Cale's horse's hooves strike sparks from the cobblestones, the sound echoing in my head like the blow of a hammer. I am not walking—I am dragging myself. The air in my lungs has turned to crushed glass. Every step across the courtyard stones radiates a flash of pain through my bloodied feet.
"Close the gates!" a voice thunders from above.
Edric stands on the steps like a statue of grey granite. His fur mantle swallows the last drops of twilight. Beside him are the elders, a row of identical, indifferent faces.
Cale leaps to the ground. He doesn't even look back. He tosses the reins to a groom, shaking droplets of someone else's blood from his leather bracer.
"You are late." Edric doesn't look at his son. His heavy, oily gaze is fixed on my trembling knees.
"The prey proved faster than we anticipated," Cale says, walking past him toward the doors.
"Stay!" Edric's hand shoots up.
The courtyard freezes. Even the horses stop snorting. I feel hundreds of eyes on me. They prick like icy needles.
"Look at this," Edric points a ring-adorned finger at me. "Is this what you brought into my house? Is this the mate of the future Alpha?"
I try to straighten up. Something in my spine cracks. The mud on my rags has dried, tightening over my skin like a carapace.
"She made it the whole way, Father," Cale's voice sounds flat. Too flat. There isn't a drop of warmth in it. "The hunt is over."
"The hunt ended in disgrace!" Edric descends one step. "We had to slow the pace. The wolves were turning back, watching a human girl stumble over every root. You've made us a laughingstock for the forest spirits."
"She's weak, what did you expect?" Selena steps out from the shadows of the columns, adjusting a thin belt at her waist. Her chuckle is picked up by the young warriors in the back rows. "Look at her feet. Isabelle was already hunting deer alone at her age."
"Isabelle was a wolf," someone from the crowd spits into the mud. "And this… this is a burden."
Inside, somewhere deep beneath my ribs, a heavy, thick heat begins to stir. Ancient blood. It pulses in time with my frantic heart, whispering images: fire tearing from my fingers, the crunch of cervical vertebrae of those laughing now. I clench my fists so hard my nails dig into my palms. Quiet. Not yet.
"Step forward," Edric commands.
I hesitate. My legs refuse to obey.
"I said—forward!"
I take three steps. The ground beneath my feet is slick with autumn frost and horse manure.
"Repent," Edric looms over me, blocking the torchlight. "Acknowledge your infirmity before the pack. Tell them that you are ballast, something we drag along only out of mercy."
I search for Cale's eyes. He is standing just a few meters away. His face is a mask of cold stone. Not a single muscle twitches.
"Help me," I scream internally. "Say something to them."
Cale looks away. He studies the buckle on his belt.
"Come on," Selena prods, stepping closer. "Is your tongue parched from the run? Or do you only know how to whimper in the Alpha's bedroom?"
"I…" my voice fails, breaking into a rasp. "I did everything I could."
"It's not enough!" Edric barks. "In this pack, 'everything I could' is a death sentence. You slowed Cale down. You distracted him. Because of you, his attention was scattered. To your knees, filth."
The world around me freezes. A cold wind howls through the battlements, carrying the scent of pine and death.
"What?" I ask, unable to believe my ears.
"To your knees. Before everyone you insulted with your weakness."
I look at Cale. Now. He must come over. He must put his hand on my shoulder and say that's enough.
Cale only adjusts his glove.
"Cale?" my whisper sounds pathetic.
"Listen to the Alpha, Alina," he snaps, not looking at me. "It's your own fault you fell behind."
The heat inside flares with new strength. It's no longer just warmth—it's a forest fire. The mark on my neck burns as if a red-hot iron has been pressed against it. I feel Edric's aura—heavy, foul-smelling like an old dog—pressing down on my shoulders. Physical strength, backed by pack magic, forces my muscles to contract against my will.
My joints give way.
I fall.
Sharp stones bite into my broken knees. Icy slush soaks through the remains of my pants. The pain is so sharp I let out a cry, but the sound is drowned in Selena's mocking laughter.
"Look how low she bows," Selena circles me. "Maybe that's where she belongs? Among the dogs and the scraps?"
"Listen, everyone!" Edric addresses the crowd, ignoring my presence at his feet. "This is the price of soft-heartedness. We took her in, gave her shelter, and she repaid us with slowness in the hour of the hunt."
I dig my fingers into the wet earth. Mud gets under my nails.
"If you cannot run through the forest without panting by the next moon," Edric leans down so low I can smell raw meat on his breath, "the pack will dispose of you. We do not feed those who cannot hunt. Cale, let's go. We have more important things to do than contemplate this carrion."
The crowd begins to disperse. I hear their footsteps, their whispers, their contempt hanging in the air like a thick fog.
"Let's go, Cale," Selena's voice recedes. "Your wine is already warmed."
I am left alone. Twilight deepens, turning the courtyard into a well full of shadows. My knees are numb from the cold. Tears sting my eyes, but I don't let them fall. Not here. Not into this soil.
Heavy footsteps. Someone has stopped beside me. A familiar scent: smoke, juniper, and blood.
I don't lift my head.
"Get up," Cale's voice sounds harsh.
I say nothing. My fingers still clutch clumps of mud.
"I said—get up!"
He grabs me by the elbow. His grip is like steel pincers. He jerks me to my feet, and I nearly scream as my body weight settles back onto my wounded feet.
"Let go," I whisper, trying to break free.
Instead, he pulls me to him. It's not an embrace. It's a restraint. His arms wrap around my waist so tightly it feels like my ribs might crack. He presses me into his hard leather armor.
"You shamed me out there," I hiss into his chest. "You stood and watched."
"Shut your mouth," he buries his face in my tangled hair, greedily inhaling the scent of sweat and blood.
His body is tense. I feel his heart beating frantically beneath the layers of leather and fur. Is he trembling? No, it's me.
"You didn't even stand up for me," I beat my fists against his chest, but he doesn't even budge. "You let him do it!"
Cale catches my wrists with one hand, pinning them to my own chest. His other hand lands on the back of my head, fingers roughly tangling in my hair, forcing me to tilt my head back.
"Do you think this was a game?" In the darkness, his eyes seem completely black. "Do you think my father is joking?"
"You're the future Alpha! You could have..."
"I could have what? Provoked him into a fight right there? So he could tear you to pieces just to prove his power?" He leans close to my ear. His breath burns my cold skin. "You looked pathetic, Alina. You smell like defeat."
"You made me this way," I try to bite his shoulder, but he only tightens his grip.
"Listen to me carefully," his voice drops to a barely audible growl. "The next time you decide to show your weakness before him... the next time you make him doubt my choice..."
He pauses, and I feel his teeth lightly graze my earlobe.
"...I will finish you off myself. Do you understand?"
I freeze. Horror, icy and sticky, spreads through my veins, displacing the heat of the ancient blood.
"You… you wouldn't do that."
"Don't test me," Cale pushes me away so abruptly I barely stay on my feet. "Wash yourself. You reek of human infirmity."
He turns and walks toward the main entrance, leaving me standing in the middle of the empty courtyard.
I look at my hands. Mud still remains on them. And a drop of his blood from the armor.
Words from the legend of Isabelle surface in my mind, the ones I heard as a child: "And when the beast comes for you, do not seek protection from the one who shares its lair. Seek strength in your pain."
The mark on my neck pulses, burning an invisible pattern into my skin. I no longer feel the cold. Only rage. So pure and sharp it could cut this castle in half.
I don't go into the castle. I stand and wait until the last spark of the torch dies in the night. Now I know what his "care" is worth. And I know that in the next hunt, I will not be the prey.
I will be the one who leads the trail.