Embers In The North
37

Donning the sumptuous brown robe passed to her by one of the priestesses, Reyna towelled her hair dry. The intricate curls Ariel and the maidens had taken their time to wind into her hair were now gone.

Cridius stared at her with a very different, twisted look in his eyes as he crossed his massive arms over his chest. Then, taking another step closer, he forced Reyna to swallow as she stood her ground, her eyes fixed on her mate, almost in a silent challenge.

“Now you truly look like a Luna.” Cridius stroked her hair with a smile. “Are we finished here, Iris?” he asked, keeping his gaze on Reyna.

“Yes, Lord Cridius.” Iris bowed.

Out of curiosity, Reyna tossed her hair over her shoulders and noticed her locks had taken on an unexpected hue - they were now a vibrant shade of silver, identical to Seth’s.

“Graypelt Lunas are silver-haired. I believe the gods truly desire for you to be a favored Graypelt. I have never known the gods to bestow the Koi on outsiders.” Iris spoke to her in a low, careful tone.

“She’s a hybrid Luna, Iris,” Cridius said and Iris’ eyes widened.

“Milord!” Iris exclaimed, her eyes filled with alarm that worried Reyna. “The hybrids are to be protected, not marked. We must never tell anyone of her true nature.”

Cridius put his hands on his waist. “I found out only after I marked her. Surely you can figure a way out of this, if not then this is the will of the gods.”

“Why does it matter that I’m a hybrid?” Reyna asked. Would she bring downfall to Kuntheas as well?

“Oh, my dear, you are destined to become the high priestess, a role that demands purity and precludes mating!” Iris exclaimed. “Proceeding with this ritual, knowing it would doom the House of Triston, was reckless, Milord! As a hybrid, this mating ceremony granted her access to the latent Luna ability of the Graypelt.”

Grumbling, he looked at Reyna, his eyes bubbling with irritation. “Iris, as I mentioned, there must be a solution to this. The deed is done. She is my mate now and there is no turning back.”

Now, Iris just shook her head, still reeling from shock. “We shall discuss this later, Lord Cridius. The path awaits,” she said quietly. Then she looked at Reyna. “Good luck.”

“Come on,” Cridius said to Reyna but did not take her hand this time. Instead, he just walked ahead of her and after a quick glance at Iris, Reyna followed him.

A high priestess—wasn’t that Iris’ role? At least she wasn’t destined to bring further destruction to another kingdom. Following Cridius, she felt the weight of conflicting concerns on his mind, and a nagging desire to comfort him.

Cridius said, “Ah-huh,” once they were back out in the hall. “There’s no need to comfort me. The best part is yet to come: running the path.”

“What’s so special about this race?” Reyna asked him.

Cridius didn’t get a chance to respond. Out in the middle of the hall, his brothers stood waiting for them, and her eyes scanned them one by one. Her gaze moved over each of them, all armed with those Kois, forming a united, battle-ready front. Her hand instinctively slipped into her robe’s right pocket to caress her Koi. It wasn’t like any other - hers was an embodiment of Ator, which brought a smile to her face.

“She’s become an exact replica of the textbook Luna now,” said one of them.

She looked between his four brothers, wondering why he hadn’t introduced her to them yet.

“We’ll run the path and then reconvene at dawn,” Cridius said. “Come back to the tower at sunrise. The evening is yours to enjoy.”

“But, it wouldn’t be as delightful as yours,” one of them replied, and the group shared a rumbling laugh before leaving.

Suspecting that they were hinting at Cridius’ intentions to lie with her, Reyna sneered after them, shook her head and faced her mate.

“You are disgusting,” she said.

“You say that now, my sweet, but give it time.” His eyes slithered over her, and he smiled slowly.

“Didn’t Iris just say I should remain unsullied?” Reyna cocked a brow at him, trying to talk him out of his intentions that were so obvious in the way he now looked at her.

“Unmarked, unmated, unsullied. But in case you forgot, you’re now both marked and mated. There is no undoing that,” he stated with a wink. “And I intend to claim you in every sense of the word.”

When she did not respond, he continued walking down the corridor, leading her away from the Grand Hall towards the back of the citadel. As they walked through numerous guarded corridors, Reyna took notice of every detail, determined to keep an imprint of it in her mind.

“Cridius,” she called.

“Yes?” he answered, but continued walking.

“What is this path we’re running?” she asked.

“This is how we seal our bond as mates. We run the path the gods light all the way to the Triston Tower.” He turned to face her, forcing her to stop and said, “I claim you under the light of the moon, mate.”

When he turned away from her, she grabbed his arm, stopping him. The slight twitch in his brows when he turned around to face her again caught her attention. Although she tried to ignore it to a certain extent, he had a very imposing, fearsome presence that made her feel quite uncomfortable with him standing right there in front of her.

Those whiskey brown eyes watching Reyna made her feel the sudden urge to back away, but she didn’t.

“Do you want something?” he had to ask her when she did not say anything for a while.

“What are your plans for Decker?” she asked. “You know, the Highthaw Alpha.”

She just had to know, and running off with him to play mate bore no significance to her. He wanted to topple the ruling houses of the three other wolves and she had to replace out how he planned on achieving this.

“It is tradition to duel an Alpha in the Hero’s Forge.” He shrugged. “It is only fitting to honour them with death at dawn because they have placed their faith in the wrong gods.” He then stepped forward to stroke her hair with a sinister smile as he did so. “You need not worry, it will be a slow, agonizing death because you insist on discussing them rather than focusing on what your mate wants.”

Then he turned away from her and stepped into the open field behind the citadel, and after a few moments, Reyna followed him. It was obvious that he was unstable since he seemed to have forgotten he had forced this damn bond on her. There would be no need for this if she were strong enough to fight him.

Counting her steps down the short flight of stairs, she reached him at the bottom: watching as more armed guards patrolled the street. In quiet reflection, she gazed at the crescent moon.

“I recall you saying I would be aware once we mated. What did you mean by that?” Reyna whispered. Her gaze remained fixed upon the moon as she stroked her hair, fascinated by how it changed.

“You are truly wasting my time, Reyna. I am looking forward to this hunt,” Cridius growled.

Her eyes caught his. “Hunt?”

As he approached her, his intimidating, hulking figure filled her with dread. She stepped back in an attempt to get away from him, but he quickly closed the gap and grabbed her waist, propping her against him.

“The fact that you don’t know anything about your roots irks me!” he whispered quietly. His grip tightened, his cold, hard eyes drilling into her as if he was trying to read her mind.

Reminding herself to keep a level head and refrain from being too reckless in punishing her father, she remained calm.

“Could I just pry the answers I seek from your mind instead of asking?” she said quietly. While she hadn’t ransacked his mind yet, she was sure there would be things she couldn’t access.

He snarled. “It’s in your nature to disregard authority and rank, isn’t it? You continue to push me despite knowing what could happen to him.”

“If I told you that this is my attempt not to do that, would you believe me?”

He loosened his grip around her waist before saying, “Yes.” His eyes roved steadily over her face.

Squinting at him, she questioned the softness of his eyes and his reply. Now that his grip was slack, she could easily slip away from him, but she didn’t. Instead, she stayed still, her heart racing as she held his gaze.

“I would,” he murmured, his voice barely rising above a whisper. “We’re mates now, Reyna. I can sense all your emotions, so I know what is true. I can feel, at this moment, despite your resistance, that you don’t want me to let go. I feel the tingling in your body, a curiosity about how it would feel to have me kiss you and rid you of this robe, to run my hands all over you.”

Reyna swallowed. “That’s not-”

“Of course, blame it on the mate bond. But I didn’t think you were a coward, Reyna. As much as I detest your tenacity, it’s your most arousing quality,” he said, his eyes lingering on her lips. “You’re afraid of letting a male conquer you because you think it’ll make you weak. That’s why you’re still unsullied.”

As she forced herself to look away from him, she shook her head.

Cridius stepped closer. “But, my fiery Luna, it’s not weakness to let someone in. It’s allowing yourself to be vulnerable, to trust, and to let someone show you the strength that comes with vulnerability.”

Reyna backed away, breaking their connection. “I won’t let you manipulate me with some supposed mate bond.”

He chuckled, a low, throaty sound. “Manipulate? No. The bond merely amplifies what’s already there. You can’t deny the pull between us. It is the curse of the hybrid, attraction for the Alphas. It doesn’t matter how you feel about how we met, there is something within you that pulls you to me.”

She gritted her teeth, resisting the magnetic pull he described. “I won’t be another pawn in the gods’ game. I choose my own path.” Then she eyed him. “Even though you already forced one on me.”

Cridius raised an eyebrow, then he took a step back from her and turned away. “The journey has only began. No path is set as long as there are two other Alphas left. See you tie into the future of Kuntheas too you know. But now is not the time to discuss this. We must put on a show for the gods. As Alpha and Luna, we must run the paths lit by the gods, and you must reach the Triston Tower before the Alpha.”

Reyna cocked a brow. “And if I doesn’t get there first?” she wondered.

Besides, Cridius was devastating and would clearly beat her in a race. As Alpha he was faster, stronger and could outrun her.

“Oh, but you must, else you burn.” He smiled at her as he faced her. “Did you forget the oath spoken before our vow? Make it through the path in one piece and we rule as Alphas.”

She tilted her head to the side, not paying much attention to Cridius but to the Ember that flared out of nowhere in front of them. Inhaling hard, she stared at Cridius. It used to be one of her greatest comforts to know that Ember couldn’t hurt her, but now she was a bit concerned about the Graypelt Ember.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I’ve got nothing to lose, Alpha.” Gritting her teeth, she smiled. But she did, she would not let him make her a measly Luna. She still had a lot to prove, especially after the power boost she was yet to try out. “Please tell me you burn when I beat you.”

As Cridius laughed, he stroked her cheek and the sound of his laugh tickled her like moss underneath her barefoot.

“That has never happened. If by some miracle it does,” Cridius said with a shrug. “I am prepared to grant you one wish.”

With the fire flaring in anticipation, they stared at each other intently. Reyna untied her robe, smiling sweetly at him. As she stepped toward the path and waited for him to step to her side, she woke her Ember which enveloped her whole form. A sizzle filled the air, hotter than it had ever been with her Ember, and she exhaled in confirmation of her enhanced abilities and sharpened senses.

“See you on the other side?” he said.

After the fire had fizzed off of her, she shifted into her snow white wolf form: his eyes lit up as he watched her circle calculatedly around him before stepping back to the mouth of the fire path.

Still staring at her, he murmured, “You are breathtaking.”

Immediately after howling, her azure ability woke and she took off.

Catch up if you can, Graypelt.