Chapter Sixteen: The Crown and the Thorn
Morning broke over Blackridge in silence.
Not the tense quiet of danger, but something heavier—expectation. Rina stood on the high ridge above the pack grounds, the Alpha's cloak draped across her shoulders. It was Kael's at first… until last night.
Now, it was hers too.
The bond pulsed warmly between them, but it wasn't love that filled her chest this morning — it was duty.
Kael approached from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You didn't sleep."
"I didn't try," she admitted.
"You're not alone anymore," he said softly. "You never were."
She turned in his arms. "They look at me differently now."
"Because you're different."
"I'm afraid of what comes next."
Kael leaned down, brushing his lips against her forehead. "You should be. Power isn't safe. But you're strong enough to wield it—and I'll be here, always."
Later that day, Rina walked through the village with Kael at her side. Wolves nodded. Children bowed. Warriors offered brief, respectful glances.
But not all were welcoming.
Near the old meeting stones, a she-wolf named Lyra—Kael's former second—stood stiffly, arms crossed.
"She wasn't born of the pack," Lyra muttered to another elder. "How long before the Alpha bond tears her apart?"
Rina met Lyra's stare and didn't flinch. "I wasn't born here. But I bled for this place. I chose it. And I'll protect it as fiercely as any born wolf ever did."
Kael's voice followed, steel beneath velvet. "Anyone who questions her—questions me."
The challenge in his tone was clear. No one replied.
But that night, as Rina stood at the window of their den, a single black feather lay on the sill — a sign from the old world. A message.
She picked it up.
Kael stepped beside her, frowning. "What is it?"
Rina turned it in her hand, her skin prickling.
"A warning," she whispered. "Someone's watching. And they don't want me here."