Claimed by the Alpha

The ceremony was supposed to be private.

That was the first lie I told myself that night.

I stood at the edge of the sacred circle, bare feet numb against the packed dirt, watching the entire pack gather around the moon-lit clearing like vultures circling around a carcass. My carcass, apparently. The last three years of being ignored, accepted, and pitied, culminated in this moment, and suddenly everyone had enough interest to watch me be destroyed.

I should have known better. Nothing in Silverpine stays contained for long.

The torches flickered along the edges of the circle, casting long shadowy shapes across the ancient stones that marked the ground. Elder Marrow had prepared the ground nicely, white ash scattered in strange patterns, silver chains snaked around the middle like sleeping serpents. The chains made my stomach tighten.

This was not a normal rejection ceremony. Normal rejection ceremonies did not require chains.

"Lyra." Maren's hand brushed mine, her grip tight enough to bruise. "You don't have to do this."

I turned to look at her, at my adoptive mother, the only person in this pack who had ever looked at me without pity or disdain. Her grey hair was pulled back severely, her leathery face pale in the torchlight. She had been crying, I could smell the salt on her cheeks, a sensation none of the wolves would know, because in a pack of wolves, no emotion was ever contained.

"I don't think I have a choice," I murmured.

"He's the one rejecting you, you know? Let him bear the shame of doing it publicly. Walk away."

I couldn't. The bond had taken root the moment I had first seen him, Kael Ashwood, Alpha of Silverpine, standing over the corpse of a rogue wolf who had dared trespass on their kingdom. I had been seventeen then, stupid and reckless and found myself caught outside the pack's hunting grounds after dark, watching him from the shadows.

I had felt the bond snap into place inside my chest like a fever, the burning, the ache, and the absurd feeling that this stranger was mine.

And then he had looked at me, golden eyes meeting mine across the clearing, and I had been sure he felt it too.

That was three years ago. Three years of pretending the bond didn't exist, three years of pretending that I didn't wake up every night with his name burning behind my teeth. Three years of watching him ignore me with cold, calculated precision, while the rest of the pack whispered about the wolf-less girl who somehow survived to adulthood without ever shifting.

Now, on the eve of my twentieth birthday, the Alpha had decided to acknowledge the bond existed.

By planning to destroy it.

"The pack needs stability," Kael had said when he had summoned me to his study two days ago. His face was carved from stone, his voice flat. "A fated bond between an Alpha and.." He paused, and I watched in morbid fascination as he searched for the right word. "...someone of your status, creates complications."

Someone of my status, you mean, who can't shift.

I had expected the cruelty, but I hadn't expected the way his jaw tightened, the way a flash of something like pain crossed his eyes before he looked away.

"Maren's right," My best friend, my only friend Ivy spoke up, shoving through the pack to get to me, her fiery red hair wild around her face. "This is barbaric, the Council doesn't even recognize rejections of fated bonds anymore."

"The Council isn't here," I reminded her.

"All the more reason to refuse, Kael can't force you to--"

"Actually," a cold voice said, cutting through the murmuring pack. "I can."

The pack fell silent, parting like water as Kael strode into the clearing.

He was as I remembered him, tall and broad shouldered, dark hair sweeping across a face that could have been sculpted by something other than human hands. His golden eyes glowed faintly in the torchlight, the wolf spirit within him barely contained. He was dressed for a ceremony, black leather jacket traded in for traditional white linen, and I felt my heart clench at the sight of it. He looked like a bridegroom, this looked like a wedding.

But it wasn't, it was a funeral for something I had never intended to live.

"The Alpha's authority supersedes all pack members' wishes in matters of pack security," Kael continued, his eyes sweeping over the crowd before landing on me. "A fated bond with an unshifted wolf threatens the genetic integrity of our bloodlines."

Gasps of shock rippled through the gathering. I stood stock still, hands trembling at my sides.

This was not a normal rejection ceremony. Three years of being dubbed wolf-less, broken, useless. I had thought I was impervious to the sting of the pain, I had been wrong.

"An unshifted wolf cannot be a true mate," Kael said, and for the first time in three years his eyes flickered to mine with something unreadable. "The bond is an anomaly, a mistake by the Moon Goddess, and tonight we will correct it."

An anomaly, a mistake by the Moon Goddess, I wanted to scream. You're the mistake, you're the coward who would sooner tear out his own heart than admit he could love something broken.

But I said nothing, what was there to say.

"Ceremonies of this nature require both parties to willingly approach the center circle and state their intentions to sever the bond," Elder Marrow spoke up, his weathered face solemn. "Once the words are spoken, the silver chains will--"

"Wait." I heard myself say before I had decided to speak. "Wait."

All eyes were on me, Kael's included, his expression dark as ever.

"If the bond is a mistake," I said slowly, "then why do you look at me like it's killing you to do this?"

A hushed stillness fell over the clearing. Even the flames seemed to pause in their dance.

Kael's expression didn't change, not an inch, but if I had been a bit closer I would have seen the clenched fists at his sides.

"Because rejection ceremonies are never pleasant," he said evenly. "And I take no pleasure in causing pain to those who deserve it."

Those who deserve it. The words hit me like a physical blow.

"I've done nothing to deserve this!" I whispered. "I didn't choose the bond, I didn't ask for any of this."

"No," Kael agreed. "But you did choose to stay in Silverpine after you came of age, you chose to remain in a pack where you don't belong. What did you expect would happen, Lyra? That I would eventually acknowledge a bond with a wolf who can't shift?"

I thought you'd eventually see me, I thought the bond meant something. I thought you were better than this.

Stupid, stupid, stupid girl.

"Kael." A new voice joined the conversation, deep and resonant, with a familiar cadence to it. "The ritual window is closing. We should proceed."

Ronan. Of course he would be here. Ronan, who had spent the last three years making my life as miserable as possible with every smirk and plausible excuse. Ronan, who wanted Kael's position more than anything else in the world right now. Ronan, who had recently made it known, through whispered threats, that if I didn't leave the pack of my own free will, he would find a way to make me.

"A moment." Kael said, his voice clipped. He came closer, until he was almost nose to nose with me, and lowered his voice so only I could hear. "Listen to me very carefully. You need to leave this clearing right now, walk through the crowd and don't look back."

I looked at him, astonishment briefly overriding the pain. "What?"

"You need to leave the territory tonight, I'll have supplies waiting at the eastern border, you can start over somewhere else, find a pack that won't care about--"

"You want me to run?" My voice rose. "You're rejecting me and banishing me?"

"I'm giving you a way out of something much worse." His golden eyes burned into mine. "The ritual isn't what they said, the Council has been experimenting with new methods, methods that don't simply break the bond. They shatter the wolf entirely."

The blood drained from my face. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you won't just lose the bond, you'll lose everything. Your wolf, your future, your ability to ever shift or bond again. And for someone like you who's never shifted--" He stopped, his jaw working. "Just leave, Lyra. Please."

The please tacked on the end sent a shudder down my spine. It was so out of character for Kael Ashwood I almost obeyed.

But then I looked at him and I saw it. I saw the fear in his eyes, the desperation. The Alpha of Silverpine, ruler of the most powerful pack in the region, was a coward.

And I finally understood the situation.

"This isn't about pack security," I whispered. "This isn't even about the bond."

"Lyra--"

"The Council found out I was fated bonded to an unshifted wolf, didn't they? That the great Alpha Kael was fated-mated to me, and they've threatened something. Your position? Your pack? Your precious political alliances?"

Kael's silence was confirmation enough.

"You'd rather destroy both of us than risk losing what you have." I laughed bitterly. "You're not a coward, Kael. You're a man who lets others make his choices for him."You don't understand—"No, I understand perfectly." I said, stepping back. "You're right about one thing, I don't belong here. I never did."

I turned to face the pack, my heartbeat thundering against my ribs, my voice coming out steady. "I accept."

Kael went rigid. "Lyra--"

"I accept. I accept that the Alpha of Silverpine would rather destroy his own fated bond than stand up to the Council that has no right to govern his heart. I accept that I was a fool to ever hope for more."

I stepped into the sacred circle, the ground beneath my bare feet cool with the feel of the white ash, the silver chains seeming to pulse with malicious intent, sensing their prey. "Let's do this. Let the Moon Goddess witness that it was my choice to release him from an obligation he never wanted."

The pack watched in stunned silence. Ivy was crying, Maren had her hands over her mouth.

And Kael... Kael looked like he'd been stabbed in the gut.

"Elder Marrow," I said flatly. "Begin the ritual."

The Elder hesitated, cast a glance at Kael who gave a single, jerky nod. His expression was something I'd never seen on his face. A look of a man watching his own execution.

Good, I thought viciously. You should suffer too.

Elder Marrow began to chant. The ancient words rolled over the clearing like thunder, the silver chains rising from the ground, hissing around the air, and I felt the bond inside me cry out in protest.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to the wolf I'd never met. "I'm sorry we never got the chance to run."

The chains struck.

And the world exploded in white fire.

The pain was unlike anything I'd ever felt, the chains wrapping around my wrists, my ankles, my throat, burning into my skin, cold and burning all over. The bond, that invisible thread connecting me to Kael, was stretching, twisting, trying to tear itself from my chest.

I heard screaming, it might have been me.

Through the blinding agony I saw Kael on his knees, the chains reaching for him, wrapping around his massive body, dragging him toward me. The ritual wasn't supposed to hurt the Alpha, he was the one doing the rejecting, not the one being rejected. But something was very wrong.

"The chains!" Elder Marrow's voice rang out in panic. "The chains aren't breaking the bond, they're binding it!"

I forced my eyes open, staring at the silver links that were now connecting me to Kael. They glowed white-hot, and where they touched, my skin and his, were marked with strange symbols, ancient symbols I'd never seen before.

The same symbols that now burned into my flesh, searing them like brands.

"What's happening?" I gasped.

Kael's golden eyes met mine, and for the first time since I'd known him, I saw pure, raw terror.

"The ritual," he breathed. "It's not a rejection, it's a claim."

The world tilted.

"Someone changed the ceremony," Elder Marrow stammered, backing away from the glowing symbols. "This isn't--I prepared the rejection rites myself--someone must have--"

But I wasn't listening, the pain had disappeared, replaced by something else. Something that was frighteningly like power.

The symbols on my skin began to pulse, and deep inside my chest, something stirred. Something that had been sleeping for twenty years.

The wolf inside me opened its eyes.

I looked at Kael, and for a moment I could see inside him, see his fears, his wants, the desperate loneliness he hid behind his cold mask.

Then the world went dark.

I woke up in a cave.

That was my first thought, cave. The walls of stone, the air damp, the sound of dripping water somewhere in the distance.

My second thought was that my entire body felt like it was on fire and dumped into ice.

I tried to move and grimaced in pain. Every muscle screamed, every inch of my skin felt new, raw, and my wrists--

My wrists were marked.

I stared at the symbols etched into my skin, now faded to a silvery scar that glowed in the dark. They were the same ones I had seen burning on Kael's skin during the ritual.

The claiming ritual.

I sat up too fast, my head spinning. "Kael?"

No response.

The cave was small, barely a cave at all, nestled into the mountainside. Outside I could hear the wind and the distant howls of wolves. The moon still hung in the sky, massive and silver-white, casting enough light for me to see.

I was alone.

For one blissful moment I thought it had all been a nightmare, some fever dream wrought by the stress.

Then I looked down at my hands.

They were covered in blood.

Not mine. I wasn't injured, at least not visibly, but my hands were stained, the blood dried and flaking under my nails.

What happened? What did I do?

I pushed myself up, ignoring the pain, and stumbled toward the cave entrance. The night air hit me in the face, cold and sharp, and I realized I was wearing the same white ritual dress, now torn and stained.

Below me the valley stretched out in darkness. I didn't recognize the landscape, we were far from Silverpine territory.

But I could smell smoke.

I turned toward the source and saw it, a plume of black smoke rising over the forest to the west. Fire. A large one.

And I could hear screaming. Distant, but unmistakable.

The wolf inside me stirred, and this time I felt it, a presence in my mind, separate from myself but somehow familiar.

We didn't do that, I thought desperately.

But I wasn't sure.

I looked down at my bloody hands, then toward the smoke, then back at the cave where I had awakened with no memory of how I had gotten there.

Something had happened during the claiming ritual. Something terrible.

And the only person who might know the truth was Kael, if he was still alive.

The howling grew closer.

I made a decision.

I ran.

The forest clawed at my clothes as I ran.

Branches snapped at my face, roots shot out at my bare feet, but I never slowed down. My lungs burned with every pulse of my heart, but I couldn't stop. The growls behind me grew louder with each step, circling like a pack of wolves on the hunt. They knew my scent. They would find me.

And still, I had no idea what I was running from - or to

The voice in my head was silent, but I could still feel her coiled within me, just beneath the surface. The wolf. She had been waiting for twenty years for the Moon Goddess to stir her from her slumber, and now that she was stirring, I was too afraid to be glad.

Where are we? What happened?

I could hear her claws flexing against something deep within me, probing my very soul

I stumbled through a thicket of ferns and nearly fell down a ravine. I stopped dead in my tracks, catching my breath as I pressed my back against the