Chapter 4 The Place Nobody Owns

Elder Nova convinced the Duskveil pack to let me leave.

Even though I never truly belonged, it had been my home for twenty-two years after they took me in as an outsider. Everything I owned fit into a single cloth bundle. Two extra shirts, a broken comb, and a frayed blanket. Packing took only four minutes. Standing in the doorway of my hut, I didn't feel grief or fear, only embarrassment that I had so little to take.

A few steps away, the three Alphas were waiting. I tried to hide my belongings, but Alpha Echo simply took the bundle with a kind smile. They didn't say a word about how little I owned, and for that, I was incredibly grateful.

“We have to go now,” Alpha Thane said, it didn’t sound like a request.

“Which territory would you like to go, Selena?” Alpha Echo asked. I wasn’t expecting to be asked for a decision like that. I couldn’t answer.

“It’s best if we bring her to the Lodge, for now,” Alpha Ares suggested.

“No.” Both other Alphas answered at the same time.

Alpha Ares positioned himself closer to them and I saw his shoulders toughened. “L-Let’s go to the Lodge.” I don’t even know where that Lodge is. I just don’t’ want a fight.

No one said a word, but surprisingly, that settled it.

I didn't expect anyone from Duskveil to send us off, but Elder Nova stood at the territory's edge. I stepped aside to give the three Alphas space, but the stooped old woman approached me instead. I didn't even have the right to look her in the eye, yet she gently caught my arms. Her silent blessing was everything.

Taking one last glance back at my home, Alphas Thane, Echo, and Ares bordered me protectively. With them by my side, I knew I never had to look back again.

The Lodge sat at the very spot where their territory ends. It’s a piece of land no pack owns. Alpha Echo pushed the wooden door wide. He must’ve seen my amazement to see a place like that existed. “This place is built for talks,” he said. “Nobody’s pack. Nobody’s rules.” He glanced at me and winched. “Sorry. Bad word.”

It should have hurt, but it didn’t.

“Rest for now,” Alpha Thane insisted. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“Hey, Nightfang. We’re here too,” Alpha Echo smiled at me.

Alpha Ares didn’t say anything, but his stare was reassuring.

They placed me in a room at the end of the hall, with a real bed and a real door. When it clicks shut, the silence rushed in. And do does these emotions I feel at the same time. My hands shakes. My chest is full of heat and I don't know where to put any of it.

Instead of enjoying the soft bed in front of me, I sat on the floor, at the most corner of the room. I just can’t bring myself to take advantage of these things. I took the deepest breath that I could. It’s only been an hour since I was rejected and claimed by three Alphas. I haven’t wrapped my head around it.

Painful words kept coming back in my head. Questioning me. Mocking me. I’m starting to believe this is a mistake. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, crying, making sure I don’t make a sound.

“Stop apologizing.”

I held my breath. I haven’t got used to the voice speaking from inside me. It was her, from the ceremony, but clearer now. No longer a whisper, more like it was from the bottom of a well.

“Y-You can talk?” I barely asked.

“I’ve talked to you, you just couldn’t hear me.”

I wanted to ask more, but my mind rushed questions I couldn’t follow.

“No, that’s not it. I was buried.”

Maybe that was normal. A wolf can get buried and be able to talk. Maybe some are like me. I don’t want to be rude to her. I intentionally didn’t ask her. I don’t want her to disappear.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m Selena. W-What’s you name?”

“Ylva.” She paused. “You always apologize to everything. Stop.”

My mouth curved into something, but I’m sure that wasn’t a smile because tears came right after it. I held my knees and buried my face. Through it all, Ylva waited, warm and patient.

“I-I don’t know how to be anything else,” I whispered.

“Then we learn together,” she said. “Sleep for now.”

Sleeping felt impossible. My head kept repeating all happened today. Alpha Thane took up his position right outside my room. I could hear the floorboards creaking under his weight. After spending hours listening to his persistent presence, I gave up and opened the door.

Everyone else was asleep, it was around dawn, but he was still there.

He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, black shirt open at the collar, and his eyes dropped to my bare feet and climbed slowly all the way up. I felt every inch of it like a hand.

His distint scent washed over me a second later. The smell of rain and cedar and cold iron. Beneath it all, something darker and warmer. Something that belonged only to him. My mouth went dry.

Inside me, Ylva stirred with a low hum, urging me to get closer, but I ignored it.

“Y-You also have to rest, Alpha.” I took the courage to speak.

He was so close I could feel the heat coming off him, and I was suddenly, terribly aware that my borrowed nightshirt ended mid-thigh. He placed his coat over my shoulder. It was heavy and warm and smelled like him.

“Call me by my name.” He gently brushed a stray strand of hair behind my ear, but his hand lingered. His fingers trailed down the side of my neck, slow, barely touching, and stopped where my pulse pounded against his skin.

“Go to bed, Selena,” he said, his voice hasty. It wasn’t a request. It was the sound of a man exerting every ounce of his strength to hold back a floodgate.

I went. I lay awake under his coat, breathing him in, and Ylva purred.

Morning came gray and cold. Halfway through braiding my hair, I heard a horse. On the lodge steps, a courier handed a rolled parchment to Alpha Ares.

Ares read it once, his face unchanging, then read it aloud: “By order of the Concord of Alphas. Selena, of no pack, is summoned to answer for the enchantment of three sworn Alphas.”

Alpha Echo swore softly. Thane said nothing, but the wooden rail splintered under his grip. Alpha Ares stared at the red wax seal at the bottom of the page, a crescent moon with a crown.

“That isn’t the Concord’s mark,” Ares said quietly. “It’s his.”