Chapter 3 The Alliance
ZURI
I didn't wish Torin and his company a safe journey when they left. I prayed that something bad would happen. The moment I reached my room, I tore the gown off, nearly ripping the silk in two. The necklace snapped, falling to the floor with a metallic clink. I kicked off my heels, paced, growled under my breath. My wolf surged forward, pushing against my skin, demanding to be let out–to run or fight or destroy something.
“This is my life now?” I hissed, grabbing a pillow and slamming it into the wall. “This is what I’m supposed to accept?”
I punched the boudoir. And then again. The pain felt good. Real. Not like the rest of the evening. My claws flickered at my fingertips. My breath came heavy.
Then I heard the door creak.
I turned, teeth bared, heart pounding.
My parents stood there, silhouetted in the doorway. My mother’s face was unreadable. My father looked tired–older than I ever remembered him.
Neither of them said anything. Neither of them tried to stop me. I kept going until the boudoir was nothing but a pile of wood.
“I don’t want this,” I said finally, voice trembling with fury. “I won’t want this.”
“With the way you’re behaving Torin might take the offer off the table,” my father sighed. “He thinks all this sass makes me weak.”
“Me? Weak? That man–”
“You don’t have a choice, Zuri,” my father interrupted. His nerves slowly losing the patience battle.
I stared at him, the burn behind my eyes no longer just rage, but betrayal. “Why not?” I snapped. “Because you already shook his hand? Promised me off like a gift basket?”
He stiffened for a moment before the authority of his Alpha aura pressed into the room like a storm cloud. “You forget who you speak to.”
I stepped forward. And pushed. My own aura burst forth–sharp, electric, and thunderous. It slammed into his like a challenge, the air between us humming with the clash. A warning. A refusal.
His eyes widened, just slightly.
My wolf growled inside me.
“You want me to be quiet and pretty while he slaughters people on my birthday and tells me how to carry pups for him?” I asked, standing tall even as my limbs trembled. “I will not be bound to a man who takes pride in slaughter.”
His face hardened again, but he didn’t push back with his power. He didn’t need to.
“Then you’ll doom our pack,” he said flatly. “I won’t allow that.”
“You think this is what the Goddess wanted?” I asked, voice trembling. “You think she created me to be someone’s property?”
He inhaled deeply through his nose, the way he always did when trying not to lose control. “If you refuse him, Zuri, it will be seen as an insult. A challenge. Torin’s pack is three times the size of ours–we don’t have the warriors to protect against the kind of retaliation that would come.”
“I can protect them. Or at least, I can learn,” I said, almost desperately. “We can train. We can grow stronger.” This conversation was a daily thing between us. “If we just train everyone and not just the men, then–”
“That’s impossible, Zuri,” my father interrupted. “We barely have enough people as is, and the battlefield is no place for a woman.”
“But you allow me to train?”
His face hardened. “Allow being the operative word,” my father said. “Most fathers wouldn’t even consider the idea.”
Silence.
Then, his voice dropped–cold, final. “The decision is made. Once your cycle begins or by the next Winter Festival at the Academy, whichever comes first–you will accept Alpha Torin’s proposal. The Council will attend, and the union will be sealed with their blessing.”
The floor could’ve crumbled beneath me, and I wouldn’t have noticed. The winter festival had just passed, meaning I had a year. At least a year before I’m chained to that monster.
“Happy birthday to me,” I said bitterly, my voice barely above a whisper.
There was a semblance of the sweet man that flashed across his face before he sighed and left like the conversation was over. Like I was over.
I didn’t move. Didn’t cry. Just stood there in the wreckage of silk and splinters, fists clenched at my sides. I didn’t realize I had sunk to the floor until my mother’s hand touched my shoulder. Her eyes were full of something I couldn’t read. Pity? Shame? Guilt? None of it mattered. And none of it changed a damn thing.
“I don’t need whatever you’re trying to give right now, Mother,” I snapped. “This is what it looks like when you auction off your only daughter.”
“Enough,” she snapped, but her voice was shaky. “Your father has spoken. Alpha Torin is strong. Our pack needs this alliance.”
I turned, lifting a brow. “Then you marry him.”
Her mother’s eyes flared, but instead of anger, I saw tears welling in her eyes before she could turn away. Her hands trembled at her sides. And for the first time that night, she looked older. Smaller. “A woman’s role is to strengthen the pack. Not question her Alpha,” she said almost robotically. “If you don’t obey, you could end up like…”
She stopped and I could hear a small sob. I walked to her to try to soothe her. Held her steady, even though part of me wanted to drop her, let her fall, let her feel something real. But I didn’t.
“I saw her too,” I said quietly. “She didn’t plead. She stared at me like I was already one of them.”
“She was pregnant,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone. “She wasn’t even fighting. I didn’t see a rogue in that moment. Just a mother and her unborn child.”
She looked at me then–really looked. Her eyes were red, lips trembling with more tears falling down her face. “I saw your future if you’re not careful, Zuri.”
Then she turned and fled down the hall, her sobs swallowed by silence. I wanted to follow her and yell that would never be me. Instead, I walked toward the far end of the room, threw open the balcony doors, and let the cold wind slap me in the face.
Out there, beyond the borders, were rogues and monsters.
But in here?
There were cages just as cruel.
And the worst part? They were built by people who claimed to love me.
I would remember the look on that rogue’s face.
And I would remember this.
Not for revenge.
But for clarity.
Because whatever happened next... it wouldn’t be weakness that defined me.
It would be fire.
Later that night, Fallon stirred enough to wake me.
“Intruder!”
I rolled off the bed, hitting the floor hard just as a hand slashed through the air where my throat had been. I scrambled up, teeth bared, body low. Fallon roared in my chest, adrenaline pulsing. We lunged together.
But he was ready.
A brutal blow caught my side, and I staggered. Another hand locked around my wrist, twisting it until I cried out, then I was slammed against the wall. Wind left my lungs. Fuck! He was strong.
“You’re quick,” the voice murmured against my ear. “I like that.”
That voice. That scent.
Torin.
I froze, every nerve lighting up with fury. What the hell was he doing here?
“You broke into my room?” I hissed. “Didn’t get enough blood today?”
He chuckled darkly, pinning me there with one arm while the other slid along my side, fingers grazing the curve of my hip. “You didn’t come to say goodbye. That hurt. Especially since it’ll be three whole months before I could see you again.”
He pulled back enough to rake his eyes down my body. I cursed myself for not putting on more clothes to sleep. Just this slip. No bra. No panties. I might as well have been naked.
He groaned. “Plus, I wanted to see you... without the silks. Without the crowd. Without your father watching.”
I struggled against his hold and he laughed, a low, amused growl. “You shouldn’t be here,” I gritted.
“You’re fiery, little wolf,” he grinned. “Just know fire can still be tamed.”
His hand caressed the side of my face, moving lower to my breasts and then the side of my leg. Fallon growled through me, but that only made him grin wider.
“But a person can still be burned,” I hissed.
“Maybe we should test that,” he said, his eyes glinting with danger as his hand moved lower and under my slip.