by G. Bailey
A man who took my innocence, crushed it, and made me fear him.
The alpha of my pack.
The silence is damning. Damning and hollow as I stare into the unfeeling hazel eyes of the wolf shifter who is apparently my fated mate. An alpha doesn’t share his mate, so this is the only man in the entire world who the moon goddess believes I should be with. And he is a monster. The alpha doesn’t move as green magic crackles around his body, picking up his fur cloak that hangs off his large shoulders. Thick black hair falls to his shoulders in a straight line, not a strand out of place, and his stern face is stoic as he looks at me. Water drips down my dress, my wet hair sticking to my shoulders, and all the warmth from the water is gone now. The magic is gone, replaced only with fear for what happens next.
“No.”
His single word rings out across the beach to me, the few yards that are between us like nothing. No. No to the mating? No, it being me the moon goddess chose as the alpha’s mate?
I agree with him...hell no. Mating with this excuse of an alpha, a man with no soul and a scar on his chin I caused when I was fifteen, is a life I would rather not live. Only once have I ever thought about giving up on my life, once on a wintry day like this, caused by the same man I’m looking at right now. This is the second time I have wanted to give up completely.
Whispers and gasps from the crowd of wolves behind him and from the crowds on the cliff finally reach my ears, and I try to block out what they are saying even when some of their words are perfectly heard.
“Her? The alpha’s mate? Disgusting!”
“Maybe the moon goddess made a terrible mistake.”
“He should kill her and be done with it.”
The whispers never stop, and the same thing is chanted as the alpha’s eyes bleed from hazel to green, his wolf taking over. Then he takes one step forward towards me, and I itch to run, to turn and leave as fast as I can, but something tells me not to.
Maybe that bit of pride I have left. Mike always said pride is a bigger killer than any man. I can see his point as my legs refuse to move and I stay still as a deer caught in a wolf’s gaze. The alpha walks right up to me, his closeness making me feel sick to my stomach as he grabs my throat and lifts me slightly off the ground. Not enough to strangle me or cut my airways off, but enough to make me gasp, to make me want to struggle. I claw at his arm to get him off, but I’m nothing but a fly buzzing around a cake to him. I can see it in his eyes, his eyes owned by his wolf.
“How did you trick the moon goddess herself into believing a rat like you could ever be an alpha’s mate?” he demands, and when I don’t answer, he shakes me harshly, tightening his grip for a second. A second enough for me to scream and gasp, coughing on air when he loosens his grip. He shakes his head, his eyes bleeding from green back to hazel. To think I once trusted those hazel eyes, I dreamt about them, I thought he was my real friend.
“I asked you a question, Irin.”
“My name is Mairin to you, not Irin. M-my friends call me Irin, Alpha Sylvester Ravensword. Kill me if you’re going to do it. I have feared you for so long that you killing me is nothing more than the goddess giving me my wish.”
The lie falls from my tongue easily, even if his name does not. The moon goddess never gave me my real wish, my wish I begged her for once, to kill him, the alpha’s son, Sylvester Ravensword. Instead, in some twisted version of fate, she made him alpha and me his mate he has waited for. His eyes stay hazel, but in the corners I see the green struggling to take over. He slowly tightens his grip around my neck, and I close my eyes, wanting to see nothing in these last moments. I gasp as I struggle to breathe, instinctively smacking and scratching at his one hand holding me up by the neck. Fear and panic take over, making my eyes pop open just as I’m thrown across the sand. With a slam, I hit the hard sand on my side, and a cracking noise in my arm is followed by incredible pain as I scream.
“Irin!” I hear Daniel shout in the distance, a wolfy and deep noise just before a foot slams into my stomach once. Then twice, then again and again. The pain almost becomes numb when my voice gives out, and the kicks finally stop as I roll onto my back, looking up at Alpha Sylvester as he angrily kicks me one more time before stepping back, rubbing his hands over his face repeatedly.
“No one follows us. If anyone does, I will rip them to shreds,” I hear Alpha Sylvester demand, and the noise of wolves fighting nearby mixes with the sound of the waves. A hand digs into my hair and pulls me up as I taste blood in my mouth. Everything is blurry as someone drags me by my hair and arm over sharp rocks that cut into my back and catch on my dress, but part of me detaches from my body, drifting into a world of no pain as I fade in and out of consciousness. Eventually I’m dropped onto grass, and I blink my eyes a few times, coughing on the blood in my mouth and turning my head to the side, every inch of my body hurting so badly the pain threatens to knock me out with every breath. A hand wraps around my throat once more, and I’m lifted into the air, my feet hanging as I struggle to breathe.
“Open your eyes,” Alpha Sylvester demands, his fiery breath blowing across my face.
Opening my eyes is harder than I thought it would be, and when I do, I see he is right in front of me.
“I can’t kill you, because my wolf will not allow it.” He shakes me once. “Die in the sea for your fated mate, Irin. Die like you should have so many years ago, because if the sea does not take you, I will know. I will know, and I will never stop sending wolves to kill you. I have rejected you as my mate, you are not worthy of me, and you never could be. You are nothing.”
“Then why does the moon goddess think otherwise?” I whisper back with all the strength I have. I should plead for my life, I should beg and cry, but I just stare at him as his eyes flash with pure anger, and he roars as he lets me go. The wind cannot catch my body as I fly off the cliff, well aware the sea is going to take my life in seconds.
And in those seconds I fall, I still pray to the moon goddess for someone to catch me.
“Get the healer ready!” a deep voice demands, nothing more than a groggy sound to my sore ears as I struggle to wake up. Coldness like I’ve never known controls my body from head to toe, and it’s not just cold, I’m soaking wet too. Every inch of my body hurts. Even my eyelids ache as I pull them open to see rocks in front of me. Smooth white rocks. Waves crash in the distance, and I can smell nothing but damp water. Lifting my head, which takes more strength than I thought it would, I see I’m still in my mating ceremony dress, but it’s ripped around my stomach, and a large cut snakes down my ribs, hidden under the ripped fabric of my dress. My bare feet are stuck in the wet sand, and I’m curled up in a space between a group of rocks like the sea threw me here.
Flashes of memories attack me quickly. The sea. The mating ceremony. The alpha who was meant to be my mate but instead tried to kill me... How am I alive?
Scuffling of heavy booted feet reminds me I’m not alone, and I jump away from the noise behind me, pivoting to see a man standing on the rock. His silhouette blocks out the light, making all around him glow as I drift my eyes up his body. Thick black trousers cover large thighs, and he has a black shirt tucked into them. The shirt stretches across his large shoulders, large enough to make him a champ at a rugby match if he chose it. Following my eyes up over his golden skin, I suck in a deep breath when I see his face.
He is beautiful in a way men shouldn’t be allowed to be. Strong jawline, high cheekbones, perfectly shaped lips and thick black eyelashes that surround clear blue eyes that remind me of a lake—still, in an eerie way that makes you wonder if there is any life below the waters. Black locks of hair that are a little too long, falling just over his eyes when the wind blows, look softer than the silk dress I’m wearing.
No one in my pack ever looked like him. I would have noticed.
The more I stare, the longer I realise he is staring right back at me, like he has seen a ghost. Like I’m familiar to him. Considering where I came from, he might have done. Not
that I have a clue where we are. I lean up on my one arm, but I can’t see out of the rocks or anything around the man standing over me.
Correction: the wolf. He is watching me like a wolf, that I am certain of. He is too direct, too inhuman like, and all that I need to see now is his eyes glow.
“Do you know me?” I ask, my voice throaty, and I clear it, tasting nothing but thick salt left over from the sea.
The man tilts his head to the side. “Why are you here?”
“I-I was...” I pause because I have no idea where I am, and telling this wolf I’m the alpha’s rejected mate might not be the best idea if I’m still in Ravensword lands. He will drag me back to the alpha, who will try to kill me again. No, I can’t do that.
“Answer me.”
The man’s command is clear, ringing with power and frustration. I look up, meeting his eyes once more even when I can’t think straight or of a single word to say. Whatever I say is going to get me killed, and I can’t help but think I’ve been given a second chance at life. I should never have survived falling into the sea, not with the injuries I have, not when I passed out, but here I am. Alive.
It’s clear the moon goddess has much more planned for me than I know.
When I don’t say a word for a long time, he moves. The man moves so quickly, and within seconds he is in my face, leaning over me on the rocks. His nose gently touches mine, my body a mix with fear and curiosity.
“Tell me,” he commands once more. “Tell me why you are on the shores of the Fall Mountain Pack, or you will die this very second.”
Fall Mountain Pack?
Oh my god... How am I alive and on this island? I know people usually die who try to swim between the islands, but for me to have gotten here unconscious is nothing short of magic. I’m yet to decide what kind of magic, considering all I know about the Fall Mountain Pack is that they are cruel and vicious. That they live in ways most wolves would never do or even think about. They don’t trade with the Ravensword Pack, and every attempt at peace has been met with death. We are told they are monsters, and now I’m on their lands.
But truthfully, I’m dead either way. If they send me back, the alpha will kill me, and if I stay here, it’s likely they will kill me.
I have nothing to lose by telling this man the truth.
“My name is Mairin Perdita, and I am a rejected mate of the Ravensword Pack,” I announce, leaning back against the rocks and curling my legs underneath myself, needing space from his man. His eyes widen, but he doesn’t say a word. “The mating ceremony named me as the alpha’s mate, and because I am a foster child with no family or worth, he rejected me. After hurting me in anger, he tried to kill me by throwing me off a cliff. How I’m here, alive, is a mystery to me, but I guess I am asking for your help. I’m asking for a damn miracle, because my life has been anything but one.”
“I would wager surviving your rejection is a miracle. The sea is a cruel mistress at the best of times, and last night was one of the worst storms seen in years,” he finally replies, leaning back, his voice less hostile than it was. “I can always tell when someone is lying to me, and you are not, Mairin Perdita. My name is Alpha Henderson Fall, and I am going to help you.”
“You’re the alpha?” I whisper in shock and a little fear. It shouldn’t surprise me he is so high in rank, just because of how commanding and powerful he comes across as, but it does.
“One of the four,” he answers and moves closer. “You are weak, my wolf senses it, and I must carry you. Will you allow me? It is a twenty-minute walk to the lighthouse where there is a healer.”
The part of me that hates being touched, especially by men, makes me want to say no and stubbornly try to climb out of these rocks myself. But I know I can’t. Every inch of me hurts, my stomach is bleeding, and my ankle looks swollen. Somehow I have survived the sea, but without help, I will not survive much longer. I nod once, unable to actually agree, and I’m sure my hesitancy shines in my eyes as he comes closer and wraps his arms underneath me before effortlessly picking me up. In order to steady myself, my hands go out around his neck, brushing against a necklace there that is tucked into his shirt. Henderson jumps out of the rocks, and I look around me to see a tall mountain right in front of us, and a small forest lies between the beach and the mountain. The mountain is topped with snow, and several caves look like they have lights inside from this distance. The beach is long with rocky sand and harsh waves that crash against everything they hit, and in the distance, I see a faded blue lighthouse with its bright light turning in circles. Henderson is silent as he jumps off the rocks into the sand and eats up the space between us and the lighthouse with his enormous steps. After a few minutes, I relax my shoulders a little.
“Is it just luck you found me, or do you live around here?” I question.
Henderson looks down at me, his blue eyes hard to read. “What do you know of my pack, Mairin?”
“That you are monsters,” I tell him, remembering well how he said he could sense if I was lying.
His lips tilt up into a dazzling smile. “Lies are so easily told to those who live in fear, and your alpha lied, Mairin. We were never the monsters, but our life differs greatly from where you have come from. Here we don’t have fated mates, we only mate with who we fall in love with. Wolves are free to date, to explore, to do whatever they want, and the only new wolves we accept into the pack are rejected or lost. We respect loyalty, and we take in those who are nothing to others.”
“There have been other rejected mates?” I ask.
His smile falls. “I collect over one wolf a week from this shore. All of them rejected and thrown into the sea because their mate could not convince their wolf to kill them.”
“I had no idea,” I whisper.
“To answer your question,” Henderson states, shifting me a little in his arms, “I do not live here, but I am called to the lighthouse every day to check out who has arrived. If you had lied to me, or if you were someone who just escaped the pack, then I am tasked with ending your life. We do not take in those who desert their pack and family. We want only those who will be loyal.”
My heart beats fast in my chest, hearing the sincerity of his voice. He would have killed me. “So you kill for loyalty?”
“No, I kill for my pack,” he answers, his tone clarifying that is the last of our conversation, and I rest back, watching the sea and the very outline of the land in the distance, hidden by clouds. All I can think of is Daniel and Jesper, and even Mike. I have to hope they look after each other, because I can’t ever go back.
The Ravensword alpha is my mate, and he will do worse than reject me next time, he will have someone kill me.
So I have to make the Fall Mountain Pack my new home, whatever it takes.
By the time we get to the lighthouse, I’m half falling asleep on Henderson’s shoulder while I struggle to keep warm enough to actually sleep. Henderson smells like the strong whiskey drinks Mike always has every Saturday night, mixed in with smoky wood-like scent. His scent is really nice and comforting. It shouldn’t be, as I don’t know this man from Adam, but a part of me feels like I can trust him.
Or I hit my head in the sea, and I’m going crazy. It’s one of the two things.
The light shines through the lighthouse door as Henderson climbs up the dozens of steps towards it, and someone opens it when he is near the top. A skinny little boy with blond hair and blue eyes, about eleven if I’m guessing right, holds the door open for us, and the warmth of the room makes me shiver in a little shock. Four cream fabric sofas make a square in the middle of the room, and a round oak wood coffee table sits in the middle of them with some seashells in a glass vase. One side of the wall is a big open fireplace with a wide oak mantel stretched across the top of it, and the fire is lit, making the room lovely and warm. Resting on the mantel are lots of little jars in a row, filled with white labels. Above them is a clock on the wall, showing its early morning, and there isn’t much else in the room.
“What’s your name then, dear?” an older-sounding woman asks as she walks down the stairs that curl around the top of the room and end by the door. The woman is dressed in all black, black high-waisted jeans and a black long-sleeved top tucked into them, but she is barefoot, which is odd. Her grey hair is shaped into a neat bun gathered low on the back of her head, and glasses are tucked into her hair, but she pulls them down over her brown eyes. “Place her on the sofa for me, Henderson.”
Henderson nods, looking down at me once before carrying me over and gently laying me down. I stay still, nervous and more than a little frightened as she kneels down at the side of the sofa and looks at my stomach before picking up my wrist and pressing her fingers down on the middle of it.
“My name is Healer Saffron Fall, and I promise I’m here to help you, nothing more or less. So, your pulse is weak, you look like your ribs are broken, and you’ve lost some blood with that wound on your stomach. I need to stitch it as you’ve clearly never shifted, and it won’t heal up,” she states, tutting once. “Anything else hurt you need me to look at, dear?”
“My name is Mairin, but my friends call me Irin. Thank you for helping me...and my right ankle hurts.”
“Hi, Irin!” the little boy exclaims, popping up at the side of Henderson. He grins at me, and I can’t help but give him a brief smile back as Saffron looks at my ankle. “My name is Trey Fall!”
“Hello, Trey,” I whisper back, and then I cough. Saffron helps me sit up as I can’t stop coughing, and hands me a tissue that I cough into for a long time. Blood coats the tissue as I rest back breathless, knowing things are worse than I thought when Saffron looks at me in concern before turning to Henderson. They both walk over to the stairs and start talking in hushed voices, but Trey stays with me, looking awkward and sweet at the same time. He reminds me of Jesper so much.
“It will be okay. Henderson is the nice alpha, and he looks after everyone who needs help,” Trey tells me, patting my arm. “You don’t have to be scared.”