The weight of the Alpha was like a house falling on me.
His fur was coarse, smelling of wet earth and old blood, and his growl vibrated right through my ribcage. My claws were buried in his thick neck, but it felt like trying to scratch through a tire. I was pinned, my breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps as the silver-eyed giant loomed over me. This was it. The moment where the "Moon's Choice" ended in a messy heap at the bottom of a dark alley.
But then, the heat in my veins—the fire Kael had sparked—surged.
I didn't think. I didn't plan. I just lashed out. I kicked upward with a strength that shouldn't have been mine, my boots (now shredded by my growing claws) catching him in the chest. It didn't knock him off, but it created an inch of space. An inch was all I needed. I snarled—a sound that was more beast than librarian—and snapped my teeth just inches from his throat.
The Alpha froze.
The alley went deathly quiet. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. The other four wolves stopped their circling, their ears pricked, tails low. I could feel the Alpha's hot breath on my face, his golden-silver eyes boring into mine, searching for the girl I used to be. I didn't blink. I didn't back down. I stared back, my vision pulsing with that new, predatory light.
Slowly, the weight lifted.
The Alpha stepped back, his massive form shifting and shrinking. The sound of bones cracking and skin stretching was nauseating, but I couldn't look away. Within seconds, the wolf was gone. In his place stood a man in his late forties, built like a brick wall with salt-and-pepper hair and a scar that ran from his temple to his jaw. He didn't look like a monster; he looked like a general.
"She has teeth," the man said, his voice a gravelly rumble. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Kael.
Kael stepped out of the shadows, his expression as cool and indifferent as ever, though I noticed his hand was resting on the hilt of a wicked-looking blade at his belt. "I told you, Marcus. The moon doesn't waste its time on the weak."
Marcus, the Alpha, finally turned his gaze back to me. I was still on the ground, my chest heaving, my hands still tipped with those terrifying black claws. I felt exposed, feral, and completely out of my depth.
"She's a stray," Marcus spat, though the venom wasn't directed at me. "A human turned by a fluke of the lunar cycle. The Council won't like this, Kael. You know the law. Created wolves are unstable. They're liabilities."
"She survived your initiation," Kael countered, stepping closer to me. The heat radiating off him was like a physical shield. "That makes her a member of the Pack. By law."
Marcus narrowed his eyes. "Barely. She's a half-baked cub who doesn't even know how to shift back yet. Look at her."
I looked down at my hands. He was right. My skin was flushed, my nails were still talons, and I could feel a strange, heavy pressure behind my eyes. I tried to pull the claws back—to think about my apartment, my library books, anything normal—but they wouldn't budge. Panic started to leak back in. What if I'm stuck like this?
"I can't go back like this," I whispered, my voice sounding raw. "I have... I have a life. I have to go to work tomorrow."
The absurdity of the sentence hit me as soon as it left my mouth. Marcus laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "Work? Girl, your old life died the second you walked into this alley. You don't have a job anymore. You have a Pack. Or a grave. Those are your options."
Kael reached down, his fingers wrapping around my wrist. His grip was firm, almost bruising, but the spark that shot through me was enough to ground the rising panic. "She comes with me," Kael said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I'll stabilize her. If she's still a 'liability' by the full moon, you can do whatever you want with her."
Marcus grunted, signaling the other wolves to shift back. As they turned into a group of hard-faced men and women, I realized I was the only one still half-monster. The shame of it felt like a cold drench of water.
"Fine," Marcus said, turning away. "But her blood is on your hands, Executioner. If she loses control and kills a civilian, I'm not the one the Council will send to the gallows."
With a final, warning glance at me, the Alpha and his followers vanished into the shadows of the industrial district as quickly as they had arrived.
I was left alone in the snow with Kael. The silence was deafening.
"Can you stand?" he asked.
"I... I think so." I tried to push myself up, but my legs felt like jelly. Before I could faceplant into the slush, Kael's arm was around my waist, hoisting me up.
Being that close to him was overwhelming. He smelled like cedarwood and something metallic, and the sheer power in his frame made me feel tiny. My heart, which had just started to slow down, spiked again—but not from fear this time. It was that dark, magnetic pull. My instincts were screaming at me to lean into him, to let him take the weight.
"Focus, Elara," he murmured, his breath hot against my ear. "The shift is a choice. You are holding onto the wolf because you are afraid to be human again. You think the human is weak."
"I am weak," I choked out. "I can't even pay my rent. I'm just a witness to a murder who got caught in something I don't understand."
Kael pulled me back, forcing me to look him in the eye. Those molten silver depths were mesmerizing. "The human who lived in that apartment was weak," he agreed, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "But the woman who just bit an Alpha? She isn't. Find her. Tell the wolf to sleep."
I closed my eyes, trying to find that spark of fire inside me. I pictured the beast in the alley, the way it felt to lunge, the way it felt to survive. I told it to rest. I told it I was safe.
Slowly, the agonizing ache in my joints began to recede. I felt my nails retract, the skin of my hands returning to their normal, soft state. The silver haze in my vision cleared, leaving me in the dim, muddy light of the alley. I was exhausted, shivering, and covered in blood that wasn't mine.
"Better," Kael said, though he didn't let go of my waist.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked, looking up at him. "You said I'm coming with you."
Kael's gaze darkened, his thumb tracing a slow, accidental line along my hip. The touch was electric, making my breath hitch. "You're a target now, Elara. The 'created' don't just happen. Someone triggered your awakening. Until I find out who, you stay in my sight."
"And if I don't want to?"
A ghost of a smile touched his lips—sharp and predatory. "Then you can try your luck with the hunters who are probably already tracking your scent. But I wouldn't recommend it."
He started to lead me out of the alley, toward a sleek, black car idling at the curb. As he opened the door for me, I looked back at the shadows one last time. My apartment was only a few miles away, but it felt like it was on another planet.
"Kael?" I asked as I slid into the leather seat.
"Yes?"
"Who was the man in the alley? The one who was... executed?"
Kael paused, his hand on the doorframe. The moonlight caught the hard line of his jaw. "A traitor," he said coldly. "And if you want to survive the Pack, you'll learn that the only thing worse than an enemy is someone who breaks their oath."
He slammed the door, leaving me in the dark of the car. I was safe for now, but as we peeled away into the night, I couldn't shake the feeling that I hadn't just joined a pack.
I had joined a war.