2. Cal

It’s taken weeks of driving. My fathers borrowed brown leather jacket isn’t cutting it against the cold. Living by the sea, basking in sunsets and fishing lines, I’ve known nothing but the warm glow of the sun bronzing my skin. Now I’m trailing over ice fields, barely making it over the steep black mountain passes. 

Freezing cold and pissed off, I’m questioning why the fuck anyone would willingly live up in the middle of nowhere.

“You know it’s not going to be what you expect,” my father had grumbled as I prepared to leave the villa. “You’ve never really felt that kind of cold before. It strips your soul.”

“It’s where I’m from isn’t it?” I replied sharply.

“Why should that matter?” he questioned, stopping to study me. If he wasn’t so completely covered in scars we could almost look like brothers. Ridges hidden beneath his beard, other lumps and grisly patches covered the rest of him.

A mixture of torture, frostbite and battle written upon him like a map. Not that it bothered my mother in any way.

We both have soft, boyish curls of brown hair and deep, intensely brown eyes. Only recently I've realised I’m fully capable of glaring with the same ferocity that once scared me as a boy. Alpha blood, natural authority. 

Which makes holding down a job tricky. Orders just piss me off.

"Don't start thinking that place is anything special," he grumbled. “It’s just a shithole in the snow.”

“Look, it’s been getting at me for a long time. I’m not doing a Freeze, I just want to check it out.”

I should have added, because it’s where I should have been Alpha. My father turned down the chance to rule over his inheritance. A fortress with a direct connection to the Moon Goddess. The fucking power he could have wielded. 

Instead he surrendered it all for a life resting his huge frame in a hammock, fishing and raising me and my siblings. 

“Don’t get stuck up there. Being underground, it changes people. Promise me,” gripping me tightly. I stared into my fathers dark eyes. “I just want to get some perspective, that's all.”

With that my parents had hugged me farewell. They have never been back and have zero desire to. Which only puzzles me more. It should be theirs. Mine.

So imagine my surprise as I drive up towards the grey fortress, blazing under large metal floodlights. It looks like a damn stadium. Nothing like how my father described. 

Approaching the steep walls a woman was observing me. Dressed in long dramatic black fur, her red hair blowing majestically in the breeze. Absolutely stunning. I’m immediately fixated on the delicate shape of her cupid bow lips. 

She just watches me, not moving an inch. I find myself caught staring for just a few seconds too long.

“FUCK!” swinging the steering wheel sharply. Slamming on the brakes. I barely avoided a man standing on the snow-cleared track, missing him by inches. Pulling up sharply, I jumped out, full of fire, even though it was probably my fault for watching the girl and not the road. 

I don’t admit I’m wrong. 

“The fuck were you doing? Do you even know how to drive that thing? Fucking tourist!” A bearded blonde blonde man bellowed. I barely got the truck door shut before he charged up, grabbing the collar of my jacket. 

As tall as me, his brown eyes burning with flashes of silver, he’s got no Alpha blood in him though.

I punch him sharply in the ribs, his grip on my collar slipping enough for me to push him away. He stumbles backwards. I don’t hold back, in comes a full-blooded punch at his face only for him to duck under. 

Grappling together, my temper explodes, resulting in the prick being held against the stone wall by his throat.

With a growl I landed several more punches as he struggled feebly. Who the hell is this guy to challenge me? Suddenly strong arms reach me and the shrieking panic of a woman fills my ears. I fight against my captor only to feel a grip of iron around my throat. One twist and I’m dead.

“RYAN!” squeals the female voice before another, closer voices hisses into my ear.

“Calm down before I break  your neck.”. 

I look up to see my captor is a white haired man wearing heavy grey furs. Shit I’m pretty sure that’s Alpha Reu. His leather gloves threaten another squeeze of my throat as I reluctantly give up the battle, holding up my hands in surrender.

Before I can catch my breath I find myself getting slapped about the face by a furious set of hands. A tiny pear-scented demon is giving me hell and I can’t do anything about it while the Alpha has his eyes on my throat except put my hands up.

“How dare you! You think you’re so fucking tough! Coming here and causing trouble!”

“He started it!”

“You nearly ran him over!”

“I didn’t throw the first punch-” smarting as a slap hit my cheek with a thunderclap that made even Alpha Reu wince.

I grab her wrist in my hands before she can land another stinger, only to feel my world shudder to a halt. 

Fuck me she is beautiful. 

Pears and fresias, sweet and teasing fills the air around me as her amber eyes widen from scowling to confused. “Cal? Shit…is that you? Cal!”

Now I know why I was caught up in staring at her, why that red, fluttering hair was such a siren call. Those light, delicate freckles that could only belong to one woman. “Hope?”

One of my sisters best friends until they moved away a few years ago. All mouth and bratty fury. Her amber eyes gleamed with renewed frustration. I just stared at her with blatant admiration. 

Hope as a grown woman is something else entirely. Utterly bewitching but there is no way to tell her that while she is trying to chop me to pieces. 

The white-haired man turned me around to face him, “Cal, as in Declan son?”

Not enjoying being made to feel like a school boy visiting relatives, I stood tall. “Yes. Cal Ragnar. I don’t know what this prick’s issue is,” gesturing towards the guy slumped against the castle wall, “but I pulled up the truck-”

“He almost hit Ryan with his truck Alpha Reu, I saw the whole thing, he’s a complete fucking idiot,” Hope interrupted with venom. Her amber-gold eyes returned to the glower I recognised from childhood. 

She turned away, her hair a swish of fire as she helped drag his bloodied ass from the floor. 

“Hey, Ryan, talk to me, hey,” gently stroking his cheek, her eyes raking over his body checking him for injuries, opening up his black leather jacket as he winced.

I couldn’t stop watching the pair. Squatting beside him, her black fur coat opened, revealing a skintight black jumpsuit. But Reu kept talking, forcing me to look away from Hope and the idiot boyfriend, her small hands still cupping his face. 

“Are you here for the Ceremony then Cal?” 

I need to get a grip. Shaking my head I get some focus, my temper cooling. “Just here to check it out. See some family history. Wasn’t planning to make a scene.”

Reu doesn’t reply, his blue eyes calmly study me, like I’m lying. Well I’m not. I want to see where I’m from. This place forged my parents into steel, what would it do to me? 

“Well, come with me then. Only an hour until it begins. Elvie will be excited to meet you. You’ve no symptoms of this plague have you? Bruises, bleeding?”

“No, nothing. I’ve seen it on the drive up though,” I replied, grimacing at the memory of entire villages reduced to lifeless shells. 

I start walking, heading through into the main courtyard with Alpha Reu only to get my elbow barged by Hope. Smirking victoriously with his arm draped around Hope’s shoulders was the idiot I should have landed at least one more punch on.

Maybe ten more punches. 

Then I should have suggested she find herself a real man. But as my wolf reminds me quickly, that is the swift way to get absolutely nothing.

“Come on Babe, let it go, it doesn’t matter. Some guys…” he murmured into her hair. I couldn’t help straining to try and hear what the fucker was saying about me. “We’ve still got time before I leave, let’s not waste it” and leaned down to plant a kiss on her plump, cupid bow lips.

She smiled and gazed up at him, lust colouring her pretty features. Seriously, why am I bothered? I’ve not even seen her in years, she’s barely even a friend. Ryan looked back at me with a broad grin. “No hard feelings,” he called out, making sure I saw him squeeze Hope’s ass over her fur coat. 

Simmering with pointless anger, I had to slap on my politest face. Luna Elvie was delighted to meet me, introducing me to her sweet daughter Mireille. 

She is a nervous looking elf of a young woman. Her long silvery hair braided into delicate plaits of different thickness, her pale green eyes full of soft kindness. Not my type whatsoever, despite both of us cringing at her mothers attempts to pair us up.

To my eternal annoyance, the look of triumph in Hope’s vivid, bright, amber eyes stuck in my mind instead. I want to see them again, what colour does her wolf turn her iris when she’s really excited? 

“You need to leave after the Ceremony. The Freeze isn’t far away now, you’ll get stuck in storms before you clear the mountains,” Elvie warned, her soft face creased with concern. “I’d love to show you how we have everything set up down there but I don’t want to miss Mireille’s first ever Ceremony.” 

Standing with Reu to the side of the courtyard, I studied the eager pilgrims. A dozen old, haggard faces all clutching their hands and staring at the moon. Ever thickening snow surrounded the fortress, apart from the cleared courtyard which was covered in flower petals. 

The air reeked of incense, the bright floodlights stinging the edges of my vision. Mireille appeared, looking tiny in her huge grey fur. Working through an endless chant as the Full Moon glowed above us, when the beam of light flew down from the moon itself I gasped. 

However It wasn’t white like I'd heard. It was greyer, dirtier than I expected.

“Something’s wrong,” Reu whispered, his knuckles whitening on the stone railing surrounding the edges of the courtyard. “This isn’t right,” glancing over to Elvie who had paled and grabbed his arm.

The pilgrims under the grey light began to howl in pain. Mireille spun round, face frozen in panic as pilgrims writhed on the ground, clutching their chests, eyes squeezed shut.

Then the sound of gunfire crashed across the courtyard.

Each smattering of bullets smashed the floodlights. Everyone not being tortured by the dying grey beam ducked for cover as glass rained down, the world getting darker by the second.

I heard a woman scream. Without a second thought I ran out into the courtyard, skirting around the last remnants of the beam. 

Whoever dares attack this place needs putting in their place, gun or no gun. My adrenalin wouldn’t allow me to consider it a stupid idea to leap defenseless. Not until after the first hail of bullets came my way, narrowly missing my face.

More screams rose up, “Mireille! Where are you!” bellowed Reu. His daughter has vanished? She was on a fucking podium a second ago?

Charging forward, I silently pleaded Hope was being looked after by that dick of a boyfriend.

As bullets tore into my upper body I had a few quick regrets about not getting a real plan together. It doesn’t matter, I might get to be the hero. 

The one who saves Hope and gets another look at those stunning amber eyes.

Then another round of bullets hit me and I hit the ground, legs still trying to power forward in the air.