
“I don’t know why you’re so defiant.” The affection in his tone caught me off guard. Wasn’t he still mad at me? “Sometimes I really do know better.”
“Yes, Father.”
“I need Ryan today. Come get the list and keys and go pick up everything.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes and Father, I am sorry.”
I didn’t inherently hate shopping, but going to the warehouse store for our monthly supplies was a pain in the ass.
I wasn’t picking out a loaf of bread and some instant noodles to stock my own kitchen.
I was buying food for the entire den, which meant flatbed trolley after flatbed trolley of food, which I then had to load into the van to bring back—to unload then unload it all back here.
Not to mention being in a metal building surrounded by humans.
I didn’t have anything against humans. They were fine.
But humans… They felt uncomfortable around me.
They didn’t always realize it, or know why, but when I would walk down an aisle, they’d back up or swirl around me, giving me a wide berth.
Children would cling to their moms. Once I’d had a couple of humans report me as, quote, “being creepy”—all because I bought six gallons of milk.
How buying milk was creepy, I had no idea.
And it wasn’t always that bad. Some days I could push my fox down far enough where the reactions were less in your face. But today wasn’t going to be one of those days. My fox had been a butt for about a week, demanding we hunt multiple times a day.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I was getting to the age where I should be settling down and I refused to take a mate, or if it was just him going through a phase, but whatever it was, I was ready for it to be over.
The warehouse store was an hour and a half from the den lands, and I pulled in just as they opened to the public. I filled the first flatbed trolley with paper goods, cleaning supplies, and fruit snacks.
For some reason, the kits all loved fruit snacks and while they didn’t need a lot of human snacky stuff, preferring to focus on the den’s homemade jerky, fruit snacks were the exception. They weren’t on the list, but my trip, my rules.
I stuck to the list as I filled the second, and the third with food before navigating them to the check out where my first one awaited.
“Record time.” I closed the back of the van doors. It was barely after lunch, and everything was inside, and I was on my way back home.
The traffic was light and I pulled down the dirt road toward our den with plenty of day left to enjoy.
The weather was gorgeous. The sun was bright, the wind was blowing softly.
But even so, I still didn’t see anyone outside.
Not a kit playing or a parent walking, not a fox sitting on their porch reading. No one.
That should’ve been my first hint that something had gone wrong.
I pulled behind the kitchen, banged on the back door, and it didn’t open up. I banged again. Nothing. Giving up, I went through the front and propped it open while I unloaded the groceries and put them away solo.
Still not a fox in sight.
And then I heard it—the bell. The bell that told us that a challenge had been called.
“Fuck.”
I ran to the clearing where all den business took place to discover that everyone was already there.
Children sitting on their parents’ laps in the back.
Silent. This hadn’t just begun—whatever was happening was already well underway.
No wonder I hadn’t seen anyone. They had all been here and I hadn’t been notified.
My stomach dropped and I ran to the front, pushing my way through, without so much as an excuse me.
My father stood where he always did and the look on his face told me everything I needed to know.
This was why I had been asked to make the run.
If I hadn’t been so fast, I wouldn’t have heard the bell.
He didn’t want me to witness this. He knew it was coming.
“Alpha,” I dared not call him father now, despite, in that moment all I wanted was my father to hug me and tell me that everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about.
He opened his bond to me, the one that was usually only between Alphas and Betas, but somehow found us. He was scared. Terrified. But not for himself. No… he was scared for me.
I crossed over to him, baring my neck, and he gave me a nod and then said so low that only I could hear, “No matter what, keep your skin.”
I nodded and took my place behind his right shoulder, as was custom for all official den gatherings.
And as I was turning around to face the center, Rayne walked into the circle.
“I, Rayne, officially challenge you for the position of Alpha.”
This wasn’t the official call to challenge. That had been done before the bell was rung. He was doing that for me. His eyes glaring at me as if I somehow was at fault for any of this.
I’d never particularly liked or disliked Rayne before now. I knew that he was not pleased he’d been overlooked for the job of Beta, but that was to be expected. Not once had he acted in a way that caused me to worry he would pull something like this, that was for sure.
While he was within den law to challenge the way he did, he was going against tradition. Instead of challenging Ryan, he went straight to the top.
My father dropped his robe, stepped into the ring. “Challenge accepted.”
Ryan’s job as the highest-ranking member outside of the challenge was to call it to begin.
He recited the rules one at a time. I didn’t hear a single one of them.
It was all coming at me too hard, too fast, too loud.
Someone was going to die and as much as I didn’t always see eye to eye with my father, I wasn’t ready to let him go.
Ryan stepped out of the ring and officially started the challenge.
Both men shifted, only Rayne’s shift was faster than my father’s, and his feet barely touched the ground before he lunged at my father, grabbing his neck mid-shift and clenching down on it hard.
Both of them landed on the ground with a thump. Blood everywhere.
My father hadn’t stood a chance.
There was no rule that stated challenges needed to be fair. Once they were called, it was game on. But I’d never heard of one where the challengers didn’t wait for the shifts to be completed before attacking.
More than anything, I wanted to race in there. Just be by my father’s side as he took his last breath, to tell him I was sorry, that I loved him.
But his words kept echoing in my head. Keep your skin. Keep your skin.
He’d been warning me… telling me not to go in there. Because the second I did, I, too, would become part of the challenge. I was no match for Rayne. Not in my skin. Not in my fur. Not in anything—except for possibly bookkeeping, and there was no challenge for that.
Instead of acting on impulse, I crumpled to the ground, sobbing.
The ceremony announcing Rayne as the new den Alpha began, one by one, the den members walked up to him, bore their necks, giving their allegiance… beginning with Ryan.
I doubted Ryan would see the sunrise. In Rayne’s mind, he was the enemy too. But he didn’t need to challenge Ryan. He could just kill him. He was the Alpha, after all.
And his strategy of going straight to my father finally made sense. Why go up the ranks when you can start at the top and destroy everything below you? Fuck. If I’d only seen Rayne for who he was earlier, maybe my father would still be alive.
The entire den, including the children, had sworn their allegiance, leaving only me. It took all I could do to get up. My eyes blurry, my cheeks tear-stained and burning.
I didn’t need to walk to him. He came to me. Bastard was loving this.
As I tilted my head, unsure what to do next but knowing I had to live to see another day he snarled, “Don’t bother.”
His hand darted out in a partial shift, swiping my shoulder once and then again in an X format, the pain searing.
“You, Creven, are no longer den. You are not welcome here. You are not welcome in the world of shifters. You will leave here with nothing but a backpack. And you shall never return. It’s that or death. Choose now.”
Technically, he didn’t have the authority to put me down. Not when he just marked me a rogue. Not unless I came back.
But I remembered what my father said. He wanted me to survive this.
“I choose rogue.”
I had no idea how that would work. What it would be like, living among humans who were put off by me, and ignored by shifters—or worse, treated horribly by them. But that was a worry for another day.
Marcu gave me till sundown to get out, allowing me to watch them put my father on the fire.
His body had already been taken away. I didn’t have a chance to say a proper goodbye.
But then again, he was with the Goddess.
So it wouldn’t really be goodbye, as much as me finding closure.
I could do that later. For now, I needed to survive.
Giving me time to pack had been foolish on Rayne’s part.
It gave me the time to open a new online bank account and transfer over the money my father and I had saved in our own accounts.
I wasn’t sure how much the den had access to and this would keep our money safe from Rayne.
Being rogue was difficult enough without adding being penniless to the mix.
With my finances situated the best they could be and my backpack on, I watched as Ryan placed my father on the burial pyre. Rayne set the flames only minutes before sundown.
“You have five minutes. If you are on den lands in six minutes you will die.”
My time with the den was done. Now was the time to run.