KADE'S POV
The application hit my desk with enough force to scatter the others.
"This one's trouble," Garrett said, pointing at the name. "Silver Moonborn. Rogue fighter from the Blood Pit. Undefeated in five years."
I didn't look up from the stack of trial applications. "And?"
"And she's female." My Beta crossed his arms. "The Blood Pit doesn't go easy on women. If she's survived there this long, she's either incredibly skilled or incredibly dangerous."
"Good." I signed another approval without reading it. "The trials are supposed to be challenging. Accept her application."
Garrett was silent for a moment. Then: "You haven't even looked at her file."
"I don't need to." I finally met his eyes. "The Lunar Trials are open to any wolf strong enough to compete. Gender doesn't matter. Strength does."
"The pack elders won't like it. They're already nervous about—"
The office door slammed open.
Selene Nightshade swept in like she owned the place, her dark hair perfectly styled, her expression furious. "We need to talk. Now."
I didn't stand. Didn't acknowledge her dramatic entrance. "I'm busy, Selene."
"Too busy for your future Luna?" Her voice dripped with false sweetness.
Garrett cleared his throat. "I'll just... wait outside."
"Stay," I ordered. To Selene: "You're not my future anything. How many times do we need to have this conversation?"
Her perfect mask cracked. "The pack expects an announcement during the trials! My family has been patient for years, Kade. You can't keep putting this off."
"Watch me." I returned to the applications, dismissing her.
Big mistake.
Selene's hand slammed down on my desk, scattering papers everywhere. "I have given you everything! I've waited, I've supported you, I've stood by your side through every challenge—"
"I never asked you to do any of that." I stood slowly, letting my Alpha presence fill the room. Most wolves would have backed down.
Selene wasn't most wolves.
"Every Alpha needs a Luna," she hissed. "The pack elders are losing patience. If you don't choose someone soon, they'll choose for you."
"Let them try." My wolf, Shadow, snarled inside my head. He hated being cornered. Hated being told what to do.
We had that in common.
"This is ridiculous!" Selene's composure shattered completely. "What are you waiting for? Some fairy tale mate bond that probably doesn't even exist? Grow up, Kade. This is politics, not romance."
Something dark and cold settled in my chest. "Get out."
"Excuse me?"
"I said get out of my office." I moved around the desk, and she actually took a step back. "You want to know why I'll never take you as my Luna? Because you see this—" I gestured between us, "—as a business transaction. A political move. And I've had enough of those to last a lifetime."
Her eyes narrowed. "You think you're too good for me? You, the Alpha who—"
"Careful." The word came out as a growl. "Think very carefully about what you say next."
She went pale but held her ground. "The pack deserves better than an Alpha who refuses to move forward. Who refuses to let go of the past."
The past.
Blood on stone floors. A silver-haired Alpha on his knees, begging. The Council's orders ringing in my ears: Execute him. Execute them all.
I pushed the memory down viciously. "Leave. Now. Before I have security remove you."
Selene's jaw clenched. For a moment, I thought she'd push further. Then she spun on her heel and stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to crack the frame.
Silence filled the office.
Garrett let out a low whistle. "That went well."
"Shut up." I collapsed back into my chair, suddenly exhausted.
"She's not wrong though." Garrett picked up the scattered applications. "The elders are getting pushy. They cornered me yesterday, asking when you'd announce a Luna."
"I don't have time for this." I rubbed my temples where a headache was forming. "The trials start in three days. Security needs to be tripled. We're expecting wolves from twelve different territories—"
"Kade." Garrett's voice was gentle. "You can't avoid this forever."
"I'm not avoiding anything. I'm prioritizing pack safety over pack gossip."
"It's not gossip when it affects pack stability." He sat across from me. "You've been Alpha for seven years. In that time, you've built this pack into the strongest in the territories. But tradition matters. The elders expect—"
"I don't care what they expect." The words came out harsher than I intended. "I won't take a mate just to satisfy politics."
"Then what will you do?"
Good question.
I stared at the applications scattered across my desk. Hundreds of wolves competing for a chance to join my pack. To prove their strength. To earn their place.
Not one of them knew what it really cost to stand where I stood.
"I'll do what I always do," I said finally. "Lead. Protect. Survive."
Garrett's expression softened with something that looked like pity. "That's not living, Kade. That's just... existing."
Before I could respond, my wolf Shadow surged forward in my mind. Not aggressive—alert.
Something felt wrong.
I stood abruptly, moving to the window. The fortress grounds spread below, peaceful under the afternoon sun. Nothing out of place.
So why did every instinct scream danger?
"Kade?" Garrett was beside me. "What is it?"
"I don't know." I scanned the grounds again. "Shadow's restless."
"Your wolf's been restless for five years."
True. Ever since that night—the Silverpaw massacre—Shadow had been barely controlled violence waiting to explode. The guilt and rage had merged into something dark and hungry inside me.
But this felt different.
This felt like anticipation.
"Just... increase security for the trials," I said. "Triple guard rotations. I want every competitor vetted thoroughly."
Garrett nodded and left without argument. He knew better than to question my instincts.
Alone, I returned to my desk and picked up the application that had started this whole conversation.
Silver Moonborn. Rogue. Blood Pit champion.
No pack history. No family ties. Just five years of brutal victories in underground fight rings.
Something about it nagged at me, but I couldn't place what.
I signed the approval and added it to the accepted pile.
That night, I stood on the fortress ramparts under the full moon.
Sleep was impossible. It had been for five years.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same thing: silver-blonde hair catching moonlight. Violet eyes wide with terror. A little girl watching from the shadows as I destroyed her entire world.
Aria Silverpaw.
I'd looked for her after. Sent wolves to search the ruins. Found nothing but ash and bodies.
Everyone assumed she'd died in the fires.
Everyone except me.
Sometimes, in my darkest moments, I hoped she had died. Because the alternative—that she'd survived, that she remembered, that she hated me—was worse than any nightmare.
You deserve her hatred, Shadow growled in my mind. You deserve worse.
"I know," I said aloud to the empty night.
The Council had given me no choice. Execute Alpha Marcus Silverpaw for treason, or watch my own pack burn. The evidence was irrefutable. The orders were clear.
I'd done my duty.
And it had turned me into the monster everyone feared.
Shadow paced restlessly inside my head. He'd been like this for days—agitated, on edge, like a predator sensing incoming danger.
Something's coming, he growled.
"There's always something coming." I gripped the stone railing. "Threats. Challenges. Enemies. That's what it means to be Alpha."
No. This is different. This is—
He cut off abruptly, his attention snapping toward the forest beyond our territory.
I followed his gaze but saw nothing except darkness and trees.
"What is it?" I demanded.
Shadow didn't answer. He just retreated deep into my mind, coiled like a spring ready to explode.
I stood there for another hour, searching the darkness for whatever had spooked my wolf.
Found nothing.
Eventually, exhaustion drove me inside. But sleep didn't come. Instead, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, my mind churning.
The trials would begin soon. Hundreds of wolves would flood into my territory. Politics, alliances, power struggles—all the things I'd mastered over seven years as Alpha.
So why did I feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff?
Why did every instinct scream that something fundamental was about to change?
I closed my eyes and tried to force sleep.
Instead, I dreamed.
Not my usual nightmare. Something new.
A silver wolf running through moonlight. Small, fast, lethal. She moved like water, like death, like—
She turned, and I saw her eyes.
Violet. Burning with hatred and something else. Something that made my wolf howl.
The silver wolf lunged, teeth bared, aiming for my throat.
And I let her.
I woke with a gasp, my heart slamming against my ribs.
Shadow was going crazy inside my head, torn between aggression and something I'd never felt from him before.
Recognition.
"It was just a dream," I said to the empty room.
But it didn't feel like a dream.
It felt like a warning.
Three days until the trials began.
Three days until hundreds of wolves entered my territory.
And somewhere in that crowd would be a rogue fighter named Silver Moonborn—undefeated, dangerous, with no history and nothing to lose.
I pulled out her application again, studying it in the pre-dawn light.
Something was wrong with it. Something I couldn't quite place.
Shadow snarled: She's coming for us.
"Who?"
Death, my wolf said simply. Our death. And we're going to let her in.
I should have rejected the application right then. Should have trusted my instincts.
Instead, I put it back in the accepted pile and went to prepare for the trials.
Because deep down, in a place I refused to acknowledge, I knew the truth:
Whatever was coming for me—whoever was coming for me—I deserved it.
And I wouldn't run from what I deserved.
Even if it killed me.