by G. Bailey
“Fantastic,” Callahan states, walking down brown wood stairs and coming into the room. It’s strange to see the angel in casual human clothes. He has a light grey T-shirt and grey joggers on that do little to hide his toned body. He inclines his head at us, and I do the same, but Silas does not. “We heard there was an attack. Are you well?”
“Yes,” I say.
Silas clears his throat. “Levi got into the city. We have no idea how it happened, and we lost many lives.”
“I’m sorry,” Callahan replies. “May they be with the gods.”
Even Breelyn lowers her head for a moment, for those lost, before she looks up at me. “Can I be moved to another house?”
“Why? Are they not treating you well?” I ask, getting angry. If they haven’t looked after her—
“Breelyn, you’re confident enough to throw a plate at my head yesterday. You can tell your friend that you hate my guts, so you want to move,” Callahan growls at her. Actually growls.
She bares her teeth at him. “If you had just shut up for five goddamn minutes, I wouldn’t have had to throw the plate!”
He crosses his arms, standing straighter as he takes a step closer. “Sorry for trying to talk to you, female! It’s what people do!”
“I don’t care,” she snaps, flashing him a look of indifference. But to me, I see something else entirely, something strange in the way she holds herself. I don’t see indifference. “I don’t want to speak to you.”
“Fine,” he replies.
Silas and I look at each other, neither one of us quite sure what to say. Silas breaks the silence, thankfully. “Callahan, I could use your opinion on some subjects to bring up in your trial. How about we go into another room and talk?”
“Of course, alpha,” he replies, flashing one more seething look in Breelyn’s direction before turning and heading up the stairs. Silas lets his fingers run across my arm as he passes, and I finally have a quick look around the room. It’s nice, reminding me of my foster home with its aged wallpaper with shell designs and worn-down hardwood floors. There is one sofa, a side unit, and a fireplace in here, and an arched doorway into a kitchen to the left.
“How are you?” I ask Breelyn who walks back to the sofa. I sit down next to her.
“Going insane with boredom and worrying. I can’t protect you in here,” she replies. “I’m meant to be training to be your omega, and I need to be at your side during this rite. The guards explained the rite to me, how are you?”
“Training every morning and evening, when I can,” I answer. “My alphas are working me hard, which is what I want, but truthfully, I’m worried. No one is allowed to know what happens in the rite’s three tests, only that if I can survive the first two, the final test is held in The Rite Forest. I’m yet to find out what that place actually is.”
“You’re fast on your feet, and you have goddess powers. Use them to win; it doesn’t matter if that isn’t fair to the others. We both know you have the alphas’ hearts, and only you can be alpha female,” she says. “I believe in you.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, looking down. “I’m working on believing in myself at all costs. I’ve been at my lowest, and I’m crawling back up. There is only up.”
“I’m glad to see you’re keeping weapons on you with the Levi being able to get in the city,” she says. “I hate we can’t have weapons in here.”
“You would have stabbed Callahan by now, so I actually agree with that rule,” I reply, arching an eyebrow.
“Can’t you take the insufferable bastard with you?” she replies.
I chuckle. “What did he do to make you hate him so much?”
“Hate him?” she replies. “No, I don’t hate him. Hate is too close to love, and it’s too much of an emotion to hold for anyone. If I ever said I hated him, then there is a big issue. I’m indifferent to him.”
I bite on my lip, unsure what to say to that. Thankfully, Silas, followed by Callahan, comes down the stairs. “We must return. We are only allowed to be here for ten minutes, and we have gone over that.”
I nod to Silas, looking back at Breelyn. “I can’t wait to show you the library and introduce you both to Dot when you are free.”
Breelyn hugs me this time.
Callahan meets my eyes over her shoulder, a softness flashing in them when he looks at Breelyn. She breaks away. “Can’t wait.”
“I will try to come back if I can,” I say, climbing to my feet, already feeling guilty about leaving her here. I turn to Silas. “Can we have more guards on the door? If the Levi attacked them, five wouldn’t be enough, and they have no weapons.”
“Yes,” Silas agrees. “I will make the command to double the guards when we get back.”
“Thank you,” Callahan and Breelyn say at the same time and then turn to glare at each other. Feeling another argument coming on, I walk to the door with Silas, who pulls it open. Before Silas can stop me, I walk over and hug Callahan, who wraps his arms around my back. “Don’t kill her, okay?”
“She’s the one who shifts into a deadly wolf, and I’m weaponless. I can’t even fly away,” he jokes, flashing me a toothy grin. I chuckle, going back to Silas, who watches expressionless as I step through the door. I don’t look back, knowing if I did, I wouldn’t want to leave, and the moment I’m at the bottom of the steps, the wolves are back in their line in front of the door. Fox is picking daisies in the garden and stands up.
“A daisy chain for you,” he says, placing the necklace of daisies over my head.
“Thank you, Fox. I used to make these,” I say, pulling my hair out of the chain.
He rubs the back of his neck. “A pretty necklace for a pr—”
Silas knocks his shoulder. “I’m the only one of four who are allowed to call Mai pretty, Fox.”
“Understood, alpha,” Fox says, and the moment Silas looks away, he winks at me, and I chuckle as we walk away and through the picket fence.
“Back to the castle?” I ask.
“No,” Silas replies, lifting my hand and kissing my knuckles. “I want to show you something.”
We head into the thick trees in the forest, stepping over the large exposed roots and the many little plants that grow around them. There is no path, making the trek difficult, and I don’t know how long we walk until we come to a stone-built throne in the middle of five white oak trees. The white oak is the same shade of weathered stone as the throne, which is broken at the top, the armrests covered in ivy. Silas leads me over and waves to the throne, which I sit down on, the stone freezing cold everywhere it touches me. I feel hyperaware as Silas settles his eyes on me, all predator and wicked.
“You are sitting where the first god was said to be created. From ash and magic and nothing more,” Silas breathes out, moving closer, his eyes trailing over me, his desire a thick scent in the air to match my own. My heart beats fast as he moves closer, and the forest is silent to my ears, as I only focus on him.
“Ash and magic to create a god? With that truth, I could make a god in seconds,” I breathe out.
He laughs, low and devious. “I don’t make up the legends, Mai.”
I arch an eyebrow as he leans over and goes to his knees in front of me. In front of the broken throne I sit upon. Something deep down in my chest warms as I gaze into the eyes of the alpha I love on his knees before me as I sit on an old throne in a warm forest. His hands fall on my knees, and I gasp from the contact and the warmth of his large hands.
“Will you give me something? Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time?”
His question is more like a plea, and even when I don’t know what he wants, I find myself nodding. I wouldn’t and couldn’t refuse him anything.
When we met, I was sure we would become enemies with how mad he made me, how far he pushed me, but it was just a dance. A dance to become this, two wolves in love beyond even the touch of the gods.
We are not promised to them, our souls are only promised to each other.
His returning grin is not
hing short of a craving mix of want. My heart feels stuck in my chest as he brushes his hands up my thighs, pushing up my skirt to my waist and baring me to him, only lacy white fabric between him and my core.
“Do you trust me?”
“Always,” I whisper, so filled with desire. He leans down and kisses my knee as he pulls down my lace panties and leaves them on the ground near his feet as he carries on kissing up my thigh, pushing my legs apart. I gasp as he pulls me closer to the edge of the throne, my ass half hanging off it, and he looks up. His lips settle on mine with a fevered desperation I match, wanting more of him. Close to pleading for him.
He growls against my lips, and I feel the growl everywhere. Right down to my core. I can hardly breathe as he kisses down my jaw, slowly nipping my neck and collarbone, the pain laced with sweet pleasure.
“I want more than anything,” he breathes against my chest as he presses a kiss right above my breasts hidden under my crop top, “to thrust myself inside you. To not know where I begin and end with you. To never want to leave...but I want that as your mate. When I knot...”
He pauses with a growl.
Knotting. Something I’ve only heard whispered about before. It happens in sex, when a male chooses his mate, and the female accepts. I don’t know much about it other than it’s pleasurable, and I want to find out about it. With him, Silas.
He lowers himself, again teasing with his lips against my upper thigh, closer to my core than ever before. “I want to take you as my mate forever. But for now, I need a taste, if you will let me.”
“I trust you,” I breathe out.
He grins like I just said I’d trust the devil with my soul. Maybe I have done. He brushes his fingers across my core, and I moan, clutching his shoulder right before his thighs nudge my lower legs, spreading me open, and he licks between my legs with his hot tongue, focusing on my nub. Pleasure courses through me like a wave of fire, burning my veins to life, building an inferno controlled by Silas’s tongue. He slips one finger, then two inside me, adding to the pressure as I sink my hands into his hair, and he growls against my core.
The vibration of his growl, the possessiveness, is too much with what his tongue is doing.
“Silas!” I cry out his name like a prayer for the gods as I crash into an orgasm so strong it shakes my whole body, making me forget anything but him. His scent wraps around me as he leans up, meeting my eyes.
I reach for him, but he catches my hands, lowering them and nudging my cheek as he leans in to kiss me. “Touch me, and nothing—no vow or rite—will stop me from taking you on this throne.”
I blush, pangs of pleasure still coursing through me. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he breathes out before stepping away, calming himself. He looks back once, an impish smirk on his lips. “You look good on a throne like that. I will take you on this when you are my mate. When I’ve spent hours crashing you over the edge when I’m inside you.”
I purr. “I’m looking forward to being your mate, Silas Fall.”
His eyes flare with longing and surprise. They may have found me as a broken female, but that isn’t who I am anymore. I’m fighting for my future and finding who I am—and what is mine.
“I vow to the gods to speak only the truth within these halls and during this court,” I say, reading the script handed to me, never pausing. The court is held in a silent, weapon-free room with only one entrance and exit, the doors in front of me. The guards walked me here after lunch, with Phim and Erin close by. And it’s another part of this giant castle I had never been in. I think it’s near or at the back of the ballroom, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Then welcome to court, Mairin Fall,” the guard says, bowing his head and nodding to the four guards in front of double stained glass doors. The doors are stained a deep, mustard yellow, and it’s so dark it makes it impossible to see inside. The doors creak, a sign of their age, as the guards open them to make enough space for me to walk inside. I glance behind me, where Phim and Erin are waiting, and Phim nods to me. I’m here to make sure Breelyn and Callahan walk out of this court at my side, free.
I hold my head high, feeling underdressed in a black T-shirt, skinny jeans and black boots. Erin was certain that no one dresses up for court; it’s a casual meeting of each of the plaza betas and the alphas alone to discuss the fate of whoever is standing before the court of wolves. My hair sways behind me, up in a high ponytail, so the ends brush against my shoulders as I head into the large circular room with mosaic blue tiles and white walls with marble pillars. The ceiling is painted blue, like the sky with dotted clouds around. I see Alpha Reine first, Alpha Soren at her side, on two seats in the middle of a long grey stone table. My alphas are seated around them: Henderson and Silas on one side, Valentine and Ragnar on the other. Each of them watches me like a hawk from the moment I step in. There are five other wolves seated in the room, only one of them I recognise from the celebration meal, Solandis Fall.
Breelyn and Callahan aren’t here, and I sit down on the first row of seats in front of a circle gap between the seating and the stone table.
The room is silent, and I feel like everyone is watching me as I hold my head high. “Today we have a special guest at our court meeting, Mairin Fall. We have also invited Adira Fall as a second opinion on the wolf and angel.”
Great.
I don’t bother to hide my distaste as the door behind me opens and I scent Adira walking in without looking back. She makes a show of stopping next to me and bowing to the alphas before walking past me and sitting on the seat at my side. Of course, Adira is wearing a silky black dress that clings to her curvy body, and it dips so low that everyone can see everything.
“Good to see you, Mai,” she whispers.
I don’t respond to her; she doesn’t even deserve my attention in any way, shape, or form. Adira sighs and leans closer to me. “Ignoring me won’t make me go away, Mai.”
“When I get my memories back, Adira, you better watch your back,” I whisper, never turning her way.
For a second, I scent her fear, and then it’s gone. “That will never happen. You have no memories, and it’s impossible at this point for you to remember.”
I smile.
The doors open once more, and this time, I look back as Breelyn and Callahan are guided into the court, both of them held on to with chains attached to handcuffs at their wrists. I grit my teeth, reminding myself that they will be walking out of here without those things on. I have to be careful with Adira here and her lies she so easily spews from her mouth. She knows I care about them both, and I have no doubt she is here to lie about something, to make them look untrustworthy.
Breelyn’s eyes meet mine, and I give her a nod, which she returns before they both stop in the marked circle. The guards push them onto their knees, and I grip the seat under my hands.
“We will start with the female wolf,” Alpha Soren begins. “Breelyn Ravensword, rescued from the Ravensword Pack by Beta Seraphim. Breelyn has refused to bind herself to the pack and now risks our city. Will we now take time to let anyone in the room speak for Breelyn Ravensword.”
I stand up and Alpha Soren nods. “When I first met Breelyn Ravensword, I was held captive by the alpha of Ravensword, and I was forced to kill her father in front of her. Instead of hating me, which she would have had a right to do, she became my friend and showed me how truly kind she is. Breelyn Ravensword will be my omega if I win the rite, and I would trust her with my life. I wish, on her behalf, to let Breelyn stay in our pack until the rite is over, and I believe she plans to swear her loyalty to me, to the Fall Mountain Pack.”
“Please sit,” Alpha Soren commands, and I do. Breelyn looks back once, her eyes thankful.
“I will attest to Breelyn’s character,” Silas says, standing. “I have spent weeks training Breelyn Ravensword and found her to be a respectful wolf. I believe she has no ties with Ravensword other than them being the pack she was born into.”
Silas sits
down, and Alpha Soren looks to Breelyn. “Do you intend to swear loyalty and join our grand pack when and if Mairin takes alpha female?”
“Yes,” she replies, and I breathe out a long breath. “My loyalty stands with Mai—Mairin—Fall, and I plan to be an omega who would die to protect her.”
Silence rings after she stops talking, and eventually Alpha Reine speaks. “I have spoken with many children who were on the train and heard that Breelyn, along with others, fought Levi to protect our alpha heirs and pack.”
She looks at Breelyn. “The question isn’t if you’re loyal to this pack, but are you loyal to Ravensword Pack still?”
“Alpha Reine, that is a hard question to answer. I am not loyal to the alpha or the family of my fated mate because he beat and raped me before I killed him. So did his friends in the pack, including the alpha himself. The alpha of Ravensword caused my father’s death to punish me before continuing to hurt me until I escaped. I would rather die than go back to that pack,” she brutally answers, hurting my heart. Callahan looks at Breelyn, and for the first time, I think he sees how broken she is and how strong she is all at the same time.
I think he really sees her.
“But the pack is not defined by its alpha. There are old, young, weak and kind wolves in the thousands in that pack. I grew up with them, and many tried to help me when I was mated.” She pauses as a look of pain flashes across her face. “So I am loyal to the pack of those who don’t deserve the alpha they have. I hope to one day see the alpha of Ravensword dead and an alpha who cares on that throne.”
“I believe I speak for everyone here when I say I am sorry for their treatment of you,” Alpha Reine says and looks at Alpha Soren, nodding once.
“We will take a vote. Stand if you wish for Breelyn Ravensword to be allowed free passage around our pack until after the rite?” Alpha Soren asks before standing himself. My alphas all stand, Alpha Reine next until all but one of the betas is standing. The remaining male, a permanent frown on his face, doesn’t move.
“It has been decided,” Alpha Soren states. “You are free to leave, Breelyn Ravensword. Undo her cuffs.”