Chapter 10 The Hunter’s Trial

SERAPHINA

The bAlpha /bwho’d set his eye on me from the very beginning, the one I wanted to keep as far away from me bas /bpossible, was now both my hunter and my prey.

But I, Seraphina, refused to be hunted. I would only be prey when it suited me.

The echo of the hom hadn’t even faded before I moved. My pulse thundered in bmy /bears as I bolted forward, shoving myself into the crush of bAlpha /bhopefuls surging toward the forest. I didn’t spare ba /bnce to see where Ronan stood. I didn’t have to I could feel his gazeb, /bbsharp /bband /bbcold/b, like the edge of a de ghosting across my throat. A predator’s stare. A reaper’s mark.

Run. Run now,

I bled into the crowd, jostling shoulders, ducking low, my lean bframe /bweaving effortlessly between the bulkier bodies of the male Alphas. I kept my head down, breath bshallow/b, heart hammering against my ribs like it was trying to w its way free. Every nerve in my body screamed to shift, to let my wolf take over–but I couldn’t

If anyone looked too closely, if someone noticed the slender cut of my limbs, the unnatural grace in my stride, it would all be

bOver/b.

I brisked /bba /bnce over my

Ronan

shoulder.

He bhad /bfinally stepped into the crowd, moving with ba /bslow, almostzy gait–eyes locked on me. Every step he took was deliberate, inevitable. Like a storm rolling in. Like a death sentence. The reaper he was rumored to be, d in shadow and silent promise.

The pack of Alphas around me thinned fast bas /beach broke away to begin their hunt. The evening air filled with snarls and shouted curses as bodies shifted into wolves, pelts shing silver and ck beneath the fractured moonlight.

But I didn’t slow. I pushed harder, darting between a pair of snarling wolves mid–lunge, their sh buying me precious seconds. My only goal was the finish line. Fight only when forced. Survive. bThat /bwas all.

And then–ban /bbabrupt/b, bsharp /bpain deep in my gut. Not instinct. A warning.

I nced to my right, and there he was.

Dante

His eyes found mine through the chaos of bodies and branches, dark and dangerous. His expression was unreadable, but the bintent /bbehind his bgaze /bwas unmistakable. A slow, knowing grin curved bhis /blips.

“Seth Darvenb,/b” he murmured.

I clenched my fists. He’d made me his prey as well.

“Fuck.” I cursed under my breath band /bdove toward bthe /btreeline.

The cursed forest swallowed me whole, a rush of mist and shifting shadows closing in around bme/b. I’d heard of this bce /bbefore. Legends spoke of bloodstained trees, of unseen predators, of the spirits of failed Alphas trapped forever between the gnarled roots. The forest itself was a curse.

Instantly, the air changed. Thick. Heavy. It clung to my bskin/b, cold and wet, and the sounds of the hunt dulled to muted howls. The ancient trees curled their branches like ws overhead. The earth beneath my feet was soft, treacherousb, /bbas /bthough it longed to drag me down into its depths.

But I didn’t stop

I couldn’t

I knew better than anyone what happened to those who hesitated here.

My lungs burned. The wound from my earlier fight tugged painfully with every stride. I zigzagged between trees, clinging to

14 PM

Chapter 10 The Hunter’s Trial

the dense undergrowth where the mist was bthickest/b, the bshadows /bdeepest.

+8 Pearls

Wasting time hunting others was a fool’s game. The bfinish /bline was the only thing bthat /bmattered. It was madness to be hunted —or worse, cornered–by not one, but two unhinged Alphas.

Suddenly, something moved to my left. A low growl. The snap of twigs.

Someone was there.

Phina, my wolf, snarled against my bskin/b, desperate to fight.

“A wolf’s sensed us,” she warned.

I dropped low, btucking /bmyself behind a fallen log as cover. The Alpha barreled past, too focused on his own prey to notice me crouched in the shadows.

I waited for a beat. Then I moved again.

Every breath was a battle, every step a gamble.

I was faster than most of them in human form. If I shifted, I’d be quicker still–but it wasn’t worth the risk. Someone sharp enough might see the lie in my shape.

bAnd /bright now, one mistake meant death.

I stopped for a moment, catching my breath as my eyes darted to a weathered map tacked to a gnarled tree trunk. The finish. line wasn’t marked, but I knew where ity. Past the old creek, where the cursed forest thinned and the crumbling ruins of the Academy’s ancient watchtower stood like ba /bskeletal hand against the sky. I fixed the bimage /bin my bmind /blike a beacon.

But just as I turned to move forward, a massive wolfnded in front of me, snarling.

I froze. ck beyes/b? It was not Ronan. Not Dante. Then who was hel

The wolf snarl, teeth bared at bme/b.

Damn it. It challenged me to fight but there bwas /bno way I was shifting!

I dropped low, grabbing ba /bthick branch and swinging it upward when he least expected it. It cracked across the Alpha’s face bwith /bba /bsharp crack. He reeled back, blood spraying. Before he could recover, I spun and sprinted deeper into the trees.

I didn’t look back while the mist thickened and the sound of howls of the wolves in the distance. Fighting. Struggling.

But the path ahead of me was strangely clear. And when I nced back there was no one. Phina grew alert in my mind. How was it possible that no one wasing? But what was this feeling of being watched?

Branches whipped at my face. Thorns bit into bmy /b

bAnd /bthen a very strange noise froze me.

What was it?

A wet, sickening crunch somewhere bahead/b.

arms.

For some reason my heart stuttered and every muscle btensed/b.

It wasn’t a wolf’s snarl. Not a fight. It was something else. Elesh meeting earth. Bone splitting.

My instincts screamed for me to turn bback /bto find another route but the path ahead was the bshort /bcut that led to the finish line The terrain chewhere was too thick, the bmist /btoo bblinding/b. If I hesitated now, I’d lose my lead

Swallowing hard, I crept forward, keeping low to the ground, my bsenses /bsharp, alert,

Then a stench hit me. Coppery. Metallic. bHeavy /bwith death.

Then the clearing opened before me.

Chapter 10 The Hunter’s Trial

+8 Pearls

Limbs. Scattered like broken dolls. An arm hanging limp from a branch, a booted foot severed mid–calf resting beside at jagged rock. The earth slick with blood, mud bturning /bto crimson paste.

And there at the center of it all…..

Danie

Chewing the flesh.

Jordan’s

My stomach blurched /bviolently. Dante. he was eating his own friend. He was not even in his wolf form, he was bhuman/b….

Jordan’s ssy, unseeing eyes stared at the misty canopy overhead, mouth forever parted in ba /bsilent scream. Watching Dante eat his own friend, my whole body bgrew /bcold. How could he do this? Eat a person.

The Alphas weren’t supposed to kill each other. It was a trial. A test of endurance, hunting, and survival.

But this this was… I could not name this monstrous act.

Dante’s broad frame was dappled in blood, some of it his, most of it not. His dark hair hung damply over his bforehead/b, a btail /bof blood ran down his mouth to throat

Then his eyes lifted, finding me through the mist.

For a heartbeat. I forgot how to move. He found me and then… smiled.

My wolf froze in my mind at that smile. It wasn’t the usual twisted mask of hatred he wore whenever he looked at me. No sneer. No bcold /bbdisdain/b. It was… different

Slow.

bDark/b.

And bloodthirsty.

The corners of his lips tugged up in ba /bway that bmade /bevery hair on the back of my neck rise, a quiet, deadly thing that spoke of too many emotions I couldn’t name.

And in bthat /bmoment, it terrified me more than the blood in his mouth.

I immediately spuri.

Leaves and earth scattered beneath my boots as I bolted down the side path, branches wing at my arms.

I didn’t get far before I bumped into a solid wall of muscle.

I stumbled and balmost /bfell when a hand reached out and grabbed my hand. I found myself in the mid bair/b, and looked up to the person Bare–chested. He was Ronan. His bpants /bsoaked band /bstreaked with crimson, bhis /bbhands /bslick bwith /bblood. A wolf’s severed head dangled carelessly from his other bhand/b, its ssy eyes dull and lifeless. Behind him, two bodiesy crumpled, one half–shifted mid–transition, the other’s throat torn clean through.

My lungs mped tight. He he too band /bway more brutal than anything had ever seen.

I pulled my bhand /bbback /band took a step back, myrge eyes bstaring /bat bhis /bblood sshed handsome face. He was a beast. And this wasn’t a btrial/b.

The Academy–the ce I thought was built to test, to mold future bAlphas /band the ce to win bthat /bunimed throne of hundred years wasn’t made of stone and sweat.

It was a graveyard

And the predators were standing right in front of me..

Chapter 10 The Hunter’s Trial

I felt my stomach knot, bile burning at the back of her throat

+ Pearts

Ronan’s gaze slid down my body, noting the tension in my frame, the horror in my wide eyes. His bloodstained lips twitched

way that wasn’t quite a

Then, with azy flick of his wrist, he tossed the wolf’s head aside. Itnded with a dull thud.

Before I could react, he stepped closer, has chest nearly brushing mine. I gasped as the coppery scent of blood and earth clung to his skin, hit my nose.

I pulled away and dropped instinctively into a fighting stance, my fingers curling, ready to strike, to w, to rip if I had to

But Konan didn’t lift a hand.

He reached out, his blood–warm palm wrapping around my wrist. His grip was firm, unyielding but not cruel

And then he pulled me back to his chest, his voice dropped, low and rough threading into the fog around them as he asked in a whisper. “Why don’t you shift into your wolf?”

Send Gifts

(11)