One Week Later
Noah looked around the sibling’s treehouse, where he had hidden from Sylvie for the past week. Through a heavy diet of fae medicine, his broken body had finally healed enough to handle the strains of travel. In the silence of night, he threw his travel sack over his shoulder and gazed at the siblings slumbering away in their beds.
He walked over to Silas’ bed and gazed at the snoring teenager. Brushing his dirty blonde hair away from his forehead, he leaned down to kiss his brow. After studying his brother for a few moments, he moved on to his apprentice. She slept in her wolf form, and he smiled as she whined and kicked her legs into the air as if she were prancing around in her dream. He scratched her gently behind her ear, causing her leg to kick uncontrollably.
“Goodbye, my apprentice,” he whispered as his tears dampened her fur. “If I ever have a daughter, I hope and pray that she turns out like you.”
He pulled away from the daughter he never had and walked over to the table where his lonely cane and cowboy hat waited in isolation. After placing the hat on his head and gripping his cane tightly, he glanced at the siblings one last time before heading out the door. He scrambled down the swaying ladders of death until he reached the forest floor.
With the full moon shining down and illuminating his path, he stumbled his way over entangling roots and barricading bushes until he came to the meadow. No longer could he enjoy the beauty of the purple flowers basking in the moonlight, as only a desert of ash greeted his sight. Fae globes spotlighted the lodge like a beacon, but the illuminating lights didn’t beckon him to safety anymore; in fact, they never had. In front of the lodge, a wooden statue of Calla and the two volunteer wolves stood vigilantly, ready to guard the pack for eternity.
With a sigh, he turned away from his oasis of peace and revelry and jogged through the forest to a cabin he had never visited before. The cozy cabin sat between two trees, and its chimney billowed thick smoke into the air, blanketing the night sky and veiling the stars. Tapping his cane on the ground to announce his presence, he approached the cabin door and knocked against the sturdy wood a few times with his knuckles. Before he could knock for a third time, the door swung open to reveal a furious Isla.
Barely reaching his chest, the tattoo-covered packmate crossed her arms and tapped her foot against the wooden floor. When he saw the pure rage behind her eyes, he slowly retreated a few steps.
“You’re leaving?” Isla asked, noticing the travel sack slung over his shoulder.
He nodded with a grimace, shame forcing his eyes to the ground. “I wanted to check on Keziah before I left.”
“You are making a mistake, Noah,” Isla said, her anger transforming into sadness.
“How is she?” he asked, ignoring her warning.
“See for yourself, wish granter,” Isla said, flinging open the door and standing aside.
Noah entered the cabin, removing his hat and glancing toward the bed in the middle of the room. Shadows danced across the cabin as the flickering flames in the hearth brightened the dark space and illuminated an unmoving bulge hidden beneath the covers on the mattress. After glancing at Isla, who nodded encouragingly, he approached the bed, his throat tightening as he saw the results of his tinkering.
Bandages covered Keziah’s body, and hideous scars disfigured her skin where the blond ponytail should have been. Scar tissue covered one side of her face, and the angry red skin hissed at the culprit behind its pain. Tears fell down his face as he lightly touched her shoulder, unsure where he could grab her without causing her pain.
Unlike Rowan, her regenerative powers would heal the wounds, but she would be in excruciating pain for months, and it would take years to replace the deforming scars with healthy skin. Just as he was about to be sick from the sight, Keziah’s eyes opened, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
“She can hear you, but her throat is still too damaged from the smoke to speak,” Isla whispered from behind him.
With a gentle smile, he said, “The wolves you saved have been singing the glory of your battle across the territory, Keziah. With your courage and skill, you have birthed a new breed of warrior amongst the pack.”
Keziah didn’t answer and just stared at him out of the corner of her eye. His smile slowly fell from his face, and he decided to ask the question that dominated his thoughts and haunted his dreams. Her answer could break him, but he needed to know.
“Was it worth it, Keziah?” he asked in a whisper, staring her in the eye.
She gazed at him for a long moment before her lips twitched into a delicate smile, and her head nodded ever so slightly. He choked out a tear-filled chuckle and wiped the snot dripping from his nose.
“That’s right! True dreams are worth any price,” he said, gently patting her shoulder.
“Is that why you are running from yours? You risk nothing for your dream, not even your heart,” Isla said from behind him.
A frown dipped his lips, and the constant pain in his chest ached at her words. Walking to the door, he removed his hat, bowing deeply to the mates. “We will meet again one day, my friends. This is not a goodbye but a see you later. I expect the entire pack to be tattooed upon my return, Isla. And Keziah, I expect you to fortify the forest to such a degree that even the gods and devils couldn’t invade our territory.”
He returned the hat to his head and left through the door before additional words could make him hesitate any further. As he walked toward the territory entrance, the giant trees filtered the moonlight through their barren limbs, creating a checkered pattern of shadows across the ground.
Continuing his stroll, the forest transformed from its browns and greens to the charred blackness of death. His feet kicked through the soft ash that still littered the ground and clogged the streams. He knew that if he turned left or right, he would eventually reach the sites of the major battles. By now, the pack had removed the fallen wolves from the forest floor, but the Unseelie corpses rotted in a tomb of ash. Even with the innate magic of the wolves speeding the recovery process, the scars from the battles would take the forest generations to heal.
The pack’s losses surpassed those of the forest, as over one hundred warrior wolves were slain in the battle, and dozens more were permanently crippled. The battle erased half of the pack’s power, leaving it vulnerable to the greed of other territories. He continued through the forest of death for a few hours until he finally reached the territory entrance.
The massive fae globes in the carved eyes of the trees flickered as if the enchantment was finally running out of magic. No guards blocked his way, and nothing but the open road called out to him. Adjusting his travel sack over his shoulder, he took a deep breath and approached the last of the trees.
“You would leave without a word, my mate?” Sylvie asked as she stepped out from behind the last tree.
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They stared at each other without speaking for a few moments. Her long raven hair fluttered in the soft breeze, and her glowing silver eyes threatened to rob him of his convictions. Her bronze skin was bathed in moonlight, creating a painting of mythical beauty.
“Who do you refer to, Sylvie? Me? Or Alder?” he asked with a twirl of his cane.
His words made her wince, but she held his gaze with imploring eyes. “In every way that matters, you are my mate, Noah.”
She pulled down her shirt until she revealed her bare shoulder. A tattoo of a cowboy hat with a cane lying across the bill shimmered in the moonlight. “Noah, we revere the mating mark above all else. Nature may not have chosen you to be my mate, but I did!”
She released her shirt, and it sprung up to cover her shoulder once more. “Why must nature choose our mates? Look at the evil and twisted pairing it chose for Wren and the Prince. We found love in the same way humans find their soul mates. Why must we consider our mating to be less than?”
“My mate—”
He slammed his cane into a tree with a loud whack. “Stop calling me that! I am not your mate. I have never been your mate. From the second we met, you have deceived me with a lie,” he shouted as tears blurred his vision.
Sylvie fell silent as he vented his anger, continuing to gaze at him with heartbroken eyes. “You are correct, Noah. We met because of a lie, but we also fell in love because of that lie. You are right to be angry with me, and I am sorry for hurting you. But this is your home, and no matter what happens between us, you belong here.”
“And the worst part is that I want to jump at those soothing words. They lure my heart like a siren’s song, and I can’t resist their alluring calls,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly before his voice dropped to a whisper. “I can’t give you children, Sylvie.”
His heart clenched as he said the words that he had refused to voice aloud for the past week. “You are the Alpha, Sylvie. If you stay with me, you will never have an heir.”
“So, what? An heir didn’t allow me to enjoy my life for the first time in decades—you did that,” Sylvie said with a growl.
He walked up to her, and her eyes widened with hopeful excitement, but he walked past her, pausing after a few steps. With their backs to one another, he whispered, “You need space to make this decision, Sylvie, and I must rescue the forgotten souls of my past. Once the pack is settled, truly consider your options, and if you decide I am your true mate, come and find me. I will always be waiting for you.”
Reaching behind herself to grab at the sleeve of his trench coat, she whispered, “Stay, Noah. That’s all I ask of you.”
“I can’t,” he said, walking away from everything he had ever dreamed of without a backward glance. The fae globes in the wolf symbol flickered once more before turning dark and casting the forest into a desolate blackness.
He continued walking down the road as the rising sun brightened the horizon. A rustling bush caught his attention, and he jumped backward, raising his cane at the threat. As the bush continued to rattle, he pressed the hidden button on the handle and released the iron blade from the tip. His heart pounded with fear, and his eyes widened as a figure emerged from the bush.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation. Silas stood in front of him with a travel sack swung over his shoulder.
Noah sighed in relief and compressed the blade back into his cane. “What are you doing here, Silas?”
“I am coming with you, Noah,” Silas said with complete confidence.
“No, you aren’t coming with me, Silas. Where I go, you cannot follow.”
Silas dropped his sack onto the ground in a cloud of dust and crossed his arms in teenage stubbornness. “I am coming, Noah, whether or not you allow me to.”
Noah couldn’t stop a wolf from following him, and Silas knew it. “What are you doing, Silas? Who will protect Luna if you come with me? You are all she has in this world.”
Silas shook his head sadly and gazed at him with accusing eyes. “She had you too, Noah.”
“Why are you here, Silas?” Noah shouted as the teenager’s words sent a throb of pain through his chest.
“After training nonstop for months in a new form of fighting, I still couldn’t defeat Wren on my own. If I want to protect Luna, I must become much stronger. I can only do that if I leave the pack and gain experience.”
Images of Silas’ bloodlust during the battle flashed through Noah’s mind, and he looked at the young teenager sadly. “You walk a dangerous path, Silas. One day, you will come to a fork in that path. In one direction, you will become a hero amongst the wolves whose name will be spoken of in legends. Take a slight detour, and you will become a tyrant that the entire world will curse the name of for centuries.”
Silas narrowed his eyes as Noah predicted his grim future. “That is why I need to come with you, Noah. I need your guidance to make sure I don’t stray.”
Left alone, Silas would become another Ajax, but if he remained by Noah’s side, they might be able to avoid such a dark fate. “Very well, Silas. You can accompany me on my journey. Our first stop will be the dark caverns of my homeland. My reunion with Master Augustus is well overdue.”
Silas smiled and picked up his dust-covered travel sack, throwing it over his shoulder. Their boots pounded against the dirt road, taking their first steps into the unknown.
I am coming, Negative 3. Await the wrath I will bring upon your tormenters.
Augustus Coven
Augustus, Coven Master, and Progenitor, sat upon his throne in the dark caverns. His glowing red eyes cast his face in a menacing light, and his wide smile displayed his long canines that looked to be soaked in blood.
“I told you, my pitiful slave. You weren’t free, just prolonging your escape attempt,” he whispered in delight, his voice reverberating off the cavern walls.
As if a foolish child could wander through the Wilds for months unscathed. He had found his fleeing slave within a day after his “escape.” For months, he had followed the boy, protecting him from the shadows against unseen threats: rogue shifters seeking to feast upon his flesh, murderous bands of humans seeking to satisfy their lust, and starving fae seeking to consume the boy’s very soul.
Each night, he had gazed upon his slumbering slave, brushing his claws against the stubble of his hair and scraping his fangs against the veins in his neck. But each night, his healing eyes had throbbed in pain, and rage would course through him. How long had it been since he felt anything in his monotonous existence? He couldn’t kill the first bit of excitement he had experienced in centuries. Instead, he had decided to feed the boy his blood, just a few drops each night.
As he pricked his skin, preparing to drip the last bit of blood into the slave’s mouth, he had hesitated. One more drop and the boy truly would have become his slave, transforming him into a thrall. As he had watched the cut on his finger close, he decided he couldn’t bear to transform something that made him feel alive into a mindless slave. Where was the fun in that?
Instead, he had leaned down and kissed the boy on the brow, promising him that one day, he would return home on his own. Although the transformation to thrall was disrupted, he still had formed a blood connection with the boy.
He couldn’t influence the boy’s mind as he pleased, but he could meddle here and there. A flitting stray thought? He could freeze it and force the boy to obsess over its existence. He could not make the boy dream, but he could add certain embellishments to those he had already conjured. He could not warp the boy’s personality, but he could impress upon him an affinity for canes and white ruffled shirts.
His pathetic slave had tortured himself with his shame and guilt, and for a decade-plus, Master Augustus had never tired, never ceased, and never bored as he attempted to assist the boy on his path to madness. All of that work and dedication had been on the brink of ruin because of that loathsome wolf pack. He had slowly felt the link to his slave severing, and in a desperate attempt to free the boy, he twisted his nightmares constantly until his slave finally escaped their evil grasp.
Just as he and his fledgling Julius were about to capture the boy, two pups interrupted their long-awaited reunion. With the howls of the entire pack on their heels, Master Augustus, in a fit of rage, had granted Julius permission to kill his disloyal slave.
And once again, the boy had proven that he had made the correct decision in letting him live. A weak human killed Julius with nothing more than a cane! With his determination renewed, he returned to the darkness of the caverns, pondering how he could use his blood connection to save his son from the wolves. But then, the link was severed when that evil alpha placed her mating mark upon his son’s skin!
Out of options and with no way to influence his slave, he sent Laelia with the female thrall to tempt the boy to leave those enchanted woods. All to no avail. And then, that glorious female alpha had done more harm with her betrayal than he had in ten years of nonstop meddling. And now, his slave believed himself to be on a journey of liberation, but in reality, he was willingly returning to his master’s side. His prodigal slave was returning home!