If you'd told me a week ago I'd be making out with Ruvan Ravelle under the stars, then fighting for my life against masked assassins ten seconds later—I would've said:
Sounds about right.
Because chaos had apparently made me its favorite chew toy.
"They weren't wolves," I said, crouching beside the corpse with the least-mangled face.
"Not fully," Ruvan agreed. "Scent's wrong. Too sterile. And no shift bones."
"So what are they?"
"Wrong. That's what."
He dug something from the body's tunic—a tiny brand, hidden under leather straps.
A coil symbol. Metallic. Familiar.
My stomach dipped.
"That's royal," I whispered. "From the old regime."
"The regime that was supposedly dissolved."
"Looks like someone didn't get the memo."
We burned the bodies. Ruvan's idea—mine was to leave them for the wolves, but he said that was "barbaric."
"Says the man who ripped a guy's throat out with his teeth," I muttered.
"That was strategy," he said, wiping blood from his jaw. "This is mercy."
Right.
Strategy.
By dawn, we were riding hard back toward the Ravelle estate. I hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, and my bones were humming with residual adrenaline. But what kept me awake wasn't the fight—it was the kiss.
The way he kissed me.
No warnings. No rules. Just him and me and whatever storm we'd become.
And now we had a new target: the Vault scrolls had named my real father as a man executed decades ago by the monarchy… but Kaelen had his name.
Which meant the Elders had rewritten the bloodlines.
Which meant someone was still pulling strings from deep in the shadows.
"You know," I said to Ruvan as we slowed at the eastern ridge, "I might have some trauma. Just a bit."
"Just a bit?"
"Tiny pinch. Like… inferno-sized."
"That explains the sarcasm. And the insomnia. And the knife under your pillow."
"You looked under my pillow?"
"I'm not stupid."
I smiled despite myself.
He returned it—slow, crooked, and dangerous.
-
When we got back to the estate, everything felt… too quiet.
Talia met us in the war room, hair half-braided, half-chaotic, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"Kaelen knows you're gone," she said before I could even sit down.
"How?"
"Because he's just declared a formal challenge."
I blinked.
"A challenge?"
"To your mark," she said, glancing at Ruvan. "He wants to nullify it publicly—invoke rite by combat."
"He can't nullify what I gave freely."
"Doesn't matter. He's framing it as 'false bonding.'"
"Let him come," Ruvan said, voice low and lethal.
Talia sighed.
"This isn't just personal now. The northern packs are watching. If Kaelen wins, he takes both bonds—yours and Ruvan's. And control of the succession."
My blood went cold.
"So if Ruvan loses—"
"You belong to Kaelen again," she said softly.
"Not happening," Ruvan growled.
"Then you better start training," Talia said. "Because Kaelen fights dirty."
And so we trained.
For three days straight, Ruvan and I threw ourselves into motion. Blades. Shift control. Bone-breaking hand-to-hand. I hit the ground so many times I started calling it "my second bed."
"You're slow on your left," he said, catching my wrist mid-spin.
"Maybe you're distracting me on purpose."
"Distracting? Please. You haven't even seen me shirtless yet."
"You've been shirtless this entire week."
"Ah. So you have been looking."
I punched him. Just a little.
He grinned wider.
The night before the duel, I couldn't sleep again.
Big surprise.
I walked through the old gardens, silent as mist, until I found myself in front of the Ravelle shrine.
A massive stone crescent stood over a shallow reflecting pool, vines coiling up the arms like the moon itself was being choked by memory.
I knelt.
Touched the water.
Saw my mother's face.
Felt her name curl against my ribs like an ache I hadn't let out in years.
"You didn't get to finish your story," I whispered. "So I guess I have to finish mine."
Behind me, footsteps.
"Thought I'd find you here," Ruvan said.
He walked over, holding two mugs of… something hot and vaguely spicy.
"Is that moonroot tea?"
"Talia's idea. Says it'll help you sleep."
"It smells like feet."
"Drink it anyway."
I did. Grimaced.
"Liar."
"You looked like you needed a laugh."
He was right. I did.
He sat beside me, and we just… existed there. Quiet. Breathing.
And then, like the silence was too much to bear:
"What if you lose?" I asked.
"I won't."
"You don't know that."
"No," he said. "But I know this—if he touches you again, I'll tear out his spine and wear it like a belt."
I coughed.
"Romantic."
"I try."
We both stared at the pool.
"Do you regret it?" he asked suddenly.
"Regret what?"
"Marking me."
I looked at him then—really looked. At the man I'd marked to spite another. The man who'd shielded me without conditions. Who saw the worst in me and didn't flinch.
"Not for a second."
-
Dawn came fast.
Too fast.
The arena was packed with wolves, Elders, and onlookers from every neighboring pack. The duel wasn't just a fight now—it was theater. A trial. A political bloodbath.
Kaelen stood in the center, smirking, wrapped in black and silver.
"One last chance, brother," he called out. "Yield, and I'll let you keep your pride."
"Keep your teeth in your mouth, and I'll be impressed," Ruvan answered coolly.
They circled.
Then—
The bell rang.
And the world snapped into motion.
Kaelen struck first—fast, precise, brutal. But Ruvan dodged, parried, drove him back with a flurry of blows that cracked the air like thunder.
I watched, heart lodged in my throat.
Each punch was more than power—it was legacy. A fight between two halves of a kingdom. And I was the tether between them.
Kaelen landed a brutal hook. Ruvan stumbled.
Kaelen's claws slashed across Ruvan's side.
Blood.
I flinched.
But Ruvan didn't falter.
He smiled.
"That all you've got, Alpha?"
Kaelen roared. Lunged.
Ruvan caught him—flipped him—drove him into the earth with a growl that made the crowd gasp.
"You lost the moment she stopped loving you," Ruvan said, pinning Kaelen beneath his knee. "And I'm not giving her back."
He raised his fist—
And Kaelen shifted mid-grapple, flinging Ruvan backward with inhuman strength.
The crowd screamed.
Ruvan hit the wall hard, cracking stone.
He didn't rise.
"Ruvan!" I screamed.
Kaelen advanced.
"No," I breathed. "Not again."
I ran.
Vaulted the arena wall.
And just as Kaelen lunged toward Ruvan, I shifted mid-air—fangs, claws, fury—and slammed into Kaelen with the force of everything he'd ever taken from me.
He staggered.
Then turned to face me, shock blooming across his face.
"You interfered in a duel," he spat.
"You tried to kill a downed wolf. I ended your duel."
I pressed a dagger to his throat.
"And now I claim my right."
Kaelen laughed. A low, bitter sound.
"You're no Alpha."
"No," I said. "I'm the reason you'll never be one."