Chapter 2

The wind howling through the Cascade Mountains carried the bitter scent of pine and impending violence.

I stepped out of my Jeep, my combat boots sinking into the wet earth of the neutral training ground. I didn’t want to be here. But Elder Marcus’s ultimatum left me exactly two choices: show up to this mandated meeting, or let the Council drag me back to Bloodmoon in silver chains before I was ready to burn it down.

Kael stood in the center of the muddy fighting ring.

Three years had packed more muscle onto his massive frame. He looked stronger, lethal. But the moment he lifted his head, I saw the rot beneath the Alpha exterior. His golden eyes were bloodshot and erratic. The dark circles under his eyes bruised his pale skin. He reeked of exhaustion and a desperate, unhinged madness.

The heavy guilt of a failing mate bond was eating his wolf alive. Good.

I marched straight toward him, my claws grazing my thighs.

"You came," Kael rasped. His voice cracked, rough and pathetic.

"I was given a deadline," I snapped, stopping ten feet away. "Say what you want to say and get out of my sight."

He took a step forward, his hands trembling. He rolled up the sleeves of his expensive black sweater. My eyes locked onto his forearms. The skin was ruined. Jagged, pink and silver scars crisscrossed over his veins. Thick, brutal lines of self-mutilation.

"I know I did the unforgivable," Kael choked out, his chest heaving. "But I need you, Elara. Without you, my wolf is going feral. I’m losing my mind."

He held his scarred arms out like an offering. "Look at me. I punish myself every single night. I let my wolf tear at my own flesh. The pain is agonizing, but it’s nothing compared to the guilt of losing Liam. I am paying for it, Elara. Please."

A sharp, violent laugh ripped from my throat.

"You think that makes us even?" I yelled, closing the distance between us. "You think scratching your own arms buys you forgiveness? My brother didn't get the luxury of self-harm! He was ripped apart while he was still breathing!"

Kael flinched as if I had backhanded him. "I didn't know it would end like that! I pulled the border guards to keep Selene safe in the city limits. I didn't know the rogues were going to swarm the outer perimeter!"

My vision tinted red. My fangs dropped, slicing into my bottom lip.

"You didn't know?" I hissed, my voice vibrating with raw fury. "You didn't know because you deliberately blocked the Pack mind-link! My brother screamed for backup for two agonizing hours! You silenced the communication network so you could fuck Selene without interruptions!"

All the color drained from Kael’s face. He staggered back, his boots slipping in the mud. "No... no. I thought it was just a routine patrol dispute. I thought Liam was just checking a scent line..."

"A routine patrol." I reached into my tactical jacket and pulled out a heavy black recorder. "Listen to your routine patrol, Alpha."

I slammed my thumb onto the play button and cranked the volume.

Static hissed through the damp mountain air. Then, the horrific, chaotic sounds of slaughter.

Growls. Snarling. The wet tearing of flesh.

Then came Liam’s voice. It wasn't a warrior's shout. It was the breathless, terrified scream of a boy knowing he was going to die.

"Elara... Kael, please! Where are the guards? I can't hold them! There are too many!"

Kael’s breath hitched. He stared at the recorder, his eyes wide with horror.

"Elara... tell Mom and Dad I love them... tell them..."

Through the speaker, a massive set of jaws clamped down. The sickening, wet crunch of Liam’s spine snapping echoed across the silent mountains. Then, nothing but the wet sounds of wild dogs eating their prey.

I hit stop. The silence that followed was deafening.

Kael collapsed. His knees hit the mud with a heavy thud. He buried his face in his scarred hands, a guttural howl of pure agony tearing from his lungs. It wasn't a human sound. It was the sound of an Alpha's soul fracturing.

Tires crunched violently on the gravel behind me.

Zoe, my mercenary combat partner, slammed her truck into park. She kicked her door open and stomped into the ring, her hand resting on the silver-loaded pistol at her hip. She took one look at Kael groveling in the dirt and sneered.

"This piece of shit actually showed his face," Zoe spat.

She marched up beside me, yanking a thick manila envelope from her tactical vest. "You want to talk about pain, Alpha Kael?"

Zoe ripped the envelope open and threw a stack of glossy photographs directly into Kael’s face. They scattered across the mud, right in front of his knees.

"I took those at the border line before your useless enforcers could clean up your mess," Zoe barked. "Look at them!"

Kael lowered his hands, his bloodshot eyes dropping to the mud.

The photos were high-resolution. They showed Liam’s body. Or what was left of it. He was severed into three distinct pieces. His chest cavity was ripped open, his ribs jutting out like broken branches. The mud around him was dyed a sickening, absolute black from the sheer volume of blood loss.

Kael stared at the photos. His pupils dilated. He leaned over and dry-heaved into the dirt, his body violently rejecting the reality in front of him.

"You did that," Zoe yelled over his retching. "Because of your selfishness, your arrogance, Liam died like a stray dog on the side of the road!"

I stepped forward, my boots crushing one of the photographs. I grabbed Kael by the collar of his expensive sweater and yanked him up, forcing him to look me in the eye.

"Now you feel it?" I whispered. My voice was deadly calm, masking the inferno inside me. "Now you know what real pain is? I was drowning in my brother's blood, begging for you, and you were keeping another woman warm."

Tears streamed down Kael’s face, mixing with the dirt. "Elara... please... I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Just come back. The bond... my wolf will die without you..."

"Let it die," I snarled, shoving him backward. He fell hard into the mud, sprawling over the photos of his own failure.

I stood tall, looking down at the broken Alpha who used to be my entire world.

"You want me back? Keep dreaming. Tell the Council to strip my werewolf status. Brand me a rogue. Cast me out. I don't care." I turned my back on him. "I will never belong to my brother's murderer."

"Elara, wait!" Kael screamed, his voice shattering.

I didn't stop. I walked straight to Zoe’s truck, my spine perfectly straight. I climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

"Drive," I told Zoe.

She threw the truck into reverse, the tires kicking up mud. As we sped away down the mountain road, I looked in the side mirror. Kael was still on his knees in the dirt, clutching my brother’s death to his chest, screaming into the empty wind.

My wolf howled inside my chest, but it wasn't crying. It was tasting the first drop of blood in a long, merciless war.