Kael smiled with a cynical arrogance against Varg's icy hardness. In his smooth cashmere coat and meticulously styled hair, he shone like a diamond in this wild valley. If I knew Kael even a little, he didn't see Varg as a rival; he saw him as an invading Alpha trying to make a show of force with uncontrolled rage. Kael loved to emphasize that, unlike other Alphas, he was a fine diplomat.
"Honor... What a noble word. It sits a bit awkwardly in your mouth," Kael said, his voice melodic and dangerous, like a silk rope slowly tightening around a throat. "But Varg, honor doesn't fill the stomach, nor does it keep you warm in winter. What you call honor is actually a shroud for your incompetence and your never-ending brutality. Resorting to a 'fate' fairy tale to steal an Omega... that's a cheap trick, even for you. Being poisoned by prophecies suits children, not an Alpha-wannabe who looks mature in age but hasn't grown a gram in spirit."
Kael shot a contemptuous glance at the Council members, as if he knew the "price" of each one.
"Vespera was under my protection. She was an investment of the StoneHeart family, the guarantee of Alberta's silent peace. And you, with those barbarian hands, set this peace ablaze. Now you stand here talking to us about borders and war. Your war smells only of blood, Varg; ours is of order. You've killed enough of your kin—keep the blood on your hands away from my Omega."
Varg growled like a wolf bored with this wordplay. His disgust for Kael's sterile world was written all over his face. A mocking smirk appeared on Varg's face, signaling that he saw Kael as nothing more than a word-smith.
"To hell with your order!" Varg thundered. "What you call order is the Council's old, lazy dogs sleeping with the bones thrown before them. But listen to me... because this will be my last warning. To all of you."
Varg thrust his sword into the snow and walked toward the Council with unwavering authority.
"When my revolution begins, I will lay the pelts of those old dogs—who sit around this table feeding on the crumbs of the status quo—under my feet in the corridors of my manor! I will make them mere doormats. Then you will see who betrayed whom, and who the coward truly was."
While the old women of the ancient council rose up against this insolence, snarls erupted from the Alpha males. Varg continued as if each sound were the buzzing of a fly rather than a wolf's howl. He spat on the ground and grinned, baring his teeth.
"I will feed you all with packaged dog food!" he shouted, his eyes burning like a mad fire. "Maybe I'll even buy canned food for those who annoy me less. I'll put a collar on every one of you, chain you up, and tie you to my manor!"
A murmur rose among the pack leaders. While some looked at each other in horror, the warriors of Varg's clan began clashing their shields together. Alliances were splintering and reshaping in that cold air before blood had even been shed. It seemed the concept of peace had been completely erased from Varg's vocabulary.
Varg swept his gaze over a few young Alphas who still stood undecided.
"Make your choice, you cowardly curs," he said, his voice no longer mocking but a total threat. "Those who want to burn in the ashes of the old world can take refuge in Kael's mint-scented lies. But those who stand by me... when the Black Sun rises, they will receive the reward for every drop of blood spilled on this land directly from my hand. You will either be masters, or you will lay your pelts under my feet!"
Under the shadow of Varg's massive presence, I was squeezed between my father's pathetic silence and Kael's strong stance. But for the first time, I realized there was something more attractive in Varg's brutal honesty than in Kael's porcelain lies. He said exactly what he felt. I could hear only what came from his heart.
Kael, on the other hand, wouldn't look into my eyes and whisper, though he could have reached out and taken me. If he had said, "Vespera, come and wrap your arms around my neck," I would have taken his hand without looking back. But he stubbornly insisted on challenging Varg. Because of his hatred for the Alpha who had brought him to his knees and buried his face in the snowy roads, I couldn't see any pure love for me. Perhaps he, too, was afraid of losing the key that would ensure he remained the ruling Alpha. Or perhaps he truly feared Varg would hurt me.
When I took my first step onto the snow in my silver dress, every breath in the valley caught. The moonlight refracted off my skin—washed with that "dead" poison—like light trapped inside ice. When the eldest of the council struck his bone staff against the ground, the sound echoed like a death sentence.
"Varg!" bellowed an Alpha, one of the Council leaders. "As your kinsman and your Master, I... order you to remain silent."
"You can request it, Uncle," Varg said mockingly. "Your rank is not enough to make me kneel. None of your ranks are enough to make me kneel."
"I will not ask for your opinion. Your mind is clouded by the poison of prophecy," the Alpha said. He swept his hard eyes over me. I felt like a piece of meat being priced by its weight. They seemed to be weighing which part of me would make which dish. Would I be grilled? Or a stew?
"Freak... Half-breed... Omega..." the old man called out, each epithet hanging in the air like an insult. "Omega Vespera. Born of a human mother, the seed of Alpha Kraz. The freak born of poison, Varg's invasion. Vespera, whose blood runs cold. The loyal Omega of the StoneHeart family, Vespera, who is Kael's right."
I didn't have a very good resume for job interviews. It was impossible not to be reminded every five seconds that I was a freak. My resume summary seemed to consist of nothing but "FREAK" written in bold letters!
"Ancient laws state that a seal is slavery where consent ends. Tell us! Alpha of Calamity, Terror-Sower Varg, Northstorm Alpha Varg... do you want these bloody hands, this savage Varg? If you consent, you will be sealed here tonight and the blood feud will stop. But if not... this is a declaration of war. The forest will turn to ash tonight with your single word: 'No'."
My trembling hands gripped the bridal bouquet tighter. My eyes wandered through the crowd like a ship seeking a harbor, finally clashing with my father, Alpha Kraz, in the darkest spot.
The little girl inside me—the five-year-old child waiting for her father behind the bars of the orphanage—looked into his eyes with one last hope. She waited for a hand... just one hand to reach out and say, "My daughter, no one can use you like a lock."
But in Kraz's eyes, there was no fatherly affection; there was the precision of a stockbroker. The man looked at me not as a child, but as the last big project that would save his clan's reputation, quell Varg's anger, or keep his secret deals with Kael alive. As his eyes moved over me, he wasn't thinking of his daughter's fear, but whether that silver dress would be stained with blood.
Something in my soul cracked at that moment, louder than Alberta's hardest ice.
He never loved me, I thought. He didn't love my mother, and he didn't love me... I was just 'error management' for him.
To my left stood Kael; he whispered as he reached out his hands. "Vespera, my teary-eyed Omega. Let me bind your wounds," Kael said. He was struggling to suppress the rage in his voice. He wanted to silence the side of him that wanted to tear Varg's throat out at any moment and wrap me safely in his arms.
To my right stood Varg in his brutality. He hadn't looked at me, hadn't said a single word to charm me. He made no promises. He offered no comforting sentences. There was only a mocking smile on his face. He looked as if he were weighing the masculinity of Kael and the entire council on a sensitive scale.
I straightened my head.
"You want consent?" I said, my voice echoing like crystals shattering one by one against the valley walls. "How tragic it is for a council that never gave me a choice, for a father who put me on a podium like a sacrificial pig, to speak of consent..."
I looked at Kraz with the purest form of disappointment.
Slowly, I turned to Varg. I took a step closer into his shadow. Varg wasn't looking at me; he was preparing to burn the world down at the slightest sign of rebellion. I placed my hand gently on Varg's arm. I let my fingertips touch the skin of a stranger, light as a feather.
"I will be sealed with High Alpha Varg. I accept the proposal."
The valley froze instantly. The howling of the wolves was replaced by a graveyard silence. When those pale, deadly shadows emerged from the mists on the other side of the river, the smell of gunpowder in the air was replaced by the smell of mold and blood.
It was eerie. I had never seen anything more terrifying. It was scary enough to make me wrap prayers around my tongue. It was enough to haunt my nightmares for nights to come. The silence that cut through the wolves' grunts echoed like an executioner's sword.
I had heard of them in my childhood memories, sitting at the feet of the old wolves. I had never seen them. Sometimes they seemed like "asocial" creatures that I thought were exaggerated. You could hear vampires at any moment, but they were rarely seen. And when they appeared, rivers began to flow backward, and babies began to cry in their cradles. Birds' wings became a burden on their backs; they couldn't fly. Blind fate would trip you like a cruel goddess.
When they arrived, even the layer of ice on the river felt like hot lava.