Chapter 1 High Ranker’s Cell
In the early hours of the morning, the omega’s howl ricocheted off the pack dwellings of Kamer.
It wasn’t a danger warning.
Or a beckoning howl.
It was the painful kind.
But not the kind to indicate physical pain.
It was the kind that a wolf makes with loss.
Lyle was still deep in thought when he heard it. It was the most painful one he had ever heard. The kind the doctor let out when Callie’s mother got killed.
He sat in the small ‘High Ranker’s Cell’ that had a single window close to the ceiling. He had been there since the feast because the pain of what he had done to Chloe was unbearable to his wolf. Afraid that he would lose control, seek her out and forcibly try to mark her again, Lyle had requested his father to have him locked up till she left pack grounds.
In spite of the reinforced steel bars, his parents had insisted he wear a non-shifting charm till they were certain there was no danger. If Lyle’s wolf took control, him marking an omega would be a disaster. No one in the pack would be able to accept Chloe as their new Luna and one thing that Lyle was born to do was be the next Alpha of Kamer.
Thankfully, Mose was the only one who knew what happened. Josiah didn’t show if he suspected something but he looked devastated. And most of the pack members assumed that Chloe had developed an attachment to him that he did not reciprocate. Hence the trade. Lyle could not comprehend how everyone was so quick to blame Chloe for everything that happened to her. He would have been elated if the attachment he felt was felt by her too.
But it was all over now. Now it was just a waiting game. New Kurt was sending a party to pick Chloe up today and his mother told him that they would be gone by daybreak. And it was almost dawn now.
He had barely slept all night. Images of Chloe laughing, Chloe smiling, Chloe in his arms, Chloe as a little brown wolf in her hiding spot……they kept replaying in his mind like a movie reel. Was everyone right about her? Had she purposely tried to seduce and bed him to gain some kind of credence amongst other omegas? Or was she the innocent and sweet Chloe who he saw within the confines of his room?
If she indeed was the Chloe he knew, would she hate him now? Would she miss him? Would she even think of their time together as anything but a nightmare?
He knew it was Chloe howling. He had closed off his link up until now, to keep his wolf calm but, since he heard the howl, his wolf side was clawing to emerge. He couldn’t link her, no matter how much he tried now because his mother had already disconnected Chloe from Kamer.
So, his wolf wanted to go to her instead and to some extent so did Lyle. He wanted to see those beautiful big brown eyes one more time. He wanted to howl back, tell her he was in pain too. But he stayed strong and fought the side of himself that was bewitched by Chloe.
And the non-shifting charm was strong too. Lyle’s two spirits, wolf and human, had always been in sync.
So he concentrated hard and kept his wolf under control forcing him to stay buried. He tightly closed his eyes and the tears he was trying hard to hold back managed to escape from the corner of his eyes with the amount of effort it took to stay unmoving.
He was never going to let anyone see them. He was never going to cry over a she-wolf.
After all he was the heir to the biggest pack in the kingdom. The number of people who looked up to him was dwarfed only by the king.
He took a deep breath.
It was all for the pack. His strength, his power, his speed, his whole life. It was all for the . He was going to be okay, his worst temptation was going to be gone soon.
If only he could stop hearing those four words over and over again in his head.
You never say goodbye.
