6. Cassie

A rare smile breaks across my face, a thrill of excitement speeding up my pulse.

I quickly tiptoe out of my room, leaving the door just ajar. The stone atrium is empty, all the guests sound asleep. I sprint up the stairs in just my stockinged feet, in too great a rush to bother with shoes.

Racing up the last few steps I press open the final wooden doorway and feel my heart expand at the moonlit view. It’s just as stunning as I remember.

Gazing wistfully from a window doesn’t compare to standing up here.

The wind is fresh, cleansing. My skin tingles at the cold breeze and the scent of seasalt in the air. I can hear the waves breaking against the far end of the granite-backed cliffs. But I don’t want the sea tonight.

Ahead of me was the land where the pack I was born to lead. It fans out into the darkness like rumpled black silk. That’s what I love to see. All the potential, the other cliffs and their carved houses jut out into the night sky, tall and imposing, but nothing reaches me.

I’m a queen for a moment. Guilty of nothing more than failing my father when the moment of betrayal revealed itself. I’m just a girl who lost her father up here.

“What a waste,” I whisper sadly, spotting the lack of activity in some of the western fields, the mouldy, foul moss creeping up some of the other cliff stacks. It’s going to be someone else’s to run, to neglect until this beautiful place collapses in on itself.

I step forward, ever closer to the edge.

I’m not going to jump, I just want every inch of my body to feel the wind rushing up to meet me. Right down to my toes. Again I think of Ayr, how this sensation doesn’t compare to the way it felt when his blue eyes severed my ability to think straight.

I open my eyes wide and tilt my head backwards, basking in the cool night air. Spreading my arms wide I close my eyes and try to empty my head. It’s bliss.

A heavy, hulking force flings me down to the ground knocking the air out of my lungs. I don't scream but kick and punch into the bulky shape, hitting nothing but metal.

“Get off me! Now! What the hell!” I hiss as the scent of the huge weight hits me. It’s not Cesar’s gentle honey, it's someone else. It's vibrant and warm, like the fierce tang of whisky.

If it is yet another Elder thinking they can paw at me I swear I'll throw them over the side glady. “I said get off!” and reaching around, grab a loose rock and smash it into my attacker's brow.

“The hell was that for!” the grabber growls darkly, lifting himself away from the floor, enabling me to scamper backwards along the sharp rocks and grass of the cliff top.

My hands sting with pain. I've cut them open across the knuckles and palm. Whoever I'm punching is wearing metal chainmail.

Alpha Ayr and his Betas arrived in chainmail.

Everything freezes as a pair of fierce blue eyes, tinged with wolf-led green fury stare straight at me, both of us sprawled across the floor.

“Well?” he asks again, rubbing his brow with his huge hand. “Care to explain? Or do I call for the guards!”

Forcing myself further back, towards the door, all I can think to say is a bratty, “Guards? What are you even doing up here?”

“I wanted to take a look, didn't think I'd find you trying to jump off!”

“I wasn't jumping!”

“Taking a look with your eyes closed then, how sensible!” he snapped back, still rubbing his forehead.

“I was just…it doesn't matter!”

Ayr pulls himself upright, his body framed perfectly by the light of the moon. Just as tall and impressive as when I met him earlier today. Wearing a smart, short black cape fastened with gold on each shoulder, I recognise the painful chainmail armor covering his broad chest.

He strides over and offers me a hand. “Can you stand?”

His voice is deep, insistent, except the idea of giving him my chewed up bloodied hand makes me wince. Not when he held the delicate white perfect fingers of Elle earlier.

So I shake my head no and watch his face flush with irritated confusion.

“Of course I can get up,” I snap pettily, a blush rising to my cheeks at my lack of manners. My wolf urges me to remember my training. My emotions are mine to keep tucked away. I'm too used to seeing Elle drink in my pain like a vampire to let my guard down now.

I’m not low, only lowered. This miserable existence is not my true standing.

I stand up unsteadily, widening my shoulders to meet his gaze with a stern, emotionless stare. “Your forehead might be bruised. Sorry,” concealing my wounded hands within the folds of my black gown.

His bright blue eyes spotted the action, as I stepped away and put some distance between us. My heart is pounding enough for him to hear.

“Was that from this?” he asks gruffly, tapping his chest, “I am sorry, here let me take a look,” and moves to take hold of my hand again, his long, powerful arm stretching out for me.

But I flinch, too quick for him with a sway of my hips, gripping into the thick skirts. “I'll be fine. Good night.”

I turn to leave. Shit Cesar is going to be so angry with me.

“Why were you up here then?” He called again but I had no time to spare as I head towards the steps. In a deep, frustrated baritone he asked loudly, “Or should I ask Luna Elle instead?”

I froze halfway down the staircase. I clenched my fists, ignoring the pain and headed straight back up. Full of fire I storm as close as I dare towards him. “Why threaten what little I have!” my voice little more than a ragged hiss.

He tilts his head, blue eyes narrowing. “Ah, have you broken a rule being up here?” and my throat halts with the overwhelming volume of truths I could throw his way.

But what would it gain? I’d only be guaranteeing the next time I’m up here, it’s to be hurled off the edge.

“My situation…is absolutely nothing to do with you, Alpha.” My tone was cold, but Ayr didn't even flinch. Just kept looking. I can feel my head slowly emptying itself of common sense.

When he steps closer, eyes now a beautifully merging blue and green swirl, I panic. “I am not your problem, although you’d probably have me killed before dawn.”

I saw enough reports from before my life fell apart to know Volare Clan stands for nothing more than bloodshed. It was a stupid thing to say anyway. If he marries Elle then I become his problem too. We both know that.

“What the hell do you mean by that!”

I refuse to step back this time, “I know your pack chooses violence every time-”

His blue iris finally breaks into full emerald green shards of frustration. “You know nothing about me-”

“Then we have something in common! Don’t you dare pretend to know the first thing about me either!”

“I know more than enough about you Cassandra Kallio,and you’re right, in my pack you wouldn’t be able to pull any of these fucking stunts,” he growls but his iris is completely flamed out with emerald green, veins straining at the side of neck with outrage.

Even in his anger, the moon paints him like a god, his blonde hair catching the light and the sharp line of his jaw.

“What a wonderfully threatening husband you’ll make my sister,” I snarled as Ayr took another step forward, his huffs of irritation fanning my curls, his blue-green gaze narrowed but dropped lower, I think, staring at my lips.

Finally allowing a tiny bit of resentment from the past four years out left my head spinning with frustration. How can a man so beautifully put together be such a fool?

“And what does that make you?” he snapped back.

“An enemy I suppose, so you will have something in common with Elle at least,” lifting my wounded hand to cover my mouth at being so rude.

Then the sound of Cesar’s panicked footsteps breaks our argument. Twisting around, I leave the furious Alpha staring down the staircase after my shadow.

Heart still pounding, I head down towards my furious guard, waiting at the bottom of the steps with his thick arms folded and mouth set in a scowl.

“I’m here, I’m here!” whispering madly, hoping Cesar didn’t cast his jade-coloured eyes any higher and see just who else had decided to catch the views.

“Knew you would be, fuck’s sake Cassie, every time!” he grumbled but there was no sass coming from me, instead I put my hand in his and whispered, “we need to get back, quick.”