Chapter 3 The Wolf’s Test
I spent the day preparing to die.
Not intentionally. But every moment felt like borrowed time, every breath a countdown to midnight. Maya brought me lunch, roasted vegetables and tender meat that I forced down despite my churning stomach. She tried to make conversation, but her eyes kept darting to the clock on the wall.
She knew what was coming.
Everyone knew.
“Miss Sera,” Maya said finally, setting down a cup of tea with trembling hands. “The Alpha King… his wolf is not evil. He is just broken. Grief-mad. If you can remember that, if you can see past the monster to the man underneath, maybe…”
“Maybe I will not die screaming?” I finished for her.
Her silence was answer enough.
After she left, I stood in front of the closet, staring at the dresses she had provided. Wear something you can move in, the Alpha King had said. I chose simple black leggings and a loose grey shirt. Clothes I could run in, if running would do any good.
Which it would not. You could not outrun an Alpha King’s wolf.
I braided my dark hair back from my face, studying myself in the mirror. The bruises had faded slightly, turning from deep purple to sickly yellow. The split in my lip had scabbed over. I looked less like a corpse than I had yesterday.
Small victories.
The hours crawled past like wounded animals. I tried to read but could not focus on the words. I tried to sleep but nightmares of teeth and claws jerked me awake. Finally, I just sat on the balcony and watched the sun sink below the treeline, painting the sky in shades of blood and fire.
An omen, maybe.
At eleven forty-five, Maya returned. Her face was pale, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles had gone white.
“It is time, Miss Sera.”
I followed her through hallways that seemed darker than before, more oppressive. We passed pack members who stopped to stare, their expressions ranging from pity to morbid curiosity. Betting on how long I would last, probably.
We descended stairs into what felt like the belly of the fortress. The air grew colder. The walls here were bare stone, ancient and unyielding.
Maya stopped before a heavy oak door reinforced with iron. “The Alpha King’s private office. He is waiting inside.” She squeezed my hand once, quickly. “May the Moon Goddess protect you.”
Then she fled, her footsteps echoing back up the stairs.
I stood alone before the door, my heart hammering so hard I thought my ribs might crack. Through the wood, I could hear… something. Movement. A low growl that made every instinct scream at me to run.
Do not beg. Do not plead. Weakness triggers his predator instincts.
I knocked once. Twice.
“Come in.” The Alpha King’s voice, but strained. Barely controlled.
I opened the door and stepped into hell.
The office was massive, lined with bookshelves and dominated by a huge desk. But I barely registered the details because my entire focus was locked on the man standing in the centre of the room.
Alpha King Kael faced away from me, his shoulders heaving with ragged breaths. His hands gripped the edge of a table so hard the wood cracked beneath his fingers. The air around him shimmered with barely contained power.
“Close the door,” he growled. “Lock it.”
My hands shook as I obeyed. The lock sliding home sounded like a death sentence.
“Stay by the door.” His voice was deeper now, rougher. His wolf is pushing through. “Do not approach me. Do not speak unless I ask you a question. Do not run. Understand?”
“Yes, Alpha King.”
“Call me Kael.” He turned slowly, and my breath caught.
His eyes had changed. No longer storm-grey but burning gold, lit from within by his wolf’s presence. His canines had elongated. His fingers bore the tips of claws. He was caught between forms, man and beast warring for control.
And he was magnificent. Terrifying. Beautiful in the way an avalanche was beautiful, unstoppable and deadly.
“My wolf wants to scent you,” Kael said through gritted teeth. “He wants to know if you are a mate or meat. I am going to let him close enough to find out. If you panic, he will kill you. If you run, he will hunt you. Your only chance is to submit without fear. Can you do that?”
Could I? I had spent eighteen years learning to submit to Father’s violence. But that had been survival through terror, through making myself small and invisible.
This was different. This required submission without breaking. Strength disguised as surrender.
“I can try,” I whispered.
Something that might have been respect flashed in those golden eyes. “That is more honest than the others gave me.”
He moved toward me, and it was not a human walk. It was a prowl, predatory and fluid. Every step made my wolf whimper and my pulse spike. He was too big, too powerful, too overwhelming.
He stopped two feet away, towering over me. This close, I could see the battle raging behind his eyes trying to fight the wolf, civilisation fighting feral instinct.
“He wants to touch you,” Kael growled. “I am going to let him. Stay still.”
His hand lifted, clawed fingers reaching for my face. I forced myself not to flinch, not to move, even as every survival instinct screamed. His touch was surprisingly gentle, claws tracing the line of my jaw, my throat, the pulse hammering beneath my skin.
He leaned in, nose against my neck, and inhaled deeply.
A rumble built in his chest, half purr, half growl. His other hand came up to grip my hip, holding me in place. Not hurting, not yet, but the strength in those fingers could crush bone without effort.
“Omega.” The word was barely human, dragged from a throat more wolf than man. “Damaged. Hurt. Weak.”
Each word was an arrow striking true. I was all those things. Weak. Broken. Unworthy.
But then his nose moved to the other side of my neck, his breath hot against my skin. His grip on my hip tightened, became possessive.
“Mine.” The growl deepened. “Mate. Mine.”
The change was instantaneous.
Kael’s control shattered like glass. His wolf surged forward with a roar that shook the walls. He grabbed me and spun, slamming my back against the door hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. His body caged mine, massive and trembling with barely leashed violence.
“Kael” I gasped.
“Do not say my name.” His voice was pure gravel now, completely overtaken by his wolf. “Do not speak. Do not move. My wolf wants to claim you. He wants to mark you. He wants to make you understand that you belong to us now.”
His canines grazed my throat, and terror spiked through me so sharp it tasted like copper.
This was it. This was how I died.
But then impossibly felt something else beneath the fear. His hands on my waist were shaking. His breath against my skin came in ragged bursts. His entire body vibrated with the effort of holding back.
He was fighting himself. Fighting his wolf. Fighting to not kill me.
For the first time, I understood what Maya meant. His wolf was not evil. Just broken. Lost in grief and rage and instinct, lashing out because that was all he knew how to do anymore.
And Kael was trapped inside, forced to watch himself become a monster.
“I am not afraid of you,” I whispered, and was shocked to realise it was almost true.
His wolf froze. Those burning gold eyes locked on mine.
“You should be,” he snarled. “I killed the others. I will kill you too.”
“Maybe.” I lifted a trembling hand slowly, carefully and placed it against his chest. His heart thundered beneath my palm, racing even faster than mine. “But I think you do not want to. I think you are tired of being a monster.”
A sound tore from his throat, part growl, part something that might have been anguish.
“You know nothing, omega. You are just another ”
“Broken thing,” I interrupted, and his words died. “I am just another broken thing, like you. My father spent eighteen years trying to destroy me, and he almost succeeded. But I am still here. Still fighting. Still choosing to survive.” My fingers curled into his shirt. “So maybe your wolf recognises that. Maybe he sees someone who understands what it means to be shattered.”
For an endless moment, nothing moved. The world held its breath.
Then Kael’s eyes flickered gold to grey to gold again. Man and wolf, fighting for dominance. His grip on my waist loosened slightly, claws retracting just a fraction.
“Sera.” My name on his lips, human again. Barely. “I cannot… he wants… I am losing”
His wolf surged forward again with a vicious snarl. His hand wrapped around my throat not squeezing, not yet, but the threat was clear.
“Submit.” The command rolled through me like thunder. “Submit to us completely, or die.”
This was the moment. The test. The point where the other omegas had failed.
I tilted my head back, baring my throat fully to his fangs. Exposing the most vulnerable part of myself to a predator barely holding onto sanity.
“I submit to you, Alpha,” I said clearly. “Not because I am weak. But because I choose to trust you.”
The distinction mattered. I felt it in the way his grip loosened. In the way his breathing changed. In the way his wolf seemed to pause, confused by an omega who submitted out of choice rather than fear.
Slowly, so slowly I could barely see him move Kael’s canines pressed against my throat. A warning. A question.
I did not flinch. Did not beg. Did not break.
The pressure increased until I felt my skin split, warm blood trickling down my neck.
Then, abruptly, he released me and staggered backwards.
“Get out.” His voice was wrecked, barely audible. “Get out now, before I”
I did not wait to hear the rest. I fumbled with the lock, threw open the door, and ran.
Behind me, a roar of pure agony shook the fortress.
I had survived the test.
But I had no idea what it had cost the Alpha King to let me live.