by G. Bailey
“What’s your name?” I question the one left.
“Adolphine Fall,” she replies, holding her stance perfectly despite the cut.
“Why?” I ask next, knowing I don’t need to explain myself. I swiftly look at the other female, seeing her head is bleeding, and she isn’t getting up anytime soon.
“Because while you’re still in this test, none of us stand a chance. I’ve trained since birth to be an alpha female, worked with every beta in every plaza, fought and proved myself against all the females in my plaza. I fought to be here! But you? You’re a no one to this pack, to this city, but it’s clear our alpha heirs favour you because you fuck them!” she shouts at me, and I try not to react, to not show her how much her words affect me. Does everyone think this? “They don’t see me and never will do as long as you’re alive. But the city, the pack, knows and judges you for it. For luring them, controlling them in the name of love. Duty to the pack should always come before love.”
I don’t agree. Love should come first, and her statement is filled with lies.
She breathlessly pants, both of us circling each other. She lashes out with a sword, and I miss the tip, jumping back. I block her next hit with my dagger, and she pushes down until I scream and a blast of my shifter energy slams out of me, hitting her dead in the chest. She lets out a cry as she is thrown back and tumbles across the ground, green shifter energy flickering around her body like electricity.
I don’t need to go closer to know I killed her.
Even if I didn’t mean to.
I push the guilt down, deep down, until I can’t feel it anymore, and slide my daggers back into my corset, picking up my satchel before going down the street. It doesn’t take me long to find door number seven, a white townhouse with three floors, an overgrown front garden and a chipped painted door. I slide a dagger out, just in case, and open the front door with the aged golden handle.
The inside of the townhouse isn’t much better. The floorboards are broken and missing in places, and there is a huge gap in the wall, the wallpaper aged and ripped all around. I step over the missing boards and into the only arched doorway in the corridor, which is lit up by a fireplace. In front of the fireplace is a small table with two glasses on it and a tall chair.
It takes me a second to recognise the scent of who is in it, and I run over, scraping my feet as I find Trey unconscious in the chair. I go to lift him, but I’m thrown across the room with a slam of red energy, and I cough as I’m sure one of my ribs breaks in the fall. Groaning, I climb back to my feet and rush back, trying to ignore the pain. Trey looks okay. His chest is rising and falling, but I can’t get to him as I sense the protective shield now.
This is too far. How dare they use a child in this test? I only saw him yesterday, and he was fine, happy actually, as he loves his classes, the friends he has made in the castle, with the guards’ children who are a similar age. He was happy...and now he is in danger.
A growl escapes my throat. The alphas have taken this too far. I know my alphas would have never done this or had anything to do with it. Trey is a child.
I turn to the glasses of clear liquid and see a folded red letter in front of it. I crack the red wax seal and open the letter, reading the words written in silver ink.
“I have taken a life from you.
In return you shall drink one of mine.
A poison is placed in one of the drinks.
Amanita Poison,
Cyanide Poison,
Hemlock Poison,
Nightshade Poison,
Which I will not say.
You have seen the cure and it has felt the wind.
Use wisdom, and the shield will fall.
If not, the shield will stay forever.
Immortality is a gift and a curse.”
The letter isn’t signed by anyone, and I quickly grab the four vials out of the bag, looking at the drinks and back. How am I meant to know which one is the right cure?
I remember a little teaching on poisons and what they smell like, but that was before I could shift, and all scents are more intense now, different. Plus, what I learnt in school on poisons was more to do with what could be poisonous to wolves when we are in the forest. The poisons on this list sound more complicated, and I don’t have a clue what they are for or look like.
I blow out a deep breath, knowing that this is risky, and I pick up the right goblet. Reine said to make the right choice, and it might not be that simple, but I don’t know what to do. I take a long drink until it’s empty, and then I pause, looking at the vials. If anything, they look like poison and scent like it too. I smell the other drink, feeling dizzy already. It smells like nothing.
Maybe the vials are poison?
My legs give way under me, and I shakily look up at Trey’s sweet face as he sleeps, unaware of what is going on before I force myself to drink the other drink.
The second the drink is all gone, a red haze floats down from around Trey, and the dizziness makes my head hit the floor before he is even awake.
Silas Fall
“Trey? You used our fucking ward as bait in a deadly test?” I roar, slamming the door to the throne room open. On instinct, I search for our bond to check on Mai and Trey, who are with my brothers healing, but find it silent, like it has been since we got back here. Our home. The emptiness in my chest is strange to me. I’ve never been alone, not in thoughts or presence; my brothers and pack have always been there. Now I’m spiralling without a rope in the world to hold on to. Especially when she is hurt, in our home, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it unless I want to upset her and tell the pack to screw thousand-year-old traditions. If I pull her out of the rite, the pack will never respect her and they might even try to hurt her.
I fucking hate it.
It feels like my idea of home is burning down with every damn day we spend here. If it’s not the Levi attacking, it’s Mai entering the rite and now Trey being used as a pawn in this game. I’m sick of it. We are meant to protect them, all of them, and this is nothing short of failing.
Alpha Soren sighs, clutching his drink glass tighter, Alpha Reine nowhere to be seen. He is sprawled on the throne, ten guards in a line behind him, waiting on his command. Or to see to his protection…not from me. I wouldn’t hurt the alpha, but I am allowed to be angry with him as he sits on the throne, a crown on his head, a carelessness to his eyes over my outburst. I expect an answer.
I step up in front of Soren, his guards twitching behind him. Fighting them, all of them at once, would be a fun way to release some anger. I cross my arms, levelling my stare on Soren’s.
“He was in no real danger. Mairin wouldn’t have let—”
“If she didn’t get the cure right, he would have been permanently stuck in that state!” I growl, my voice loud enough to shake the ground at my feet. I might not be able to feel my brothers’ emotions and hear their thoughts, but when we all rushed into that old house, finding Mairin pale and unmoving on the ground and Trey out of it in a chair, the dread and panic was strong enough to be tasted in the air.
I want to burn down to dust every single wolf that dared to lay a hand on her.
I want to destroy them.
But I know she will. Or has done.
“Son,” Reine coos as she walks in the room behind me. She places her hand on my back, and every instinct in me wants to throw her touch off. It’s not her fault she reminds me of my father, the beatings he gave me, and how she was forced to challenge him so he didn’t kill me. I remember watching the entire challenge, the swiftness that Reine fought and so easily killed my father with, and the clean rip of his neck in wolf form. Her wolf howled that night, and in my soul, I felt the howl of freedom. Of justice. It’s one of my memories that keeps me up at night. Violence, blood and freedom.
But today, justice was far from the minds of this pair.
“Have you both lost your goddamn minds while we have been gone? Trey is a child,” I growl, stepping away from Reine,
hurt briefly flashing in her eyes before they narrow on me, but I’m not done. “One of the many things I learnt from you was how to protect the innocent. Trey is innocent and kind and young.”
“When you are alpha,” Reine starts, pursing her lips, “and if Mairin becomes alpha female as you so wish, there will be many moments where she has to make hard choices for the greater good. Today was not only a test in wisdom but in understanding the pressure that will fall on her shoulders. On you all.”
She walks past me and to Soren’s side, placing her hand on his shoulder. “In the time you left us, we made many hard choices. Many, son. It is tiring and exhausting to hold this pack together when we are not the alphas they need. They need you, all four of you. The alpha female will be the bond that holds you together throughout the hard decisions, the balance of right and wrong. The loss and joy you will find ruling millions of wolves. The rite is a hard test, and I stand behind my decision to use your ward. It forced Mairin to make a snap decision and trust her instincts. She trusted herself, and so did the other females who survived.”
“How many, my love?” Soren asks.
“Four,” she replies with a smile. “Two of them were killed by Mairin and two were killed by the poison.”
I close my eyes for a moment, pushing down the burning anger within me. A part of me is proud that the clumsy female I started with is now strong enough to take down two well-trained wolves, and another part of me hates she had to kill once again and I couldn’t protect her. Take the life for her.
Two tests left.
Three other females left.
“Was Adira one of them left?” I question. I wish she hadn’t entered the rite, mostly because it forced me and my brothers to realise she doesn’t see us how we see her. She is like a little sister to us, and even if we never saw Mai again, that won’t change. Mai has to win the rite, but a part of me doesn’t want to see Adira die. I remember her as a little girl who chased us around and climbed trees to jump out of them onto our backs.
Now she is hunting and trying to kill the female we are in love with. My loyalty is to Mai.
Reine nods and I breathe in deep. “I understand why you chose to use Trey, but I do not agree with it. Neither do my brothers.”
“We make no apology for our choices,” Soren announces, leaning back on the throne. “She is just a girl, and if she dies, so be it. It is the will of the gods and maybe for the best. You don’t think clearly when she is around.”
Burning fury builds in my chest, smouldering from a flicker of a flame into a blaze as he sits in the throne made by Hades, a dark shadow to my soul.
A darkness I regularly embrace.
The red shadows effortlessly spread around my body, pooling at my feet, a threat laced with darkness as I walk to him. “Mai wants the rite to go ahead, but the decision of who is going to be my mate has already been decided. I am not just an alpha. I am not just a wolf. I am Hades. Threaten her again and see what a god of the underworld can do.”
He pales and Reine steps in front of him, and I pause. I’ve accepted that part of me will always be him, and he will always be a part of me. Mai hasn’t realised how much of herself is Persephone. Not yet. She will.
Soren and I have never seen eye to eye, but Reine? She has been like a mother to me, and I respect her for it. For saving me when no one else did.
She bows her head slightly. “Forgive us, Silas. Sometimes we see only a wolf and not what lies beneath.”
I pull my power back, cracking my neck.
“Shouldn’t you be at Mairin’s side? I heard she was injured,” Reine suggests. “I know your brothers will be healing her, but I’m sure she would want you there when she wakes.”
I almost chuckle. “If you bothered to truly get to know her, you would know she wouldn’t even want us to heal her or treat her like an injured wolf. She is stubborn, brave and beautiful.”
“Like her mother,” Reine whispers, her eyes bright and sad.
We have all lost so much, Reine maybe more than anyone. Soren is lucky to have her.
Inclining my head, I turn away. “Silas, have you gone to see her? Your aunt? She asks for you often.”
I pause mid step. My aunt, the female I haven’t seen in many years. She let my mother and me suffer, never once stepping in and stopping what happened. “No.”
Reine and Soren don’t stop me as I leave the throne room and head through the castle to Mai’s room. Callahan’s large wings block the door entrance, and he looks back, bowing his head as he steps aside. The room is packed with wolves. Breelyn, Phim and Trey are seated in the corner, sitting on the floor. My brothers sit around the bed where Mai lies in the middle, pale but healed from her injuries. I sit on the edge of the bed, picking up her small pale hand in mine, hearing her heartbeat loud and fast within her chest.
Her scent wraps around me. Frost-kissed peaches and wisps of lavender. I breathe her in until my heart calms down to focus on the rise and fall of her chest. She is breathing. Mai is alive.
God dammit, I love her more with each passing day. She frustrates me, angers me, and torments me with her attitude, but I love her more for it. I love her.
I tell myself that a million times until my wolf calms enough for me to think straight and admire her beauty. Someone has undone the braids she had in, her soft blonde hair wavy as it is spread around the pillow under her. Her pouty lips are slightly parted, and her long eyelashes flicker occasionally like she is dreaming.
I turn her hand over in mine, running my fingertip over the upside-down mountain mark. A mark that binds her to this pack, to this city and the secret. So many years I wished to bring her back here to protect her and treasure her so she could be free and safe, but home has never been so dangerous for any of us. I move the ring on her finger around, looking at the apple.
Where did she get this?
Something unknown about the ring makes me angry, worried, and nervous, as a possessive whisper chills down my spine.
I feel his presence like a snake wrapping around my arm, slithering down to curl around Mai’s hand. Hades. My brothers all turn towards me, sensing the presence of the god who is part of me as much as I am him.
We are his four vipers, parts of him on earth, fated for only one female.
She is our Persephone. Our goddess of spring and the underworld.
“Hades, stop it!” A woman laughs, giggles almost in joy. I blink my eyes open. The darkness disappears to reveal a bed of flowers, and curled in the middle of them are Hades and Persephone, their faces and bodies covered by a white sheet. I know it’s them; I can feel it, and my eyes trace every line in the blanket, the faces hidden from me. Parts of Persephone’s silver hair escape the blanket edges, and one of Hades’s legs.
“Tell me then,” he teases, his voice dark and rough, making me shiver from head to toe. “Every god and goddess in the mortal lands and beyond has asked you this, but you answer none of them. You can tell me.”
She sighs and pushes the blanket off her face, but he stays hidden. She looks down at him with such feigned innocence. “I hid it where only I could find it.”
He laughs. “Well, my queen, keep it hidden. Don’t you know what it can do?”
Her eyes drop. “Yes...but perhaps that much power could—”
“Only destroy,” Hades interrupts. “The mortal realm is held on a rocky balance. You know this. Power like that could rip it apart and leave only fire and creatures born from it.”
“You are right, my king,” she replies, sliding back under the blanket. But to me...I heard a lie.
I wake up slowly, achingly slowly, as my body reminds me of what happened before I passed out. My sheets tell me I’m in my bed before I open my eyes, breathing in Henderson’s and Valentine’s scents. I wake up to find them both sleeping on either side of me, my hands clutched in theirs. I turn my head to Henderson, and his eyes drift open.
“You’re awake. How are you?” he quietly asks, not to disturb Valentine. I scent others in the
room and hear many light snores.
“Sore but alive. How is Trey?” I question.
“See for yourself,” he says, nodding his head to the end of my bed. I sit up, softly pulling my hand from Valentine’s without waking him, and finding Trey curled up in his wolf form at the end of the bed. Breelyn and Phim have both shifted, lying at the foot of the bed, also sleeping. Silas and Ragnar are sitting by the wall, snoring softly.
Callahan catches my eyes from the door where he is leaning and nods to me.
I turn to Henderson. “Did I pick the right cure?”
“Yes,” he whispers back to me. “But the poison was strong and knocked you out for two days. That’s why everyone is sleeping—we didn’t want to leave you.”
Tears sting my eyes at the gesture...at the family I have found in this room who haven’t left me no matter what. I lean over and kiss his cheek, and he cups mine.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he questions. “We didn’t know about Trey, and we aren’t happy about it.”
“Neither am I, but I’m well and so is Trey, by the looks of his snoring wolf,” I reply with a quiet chuckle. I look down at my long green nightdress, my hair falling around my shoulders. “But I’m going to shower. Can you wake everyone and tell them to go to bed because I’m good?”
“Of course,” he replies. I lightly kiss him after he helps me climb quietly out of the bed. I look back to see Callahan is staring down at Breelyn, his expression unreadable. For a moment, I wonder if he likes her, but I’m not sure Breelyn would have noticed. The pair of them are like fire and ice, an explosion waiting to happen if they ever collided. Henderson picks Trey’s wolf up like a baby, carrying him from the room, and I slip into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
I suck in a deep breath, staring down at my hands, seeing blood on them that isn’t there. I flick the shower on, my body in a trance as I pull all my clothes off and climb in, only to kneel down and lower my head.