Chapter 45: White Wolf

Chapter 45: White Wolf
Kayla looked exactly the same.

That was the first thing Olivia noticed. Same sharp eyes. Same chin lifted at that particular angle that said she had never once in her life questioned whether she had the right to look down at someone. Same slow smile that meant she had already decided how this was going to go.

"I have been looking at you since you walked in," Kayla said. She descended one step toward Olivia. "I kept telling myself it could not be you. That little runaway omega from Silverline." She tilted her head. "And yet here you are. Serving the Dark Howlers Alpha."

"Lady Kayla," Olivia said. "It has been a long time."

"Not long enough apparently." Kayla's eyes moved over her slowly. "You look different. Fed. Rested." She said it like an accusation. "Someone has been taking very good care of you."

"I work for my keep," Olivia said. "Same as always."

"Mmhm." Kayla descended another step. "Do you know how much trouble you caused when you disappeared? My brother was furious. We had guests arriving and half the serving staff vanished overnight because of that rogue attack." She waved her hand dismissively. "You were always more trouble than you were worth."

"Then it should have been a relief when I left," Olivia said pleasantly.

Kayla stopped.

Her eyes sharpened.

"Watch your mouth," she said softly.

"I am not at Silverline anymore, my Lady," Olivia said. "I do not answer to you."

The afternoon air between them went very still.

Kayla stared at her for a long moment. Then she turned and looked at her two friends who had followed her outside and her personal guard standing at the door.

"Do you hear this?" Kayla said. An incredulous laugh escaped her. "Do you hear how she speaks to me?" She turned back to Olivia. "You are still a servant. You are still a low-ranked omega with nothing to your name. The pack you serve does not change what you are."

"No," Olivia agreed. "It does not."

Tell her, Lisa said. Tell her what we are now.

"No," Olivia said quietly.

Kayla blinked. "What did you just…"

"Nothing, my Lady."

"You are doing that again." Kayla stepped closer. "Talking to yourself. Just like you always did. Muttering and whispering." She reached out and grabbed Olivia's arm. "I asked you a question. Where did you go after the rogue attack? You did not just disappear. Someone helped you. Who was it?"

Olivia looked down at the hand on her arm.

Then she looked up at Kayla.

"Let go of my arm," she said.

"I will let go when I am ready." Kayla's grip tightened. "Answer the question."

"Let go of my arm," Olivia said again. Very quiet. Very steady.

"Grab her," Kayla said to her guard. "We are going to finish this conversation somewhere private."

The guard stepped forward.

Kayla raised her free hand and slapped Olivia across the face.

The sound cracked across the stone steps.

There was half a second of absolute silence.

Then Olivia slapped her back.

Kayla stumbled. Her hand flew to her face. Her eyes went wide with a shock that was rapidly becoming something much hotter.

"You–" she started.

She shifted.

It happened fast. One moment Kayla was standing on the steps in deep green, the next there was a large dark wolf where she had been, teeth bared, eyes burning gold with fury.

The two friends scrambled back. The guard froze.

Now, Lisa said. Not a suggestion. A statement.

Olivia shifted.

It was nothing like the first time on the blood moon. This was faster. Cleaner. Like stepping through a door she now knew how to open.

The crowd that had drifted outside during the ceremony, guards, household staff, lower-ranked wolves, went completely silent.

Someone whispered it first.

Then someone else said it louder.

Then several voices at once.

"White wolf."

Kayla's dark wolf faltered for just a fraction of a second.

Olivia did not give her the chance to recover.

She moved.

It was not elegant. It was not ceremonial. It was the movement of an animal that had spent twenty years being told it was weak and had finally, completely, stopped believing it. She was faster than Kayla expected. Stronger than Kayla expected. She hit the dark wolf like a wall and they went down together onto the stone ground in a tangle of fur and snarling and the crowd surged back with a collective sound of shock.

Kayla fought hard. She was trained. She was high-ranked. But she had spent her whole life fighting opponents who were already afraid of her before they started.

Olivia was not afraid.

She drove her claws across Kayla's face and did not stop.

"Kayla!"

The voice came from the hall entrance.

Everyone turned.

Alpha Damian stood at the top of the steps. He was tall and broad-shouldered and in that moment furious and disbelieving in equal measure. He took in the scene below him – the white wolf standing over his injured sister, the blood on the stone, the crowd, and his jaw tightened considerably.

Behind him more alphas had appeared in the doorway.

And behind all of them, moving through the gathered crowd with the particular calm of a man who had already assessed the situation and made three decisions, was Josh.

He came out of the hall.

The crowd parted without him asking.

He walked past Kayla's dark wolf without looking at it.

He stopped in front of Olivia.

She was still in wolf form. Still standing. Her chest was heaving and her eyes were fixed on Kayla and every line of her body said she was not finished.

Josh looked at her for a moment.

Then he crouched down so he was level with her.

"Olivia," he said quietly. Just her name. The way he said it in the study sometimes when he wanted her attention without making it a command.

Her eyes moved to his face.

"It is done," he said.

A long moment.

Then she shifted back.

She was on her knees on the cold stone, breathing hard, her uniform torn at the shoulder. She looked up at Josh who was still crouched in front of her.

Around them the silence was total.

Every alpha. Every beta. Every lord and guard and household staff member standing in that courtyard was watching the same thing.

The most feared Alpha in the six territories, crouched on the ground in front of a servant girl, speaking to her like she was the only person in the courtyard worth speaking to.

Kayla shifted back. She was badly cut across her face, shoulder and left side. One of her friends rushed to her. She shoved them off and stared at Josh's back with an expression that moved through shock, fury and something else entirely.

Alpha Damian came down the steps.

"Hunter," he said. His voice was controlled but only barely. "That girl attacked my sister."

Josh stood up slowly and turned to face him.

"Your sister put her hands on a member of my household first," Josh said. His voice was perfectly level. "Twice."

Damian's eyes flashed. "She is a servant who worked in my pack and disappeared overnight. My sister has every right to question her and find out what happened."

"She is nobody," Damian added. "And Kayla had every right—"

"She is mine," Josh said.

The courtyard went so quiet that the sound of the forest beyond the gates carried clearly to every ear.

Nobody moved.

Damian looked at Josh for a long moment. Then my at Olivia. Then back at Josh. Whatever he saw in Josh's face made him decide against finishing anything he had started.

He turned and went back up the steps without another word.

The crowd began to move again slowly and quietly, the way crowds moved after witnessing something they would be
talking about for a very long time.

Josh looked down at Olivia.

He held out his hand.

She looked at it for just a second.

Then she took it and he pulled her to her feet.