Daemon's POV
I smell my father's bloodlust before I see him.
He's in the war room with twelve of his most loyal warriors, spreading a map across the table. The Shadow Lands. Rogue territory. Kira's location marked with a red X like she's prey to be hunted.
"We move at dawn," Father says, his voice cold and final. "Quick and clean. Kill the girl, burn the settlement. Any rogue who resists dies with her."
My wolf explodes inside me, trying to rip free. I force him down, barely. Three weeks since Kira rejected me and ran, and every second feels like dying slowly. But this? This is so much worse than dying.
I slam the door open hard enough to crack the frame.
Every head turns. Father's eyes narrow when he sees me, and I watch him calculate—is his son here to help or hinder?
"You're planning to murder my mate," I say, and my voice doesn't sound like mine anymore. It sounds like something dark and dangerous crawling up from the depths. "In her sleep. With an ambush."
"I'm planning to eliminate a threat to this pack," Father corrects, like we're discussing weather instead of Kira's life. "That girl is making you weak, Daemon. This needs to end."
"You're right." I step into the room, and the warriors shift nervously. They can feel my Alpha dominance rolling off me in waves. "This does need to end."
Father smiles, thinking I agree with him. Thinking I'm still his obedient son who does whatever Daddy says.
He's about to learn different.
"Call off the hunt," I say quietly. "Now."
The smile vanishes. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Call. It. Off." Each word comes out sharp as a blade. "You don't touch Kira. You don't touch the rogues. You don't go near the Shadow Lands."
Father's face turns red, the vein in his forehead bulging the way it does before he beats someone. I've seen that look a thousand times, usually right before he made my childhood a nightmare.
I don't flinch.
"Have you lost your mind?" Father roars, slamming his fist on the table. The map jumps. "That DEFECT rejected you! She humiliated you in front of the entire pack! And you're defending her?"
"She had every right to reject me," I shoot back. "I made her life hell for eight years. I bullied her, mocked her, treated her like trash. She was eighteen years old and I broke her spirit because it made me feel powerful." The admission tastes like acid, but it's true. Every horrible word. "So yes, Father, I'm defending her. Because she deserves someone to defend her for once."
The warriors are staring at me like I've grown a second head. Nobody talks to Alpha Ryker like this. Nobody challenges him.
Cain appears in the doorway behind me. "Daemon," he says urgently, "maybe we should—"
"No," I cut him off, never taking my eyes off Father. "No more maybe. No more later. This ends now."
Father moves around the table slowly, like a predator circling prey. "You would betray your pack for some worthless girl who doesn't even want you?"
"She's not worthless." The words rip out of me, and I realize I mean them with everything I am. "She was never worthless. We just told her she was so many times she believed it. And I—" My voice cracks. "I was the worst of all of you. But I'm done. I'm done being the monster you made me."
"I made you STRONG!" Father bellows, and suddenly his hand is at my throat, slamming me against the wall. His Alpha command presses down, trying to force me to submit. "Everything you are is because of me! And you would throw it away for HER?"
I could submit. Should submit. He's still the Alpha, and every instinct screams to bare my throat.
Instead, I grab his wrist and twist, breaking his hold. My own Alpha power surges up, meeting his head-on. The room shakes with the force of two Alphas clashing.
"If you want to get to Kira," I say, my voice deadly calm now, "you'll have to go through me first."
The room goes silent. Every warrior freezes.
Father steps back, his eyes cold as winter. "Then you're a traitor to Silvercrest Pack."
"I'm trying to SAVE this pack!" I roar. "From you! From your tyranny, your cruelty, your—"
"Enough." Father's command voice rings out. "You are hereby stripped of your heir status. You are—"
"I challenge you for the Alpha position."
The words leave my mouth before I fully process them. But the second they're out there, hanging in the air between us, I know they're right. This is the only way. The only way to protect Kira. The only way to stop this hunt. The only way to become something better than what he made me.
Father's face goes blank with shock. Behind me, I hear Cain's sharp intake of breath. The warriors look terrified—challenges between father and son are almost never called. They're brutal. They're bloody.
They usually end with one of them dead.
"You're challenging me?" Father says slowly, like he can't believe what he's hearing. "Your own father?"
"I'm challenging a tyrant," I correct. "By pack law, any wolf of Alpha blood can challenge for leadership if they believe the current Alpha is unfit to rule. You're about to murder innocent rogues and an eighteen-year-old girl in her sleep. I'd say that makes you unfit."
The pack law is ancient, ironclad. Father can't refuse. If he does, he loses all authority and every wolf in the pack can legally disobey him.
His eyes narrow to slits. "Fine. I accept. Full moon. Two weeks from today. Traditional challenge rules—fight to submission or death."
Death. He said it so casually, like he's already planning which way to kill me.
"Agreed," I say, and I'm surprised my voice doesn't shake. "Terms: If I win, I become Alpha and all charges against Kira are dropped. She's under pack protection, not a target."
"And when I win," Father counters, "you and your precious mate are both exiled. You'll leave Silvercrest territory and never return. If you do, I'll kill you both on sight."
Exiled. Stripped of pack, family, home. It's worse than death for most wolves.
But if it keeps Kira alive, if it stops this massacre—
"Deal," I say.
Father smiles, and it's the cruelest thing I've ever seen. "You always were weak, boy. Just like your mother. This will be easier than I thought."
He leaves, taking his warriors with him. The second they're gone, my knees nearly buckle. Cain catches me.
"Are you insane?" he hisses. "Daemon, he's going to kill you! Your father doesn't know how to hold back in a fight!"
"I know," I say quietly. Through the bond, I can feel Kira's terror—she's in danger right now, this second, and I can't reach her. Whatever's happening in the Shadow Lands, she's alone. "But this is the only way to protect her."
"There has to be another way! We can negotiate, we can—"
"Cain." I grip his shoulder. "If I die in two weeks, you make sure Kira knows the truth. About everything. About why I was how I was. About my mother. About—" I swallow hard. "Make sure she knows I tried. Please."
Cain's eyes are wet. "You're my best friend, you idiot. I'm not letting you die."
"Then help me train." I straighten up, forcing strength I don't feel. "I have two weeks to get strong enough to beat a wolf who's been training for thirty years. I'll need every advantage."
For the next twelve days, I train until I collapse. Every morning before dawn, every night until I can't stand. Cain pushes me harder than Father ever did, and I'm grateful for it. Because every time I want to quit, I think about Kira.
About her face when I called her worthless.
About the way she flinched when I shoved her into that puddle when she was ten.
About how I have eight years of cruelty to make up for, and I might only have two weeks to start.
On the thirteenth day, Zara shows up at my door. She looks exhausted, scared, and angry all at once.
"Is she alive?" I ask immediately, because through the bond I can feel Kira, but it's faint and wrong.
"Barely," Zara says, and fear claws at my insides. "Moira attacked her. Some kind of dark magic ritual. Kira fought her off, but she's hurt, Daemon. Really hurt. The rogues are keeping her safe, but—" She stops, tears streaming down her face. "She asked me to give you something."
She hands me a piece of paper, and even through everything, my heart leaps. Kira's writing. Finally.
I open it with shaking hands.
Stop trying to save me. I'm not worth dying for.
That's all it says. No signature. No softness. Just those eight words that feel like a knife between my ribs.
"She's wrong," I say out loud. "She's worth everything."
"Then don't lose," Zara says fiercely. "Because if you die, she's next. Your father won't stop. And Moira—" She shudders. "Moira wants Kira's power. She'll keep coming until one of them is dead."
After Zara leaves, I sit down and write one final letter. My hands are bruised from training, my body aching, but I write anyway.
Kira,
I'm challenging my father for you. For us. For the chance to be someone worthy of a second glance from the Moon Goddess's chosen.
If I die in two days, at least I died trying to protect you. At least I died fighting for something that mattered instead of fighting because I was told to.
You said you're not worth dying for. You're wrong. You're worth living for. You're worth changing for. You're worth becoming the man I should have been all along.
I know you won't forgive me. I don't deserve forgiveness. But whether you want me or not, whether you come back or not, I'm still going to fight. Because you deserve a world where Alpha Ryker can't hurt you anymore.
And if I win, I'll spend the rest of my life making sure you never have to be afraid again.
Yours (even if you don't want me),
-D
I give the letter to Cain to deliver through Zara. Then I go back to training.
Two days later, the full moon rises.
The entire pack gathers in the ceremonial circle. Father stands on one side, looking confident and cruel. I stand on the other, covered in training bruises but steady.
Somewhere out there, beyond the pack lands, Kira might be reading my letter. She might be burning it like she burned all the others.
It doesn't matter.
I'm fighting anyway.
The Elder raises his hand. "By ancient law, Alpha Ryker Silvercrest and Daemon Silvercrest will battle for pack leadership. The fight continues until one submits—"
"Or dies," Father adds with a cold smile. "Let's not pretend otherwise."
The Elder's hand drops.
Father shifts into his massive grey wolf and lunges straight for my throat.
The fight begins.
And through the bond, burning bright and desperate, I feel Kira scream my name.