I ran with my pack, lifting my head as I howled as loudly as I could, the noise ringing all across campus. We’d been up early and the crescent moon was sharing the sky with the rising sun, the two most beautiful celestial beings in the solar system united just in time for my birthday. Coincidence? Hardly. They were here to celebrate just for me.
Max’s birthday was in four days, but mine was on a Saturday so it was the perfect choice for the party. And I was only a little bit smug about that.
I finally turned my pack back into The Wailing Wood and slowed to a halt where we’d left our clothes beneath an ancient oak tree to the side of the path. My Wolves gathered around me, nuzzling my neck before I shifted back into my Fae form and pulled on my sweatpants then pushed my feet into my sneakers.
Everyone was soon dressed, though most of them had arrived in their pyjamas so Alice was in a slinky pink nightdress as she approached me, running her palm down my chest.
“Happy birthday, Alpha.” She leaned in to kiss me, but I gave her my cheek as a yawn ripped through me. She frowned, running her hand even lower. “Let’s go back to your room and treat you.” She bit down on her lip seductively and I was tempted for a moment. But lately I was getting kind of bored with having my every need met at the drop of a hat. Being treated like a king was great and all, but sometimes I ached for a challenge. And I seemed to be aching for it more and more lately.
“You go have fun, I’ll catch you at the party later,” I said with a wink and she looked as shocked as if I’d slapped her. They all started howling and whining and I scowled. “Go have fun,” I commanded in my Alpha tone and they whimpered as they shrank back then grouped together as they headed off down the path. “And you can join in today, Maurice!” I called as an afterthought and he looked back at me, his eyes wide and full of actual tears.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I’d been making him stand outside the room while we fucked like rabbits for weeks on end as punishment for him taking over my pack after I’d gotten fleas. But as it was my birthday and I was feeling super nice today, I figured it was time to end his long spell of blue balls.
“Yep, go nuts,” I said and he howled like crazy, jumping up and down while the others immediately welcomed him deeper into the fold. The rush of power that gave me wasn’t quite as sweet as I’d wanted it to be. Maybe now I was twenty, I was getting used to being top dog all the time. But when you were at the top, there was nowhere else to climb. And that was just a little bit…boring.
I wanted to work for stuff in my life again. Hence why I was goading Darcy Vega at every chance I got. She had no idea how close she was to getting past my defences in Elemental Combat. I’d been thoroughly fucking shaken on more than one occasion by her attacks, but my cocky smile and unfaltering bravado gave her no idea that my shields had sometimes been a second from shattering or that occasionally, her attacks were so skilled, it took every ounce of concentration I had to defend myself. And I relished it. Fighting Tory didn’t give me quite as much as of a buzz because her sister had it out for me so bad that she was practically on fire with it.
I’d been fighting with the Heirs my whole life and I loved that, but there was nothing like a new opponent. One I had to figure out, assess, conquer. This fresh challenge lit me up from the inside out. I was actually rooting for her in a small way. Though I could never tell anyone that. Because yeah it was a thrill, but the implications of that reality were not fucking good.
She was a Vega. If she beat me, that was it. It officially made her a worthy opponent. One who everyone in the kingdom would acknowledge. And I was going to fight my ass off to make sure that didn’t happen. But the determination in her eyes and that desperate need in her to hurt me couldn’t be ignored. Had I deserved it? Well, that was debateable. And it was also a debate I wasn’t gonna get into with myself right now.
I whipped out my phone, shooting a text to Caleb with a smirk on my face.
Seth:
What are you doing?
Caleb:
I was sleeping.
P.S. Happy birthday. I have a present for you.
I bobbed on my heels as excitement ran through me.
Seth:
Well why don’t you come and give it to me?
If you can hunt me down that is…
I pressed send, training my ears on the woods around me. He might be coming for me already, cheating bastard that he was.
Caleb:
Run for your life.
A laugh escaped me but I didn’t run. I moved to the oak tree and started climbing until I was up in the branches, gazing down at the path below with a grin on my face.
My blood was pumping and adrenaline made my heart skip. This game was more than just a bit of fun for Caleb. I relished every second of it. But my favourite part was when he caught me and we fought like wild dogs.
The wind blew and sent my hair flying around me.
My muscles bunched as an instinctive prickle ran up my spine. I cast a solid wall of air below me and released a breath of laughter, loud enough for him to hear if he was close by.
He appeared in a blur and crashed into my air shield so hard, he was thrown to the ground on his back with a yell of rage.
I dropped from the tree, laughing my ass off as I fell on top of him, wrapping my hands around his throat. “Yield.”
His mouth hooked up at the corner and he threw a solid punch to my side. “Happy. Birthday. Asshole,” he said with every punch he landed, laughing with me as he shoved me off of him. I tried to get up but he dove forward with hunger in his eyes, grabbing my arm as he tried to sink his teeth into my wrist.
I bashed my other fist against his head and he snarled as he dove onto me, wrestling me into the mud as he tried to get near my throat. Our laughter had thoroughly died and I growled ferociously as I fought back, rolling us over and throwing heavy punches into his gut as we both scrambled to get the upper hand.
His dark blue eyes were alight with the bloodlust and he caught a fistful of my hair as I weighed him down, wrenching my head backwards as he lurched toward my neck.
“Fuck,” I exclaimed as his teeth sank into a vein, my breathing quickening as he immobilised my magic.
He wrapped an arm around me and in a burst of speed, carried me to the oak tree and slammed me back against it, his fangs sinking deeper into my neck.
His body pressed flush to mine and a groan escaped my throat as his muscles hardened against me, unable to help getting off on this. He crushed me against the gnarled bark even harder and I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, gripping him firmly as he fed. He was the only Vampire in the whole of Solaria I’d ever let drink from me. And I was starting to get a taste for these games, even the biting. Shit does that make me a masochist?
“Cal,” I growled, my other hand running up the smooth plain of his back.
He pulled his fangs free, lifting his head to look at me and a line of blood spilled from the corner of his lips. I had the serious urge to lick it away and the look in his eyes at that moment said he might not mind that at all. But he was my friend, an Heir. I may have had more than the odd fantasy about him, but I never acted on it. Not since that one time where we’d shared a girl and accidentally kissed each other (or that was the way Caleb told it). We’d been absolutely fucking wasted. But we weren’t drunk right now. And the way his body felt against mine was good enough to send the blood in my veins rushing really far south.
“I think you just sent a hurricane through my fucking throat,” he rasped.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I taunted and he barked a laugh, making my gaze drop to his mouth again. He had morning stubble and bed hair. It was my favourite look on him. Effortlessly fucking gorgeous. It was a serious shame he was straight. Well, at least when he was sober.
His throat bobbed and I was aware our chests were still pressed together and there was no reason for that now. I still had my hand on the back of his neck and I dropped it, wondering if he’d step away, but he didn’t.
“Where’s my present then?” I asked, arching a brow and he finally stepped back, dropping my gaze.
He cleared his throat, pushing a hand through his unruly blonde curls. “Here.” He shoved a hand into his pocket and tossed me something.
I caught it out of the air, looking down at the greyish rock in my hand. My jaw dropped as I felt the hum of power emanating from it. The call of the celestial being it belonged to. This stuff was rare. Rarer than a diamond growing on a Heptian Toad’s ass.
“Moon rock?” I gasped.
There was a lottery every year in Solaria and the ten winners were permitted to visit the moon. You had to be one lucky son of a bitch to get a ticket and it didn’t matter if you were the richest asshole in the world, AKA me, you couldn’t buy your way into it. I’d tried to bribe the Fae who ran the expeditions a thousand times. Written him countless letters, visited him (alright stalked him and knocked on his door at four am – twice) and fucking begged him to give me a ticket.
No Werewolf had ever been. And we were made for the moon. Practically moon-born for the star’s sake. But him and his fancy little magic that managed to transport Fae to the moon – which he kept a classified fucking secret though I’d tried to discover it on a gazillion occasions – was kept firmly locked down and guarded. So no moon trip for me. But I knew what this was in my hand because I’d seen those smug just-been-to-the-moon assholes waving them at the cameras on television every year while I seethed.
Caleb nodded then reached into his pocket again and took out a silver ticket that glittered in the morning light. He held it out to me and I couldn’t even lift my hand to take it as I met his gaze.
“No way,” I breathed, eyeing the words printed across it. My heart stopped. Actually ceased to fucking beat.
“Way,” he laughed.
“No fucking way!” I pointed an accusing finger. “I swear to the stars, Caleb Altair, if you’re screwing with me-”
He slapped the ticket into my palm. “I bought over three hundred thousand lottery tickets,” he said with a simple shrug like it meant nothing. “In fact, I’ve been buying that many every year since you lamented on your sixteenth birthday that you’ll never get to stick your dick in a moon crater. Figured it had to pay off eventually.”
“You did this for me?” I choked out the words and he shrugged again.
“The moon’s your favourite thing in the world, man. And I never know what to buy you.”
I launched myself at him, wrapping my whole body around his and licking his fucking face because oh my stars, I was going to the fucking moon!
I howled and howled so loudly that Caleb had to clamp his hands over his bat ears.
“When!?” I bounced up and down and he shoved me playfully with a bark of laughter.
“In August,” he said with a smirk and I hugged him again because shit, this was the best present anyone had ever gotten me. And Alice had bought me a vibrating butt plug once that had changed my life.
“This is everything,” I told him stepping back. “Everything.”
“Good.” He beamed like an asshole, then clapped me on the shoulder. “You ready to party until we pass out tonight then?”
I grinned, feeling like I was never going to frown ever again. “You have no idea.” And this incredible, momentous moment of my life made me decide on something else too. If I was going to visit the moon, then I was going to make her proud of me first. So I needed to talk to Darcy Vega.
***
I spent the afternoon decorating the ice castle on Aqua Lake with Max, covering it in flowers and vines and growing huge lily pads around it where people could sit and make out or whatever. It looked fucking awesome. Even more so when I was heading back there in the evening in a nice shirt and pants; the whole place was lit up under the night sky by a thousand Faelights glowing in the windows. Darius, Caleb and Max were waiting on the lakeshore and students were heading across the ice into the castle’s depths where music thumped.
The three of them dove on me as I arrived and I tussled with them, grinning as Max shoved a shot into my hand. A bartender stood nearby handing them out to everyone entering the party.
“To being one year closer to claiming the throne,” Max said, raising his own shot glass while Darius and Caleb grabbed shots of their own.
I drank down the gingersnap rum then howled to the sky, ready to have the night of my life. The bartender ran around us, grabbing the shot glasses and replacing them with our favourite drinks in cups made of actual ice without a single word.
My eyes were drawn to Caleb and I gave him a surreptitious once over as I sipped my vodka and Redtaurus. He was wearing a black button down which his muscles were bulging against and a pair of distressed jeans. His eyes shone with that glint that said he was going to get up to mischief tonight and I was definitely here for it.
“So how did it go locking Mildred in her room?” Darius asked and Caleb smirked.
“She headbutted the door like a charging bull, dude. No lie.”
Darius grinned darkly as we all burst out laughing. We had to do whatever it took to make him happy. He was family. The Heirs were a special pack to me. One where there was four Alphas and no bullshit. It was bliss.
We headed into the party where the central ice chamber was so perfectly fucking decorated it took my breath away all over again. I may have wielded earth to add the archways of flowers and the indoor garden in the next chamber over, but Max’s magic really was something to marvel at. The dance floor glittered with rough crystals that ensured everyone kept their grip on it and to one side of the room was a steaming pool where students were splashing around with drinks in their hands. I could take credit for the bar, the whole thing carved out of a huge tree I’d grown and shaped.
A round of wild applause filled the air as everyone spotted us and I waved my hand to cast a confetti of blue petals over the crowd. I emptied my drink before someone passed me another one and I was soon getting a light buzz going. We headed to the central room and the walls of ice glittered with purple, blue and pink lights. A DJ was blasting out tune after tune and students were already cramming onto the dance floor, going crazy for the music.
My gaze snagged on the Vegas dancing with the Asses across the room. Geraldine was grinding up against Justin Masters, wearing a flamboyant pink top hat to match her tight pink dress. I had to hand it to Max, the girl had a hot body. She was athletic in the way that made you wanna find out how flexible she was. Though I couldn’t make much sense of the crazy stuff that spilled out of her mouth most of the time. Max seemed to dig it though. And he clearly wanted to dig it right then as he headed toward her and we all followed.
“Hey Gerry.” He plucked her hat off of her head, flipping it onto his own and she rounded on him with a scowl.
“Give that back you overgrown seabass!” She tried to grab it, but he took hold of her waist as she did so and spun her around to the music. She fought for all of two seconds before letting him pull her closer and starting to grind shamelessly against him while muttering something about a devious dogfish.
“Hey babes.” I nodded to the Vegas as they danced with their friends, completely ignoring us like we didn’t exist. Though Tory’s eyelinered eyes kept shooting toward Darius really unsubtly. She wore a two piece skirt with a floral top and Darcy wore a dark blue maxi dress which matched her hair. They looked hot enough to melt the whole castle.
I tossed back another drink and got a zing of confidence shooting through me. Not that I needed the confidence hit for most things. But there was something I’d been planning to talk to Darcy about all day which required me unloading a few of the emotions I kept locked down deep in my chest. And that shit was going to need the alcohol.
“Hey, can I have a word?” I swooped in to make my move, dropping my arm over her shoulders and trying to steer her off the dancefloor.
“You can have two.” She ducked out of my hold, spinning to face me with a glare. “Back off.”
“Please.” I gave her my big wolfy eyes and she didn’t even melt. Not even a little bit. And that was just unheard of. “It’s my birthday.” Totally pulled the birthday card. And I was not ashamed.
She rolled her eyes then folded her arms. “What is it?”
Winning.
“Come on, it’s too loud in here.” I gestured for her to follow me and she glanced over her shoulder at her sister, sharing some sort of silent twin message before heading after me through the crowd.
I led her down a corridor of ice with glittering lights strung above and a couple making out against a wall like they were having a who can eat the most face competition.
We stepped out onto a balcony which was like something right out of a fairytale, the view over the lake enough to steal your breath away.
“In.” I directed the students who were hanging out there and they all scampered inside like mice, leaving us alone.
Darcy watched them go with a little unease in her eyes then straightened her spine as she faced me.
I leaned against the railing, pushing a hand into my hair as I jerked my head to beckon her closer. “Come on babe, I won’t bite you.” I gnashed my teeth playfully which earned me an even darker look.
I sighed, twisting to face the view and trying to tug out a few of those emotions I was always trying to pretend didn’t exist. The problem was, whenever I unpacked them it felt like my heart was being kicked in with a steel-capped boot. And I hated feeling that way so much, it was just a whole lot easier to leave them undealt with. But I was going to try for once. Because…well, because it was my birthday and maybe I wanted to move into my twenties with one percent less guilt weighing down my organs. Plus I wanted to impress the moon. So there was that.
“Do you like the castle?” I asked her, gazing down at the water below. Max had used his magic to wield hot tubs out of ice that floated on the surface which was just about the most impressive water magic I’d seen. They weren’t melting even a little bit.
“It’s beautiful…but totally over the top.” I sensed her moving closer and fought the urge to turn my head, sure she’d back off the second I did.
“Twenty is a big deal. I’m not a teenager anymore,” I said with a shrug.
“Still an asshole though,” she commented and I snorted a laugh.
“I’m just a creature forged by circumstance.”
She tsked and annoyance flared inside me. If she knew the pressure I was under. If she had any idea what it had taken for me to get to where I was today…
“You’d have done the same, you know. If you were brought up like I was.” I tried to disguise the bitterness in my voice, but it leaked in a little. I still wasn’t looking at her and didn’t plan to. Maybe it wasn’t because I thought she’d run away though. Maybe it was because I was scared of what I’d see in her eyes. Hate. Contempt. Disgust.
Darcy Vega’s eyes could cut into my flesh as keenly as a knife. And that was reason number three hundred and fifty eight of why I hated her back. Why I’d wanted to punish her from the second we’d met.
“You’re wrong,” she said coldly. “I’m not like you. Even if I’d been brought up in Solaria-”
“Bullshit,” I snapped, trying to rein in my temper because dammit I wanted to try and talk rationally for once. Not bite and snap. I was making an effort and already royally fucking it up.
I turned to her at last and she lifted her chin. And there they were, those dark green eyes which held my downfall in them. The ones which were an ocean of goodness. I couldn’t compete with that. It was the one thing I lacked in barrels.
Maybe I wanted to believe she would be just like me if she was brought up here, that her moral compass would have been swung to due south by society, by her parents, by the way of the Fae. Because the idea that that wasn’t true meant one thing only. I was a bad person. A cruel, fuck up of a guy who wouldn’t have been good even if I’d had mortal parents who’d molly coddled me instead of the ones who’d left me on a mountain to fend for myself when I was five years old. I loved my parents fiercely. But even with all their affectionate ways, they’d raised me harsh and cold. I’d been an Alpha in the making ever since I’d stepped off that mountain. They’d seen something hard in me and wanted to make it harder. And I’d let them because maybe I’d seen it too.
“Believe what you want, Seth,” Darcy said, sounding tired of me. I’d probably be tired of me too if I was her. “Did you bring me out here just to try and convince me I’d be an asshole if we traded lives?”
A whine left my throat and I clutched the railing, forcing my gaze away from her again and trying to set free the emotions I needed to offload. To slit open the wounds I so desperately wanted to heal. Maybe this wasn’t about putting on a good show for the moon. Something was plaguing me about her lately. That if I didn’t deal with all the shit that had happened between us, I was never going to be worthy of the throne when I claimed it. I’d just be an unworthy fuck up who didn’t deserve to rule his people. So it needed to be done. But I just couldn’t…dammit why is this so hard?
After so many years of stifling and repressing my emotions, it was all locked down too tight. But I had to try.
“I don’t want you to hate me,” I forced out, my shoulders tensing, stealing a glance at her. She looked suspicious of course. “So…that’s what I wanted to say,” I finished weakly. Fuck, that was the worst apology ever. In fact, it wasn’t even an apology. It was a statement. But even as I tried to think of a way to actually say sorry, the word got stuck in my throat and I heard my mother’s voice ringing clearly in my head.
Don’t ever let your enemies see you have a heart.
The box of emotions inside me ceased to rattle and I drew in a breath as I became numb all over again.
“You don’t want me to hate you?” she echoed hollowly. “After you cut off my hair? Humiliated me? Hurt me? After you blackmailed me and my boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend,” I tsked, unable to stop myself as a surge of anger rose in me. I rounded on her with a snarl and butted against a solid air shield she’d cast around herself. But I wasn’t aiming to hurt with magic anyway, I was going to do it with words. “You’re living in a fantasy, Darcy. You’re a Princess of Solaria. You and your boyfriend are going to end in a fiery fucking blaze if you don’t stop it before it’s too late.”
Her eyes flared with fury. “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a warning,” I growled. “Don’t be an idiot.”
“I don’t need advice from you,” she snipped. “I know what I’m doing.”
She went to storm away, but I cast a wall of air in front of the doorway so she couldn’t and she turned back with her teeth bared. She was looking more and more like a true Fae these days. There was hardly any fear showing in her expression anymore. And when she got the last of it under control, she was going to be a force to be reckoned with.
“I know better. I know this world. And I know what they’ll do to him when it goes to hell,” I growled. “And do you know what will happen to you?” I stalked closer and that venom in her eyes seeped over my flesh, making it sizzle and burn.
“What?” she demanded on a breath.
“You’ll fall from grace. You won’t get backing for the throne. The papers will rip you apart. Seizing power is pointless if no one in the kingdom will work for you and help you rule the entirety of Solaria. Are you willing to lose your chance at that because of him?”
It wasn’t like I wanted her to rule. Maybe I should have been encouraging her to keep fucking Orion and wait patiently for her imminent downfall. But I just didn’t have it in me to swallow the truth. She deserved to know what she was risking.
A moment of tense silence stretched between us and I got to see what she was truly afraid of. It was written in every corner of her beautiful damn face. She wasn’t scared for herself, she was scared for him.
“Leave Lance alone,” she warned in a powerful voice. “If you want to take me on, then do it with everything you’ve got. But leave him out of this.”
“Might not be my choice to make in the end, babe,” I said with a shrug, dropping the wall of air.
She stared at me for a long moment and I opened my mouth to go on but she walked inside, taking out her Atlas, no doubt to text her Professor and tell him what a fuckwit I was.
And the award for the worst apology ever goes to…
