Chapter 1 : A Trade Offered

*Tiessa*

The guard wolves had long since abandoned their post. Varon crossed into Silver Stone, our pack lands, with almost no difficulty. He brought more than a few wolves from the Rising Moon with him.

I heard their cries all the way from my room, and I was up in the reaches of the tower.

Our pack lands were large. We weren’t called the Silver Stone for nothing. Our homes were built large and strong. Our territory had always been a fortress.

But now it seemed that Varon had crossed it.

It was fitting that it was him. He was the most feared Alpha in our world. He had killed his father to get his title; a thing no wolf did, and a thing an heir didn’t even consider.

And yet, he had done it – slaughtered his father in cold blood. And his mother, mated to his father, died as a result.

And now he was here, at our gates.

I heard the front gate break open, give under his wolves, and I rushed through the secret passage of my tower to reach the throne room, where my father would be waiting. Where Varon would go.

I raced through the tower quickly and got to the secret room behind the chamber just as Varon breached through the door of the throne room.

“Mason,” Varon snarled, coming in through the room.

I recognized him immediately. This wasn’t the first time that I was seeing the Alpha of the Rising Moon, though this was the first time that I was seeing him since he had become the Alpha of his pack.

He was an impossible person to miss. He had hair the color of night, eyes that matched it, and a short beard that covered his jawline. And though his skin was porcelain, he was shadow incarnate. He was built big, taller than my dad, but most of his pack wolves were.

I had heard him be described once as a beautiful nightmare. I couldn’t argue with it.

“Varon,” my father answered, sitting on his throne.

My father wasn’t indifferent to Varon, but he was trying to be. He would have no way to defeat this wolf. If Varon’s own father couldn’t fight him off, there was no chance for my dad.

“You know why I’m here,” Varon said, his wolves filing into the room behind and around him.

My father was entirely surrounded.

“I told you I needed more time,” my father snapped at him. “Coming here, and with your force behind you, was an entirely useless exercise because I have nothing to give you either way.”

Varon snarled at my father, and three of his wolves transformed. Huge, hulking creatures that would be known as being from the Rising Moon immediately. Each pack had distinctive markers, and theirs was their size.

It was a fortunate and useful advantage to have over everyone else.

“And I told you,” Varon answered my father, “that I was done listening to your excuses. I will take what you owe me today, even if I have to take it in bricks from your citadel.”

I suppressed a gasp. Varon was as good as declaring war.

That meant he had more wolves hiding. There was no way that he had just come here with six or seven wolves, and was threatening to take the citadel. That was insanity, and Varon was known for many things but being crazy wasn't one.

The citadel was the cornerstone of the Silver Stone pack. There was nothing more precious to us, nothing more important. If he damaged it, it would be a sign that our pack was destroyed.

He had come here ready for war.

“Are you declaring war?” my father asked, a little uselessly, unless he thought that there was some way for Varon to kindly take all the bricks of our most precious building.

But a part of me still saw reason in my father’s question. Varon and his pack held the status of advisor and ally. It was why he had been allowed this far into the pack, and into the citadel. If he spoke words like this in front of my father, in the citadel that he had been graciously allowed in, then it meant that the partnership and agreement between our two packs were over.

Varon snarled.

“I am done with your games,” he told my father. “My pack has given you enough time and scope to work with. You’re taking advantage of our kindness and our ability now.”

There wasn’t a thing wrong that he was saying, and yet, it was so hard to also hear him at the same time. Especially given his reputation. Varon wasn’t exactly known for his kindness.

I leaned against the rock in the hidden alcove, pressing myself against the wall to hear more.

But it was more than that. Our pack was older and bigger too. The wolves of the Rising Moon were stronger, there was no doubt about that. But we still outnumbered them.

Varon had as much to gain as we had from allying themselves with us. While I could understand that he was done with waiting, it made no sense that he would claim that he had been kind to us without recourse. He had gained from this partnership too.

Unless there was something that I wasn’t understanding.

“Fine,” my father said after a moment. “I will pay the debt today. But you will leave my pack and my citadel alone.”

Huh? What was my father saying? We had no money at all, never mind enough to pay the debt we owed the Rising Moon pack. Besides, if we did have that kind of money, then it made no sense to give it to them.

We had other debts with other packs too. Packs that we had no treaties with, packs that would have much more right to come here and attack, to carry through on the threats that Varon was making.

If my father had the ability to pay anyone back, he really shouldn’t be giving Varon the money first.

“What do you mean?” Varon asked, as confused as I was.

“You are an Alpha without a mate,” my father pointed out. “And so, weaker. You have never taken a mate, so your pack has no Luna.”

Varon snarled at him. And for this one, I was on Varon’s side. That was the stupidest thing my father could have said.

It was insanity to challenge a wolf’s mate. And it was just reckless to question when an Alpha didn’t have a mate. In our world, a mated Alpha was a thousand times stronger than an unmated one, both politically and physically.

And reminding an Alpha that he was yet unmated was the same as pointing out a weakness, the same as challenging an Alpha. As if Varon needed any other excuse to attack my father at that moment.

“I am not pointing out anything to attack your claim,” my father told him calmly. “All I am saying is that as much as you may need the wealth we owe you to strengthen your position in your pack, there is another way for you to strengthen yourself, and for me to pay back our debt.”

My father was being remarkably astute at that moment. Though I guessed that being in a life-or-death situation made everyone think a little harder.

My father became Alpha because my grandfather died. That was just the truth of the situation. There was nothing else to it. And if my father had had any other brothers that might have taken the position over, then there was a very good chance that he would never have become Alpha.

“I’m listening,” Varon growled.

So was I.

Dad had gotten our pack into this predicament. It would be his responsibility to get us out, but I couldn’t be sure that he would be able to do that.

“You can take my daughter,” my father said, his words ringing loud and true through the courtroom.

I almost couldn’t believe what he was saying. I almost couldn’t hear him. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest, the blood rushing through my ears. It was like I had gone deaf to the world around me.

And still, Varon’s voice managed to pierce the shield.

“What?” Varon snarled.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that was struggling to understand what was going on.

I was not fated with Varon. I had seen him so many times now already, scented him so many times, I was looking directly at him. And I felt nothing.

My heart rate didn’t increase, my senses didn’t sharpen. I had none of the telltale signs that I was mated to him. There was no reason for my father to be making this offer.

And there was no reason for Varon to accept.

“Take my daughter as your mate,” Dad said again. “Let your strength multiply in power and rank, as a mated Alpha. And let her bear you a son, see the strength that is added to your claim then. And I will write her off as if she never belonged to me.”

I pursed my lips. A free trade then. He was giving me away just like that. To save his own skin. I felt disgust well in me at my father, and for a wild moment, I was almost glad that he was trading me away. I didn’t want to be with my father a moment longer.

Just then, there was a sound at my side, and I felt my friend press against me.

And sanity returned to me. I couldn’t go with Varon.

Salmakia didn’t say anything, she couldn’t. At that moment, we were too close to Varon and my father. Even though we were behind a wall, if either of us spoke now, they would hear us.

But she squeezed my arm, and I felt her strength pass to me.

I held my breath as I waited for Varon to answer.

“I will take her,” Varon finally said, his eyes shifting to the wall behind my father, the place where I was hidden. There was no way that he knew that I was there. He glanced at my father again. “And she will give me an heir within a year. If she doesn’t, I will come for your blood, along with the stones of the citadel.”

And at that moment, the strangest thing happened to me. After everything that they had just discussed, the only thing that I could think of was the citadel.

It was built over five hundred years ago. Our pack was older than that, but the citadel hadn’t been there since then. It was where the Alpha and Luna lived, along with their children. It was as good as a palace in our world.

It was where we had all of our ceremonies, where every pair was mated. It was where the entire pack could be housed and protected if we needed to be. It was the hub of life once a month, where the Full Moon Feast was held.

There was no way, I tried to reason with myself, that my father would allow Varon to destroy it. There was no way that he would even let him try. Dad had to protect the citadel, that was the most important thing.

He had to trade me for it, I tried to tell myself. It was the only thing that he could do now.

Varon left the hall, along with the wolves that came with him. Then my father was alone. But he didn’t stay in the hall for very long; he left through the side door that would take him to a passage into his personal office.

And still, Salmakia and I stood behind the hidden wall. I felt frozen in place like I was still listening to the two of them decide what the best way out of their deals was.

Like I was still listening to myself being traded in exchange for the safety of the bricks of the citadel.

After a moment, I felt Salmakia’s grip on my arm tighten.

“Don’t go,” Salmakia told me. “You know Varon’s reputation, you know the hold he has on our world, the grip of fear we all face from him. Just don’t go.”

I knew that her heart was in the right place, but she wasn’t making any sense.

“It isn’t that simple, Salma,” I told her, trying to make her understand that there was no other alternative here.

She had to know that it was as good as done.

“Just run!” Salmakia insisted. “You’re a wolf, an Omega. Speed is literally the thing you have. They won’t catch you.”

But she was wrong. I might be an Omega, and I could definitely outrun my father. But Varon was a different story entirely.