Chapter Nine

As reluctant as he was, Kai eventually let Serenia go and retire to him room, knowing if anyone witnessed them in the hall like that, suspicion would start to rise about his identity and motive, putting Serenia at risk as well. The longer it takes for everyone here to realize she does truly have spiritual energy within her, the safer she will be it seems.

There is obviously someone protecting her, and he needs to figure out who they are and make an ally out of them. He has confirmed Serenia is his mate, and whether she recognizes him at the moment or not, that isn't what matters most.

What matters most is getting her as far away from here as possible before the battle begins. His identity as son of the Alpha will be revealed sooner or later, making him a major target for the Raseri pack, and they are known to be tactful about taking down their enemies – they go for their weak points instead of constantly trying to kill them directly.

Only by crippling your enemy entirely can you crush them in one easy blow. The best way to cripple a werewolf without killing them, is to kill their mate, severing the bond between them and causing immense pain and torment to their target. It is the perfect way to wipe them out without lifting a finger, which is why the Wolfmåne pack fiercely protect their women, and the Raseri pack are said to not have mates in the same way the Wolfmåne pack do.

Since the Wolfmåne pack ancestors are Geri and Freki, two creatures created for the sole purpose of companionship and then later on leaders of humanity, their descendants have been blessed with a companion of their own in each lifetime, known as a mate.

The Raseri pack are descendants of Skoll and Hati, children of the creature Fenrir which in turn is the child of Loki, the trickster God. Skoll and Hati, also known as the wolves who chased the moon and sun, are the initiators of the great destruction that caused the fall of the Asgard realm. Therefore, it is said in history that their descendants were cursed to forever roam the realms alone, succumbing to rage and madness, good for nothing other than destruction.

'If that much of history is true, that further proves Serenia is not a blood member of the Raseri pack.'

He was hoping to see her this morning but her room was already empty by the time he woke up, telling him how used to this life she already is, she is up before the actual servants of the house are. He wanted to go find her but the supposed head maid of the house was the one to greet him this morning rather than Serenia, telling him he will be helping with the kitchen butcher for every meal as his assistant, since he claims to be such a good hunter.

It isn't a lie, and thankfully his father taught him how to properly skin and butcher an animal to best preserve both the coat and meat, this should be a piece of cake. Acting like a weak and frightened captive servant is another thing. Kai has never been good at taking orders from other's, not even his father, he wonders how long he can keep up the charade without slipping up.

Keeping in mind the treasure he now has to protect in this house, it's a driving force to bite his tongue and hold his patience. Picturing her hazel eyes drowning in sorrow and pain, it's like a counter drug that both clears his mind and clouds it, reminding him why he is there but also shrouding him in anger having to watch his mate suffer, without the ability to do anything.

Yet.

Since Serenia is also a servant in the Beta house, he can pay close attention to those who make her suffer the most and keep a list in the back of his head for who will be subjected to the worst torture when the time comes. Whether she wants to get revenge on her pack or not, he will never let any of them off lightly.

"Hey, you there, I got a task for you," a gruff voice speaks from behind Kai.

He turns to see a burly man with a short and stalky figure, a bushy red beard on his face but his head completely bare of any hair, making Kai fight a smile at his contradicting appearance.

"Are you talking to me, sir?" he asks, trying to put on his best pitiful acting.

"You see any other mutt here? I'm talking to you, take this here," he says and throws a poorly made bow at him, the wood clearly chipping, only taking a few more strains on the wool wire before the wood snaps.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

The man snorts at him. "What do you think? You're supposed to hunt with it." He tosses him a small pack of bows and a dagger. "Use that dagger there for the skin, make sure to preserve it best you can, or punishment waits for every spoiled fur you come back with."

There is no way they can expect someone with even basic hunting skills to successfully catch anything with this bow. Same with the dagger, the blade is extremely dull and clearly hasn't been taken care of after each use, blood has been stained into the metal and rust is eating away at it.

The man said Kai will be punished for every spoiled pelt he comes back with, and using a dagger like this, he is bound to ruin almost every single one of them, if not all. He is obviously being set up to fail so the man has an excuse to punish and torment him for no reason, simply because he can.

'Is this really how things are run in the house for new servants? They are kidnapped from their pack, put through a day of torture, then fed to the wolves and struggle just to survive. The Raseri pack are just as ruthless as they imagined, even their own veteran pack servants treat their slaves like dirt.

Having no other option, refusing, or questioning anything in this situation will only get him punished early. Taking the flimsy bow and other hunting tools, he sets out to the forest, thankful it is still early in the day, not many other pack members seem to be up yet.

As he ventures further into the forest, trying to be mindful of the barrier on the border, his wolf stirs suddenly within him, alerting him that their mate is close.

'What is she doing out here so early in the morning?'

He wonders if she was sent out for the same task and given the same useless tools to hunt with. He isn't as concerned for himself when it comes to receiving punishment, but to think she was sent out to do the same thing with the same consequences, he worries if she even has the skills to hunt at all.

Following her trail, he realizes she is suddenly rushing in the opposite direction, like she is chasing something. Several lighter scents creep up, telling him there is a litter of small rodents near by, most likely what Serenia is going after.

Catching up to her, he comes to find a snow shrouded meadow, a few of the still growing flowers and grass poking through the top, signalling warmer weather approaching. Slipping behind a large trunk, he peers into the valley and spots his prey.

To the naked eye, they would probably have to observe very closely to see the puffy white hare sitting in the middle of the meadow, the snow offering a perfect disguise to anyone who can only detect it through sight and sound. But Kai can sense it, see the small scent trail that leads right to it, can hear the twitching of its ears and light stomping of its feet as it grooms, unsuspecting but still alert.

From the corner of his eye, he can see the light strands of her auburn hair reflecting the morning sun, glinting as it catches the rays seeping through the trees. He can feel his inner wolfs excitement, wanting to use this opportunity to show off to his mate and prove his ability.

Without thinking, Kai loads the bow with an arrow and pulls back to strike the hare, but before his fingers can lift from the string, he ears the light whizzing of something soaring through the air, before an arrow is lodged perfectly at the hare, a clear headshot.

Stunned into silence and glued in position, he watches as Serenia emerges from behind the tree and walks up to the hare, dislodging the arrow and taking out a dagger.

"You're going to freeze to death standing like that," she calls out over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off her prized prey.

Finally putting the bow down, he slowly walks up to her, observing the hare. She looks as if she has been doing this for years, realizing that the dagger she is using is in pretty good condition, much better than the one he was given.

"What are you doing out here?" he asks.

She turns and gives him a funny look.

"What does it look like?" she asks slowly. "I'm hunting, as I suspect you are also."

"Were you sent out here to do this?"

She shakes her head, tying the hare to a large stick and hoisting it up over her shoulder.

"My birthday is this weekend, just three days away, and since no one in the Beta house really celebrates, my mother and I usually spend it together. She isn't treated any better than me in this house, so she doesn't have any money to buy me anything, and her body no longer has the strength to hunt or knit and make me something, so I get myself a gift."

Kai has to look away from her, knowing he will only display the same look that she takes as pity towards her. Instead, he is trying to suppress the anger flowing through him at the thought of her having to provide herself with gifts every year on her birthday, not a single soul to celebrate it with, other than her mother.

'She said in three days…'

"What does hunting have to do with preparing yourself a birthday gift?" he asks, suddenly trying to think of ideas himself.

"With the warmer weather approaching, a lot of animals are awaking from hibernation. It's the perfect time to gather as many pelts as I can for next winter. With how damp the basement is, the ones I get the year before usually rot and are tarnished by the time winter comes again."

So, her birthday gift to herself is making sure she doesn't freeze next winter.

"Only hunting hares and other small animals isn't going to get you much. Why don't you ever try larger animals?"

There must be tons of bears and large felines in this area, attracted to the ever flowing amount of blood that soaks these forest lands. The Hemmelig forest where their kind and the Raseri reside is shrouded from the naked eye, no known human has ever entered the forest but many animals roaming the island they've sought shelter on, the Faroe Islands, have been known to pass through.

It is unknown as to why they are able to, but none of the animals on the islands are dangerous unless possibly outnumbering a lone wolf, especially a weaker one. But as their kind tend to always travel in packs, that never happens.

Knowing now that the Raseri pack have thrown out the weakest link of their own kind, he knows that isn't the case anymore.

"Do I look like someone who is capable of taking on a bear? I can hardly handle foxes sometimes with how quick they are, and I have zero self-defence skills. The hunting skills I have now I taught myself from hunting for so long. You should have saw me when I was younger and tasked with my first hunt like you, that day is engraved in my memory for life."

Kai doesn't ask her to explain further, already understanding what she is referring too. He was threatening with severe punishment if he came back with any spoiled pelts. If she had no hunting skills during her first time, he could imagine how many she managed to kill, and how all of them were probably ruined before she had the chance to skin them.

A young child suffering punishments most likely inflicted on an adult like himself, the rage he has felt in a single moment is becoming overbearing for him, his muscles and joints tensing as his wolf pushes to come out, wanting to tear apart every single person back at that house, and that probably still wouldn't quench his anger.

"You don't have to feel so angry for me, this is unfortunately the way the Raseri pack is, there isn't much any of us can do about it."

"What?" he asks. The shock has overcome the anger. Can she sense how he is feeling?

She stops in her trail and looks back at him, her hazel eyes wide and her lips turned down in a frown, looking like she is disappointed in him.

"Sorry, I thought your expression looked a little dark. Must have been a trick of the light," she shrugs and continues walking. "So, was I right? Have you come to the forest to hunt because Fiske gave you a useless bow and dagger, telling you to hunt for meat and fur?"

It's his turn to give her a confused look.

"Fiske?" he asks.

"Yeah, the butcher. I guess no one has introduced you around yet probably thinking you'll do a terrible job out here and end up getting beat half to death anyway."

He wondered as much as that.

"Did you have to go through the same?"

She doesn't hesitate to nod her head.

"Yeah, but of course as one of the official daughters of the Beta house, my face and head weren't touched so it wouldn't appear bad in public."

Kai can't hold back his disgusted scoff at her words, and the fact she is once again brushing it off as a casual thing.

They reach the edge of the forest just before hitting the pack village again, when she stops again and turns to him, holding out a quiver that looks sewn together out of sacks of potatoes, and her wooden bow. He realizes that it is also a handmade bow that she clearly put together herself, but even this one is in ten times better condition than the one he was given.

"How long have you been using this?" he asks.

"I made it for myself for my 10th birthday and I've been using it ever since, same with this dagger," she says and hands it over. "You can use these to hunt instead of the useless tools Fiske gave you, and just give them back to me when you get back to the house. Breakfast is in a few hours; I should be in the kitchen."

She turns and walks off, once again a disappointed look in her eyes like before, causing Kai to wonder what he might have said or done wrong during their encounter. He thinks back to their entire conversation but can't seem to think of any reason as to why she looks so disappointed.

Remembering his idea from earlier before when she mentioned her birthday in a few days, he tosses the tools given by Fiske off to the side near the edge of entrance of the trail through the forest and wanders back through in search of a much larger target than before.

He doesn't see as Serenia stops just before disappearing out of sight and turns to look back at the trail, noticing Kai has disappeared. Allowing her shoulders to sag, she closes her eyes and clenches her chest, wondering why she felt such sudden sadness earlier when she felt the anger coming from Kai, feeling it as if it was her own feelings.

But when she tested to see if he could sense it too, if he had the same resonation as she did when he first saw her, he seemed confused and utterly clueless as to what she was rambling on about, making her think she even misunderstood his anger all together, and it really was just her own inner anger resurfacing.

But in that instant, she also felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and disappointment that he doesn't feel the same, his heart doesn't race just being in her presence and his stomach isn't filled with butterflies when she smiles. All these feelings are what Serenia has experienced since they've met, and she can't understand why.

Something whispered from the very back of her mind when she first laid eyes on Kai, and it was 'mate'. But that is impossible, pack members of the Raseri don't have mates, they aren't the descendants of Geri and Freki, the companions of the God King, Odin. They are descendants of Fenrir's children, the very being who killed Odin and destroyed Asgard. They are cursed to suffer; they won't be given something as beautiful and rewarding as a lifetime mate.

Then how else is she supposed to explain that moment, and the intense feelings she has felt since? But she hasn't awakened her inner wolf and there is a chance she never will. She is turning 18 in a few days, the official age to mark the beginning of adulthood and there isn't an adult pack member that is known for not having the ability to harness their spiritual energy and awaken their ancestral blood, shifting into their wolf.

In packs like the Wolfmåne are descendants of Geri and Freki, blessed with a single mate to accompany them their entire life, fated to be bonded. It is said that if one mate of another dies, the surviving mate with suffer intense pain that is known to cripple them for life.

But regardless of what she felt, it doesn't seem like Kai feels the same. This thought brings another wave of sadness that she tries to push down as she turns back towards the Beta house, remembering that she doesn't have her dagger at the moment and will have to keep her hare hidden in the storage shelter until he comes back.

Seeing the sun peaking over the horizon, she knows she better get to the kitchen before Maria has to go looking for her again. On her way, she runs into her second oldest sister, Selena and is pulled off to the side.

"Mother says you've been working with the servant boy who is supposed to be working for me soon, is that true?" she asks Serenia.

'Does she mean Kai? He is going to work…for her?' Thinking back, she does remember Maria mentioning something like this, but she didn't know who the servant boy was at the time. Now that she does, the thought of him working for Selena personally doesn't sit well with Serenia.

"I suppose, what about it?"

"Well, tell me what he is like? I heard he is quite handsome, but he isn't very well built, how true is that?" Selena questions, her green eyes sparkling. This further upsets Serenia, not wanting Selena to get anywhere close to Kai, let alone set her claws into him. Though they may not be fated or bonded in anyway like she some how feels, she doesn't like the idea of anyone else being with him.

"I haven't spent that much time with him, he is out hunting right now from what I hear. If he is to be working for you, why don't you just go and meet him yourself?"

Serenia pushes past her sister and rushes off to the kitchen, not wanting Selena to see how upset and irritated she is, giving away that Serenia might already have feelings for him. If Selena gets a hold of information like that, there is no doubt she won't hesitate to use it against Serenia, especially with Kai being her personal servant, it isn't a secret that she is known to sleep around with a lot of the younger pack members.

Sareena is the only one of them who must remain pure and untouched until she is crowned the Luna and marries Rune, despite the fact that he seems to be able to sleep around as much as he wants before then, one of those many times being Selena herself. This is a secret that Serenia has kept for quite a few years and has always been too afraid to use against Selena, being the only one to witness the scene, she doesn't have any proof.

"Look at that, you arrived on time today. Good think, Fiske has a bunch of potatoes that need peeling, go seem him," Maria says as Serenia enters the back kitchen. She nods her head silently and walks past Maria, shocking her at the sudden perfect obedience Serenia is displaying.

She escapes to the butcher room before Maria has the chance to poke fun at her and further irritate her mood, enticing her to eventually bite back. Being here, she knows she is bound to run into Kai now when he returns from his hunt with the meat and fur Fiske will most likely toss into the ice block to keep frozen for the time being until they actually need it.

Even though she is for some reason angry towards him, a part of her does hope he manages to come back with a decent catch so he can avoid the punishment Fiske has no doubt been thinking about all morning.

She doesn't say anything to him as she enters the room and walks over to the counter where the tipped over sack of potatoes awaits her, picking up the small knife and starts peeling. She can feel the suspicious eyes of Fiske on her back, not liking having anyone else in his kitchen, but sometimes unable to avoid having the help every once in awhile. He is always suspicious of Serenia especially, constantly accusing her of stealing food from his kitchen, only ever catching her doing it the one time when she was sick and was being withheld her meals as punishment.

She has never done it since, but once was enough to put her on Fiske's radar for the rest of her life it seems. Trying her best to ignoring the gaze staring a hole in the back of her head, she tries to hum a small tune in her head to distract her.

"Your birthday is in a few days, right?" Fiske suddenly says.

Serenia stops her peeling but doesn't turn around completely, just turning her head slightly to make sure she heard him right.

"I hear you'll be turning 18, becoming an adult," he continues to mutter.

This comment makes her spine shudder.

"Yeah, what of it?" she asks. She expects him to scold her for her attitude, but instead remains eerily quiet.

"Alpha Rune visited the house last night and met with your father. From what I hear, it wasn't about the marriage and mating ritual between Miss Sareena and Alpha Rune, I just want to give you a warning, since you'll be turning of age."

A different chill runs up her spine as she thinks over his words. She doesn't have to think hard to understand what Fiske is trying to hint about the meeting between Alpha Rune and her father, and it's no secret even to Sareena that Serenia has caught the interest of Alpha Rune in the past.

No doubt, he asked to marry Serenia into the Alpha house after he marries Sareena.