In the middle of the night, dying embers glowed and crackled in the hearth, struggling in vain to produce their last bit of heat and light before they fizzled out. Sylvie’s soft snores created a rhythmic melody that brought peace and comfort to the snuggled-up Noah. Wide awake and with his head still spinning from Sylvie’s earlier amorous attentions, he sighed as the arm wrapped around his stomach pulled him tighter against his mate. After their intimacy, he had attempted to pull Sylvie close to his body for a cuddle, but he immediately lost that battle, and now, his back pressed against her chest, and her arm wrapped possessively around him.

The soldiers from the caravan would surely laugh at the scene of Noah accepting the woman’s position in bed, but he had never felt so safe while in his mate’s powerful arms. The end goal of every romantic relationship is to be happy with a chosen partner, so why did the means by which he obtained that happiness matter to so many? He had achieved the happiness all couples sought, and no matter how unconventional the process to obtain that joy was, he was content with the life he had found.

A howl rang out from deep within the forest, startling him into a jerk and waking Sylvie from her deep sleep. Her eyes shot open, and the possessive arm around his stomach disappeared as she jumped to her feet and began dressing at a lightning-fast pace. Sensing the urgency in her movements, Noah popped out of bed as well, pulling his clothes on as fast as he could.

“What is it, Sylvie? Another intruder at the territory entrance?” he asked, hopping around and attempting to pull on his boots while keeping his balance.

Sylvie rushed to her wardrobe without answering his question, digging around in a trunk on the floor hidden away by a cover of stray clothing. Her frantic searching slowed until it ceased entirely, and with a deep breath, she turned around to face him with her silver eyes blazing. Dancing shadows from the glow of the embers concealed most of her face and obscured her expression, but her words reached his ears loud and clear. “The howl is alerting the pack to an attack. It seems the Unseelie have finally made their move.”

Noah narrowed his eyes as he grabbed his cowboy hat and cane. Finally, the time of anticipation and waiting had passed, and the battle was all that remained. Walking over to the wardrobe, he grabbed his hand crossbow that he had left untouched since the caravan battle. It was all but useless against most creatures but could cut down cannon fodder in droves or serve as a distraction for the truly powerful.

Rubbing his finger along the drawstring, he checked for any fraying, and after finding none, he patted his trench coat to double-check he had his extra cane blades and bolts. With nothing to fear from his pack, he had long ago exchanged his cane’s silver blade for iron. As prepared as a weak human could be for a battle between powerful supernaturals, he glanced at Sylvie, who remained on the floor, throwing objects out of the trunk in a furious frenzy.

“Sylvie! We cannot waste any more time on preparation. The howls of our pack mates call for aid, and we should give them our answer,” he shouted, grabbing her shoulders and attempting to pull her to her feet.

Dozens of howls echoed throughout the forest as the wolves communicated the approaching danger across long distances. As if she couldn’t hear the howls, Sylvie continued to sort through the trunk’s contents in haphazard chaos. With a cry of joy, she located the object of her search and jumped to her feet. In her hands sat a small leather pouch covered in dust and crumpled into a lump of neglect.

With her tearful eyes glued to the once-discarded object, she raised her hands and presented the pouch to him with reverence. “My mate, when you were chosen as my partner a few short months ago, I never could have imagined the enormity of the gift I had received. You are everything I hoped and dreamed you would be, and I refuse to return to a life without you.”

He reached out tentative fingers toward the pouch, but her hands clasped around them, shielding it from his greedy grasp. “Noah, you must promise me you will stay in the lodge unless the warrior wolves fall. Promise me you will remain there until the enemy breaches the heart of the pack.”

He snorted in disbelief at her orders and whacked his cane against the ground with a loud smack. “You must be joking, Sylvie. I will fight beside my mate on the front lines where I belong.”

Sylvie placed a finger over his lips, cutting off his continued arguments. “I don’t doubt your bravery, my mate. I don’t doubt your ability in battle, and I don’t doubt that you will sacrifice your life for the pack.”

She slowly removed her finger, leaving a tingling warmth on his lips. “That is why I trust you to defend the lodge. The lifeblood of our pack will be sheltered there: the elders, whose wisdom we can ill afford to lose, the young pups who promise a better future for our pack, and our crafters, without whom we’d still be wanderers, sleeping on the cold, barren land with no home to call our own. The pack is dead without these wolves, and I need the one I trust above all to protect them, my mate.”

The praise from his mate coursed through him, inflating his chest with pride and lifting his chin with ego. “If the lodge contains the most precious wolves of the pack, then, of course, we should place its most powerful warrior there to guard them.”

Sylvie had tears in her eyes, distorting the radiating silver, but he could still see her fear and concern shining through. “I know what I ask of you, Noah. I ask my mate to stand before a powerful enemy and lay down his life if need be to save my pack. I do not ask this of you lightly, but I have faith you will overcome anything the Unseelie can throw at you.”

Her eyes fell to the ground in shame at her selfish request, but he gently gripped her chin and raised her head until their eyes met. “I will await news of your triumph at the lodge, and if a few enemies sneak past our warriors, I will fight until my last breath to protect our pack. You have my word that I will not leave the lodge until then, so please fight unburdened with concerns for my safety.”

A sad smile titled Sylvie’s lips, and she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Our pack, is it?”

Noah nodded with a satisfied smile. “Our pack, our home, and our family.”

Narrowing her eyes at the pouch resting in her palms, Sylvie presented it to him once again, and he wasted no time plucking it from her with nimble fingers. After untying the twine and dumping the contents onto his hand, he gasped as enormous fangs and claws tumbled out onto his palm. These were the largest he had ever seen, and not even in the boastful stories of drunks had he even heard of shifters growing this big. Which mythical wolf had such weapons been plucked from?

“The remnants of my father,” Sylvie whispered, complex emotions spreading across her face as she stared at her father’s remains. “It is tradition to display them in a place of honor within your home, but I feared upsetting the rest of the pack with such a memorial. I hid them away in shame and allowed them to gather dust.”

Her finger pushed the last remaining proof of her father’s might around his palm, creating a rattling of bones in the silent cabin. “He was a monster, but he was still my father, and I loved him,” Sylvie choked out, tears once again filling her eyes. “Before he disappears from this world, my father’s power will protect this pack.”

“Sylvie, I can’t desecrate your father’s remains like this,” he whispered, grabbing her hand and attempting to dump the fangs and claws into her fingers.

She broke free from his grasp in a flash and closed his fingers into a tight fist around the family heirloom. “I offer this to you freely, my mate. They will infuse you with the power of an Alpha, and my father’s roar will ring out one last time on the battlefield.”

Sylvie kissed him gently on the lips before pulling him into a desperate hug. Her chin rested on the top of his head, pushing the tip of his cowboy hat over his eyes. More and more distressed howls rang out from deep within the forest, prompting them to pull apart with determined gazes.

“The pack needs their alpha, Sylvie. You must go now, but don’t you dare return to me with injuries, or you will witness a wrath that only humans are capable of.”

She flung open the door, revealing a cloud-filled sky with only the illumination from the fae globes, allowing his eyes to see the surroundings of their cabin. Pausing in the doorway, she glanced back at him one last time with a smile, and he hurried to capture the image in his memories.

Long, raven hair draped down to her lower back, and her pearly white teeth reflected the light of the fae globes with a dazzling smile. Flawless bronze skin glistened in the subtle glow, with only his mating mark blemishing her shoulder. And, most striking of all, an image that would be burned into his mind and memories for all time—blazing silver eyes valiantly keeping the encroaching darkness at bay.

“And I expect my mate to welcome me home while whole and healthy. If not, he will answer to the rage of an alpha wolf,” she teased before shifting instantly and bounding off into the forest in a blur.

Wiping the dopey smile off of his face, he darted into the blackness of the woods with only his pathetic human night vision to guide his way. Stumbling over stray bushes and entangling roots, he finally came upon the meadow, and the stunning sight stole his breath.

Fae globes illuminated the lodge like a lighthouse serving as a beacon to the pack, and the purple flowers swayed in the slight breeze, undeterred by the freezing temperatures of winter. Wolves streamed into the multiple swinging doors, seeking shelter and safety, and he smiled when he realized the extraordinary sight justified the endangerment of his life. He was no longer daring death for whimsical reasons but risking his life for things he could ill afford to live without.

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He hurried to join the procession of civilian wolves, ignoring the chaos brought by fear and rushing straight to the kitchen. Fumbling metal pans and pots with loud clinks, he finally found what he was looking for and grabbed a mortar and pestle. He dumped the contents of the leather pouch in the mortar and began grinding Ajax’s claws and fangs into as fine a powder as he could manage. Even after grinding the bones into the finest powder he could, a mountain of dust filled the bowl, and he wondered how many snorts it would take to ingest all the former alpha’s power.

“Attention! Whether you decide to pass the battle in wolf or human form, you will gather toward the roots of the lodge, and you will avoid any doors or windows. Any wolves who are willing and able to fight, join me at the front of the lodge.”

Noah glanced at the speaker as he scooped the last of the powder back into the leather pouch. Calla, the Guardian of the pack, had become the commander of the lodge’s defenses and symbolized a powerful hope for the terrified wolves under her care.

As prepared for the upcoming battle as he could be, he joined the handful of pack mates gathered around Calla and stood ready for her commands. A hard shove almost threw him to the ground as a pack mate bumped into his shoulder. With a snarl and a curse, he rounded on the clumsy wolf, prepared to unleash his fears on the undeserving target, but fell into stunned silence as Silas greeted him with a nod. After his brief nod, Silas returned his focus to Calla, gazing at her with a determined expression. An iron dueling sword stuck out from his waist, mocking Noah by poking him in the thigh.

“Silas? What the hell do you think you’re doing? Go gather with the other non-combative wolves,” Noah yelled at him as a chill of fear shivered through the depths of his soul.

“This is my home, Noah, and these wolves are my family. It is my duty to protect them, and I will not disgrace myself by abandoning my post,” the young teenager said, not even turning to face Noah.

Noah frantically shook his head, and his unbridled fear climbed with each passing second. He refused to allow this young wolf, all of seventeen years old, to fight the Unseelie monstrosities. “Silas, it is not the duty of pups to fight for the safety of the pack. It is the duty of the adults to protect the next generation and secure a better future for the pack. Your day to fight will come, but it is not today.”

“Noah, you cannot ask me to cower in safety while you and my sister risk your lives in battle,” Silas said, shaking his head in disgust.

“Your sister? What are you talking about…” he asked, trailing off in dread when a throat cleared from his other side.

With incredulous, widened eyes, he whipped around only to be met with Luna, whose head didn’t even reach his chest. A woolen hat rested snugly over her ears, and two crudely cut holes allowed her pigtails to bounce down to her shoulders. She had mud or some kind of dye smeared down her cheeks for camouflage, and small leather pouches hung from a belt wrapped around her tiny waist.

“Oh, what the fuck, Luna! Are you kidding me?” he yelled out, throwing his hands in the air and whipping his head back and forth between the siblings.

Posing in a psychotic military stance, Luna jutted her bottom lip out, and he could practically see the aura of stubbornness encasing her. “I will fight for my home, Master. Your apprentice stands ready to unleash her terror upon the Unseelie nightmares.”

Noah closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, trying to stave off the impending headache. “Luna, you are ten years old. You will not be fighting in this battle. That is your Master’s orders, and they are final,” he said through clenched teeth, glancing toward his young apprentice. “And what happened to your eyebrows?”

A blush crept up the side of her neck, and she ran her finger over the bare skin where her eyebrows had once been. “The perils of training, Master.”

A swooshing sound behind him grabbed his attention, and he turned to see Silas swinging his iron sword through the air.

“Would you stop that! You aren’t fighting,” Noah snapped at him.

“We can help, Master. We have studied your fighting manuals and have trained nonstop in your ways of war,” Luna chimed in from his side, giving him whiplash as he tried to focus on one absurd comment after the next.

Silence descended upon the lodge as inhuman screams of terror sounded out from deep within the forest. Clicks, wails, and screeches echoed in the distance, containing such pain and suffering that just hearing the screams hurt Noah’s soul.

“What nightmares have our warriors unleashed upon our enemies?” he muttered while stroking his chin deep in thought. His hand froze, and his eyes bulged as he noticed the frightening smiles on the siblings’ faces.

“Um, what have you two been up to recently?” he asked, terrified to hear their answer.

“I have littered the forest with traps to greet our enemy. By now, iron will surely be piercing their bodies from every direction. They will enter the afterlife without ever knowing what caused their deaths,” Silas said, cackling with manic glee.

Luna copied her brother’s deranged laugh, causing goosebumps to form on Noah’s arms. “And I coated the iron with a poison that will catch fire upon coming in contact with fae blood.”

Holy shit, what kind of monsters had he created? With a shake of his head, he purged the knowledge from his mind. He didn’t have time to handle this, and more importantly, no one could place the blame on him. Without having seen a single Unseelie, he was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He needed to convince the siblings to seek safety so that he could focus on his own battles.

A lightbulb went off in his head, and he kneeled in front of the insane brother and sister. “In case the Guardian and the rest of the adults fall, it will be up to you two to save the lifeblood of the pack. We must keep capable warriors in reserve to defend the helpless.”

Luna puffed her chest out with pride and beat her fist upon her shoulder. “Master, I will guard the helpless wolves with my life. If the Prince himself walks through that door, I will run out to meet him in glorious battle.”

Noah almost had a panic attack as he pictured the young girl running headfirst toward an Unseelie Prince. Were the siblings always this nuts, or did his influence somehow transform the children into little demons?

“I expect nothing less of my apprentice. Now heed my orders and join the other wolves gathering for safety. They may require your might before the night is through.”

Luna cheered out like the little pup she was and pranced over to the other wolves, humming a joyful tune. One down and one to go, Noah thought, returning his focus to Silas, who stood firmly with no signs of following his orders.

“Silas, please do this for me. I do not doubt your prowess, only the necessity of deploying children to war.”

Noah spied no fear on the teenager’s face as Silas shook his head stubbornly. “I am not a human child. We are born with violence and war flowing through our veins, and I will stand with the other wolves to eradicate our enemies.”

“You are not a human child, but you are my family!” Noah snapped at the stubborn teenager.

Silas’ eyes fell to the floor at the rebuke, but still, the boy refused to back down. Noah felt guilty, but he had to keep this teenager far from the battle, even if it meant poking at deep insecurities. “You would allow Luna to be unguarded?”

Silas stiffened at his words, and his narrowed eyes shot up to glare at Noah. It was a low blow, but Noah would do whatever it took to keep the siblings safe.

“You once told me that Luna’s protection came above all else for you. Calla and I will protect the pack, and you will guard your sister. Do we have a deal, Silas?”

Silas gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, but he nodded slightly. With a sigh, Noah put a hand on the teenager’s shoulder, frowning at how rigid Silas’ tension-filled body was. What kind of world forced children to carry such heavy burdens on their shoulders?

“Silas, I have noticed and will remember your bravery. You are not hiding from danger but serving as the pack’s last line of defense,” he whispered, patting his brother’s shoulder and smiling when he felt Silas’ body release the taunt tension.

Without a word, Silas headed toward the roots of the lodge but paused after a few steps. “Take care, Noah. I don’t wish to see the day you are bested in battle. Otherwise, Luna’s illusion of her master’s immortality would crumble. She’d be a heartbroken menace if she learned she had followed the teachings of an ordinary human.”

Noah released an arrogant chuckle and pounded his chest with his fist. “Before the night is through, you will see why the gods fear me and the devils worship me.”

With a loving smile on his face, he watched Silas join Luna and the other civilian wolves in the back of the lodge. An electric shock coursed through his body, freezing him and causing his eyes to bulge.

“Wait! Wasn’t that the same speech Sylvie used to convince me? Was I duped by my mate?” he whispered, thinking back on his and Sylvie’s emotional goodbye before gritting his teeth as realization washed over him. He felt a flush of embarrassment crawl across his neck and face as he was forced to acknowledge that he had fallen for his mate’s scheme so easily. She actually convinced him that he was performing some great and honorable duty, but in reality, he was safe in the lodge with the other weak wolves.

Damn, that crafty mate of his! He whacked his cane against the ground in annoyance, but it was too late to change his role in this battle. With a snort, he returned his attention to Calla and the six wolves standing before her, who, despite lacking the strength to become warriors, volunteered their lives to protect their loved ones.

“The Alpha has left as many warrior wolves as she could spare to patrol around the lodge. We will stay inside so they don’t have to worry about our safety. If they fall, it will be up to us to engage the enemy. Make peace with your lives, and prepare for battle in whatever way you see fit,” Calla said, staring each of the volunteers in the eyes before whacking her wooden cane against the floor in dismissal.

With a determined nod, the volunteer warriors walked off to prepare themselves, splitting up and conducting their pre-battle rituals. Some shifted into wolf form, inspecting their gleaming claws for chips and examining the sharpness of their fangs with a swipe of their tongue. Others meditated in human form, preparing their minds for the impending battle.

“Guardian,” Noah greeted, tipping his hat and walking up beside Calla.

“Are you ready, human?” Calla whispered, glancing at him out of the corner of her functioning eye.

He nodded and released a demented chuckle. “Let them come. They will not find the easy prey they are expecting here.”

Calla threw her head back with a laugh, her wispy grey hair twirling through the air. “Spoken like a true wolf. I look forward to sharing the battlefield with a human for the first time. Show me how your race has survived all of this time!”

“It will be my honor, Guardian. Even in your old age, you may still learn a thing or two from this human,” he said with a wink.

Howls broke out in the distance from different directions, and Calla cocked her head to listen. “The enemy has encircled us and is slowly tightening the noose. We do not have the numbers to defend such a large perimeter.”

She turned toward him with a frightening grin and a glare filled with promised violence. “Our warriors cannot intercept all of them. They will come.”

“And we will greet them,” he said with his own unhinged smile.