by A. K. Koonce
Kyvain’s chair slams back so fast, it clatters to the floor with a racket of noise that draws every single set of eyes to the two of us. He stares me down like an alpha ready to attack. I should bow out. I should look away. I should lower my head to my future alpha.
Instead, my chin lifts higher.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Morganson?” Professor Reed asks slowly, his beady eyes shifting from the golden boy alpha to the outcast that I am.
Nervousness spikes through me, sending a million butterflies loose in a torrent of anxiety, while Kyvain’s furious blue eyes slice me into tiny, insignificant pieces.
“Not at all,” Kyvain finally says. It seems he physically puts thought into placing a charming smile on his lips when he looks up at our professor. “Rhys was just saying she wasn’t feeling well. Might have to go home. She might even have to skip the Dark Moon Celebration tonight. If she knew what was good for her, that is.” He holds that subtle threat over me.
I stand in the middle of the class with all eyes on me.
With a thick clearing of his throat, Professor Reed meets my lost expression. “I think he’s right. You should head home for the day. Get your rest, Miss Love.”
Calvin snickers quietly.
Bea looks up at me with big, sad eyes.
And Kyvain, he doesn’t give me a second glance now that he’s dismissed me like he owns me.
What if my entire life is like this?
What if my entire existence is one big, dreaded group project?
I’ll never survive it.
Chapter Two
The Stranger
Rhys
A cool breeze ruffles my light blonde hair, and I tuck it back as I make my way down the sidewalk toward the small two-bedroom house that barely resembles the word ‘home.’ The outside looks cozy enough with its blue door and shutters, and the yellow flowers dotting the garden on either side of the small front stoop, but I have to admit to myself that these four walls have always felt temporary.
I kick my white sneaker at the smooth pavement just outside my cottage. Mary is going to be mega pissed if she finds out I came home early. Thankfully she’s still working at the lab in town, and I won’t see her until tonight at the celebration.
If I go…
The wolf within me snarls.
I guess I might go…
Then another snapping of teeth.
Fucking fine, we’ll go!
A happy warmth spreads through me, and I roll my eyes at the demanding bitch.
I pull my house key from my bookbag, and when I look up, he’s there again. Stormy eyes bore into mine, searching for something I’m not sure he finds. The stranger stands at the corner of my little cottage, and it seems odd that the warm magic inside me spreads even more at the creepy sight of a strange man watching me.
Jesus, Kyvain has seriously fucked with my ability to rationally remember fight or flight in times like this.
Hesitantly, I look around at my surroundings. The elderly woman across the street, Mrs. Linskey, is tending to her roses out front. Mr. Brooks is mowing his lawn just two houses down.
This is my pack.
I’m safe here.
Then who the fuck is this guy?
“Can I help you?” I ask stiffly, holding my key more like a weapon now. The security of the jagged metal only comforts me a little, but at least I have a way to defend myself if needed.
He looks over his shoulder at the woman gardening and then to the man mowing. He’s calculating, almost like he’s debating if they’d come to my rescue if he moved any closer. To be honest, I don’t know the answer. The elders here are a bit kinder. Mostly, though, the pack tolerates me. I’m definitely the lowest member of the pack hierarchy, at least until tonight. Maybe my first shift will change everything. Or maybe my defiant wolf will condemn me to live the same torturous cycle on repeat.
His attention flicks back to me from beneath thick, black lashes. Then he shakes his head.
And bursts into fucking flames.
A scream rips from my throat. He disappears with the scent of ash clinging to the breeze. My wide eyes search him out, but he’s gone.
And I’ve been traumatized for life.
I rest. Or at least I try to.
Kyvain was being a furry fuckwad, but I think he was right, I do need rest, because I am seeing some unexplainable shit today.
He was there! He… he definitely was.
Maybe I should call Mary about the strange guy outside. But she hates it when I call her at work.
Bea will be home in an hour.
I roll onto my side, my fingers still gripping my keys hard in my hand beneath the blue blanket, unable to let them go. A soft purring is the only sound in the house, and trust me, I have listened to every little creak of the foundation at this point. I close my eyes slowly and try not to think about the burning man, but the image of his dark features behind the flickering flames as he inexplicably disappeared is hard to forget. It’s seared in my memory like a scene from a bad horror movie.
Just relax. You’ll go next door in an hour and you’ll be fine.
Everything will be fine.
“Everything will be fine, Rhys,” the far-off woman whispers as my eyes grow heavy and my mind drifts. “You’re special, but you can’t stay here. Everything will be fine for a little while.”
The lullaby of her words swirl in my thoughts. It’s the most calming tone, and yet, it pricks at my mind like a sharp needle the more and more she speaks.
“Always remember that you are love—”
My eyes flash open and darkness blankets my room. Pale white moonlight peeks in through my window.
The moon!
I throw the blankets off in a swoosh of movement. My messy hair is tangled around my face, and I shove it all back as I stumble to get my shoes on.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
A meowing screech hisses through the room as I trip over something tragically fluffy.
“Shit! I’m sorry, Loki!”
“You named your cat Loki?” a dark, rumbling whisper seeps through the room.
This time when I stumble, my back hits the wall hard, and my ass slams against the floor even harder.
“What the fuck?” I hold my key firmly out between myself and the shadow of a man leaning against my bedroom wall, wielding the metal like it’s a deadly sword instead of the pathetic weapon it truly is.
“W-What do you want?”
“Why the hell did you name your cat after a cruel god?” A hypnotic accent caresses his words as he saunters closer, like a nightmare stalking right into my life.
My thoughts tumble through my mind one after another, and why the hell he cares so much about my cat is suddenly at the top of the pile.
“And why is your blade so tiny?” He lowers himself until he’s kneeling just before me, looking curiously at the key in my hand.
“It’s a key,” I whisper on a shaking breath.
“Huh,” is all he says as he pokes at it with the tip of his pointer finger
“Not very… stabby.” His brows pull low over starlit blue eyes. “Have you ever considered one of these?” He stands, and with a turn of his hand, a beam of fire erupts, slashing out fast before sizzling into a long iron blade.
My gasp catches in my throat, unable to escape as my eyes widen.
The wolf in me warms, impressed and amazed like this man is now my own personal party magician instead of a stalker and possible killer. The drilling of my heartbeat is the only logical sign that I know I should run. But he’s just too close. He could slice my head clean off before I even made it a single step.
For self-preservation, I decide to stay where I am.
On the floor.
“What do you want?” I ask again in a steady but breathless tone.
His attention flits back to me like he momentarily forgot the cowering woman he was holding hostage in the corner of the room. There’s a shift in his stance. Ashen boots pace shortly before he looks to
me once more.
“The girl this morning. She’s your friend?”
Thoughts spin wildly in my mind.
This is about Bea?
What does this asshole want with Bea? A growl creeps up from the back of my mind and slips past my lips.
“I mean… you have friends here. A caregiver too. I saw the woman who left early this morning, and then your friend came right out to meet you. You’re loved here?”
Sudden laughter that I can’t stop bursts out of me, the sound is sharp with a sarcastic edge.
“Oh my God,” I gasp with a smile I can’t contain. “Literally no one has ever said that to me.” I try to reel in my crazy girl hysteria, but it just dissolves into the pathetic realization that he’s so incredibly wrong. I couldn’t stop the pang in my chest if my life depended on it.
Messy hair falls into his pretty eyes as he tilts his head at me in blank confusion. He turns his wrist quickly, and the weapon in his hand sparks brightly before turning to ash and dissolving entirely. The remnants of it float through the moonlight, and my wide eyes follow the tiny particles of magic.
I’ve never seen magic like his before.
“I made a mistake.” He turns away from me and heads toward the door. “She was wrong,” he says quietly as a goodbye.
What does that mean?
My sneakers slip as I scramble to my feet. I’m right behind him in the darkness of the kitchen, but he just keeps going.
“Who? Who was wrong?”
He pulls open the door and pale moonlight streams across the worn tiles, reminding me that the Dark Moon won’t wait for me. Still, I can’t let this guy go without getting an explanation.
“Who?” I scream once more.
The mysterious man turns on his heel, his blue eyes sharp even in the growing shadows of the deepening night. Somehow, the darkness enhances their color, turning them into gleaming sapphires that cut through me with the intensity of a tidal wave.
“Your mother wanted me to tell you that you are loved.” His deep, rich voice is like a bad omen that makes my heart drop instantly.
And with a heavy scent of ash, he bursts into flames, flickering out into drifting sparks that float into the starry night sky. I gape into the darkness where he once stood, staring after him with fear and want tangling tightly together in my chest.
He’s gone. And so are the answers I suddenly need now more than ever.
Chapter Three
Personal Space
Rhys
The sound of my sneakers thudding against the pavement almost matches the rapid beating of my heart as I run through town square to make it to the pack gathering at the edge of the woods.
My wolf huffs in dry amusement, and I know if she could pull off human expressions, she’d be arching one perfectly polished eyebrow at me.
Okay… running might be a liberal use of the word.
Her amusement turns downright judgmental.
Fuck, fine. Speed walking.
I’m trying here!
Either way, I hurry my ass off and hope I can slip in unnoticed. If there’s one thing Alpha Morganson hates, it’s tardiness. He sees it as insubordination, and though I’m just a lowly wolf who he views as zero threat to his alpha status, being late will be as inexcusable of an offense as punching his son in that little thing he calls a dick. It doesn’t matter that he deserved a small taste of the same medicine he dishes out daily.
Hurry, hurry, hurry! The mantra pushes me harder, fear of the alpha’s wrath quickening my footsteps until I’m jogging. He won’t care that I just had my life infiltrated by a tall, dark, and frustratingly mysterious stranger. I doubt he’d even believe the tale was true.
A coldness stings across my cheeks as I hustle faster. A chill hits my lungs. My attention lifts to the dark sky to find…
“It’s snowing,” I whisper, and stumble a step.
It was eighty degrees this morning. I’ve never even seen snow before. Not here. The Mountain Wolf Pack north of here has spoken of it, but…
“What’s happening?” I try to keep moving. I try to ignore all the insane things that keep piling onto this day.
The road comes to an intersection, the college on the right and our market to the left. But the four way is closed off by nothing more than people traveling toward the woods.
No one will be using the roads tonight.
I swallow hard when I spot the fringes of the crowd on the hill. The whole pack seems to have gathered for the Dark Moon, but it makes sense. This is Kyvain’s Dark Moon as well, and he demands nearly as much respect as his father, even at his young age.
Personally, I think it’s ridiculous that a bunch of older wolves kiss his ass because he may be our next alpha. It’s the most likely scenario, but all it does is inflate his already oversized ego. If it gets any bigger, people are going to have to start moving to the dreaded suburbs just to get some breathing room.
Dwelling on that douchebag is my least favorite pastime, but I welcome the mental break it gives me from thinking about the dark stranger who showed up perfectly prepared to wreck my life.
“Your mother wanted me to tell you that you are loved.”
Those words still echo through my mind with every breath I pull into my lungs as I join the gathering crowd and catch my breath.
There is one thing I know with certainty.
He wasn’t talking about Mary.
I’m not sure my adopted mother feels one ounce of affection for me. I’m no more than her assigned responsibility. Kyvain once told me our alpha made Mary take me in because she was the only widow in our pack without children. I know he was just taunting me, but it doesn’t really sound like a lie. I know she’s hoping to offload me tonight after my wolf appears.
She’s going to be pissed if I come home tonight without a mate or a plan to move out.
But I’ll have a plan. I’ll move into the college dorms for the rest of the semester and then… I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m supposed to go in the world when it doesn’t feel like there’s a place for me in it.
The stranger’s eerie words about my mother circle my mind.
I’ve always wondered about my birth parents, but my adoption was closed.
I’ve hoped that someday I’d learn who they were, but I gave up wishing they’d magically appear and save me from my shitty life.
Still… I can’t help but wonder.
Is she looking for me? Is there a place for me? With her? I shake those thoughts away.
For now at least. Too many questions linger, but the biggest ones just won’t fade. If she was alive, why did she give me up? And perhaps more importantly, what does she want with me now?
The woodland is shoulder to shoulder with every member of our pack out beneath the stars to celebrate this year’s Dark Moon. The open space is lined with trees and plenty of room to run. Which is good for the wolves who will be ripping out into the world for the first time.
Mary leans against a tree, standing alone in her white lab coat as if she came right after work. Her gaze shifts over the crowd and she spots me. We lock eyes. She stares blatantly at me as if she’s picking me apart where I stand.
And then she looks away. She shifts and fully turns her back on me.
“Hi to you too, Mom,” I mumble to myself. My eyes roll, but the raging lover of violence inside of me snarls.
Calm down, I soothe the wolf.
She’s a cunt. Not a threat.
Smiles and laughter flit through the night, and I’m so incredibly lucky nothing has started yet. A heavy breath pushes from my lips as I slip into the crowd unnoticed, until a hand complete with paper thin skin clutches my wrist.
A jolt of nerves spikes through me.
My neighbor, Mrs. Linskey, pulls me to a stop with surprising strength for an elderly lady. Her hands are so cold. She isn’t dressed for the light snowfall tonight.
None of us are.
Brown eyes stare back at me with more clarity than I’ve ever seen i
n her eighty-three-year-old gaze.
“Are you okay, Mrs. Linskey?” I’m half afraid she’s having a stroke.
She shouldn’t be out here in the cold.
I’m partial to the sweet old woman who used to bake me cookies when the other kids in the neighborhood wouldn’t play with me.
Other than my friendship with Bea, it’s the only kindness I remember from my childhood. Unless providing basic food, shelter, and clothing counts. Then Mary would have to be added to that sparkling list.
Some asshole barrels past me, fully knocking me into Mrs. Linskey. I stagger. Afraid we’re going to tumble to the ground together, I try to twist to the side so I don’t take her down with me.
Surprisingly, her grip tightens, and I’m yanked forward until I’m steady on my feet.
A strange sensation presses against my chest. I study her closely, but she doesn’t speak. There’s no bright light of charisma in her eyes.
There’s just emptiness.
The uneasy feeling within me spreads, but I try to just calm down after the asinine day I’ve had.
White eyebrows furrow on her face in a look of pure confusion.
Anxiously, I glance toward the gathering in time to see the festivities commencing. Alpha Morganson’s rich voice bellows across the clearing, commanding everyone’s attention.
I attack my bottom lip with my teeth, but my decision is already made.
“Why don’t we find somewhere off to the side to sit?” I offer as another jerkwad rams their shoulder into my back to get a better view of what’s going on up ahead. Like listening to a politician drone on is the highlight of their whole year. I glare perfectly ignorable daggers at the wolf who doesn’t seem to care that he just branded my body with the bruise his shitty manners have surely left on my back. “This place is practically a mosh pit.”