Chapter 5: The Bone Alpha

Blacktooth Camp

Shani’s anger boiled over. She released her hold and jerked to her feet on the bench, coming face-to-face with Sivard. He was an echo of their mother, therefore an echo of her, and if there was anything more shameful than the circumstances of her birth—it was her resemblance to this psychopath.

She bared her teeth, hating him with everything she had within her, remembering all the terrible, humiliating things he and Sarnai would do to her—and spat in his eye. “F*ck off, b!tch.”

Sarnai snarled; Harkin howled with laughter despite his protective grip on her hips to steady her as she stood her ground for the first time in a long time.

Sivard slowly wiped his hand over his face. When his sight was clear, there was a fury simmering in the depths of his eyes more frightening than anything uncontained. “You will regret that, little sister.” Those eyes flicked to Harkin. “And you’ll regret your words. Come,” he barked at Sarnai, turning on his heel.

Sarnai offered a manic grin and stalked off alongside his brother. Shani didn’t move, didn’t breathe, until they were out of sight. Harkin caught her before she could collapse into the water. Back in his lap and safe in his arms, she covered her eyes with her palm. “That went real well.”

“You hawked in Sivard Nasrin in the eye. I say that’s a great victory.” Harkin removed her hand so he could intertwine his fingers with hers. “Hey. You stood up for yourself. That’s one step closer to owning who you are without giving a f*ck what anyone else thinks.”

Gratitude swelled in Shani’s lungs and she smiled before kissing him tenderly. “And you stood up for me. Thank you.”

He shrugged with a nonchalant smirk. “Just doing my job as Epsilon and best friend.”

She kissed him again, deeper. “But,” she breathed against his lips, “we drew bigger targets on our chests.”

“They were already there,” murmured Harkin back, giving her ass another squeeze. “Might as well have fun dodging attacks.”

Shani’s smile faded and she drew away to take his face between her hands again, tilting it up toward her. He was no longer smiling either, but h*ll, he was beautiful. Perfect. Was she brainless to not take the next step with him? Her life could change in a dozen ways—most of them beneficial to a happier one—if they took each other as mates—in name but not in soul.

Why am I not taking this chance?

She answered her own question. Something doesn’t…feel right.

Yet. Maybe. There was still a slim chance that their souls were meant to be together. The soulmate bond could connect at any point in a wolf’s life.

“I should go,” she whispered, resting her forehead on his. To try and lighten the mood she added, “Before we faint from this heat.”

Harkin chuckled; it was difficult to tell if it was faked or not. “I suppose I was feeling a bit lightheaded. Up we go.”

Hugging herself to him, Harkin stood and climbed out of the water. Cold rushed in where warmth was when she let go and wrung out her long hair, wriggling back into her clothes while admiring her packmate’s sculpted body.

If I’m not taking the chance on Harkin, who am I waiting for?

When he was clothed, he took Shani’s hand and they strode in companionable silence all the way down the perimeter of camp eastward, howls and bleating livestock distant noise.

It would take a half-hour of walking, a few minutes less of running in wolf form. Shani was in no rush to get to the Blacktooth camp but nor was she in the mood for walking; it was an invitation for overthinking. At least running would require the effort of watching where she was going at a faster speed and feeling the force of her body’s footfalls upon the ground.

The invisible border of the Bloodrose marked by the Alpha’s scent came too soon. Shani stared at the tree trunks painted red, their banner sigil of a red rose pinned into the bark. They were tattered, worn by years of bad weather, but they were resilient in their position.

“Let’s not—” Shani began. She was cut off by Harkin grabbing her around the waist and yanking her against him to kiss her deeply. She instinctively closed her eyes and melted.

Oh, if I could have this every day—

She let the kiss finish, drawing away gently. She smiled up at him even as his expression was troubled. “I’ll be back before you know it,” she promised.

Harkin promised in return, “I’ll be right here.”

Shani shifted into her wolf form with a surge of black and the sound of shredding skin and snapping bones. It was easy to adjust to four limbs with claws digging into the earth and her ears twitching at the crunch of it.

With one last glance at Harkin, wondering grimly if her brothers would plan anything against him while she was gone, she burst into a run. Ran through the brush hiding burrowing critters, past the usual ponds and streams, and eventually, right past the strong scent-mark and black flag embroidered with a white wolf’s head bearing black teeth.

Two Alpha male sentinels—part of the Epsilon of the Blacktooth—were waiting for her in their wolf forms. If it had been any other wolf, they would already have caught the intruder by their scruff. Wolves were extremely territorial and did not take kindly to anyone but their own pack wandering even close to their land.

Their sleek black fur shone almost iridescent in the sunlight through the treetops. They barely acknowledged her; just turned and expected her to follow. She did, this walking silence not companionable at all, but luckily it was short.

Sounds of the Blacktooth pack, known for their slim bodies seemingly designed by the Moon Goddess for speed and imperious attitudes, came into earshot quickly. This camp, unlike Bloodrose, was a large ring of sturdy black tents. Shani and the sentinels squeezed between two and immediately came into the “forum.”

Wolves young and old milled about their daily lives playing in wolf or base form, chatting, sewing clothes, or preparing food. As Shani was guided through, talk dimmed and stares began as her red fur disrupted the sea of black. She kept her head and gaze down.

You’d think I’d be f*cking used to this by now, she thought bitterly.

Ahead of her, one of the sentinels barked. The Alpha’s personal tent loomed before them. Shani’s heart lurched at the entrance flap flung aside.

Bloodrose was a part of the “big five” packs. The other four were the largest in terms of numbers and age as well as sheer might—Whitecrown, Lovell, Crescent, and Blacktooth. They were titans to the hundreds of packs scattered across the country. No other pack came close to their influence.

Blacktooth had only recently reached the pedestal thanks to the effort of the ambitious and larger-than-life personality Danior Raven, the physically largest and youngest-titled Alpha of the other powerhouses at only forty-five years old; he had only been twenty-five when Shani was born.

His sentinels dispersed when Danior emerged from his tent. His black hair was chest-length, half up and braided, wool strings beaded with teeth—wolf incisors, deer, fox, and bear. And, grotesquely, two of her baby canine teeth. He was shirtless, pale skin slick with sweat and stretched over massive muscle and a multitude of ropey scars. The green-gold hazel of his eyes lit up in tandem with a brilliant smile showcasing a filed-sharp set of teeth.

Danior’s appearance alone was enough to make a pup lose bladder control. His grin was savage and promised many unpleasant things. But when he was actually pleasant, his smile was completely disarming—absolutely charming.

Maybe that was what ensnared her mother all those years ago.

Because Shani wasn’t the daughter of just any Alpha-dynamic male. She was the daughter of *the* Alpha.

And although his much-hated b*stard daughter was twenty and had never gone through a phase where she ever truly loved him as a father, he adored suffocating her with his overly boisterous attention.

“Shani!” he boomed, attracting the gazes of the entire camp. “My beautiful daughter has arrived! Someone get her clothes!”

She made her ears perk instead of flattening as Danior stopped a foot away, looking for all intents like an excited pup. “Hi…Dad.”

An Omega female handed her Alpha a fresh pair of clothes, shooting Shani a venomous glare as she walked away. Ironically oblivious, he thrust it at Shani for her to take between her jaws.

“Go ahead and change in my tent,” Danior beamed, “and we will feast on freshly-caught boar!”

Shani slunk into his spacious living quarters, big enough to accommodate her wolf form. It was littered with pillows and blankets—and his Luna, Lua, asleep on her stomach, naked. Shani quickly turned away and shifted into her base form, tugging on her shirt and pants in record time, taking note that Adrean wasn’t with her.

Emerging with the familiar simmer of irritation at her father’s antics of obliviousness, she found his promised boar already over a fiery spit with Danior helping drag over logs for sitting. When he saw her he gestured to one to share.

She sat and didn’t look up at him. “I don’t need all this attention every month, you know.”

“Yes you do,” he boomed, patting her leg. “My daughter deserves every luxury.”

Harkin’s way of telling her she was worthy of love was much more humble.

“As we eat,” Danior said, raising his voice to capture his pack’s eyes and ears, “let’s regale age-old tales. Who will begin?”

Shani refrained from rolling her own eyes and took her meat portion in silence. Surprisingly, no wolf spoke up. Maybe they just didn’t like her presence dulling the joy that came with listening.

“Cowards,” Danior announced with his mouth stuffed. “Since I’m feeling nostalgic today, how about the story of the Leader Who Left?”

At this Shani’s ears perked. The Whitecrown Alpha’s departure from his own pack was infamous in its lesson of the shock of betrayal. Ten years later, there was still bad blood with the wolf no one had seen since then. She’d heard it a few times, but never from the Blacktooth perspective.

“One hundred and thirty years ago,” her father began, “the second Alpha of the Whitecrown pack was born. The first Alpha, the founder, led steadfastly. But his son…was power-hungry. He wanted more land, more wolves, more resources. Legend says his harem had ten Omega females and two submissive Alpha males. He has two dozen pups, all of who loathe his inattentiveness. His Epsilon is rumored to be cannibals—preying on strays and rabids.”

Shani felt disgust and appall curl in her gut. This was not the story she’d heard, not even remotely close. Judging from the looks of the wolves around her, they didn’t care or even know better. They just liked to hear Danior’s voice. But what kind of story was he trying to spin?

He continued animatedly, “It seems despite his vile personality and bloody habits, his pack was blindly loyal. They loved him. What good did it do, only ten years ago, after his one hundred-year reign, he vanished. Without warning or explanation, he left in the night. Leaving his pack and other Alphas thoroughly confused, no one has seen or heard from him in a decade. Is he dead and eaten by carrion? Is he still wandering somewhere?”

Danior lifted an intrigued forefinger, leaning forward for dramatism in response to his avid listeners. “Let’s recall: he’s immortal. He’ll live forever, thanks to his father, whose history is shrouded in mystery after one day word traveled that he was murdered by his own son. Why is he immortal? How will he live forever? No one knows. All that’s left of his legacy is the bitterness left by his betrayal. Who wants a leader who left them?

“Wolves have loyalty flowing through our veins. We cannot just forgive and forget someone who so easily abandoned their pack.”

Emphatic nods broke the spell of stillness. Danior leaned back with a satisfied grin. He didn’t notice Shani glaring at him until the pack started to rise and return to their duties.

“What?”

Shani glared harder. “Why would you tell all those lies?”