Nolan
Inside the Council chamber, I sat at the head of the table, my fingers steepled. Around me, there were Alphas from North discussing border taxes and the 'unfortunate' decline of the southern silver mines.
I didn't care about the mines. I cared about the fact that every Alpha at this table was looking for a weakness in my armor.
"The crescent pack's lands are fertile, Nolan," Alpha Thorne said. He meant Aria's pack. "But their defenses are pathetic. If you don't move your guards in soon, the rogues will take more than just a few sheep. They'll take the territory. Unless, of course, your new bride is... distracting you."
I looked at him and the entire room went still. I felt Ivan, my Beta, shift slightly behind my right shoulder. Ivan was a man of few words and even fewer mercies. I could feel his hackles rising, his hand twitching toward the dagger at his belt.
I didn't move. I didn't even blink. I just let the silence stretch until Thorne started to sweat.
That's how I liked it. I didn't just rule through a title; I ruled through a predatory dominance that made their wolves want to crawl into the dirt.
"Bride, you said?" I asked. "That's how you call your Luna?"
"I only meant—"
"Let me be very clear…" I interrupted, standing up slowly. I leaned over the table, my shadow stretching across Thorne's face. "If you ever mention her name again as a way to question my focus, I will pull your tongue out and feed it to your own hounds."
Thorne turned pale, his gaze dropping to the table. "My apologies, Alpha."
I sat back down, "Ivan, the report."
Ivan stepped forward, his shadow falling across the maps spread out before us. He didn't look at the other Alphas; he looked only at the maps pinned to the wall with the same cold, calculating stare I used. Ivan had been my shadow since we were pups. He was the only man who knew exactly how much blood was on my hands, mostly because he'd helped spill it.
"The rogue activity on the eastern border has tripled." Ivan stated. "They're testing the border since they have tasted the weakness of the Crescent Pack, and they think they can push through our lines to get to it."
"They think wrong," I said. "Increase the patrols. If a wolf is found within five miles of the border, kill it. I don't want reports. I don't want prisoners. I want a wall of carcasses that smells so foul the others won't dare to look north."
"Alpha" An younger Alpha spoke up from the end of the table. "The Council believes in traditional warfare. Execution without trial is—"
I turned my head. Slowly. Just enough to let him see the gold bleeding into my irises. The Alpha pressed his mouth shut.
"The Council believes whatever I tell them to believe," I whispered. "Trial is for those who belong to a pack. Rogues are vermin. You don't give a trial to a rat that enters your kitchen. You crush it."
I looked around the table. Most of them couldn't even meet my gaze. Good. If they feared me more than they feared the rogues, they would stay in line.
Shortly, the discussion shifted to trade routes, but my skin began to itch. It started as a faint prickle at the back of my neck.
I knew what it was. The blood bond. It was a rope around my neck I hadn't asked for that connected my soul to that fragile girl.
Usually, it was quiet. A dull hum of her anxiety or the soft thrum of her sleep. But suddenly, it spiked.
I felt asharp tug in my chest that made my inner wolf growl. I told myself she was with my sister. But it just got worse.
Dmitri.
I snapped through the mindlink.
Yeah, Nolan?
Where is Aria? I demanded.
She left like ten minutes ago, man. Said she was going back to the suite to wait for you. Why?
I didn't answer him. I cut the link.
She wouldn't have gone back to the suite. I knew that look in her eyes. It was the look of a trapped animal. She was prideful, stupidly so.
"Ivan." I said, standing up. The Alphas at the table stopped mid-sentence, staring at me in confusion.
"Alpha? We haven't finished the—" the Elder began, his milky eyes narrowing.
"Adjourned." I stated calmly. I didn't look at them.
I strode toward the door, Ivan moving into step behind me. "Something is wrong," I muttered as we hit the hallway. "The bond is cold."
He didn't ask for details. He knew that when the Alpha's bond went cold, it meant the Luna was either unconscious or dying.
His hand went to his weapon. "The guards at the North Wing?"
"If she's past them, they're already dead men," I replied.
When we reached the master suite, I kicked the door open. Empty. But scent of her… that soft, infuriating smell of lilies… was being pulled out of the room by the draft from the servant's passage.
I didn't need Ivan to tell me she was gone. Of course, she had run. The little fool had actually tried to run into a forest that was currently crawling with the very rogues we had just been discussing.
"The servant's passage" Ivan noted, leaning down to look at a scuff mark on the stone. "She's headed for the docks."
I started removing my suit jacket, tossing it onto the bed. I unbuttoned my shirt with steady fingers, feeling the wolf beneath my skin beginning to stir with anticipation. This was a hunt, and she was the prey I hadn't yet broken.
"Trackers?" Ivan asked, stepping into the passage behind me.
"No," I growled, my bones beginning to grind and pop. "I'll find her. You get the healers ready."
I didn't wait for his response. I shifted in the narrow hallway, the sound of my bones snapping. My clothes shredded, falling away as the massive black wolf took over.
I hit the tree line in minutes, my paws silent on the pine needles. I tracked the scent of her and led straight into a cluster of rogue territory. I slowed my pace, moving like a ghost through the shadows. I wanted her to feel the woods close in. I wanted her to realize that without me, she was nothing but a heartbeat in the dark. If she wasn't dead already.
I broke into the clearing just as the lead rogue sank its teeth into her shoulder. The sight of her red dress… the dress I chose being torn by that filth snapped my control.
I didn't just kill them. I tore them into pieces.
When I shifted back, the clearing was a graveyard of fur and bone. Aria was laid against the oak tree, her face devoid of life.
I knelt in the dirt, my hands drenched with her blood as I pressed down on her wound. "Stupid." I hissed, my voice trembling with a fury I couldn't mask anymore.
"Ivan!" I mindlinked him, almost shouting. "Get the healers! Now!"
I gathered her into my arms too quickly. She was too light. I turned and ran toward the manor.
My key to the Shadow Tomb was slipping through my fingers.