It must have been an hour she ran for. By the time she heard the river and saw its presence through the glistening trees, it was darker than she would have liked. But that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that her chest cavity felt like it was caving in. Each exhale felt like she was expelling too much and was suffocating. Each inhale felt like her lungs would explode from strain. Never had she pushed her body to these limits. Pushed past them in fear and adrenaline.
How would she ever fight the current now?
Astraya stumbled from the break of the trees and onto the frozen river. It was wide, but the ice at the edges was thick and stable and frosted enough that she didn’t have to worry about slipping. It didn’t matter. It was sharp against her raw paw pads, and that fact alone was what had her whimpering and keeling onto her side.
Rest. She needed a moment of rest. Just a moment.
“Well, well. Look whose finally decided to stop.”
“Little White lost all her might.”
No. She hadn’t even closed her eyes yet, and already she was forced to stand.
But even sitting up was difficult. She barely made it, and was almost unable to make out the wolves descending slowly onto the ice around her. Her eyes pulsed with strain.
Four. She counted four, not including the doubles her vision was making.
One smaller male came much closer than the others. She growled warningly at him but he didn’t look perturbed. “Goddamn it. She hasn’t tipped yet! We chased her all this way.”
“What should we do? Kill her?”
“We could tail her until she tips.”
“That could take years.”
Damn right, Astraya thought.
“Idiots!” a voice growled above the rest. Astraya got a good enough hold on her vision just in time to see an enormous grey male pacing towards her from her backside. She struggled to stand and swiveled around, snarling at the daring male.
He stopped only a few feet from her, his head raised, his tail up in obvious dominance. “The ones that haven’t tipped are the best kind.”
“What?” Astraya rumbled. She didn’t understand.
The grey came forward so quick that she barely had time to react. He pushed his muzzle into her neck and forced her down. Astraya lashed out as best she could, coming in for a bite to his shoulder, but the fur was so thick that she couldn’t get through. Couldn’t even draw blood.
“Quit it,” the grey male commanded, and held her down more securely with the pressure of his huge jaws. She could feel the heat of his body descending upon hers – adjusting her into position.
Realization ignited a desperate fight within her like none other. He was trying to claim her! But she hadn’t tipped! What sort of disgusting, twisted, ideal was he trying to prove?
She thrashed and yelped and snarled with such rage that the others came no closer.
“She’s got fight,” the male on top of her laughed. “You were worth that ridiculous run, I think.”
“I haven’t tipped!” Astraya cried. He’d pinned her so completely with his weight that she could no longer move.
“I know, Little White. Like I said, your kind is the best kind. I won’t be hexed into some ridiculous pair-bond with an omega. If I have you now, I won’t have to worry about that. In fact we can all share you.”
“You’re sick!” she howled.
“Ah, but the red moon has granted us so much power, and you nothing at all. What do you think that means?”
She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. Something unexpected caused both captive and captor to pause. Astraya could hear ice cracking below her, groaning and shifting with new weight.
And a new voice. “You think the moon gave you that power?”
The grey wolf’s weight lifted from her in order to locate the new voice. Astraya struggled herself into a more comfortable position despite being trapped below him and also turned to look.
Her eyes landed on the biggest, most beautiful wolf she had ever dared imagine. His fur was a deep red, like the moon she had seen, and it was lovely but disorienting. Was that… starlight trapped within the strands? Something about him was glowing. Glowing. But from this distance, she could not investigate.
He was absolutely massive. Twice the bulk of the gray towering above her. Three times the bulk of the beta that had first brazenly approached her. Probably four times her size. Built less like a wolf, and more like a bear with the amount of muscle he carried around his shoulders and legs. His eyes were sharp and bright like quicksilver. They too carried a luminosity she could not explain.
No words were spoken of status, but the word Alpha sung through her head quite clearly.
“Who are you?” the wolf above her asked. He turned around, obviously finding the visitor threatening enough to not want his back exposed.
“Release that Omega,” the stranger commanded. The way he said it indicated he expected nothing less than total compliance.
“What, are you kidding? I chased this girl for two goddamn straight hours. If you want her, get in line.”
The huge red wolf lowered his head. Fear zinged through Astraya’s body. Normally that action made the bearer seem submissive, but from this wolf it just seemed terrifying. A predator assessing prey.
When a threatening growl rumbled out of him, Astraya wanted to run for the hills.
Though the male above her was obviously a Beta at the top of the totem pole, he took a slow step back, then another, and another.
Astraya was free.
“Alright mate, calm down. You can have her first. She hasn’t tipped yet so I am sure there will still be some fight in her by the time you’re done.”
The red male stalked forward slowly, his weight causing the ice underfoot to moan and crack in protest. Astraya didn’t dare move or breathe or think as he took the gray’s position above her for himself. She hoped – gods she hoped – that with all that power he wasn’t as twisted as these new Betas were.
But his eyes did not even dip to regard her. He was staring solely at the grey. When he spoke next, there was no patience left in his words. “If you do not leave this place now, then you will leave this earth instead. This I promise you, mongrels.”
The Betas hesitated, looked at one another for a cohesive decision. They wanted to run. The grey was marginally braver.
Or more foolish.
“What will you do with her?”
“That is not your concern, Omega.”
The grey growled. “I am a Beta now. We all are.” In the presence of the great red wolf, he seemed suddenly unsure.
“At most, you’re an Omega in a Beta’s body. You do not know true power, and I will make sure that you never do. Leave, or I’ll rip your legs off and let you squirm like the snakes you are.”
“Cane,” the smallest Beta whined at the grey. “Let’s go. We can find another Omega if we hurry ba—”
Despite his gorey promise, the red wolf moved only to sink his massive jaws onto the back of the small Beta’s neck, pushed him down and twisted so brutally and efficiently that Astraya heard the snap.
He was dead instantly.
The other three yelped and scurried away, tucking their tails between their legs. The red Alpha scanned the three quickly until his eyes landed on the grey. Faster than any wolf she had ever seen, he thundered by her head, closing the distance to the grey within moments, pulling him from the small overhang of snow by the side of the river and crushing his back leg in his jaws.
This time Astraya heard bones crack.
He howled and whined and struggled helplessly in the snow. The red male simply watched for a moment before turning his head to look at her. She hunched her neck back, petrified. Oh gods, what did he want?
He jerked his head, indicating for her to come to him.
Afraid for her life, she complied; practically slinking through the snow to his side. Once she was there, she remained fearfully silent and stayed hunched.
“What is your name?” he asked over the crying of the grey.
“Astraya.”
“Would you like to kill him, Astraya?”
Blinking, she looked up at him. His muzzle was unstained. He had destroyed two lives without even drawing blood.
She looked at the sniveling Beta, saw true fear in his eyes. Frightened suddenly of her.
She did not enjoy it.
“No…” she answered quietly.
A soft rumbling from the Alpha beside her had her looking at him again. Was that noise… approval?
“Come,” he simply said, turning from the grey without any further words. She did. It was not like she had a choice. They walked until his whimpering could no longer be heard, until it was so dark she normally wouldn’t have been able to see.
Except this male beside her – he was still glowing.
Discretely, tailing at his hindquarters in a display of desperate submission, she eyed the red fur. It was like he had rolled in little grains of starlight, but even as he lumbered and his thick mane swayed with each step, the starlight clung. She was more than mesmerized.
Finally, when the river was long behind them, he pulled to a slow stop and stared forward. “How old are you, Astraya?”
Fear surged through her. Please no, please no. “F-Fifteen winters.”
“Do you have any semblance of a pack that you can return to?”
The question was like a knife to the chest. “They… it was destroyed. The Betas—my friend—” She hung her head and closed her eyes. “She’s gone.”
Still, he was staring into the forest. Seemingly deep in thought. “I’m sorry I’ve caused you such anguish.”
“…You?”
He lowered his head a little, his ears flicking back just once. “Do you know what I am?”
Astraya tilted her head. “Alpha.”
“Does that word feel right to you?”
She tilted her head back the other way. It was a childish gesture, suggesting naivety, but he wasn’t exactly asking the most straight-forward question.
But something about the word did feel a little off, like it wasn’t quite matching the beast she was seeing in front of her. She had seen Alphas once or twice before, but he surpassed them in every way. Bigger than an alpha. Stronger.
“You are… more,” she finished lamely.
“I am a Fenrir.”
Straightening herself a little, she eyed him cryptically. “Are you…a wolf?”
His head finally swung around to look at her, his fur bunching by his shoulder. With everything she had, she suppressed a flinch.
“Very much so,” he replied.
“How did you get so big?”
“I was born this way. My blood is very powerful…” He held her gaze steadily. “It is what caused the ruin of your pack.”
She wasn’t following. “Your… your blood?”
“It’s why those males became stronger – grew into Betas. We are at least fortunate that the blood they found was old and there was little of it. Had it been fresh from my veins, they would have become Alphas.”
Astraya said nothing, her mind spinning and spinning and trying to process everything.
He looked away a little, silver eyes narrowing. “Regardless, my recklessness has caused you great anguish. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to leave.”
“Are you going to tail me?”
She felt sheer relief as his bushy tail flicked in confusion. “Tail you, Omega?”
Astraya crept forward a little, closer to his head. Dared to lift her own a fraction. He did not seem offended; merely curious. “Like…follow me until I tip into heat?”
He growled, but not at her. His great muzzle swerved to point into the dark forest. What she had just explained obviously bothered him greatly.
“You must have lived a cruel life, to assume so little of me so soon. Does this sort of thing happen to you females often?”
“All the time.”
A great slow breath escaped him. A sigh. “You may stay with me if you desire, and know that I will safeguard your life. But there is one cardinal rule that you must always abide by…”
“What is that?” she asked tentatively. He was going to protect her? A lowly Omega? This had to be some sort of condition—
“You must steel your heart, and never fall in love with me.”
Whatever coercion she was expecting to hear… it was not that.
“Okay…” she said slowly, suspiciously. “May I know your name?”
His head dipped courteously. “Zenith.”
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