Chapter One| The Ring and the Divide
The door clicked shut behind Malachai, his departure leaving an echo in the dimly lit cottage. For a moment, I simply stood there, the weight of his absence settling over me like a blanket too heavy to lift. I could hear the faint rustle of wind through the trees outside, the distant calls of birds, but none of it reached me. I wasn’t just standing in the cottage anymore. I was standing at a precipice—staring into the unknown.
The last words of the seer still buzzed in my mind like a low hum, relentless and cold.
Have a care how you use the ring, or you may not come back from this, Malachai.
What effect would this have on Malachai? What would this mean for the pack? The residue of her magic rippled across my skin, as the scent of burnt sage and damp wood tickled my nostrils, stirring me from my thoughts as I turned to face Freelah.
She sat in her weathered chair, the weight of years etched into her face—lines carved by time, wisdom, and sorrow. The fire in the hearth flickered, casting dancing shadows that twisted over her silvered hair, but even its warmth couldn’t banish the chill in the air between us.
I crossed my arms, fixing her with the quiet intensity that came naturally to me. “You said he may not come back from this, yet you gave the ring to him,” I said, my voice quiet but sharp as a knife cutting through flesh.
Freelah met my gaze, her tired eyes steady, but behind them, I saw the storm that brewed. She didn’t flinch. “I did.”
My frown deepened as my jaw clenched in an attempt to shield myself from the fury that I could feel rising inside me, “Why, Freelah? Why when you know the risks?”
Her gaze shifted away for a moment, her eyes searching the fire as though it held the answers. “Because he asked. And because I owed him that much.”
My frown deepened, “So your guilt led you to do something that would put Malachai, and by extension, the entire pack at risk?!” My voice cracked on the final word, an edge of disbelief threading through it. “Of all the times to pull a stunt like this Freelah, fuck! On the brink of war, with an enemy we can’t even name, Freelah, how can you not see how reckless this is?”
There was never a good time for something like this, but now, on the brink of war with an unknown enemy was most certainly not the right time.
Her gaze snapped back to me, anger flashing behind the fatigue. “Of course I know,” she snapped, her voice still laced with the guilt despite the edge, “But this wasn’t just his choice. It was mine… and the Goddess’s,” she whispered, her voice so soft that I almost didn’t hear it.
My expression twisted, “You think the Goddess wants him to lose himself?”
“No,” she whispered, her eyes lowering as though she could see a different path in the flames. “But I know that this needs to happen. I think She wants him to survive what’s coming. Survival and wholeness, however... those are not always the same.”
Survival.
Wholeness.
The words hit me like a wave, crashing over my thoughts and leaving me drowning in their weight. For a moment, I couldn’t find my breath. It was as if the air had been stolen from my lungs.
I turned my back to her then, pacing toward the hearth. My heart pounded, too fast, too loud, and I could feel the echoes of my thoughts rattling around inside my skull.
What had they done to him? Malachai, my alpha and closest friend—the man who had once led us with fire and conviction, was to become a shadow of himself.
“What are the risks of that ring? Tell me everything.”
She sighed, as she ran her weathered hand over the carved arms of her chair before continuing, “The ring... it suppresses the bond, yes,” she began slowly, her words measured, like she was afraid of what they might mean.
“But it doesn’t erase it. It turns the bond inward, poisons it. And because he is fighting against something that was given by divine will, it will change him. It will harden him.”
She sighed deeply, as though the weight of it all was becoming too much to bear. “If he wears it too long, he won’t simply stop feeling her. He’ll lose the ability to feel anything at all.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as the full implication of that statement settled like ice in my veins. My chest tightened with anger and dread, Malachai, a hybrid beast with lethal capabilities and no ability to feel? A weapon with no tether to its humanity—how could anyone, let alone Malachai, be expected to survive that?
He would be a threat, and the creatures of night be it Fae, witch, vampire, or otherwise would band together to end him, to end Shadowfang. How the fuck was I supposed to manage this?
By the time I opened my eyes, the tension had settled in my shoulders like iron.
“I’m really trying to understand both you and the Goddess right now, but I’m fucking struggling here.”
Freelah was quiet for a long time, her silence heavy between us. When she spoke, it was softer than before, the lines of guilt running deeper than I had ever seen them. She stood slowly, the wooden floor creaking under her weight as she made her way to where I stood. “I did it because he begged, I did it because of time,” she paused as though reflecting on her words.
“Such a funny concept-time. One minute we have loads of it, and then the next we’re chasing it, and just as you get a hold–even if slight– it slips right through our fingers as would a phantom.
Didn’t you see it Balfore? Malachai was breaking, and there just isn’t enough time to let him shatter and reassemble the pieces. I did it because even I don’t always understand the will of the Goddess.”
Her words hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. I had seen the look in Malachai’s eyes before he left, the wild desperation, the desire to be something more than what he had become. The bond with Elaine had nearly destroyed him once. I had hoped that time had healed him, but even with the ring the seer had made for him, it seems that time had broken him in ways I couldn’t begin to comprehend.
“But you’re right to be concerned,” she added.
“Watch him, Balfore. The ring will keep the bond silent, but it’ll never kill it, and that silence will drive him mad.”
I stared into the hearth, watching the last flames die into embers. I was his second, and damn good at it too, but what Freelah was asking me to do–that ring, that damned ring was going to cause a rift within the pack and now was not the time.
It didn’t matter though because Freelah acted with the blessing of the Goddess, and I couldn’t dismiss that. I had to believe that there was a reason for this. I could do this, I had to do this, there’s no other choice.
The seer regarded me, nodding her head as she realized that I had finally come to comprehend what was being asked of me. “You’ve been given a mission, Balfore. See to it that you succeed.”
“The Goddess never leads us astray,” I replied, hoping the words would help steel my spine for the task that awaited me.
She lowered her eyes, before whispering, “From your lips to Her ears.”
Her words sat with me long after I left the cottage. Long after the trees gave way to mist.
Three Months Later
The cold of the morning frost gripped the training field, coating everything in a thin layer of white. The sun had barely risen, casting the world in a pale, muted light. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the cold or the darkness that hung heavy in the air—it was the pain. The pain of warriors pushed to their limits. The grunts, the bruises, the ragged breaths—they filled the silence between each command barked by Malachai.
I stood on the edge of the field, arms crossed, watching as one of the young wolves staggered, his knees buckling. A moment later, he was on the ground, his stomach heaving as he vomited into the dirt. The rest of the pack kept pushing forward, determined to keep pace with their alpha, even though exhaustion was starting to settle in their bones like a slow poison.
I stood at the edge of the sparring ring, arms crossed, jaw tight.
Malachai didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink. He was a statue, a machine, giving no care to the breaking bodies in front of him. He just continued to issue orders—hard, cold, and without mercy.
“Up,” he barked. “Your enemy won’t wait for you to catch your breath.”
The young wolf—Kaiden, I think—struggled to his feet, his face pale, sweat and dirt streaking his skin. His eyes were glazed, but he managed to pull himself back into position.
I could see it–the fear, the exhaustion, and the resignation in their eyes. They were afraid of Malachai now. And it hurt to watch.
The boy struggled to his feet, eyes glazed.
I turned as quiet footsteps approached to find Malachai’s sisters, Faye and Chrisette, watched the scene with mirrored expressions of concern. Both of them were warriors in their own right, but today, they weren’t here for a fight. They were here because they, too, could feel the changes in their brother.
“He’s worse than he was after Elaine,” Chrisette murmured.
Faye scowled, her sharp features pinched with concern. “He barely speaks to us anymore,” she added. “And when he does, it’s like... like we’re strangers. All he talks about now is pack safety and beating the enemy. When we try to talk about anything else, he just shuts down. He’s different. He’s not the same.”
My heart sank, but I kept my gaze fixed on Malachai. I couldn’t show them that I, too, was drowning in frustration and helplessness. They were already in enough pain.
“You’re his shadow. So, you tell us, what the hell happened to our brother?“,
Faye was always the feistier of the two, never allowing room for a conversation to flow naturally, and always imposing her will, demanding answers. She would make a great alpha, I thought to myself as I regarded the pointed stare she gave me.
I didn’t answer immediately though. I was used to Malachai’s moods, the cycles of rage and silence, but this—this was something else. The last ring may have dulled the effects of the bond, but in its absence, he’d grown cold, distant, unfeeling, and he wore his indifference as though it were armor.
Of course you want a strong alpha, you want a skillful fighter, a protector, one who is calm under pressure, calculative even, but to have one who couldn’t empathize? Who didn’t prioritize bonding with his pack? It wasn’t just strong leadership that garnered trust, it was the relationships that were formed, it was the actual work of showing that you cared that mobilized men and women to stand behind you in a fight, to allow you to lead them.
Malachai seemed to have forgotten that. Since dawning that ring three months ago, I have watched it slowly chip away at him, and what made it worse was that I couldn’t speak to anyone about it. That hadn’t stopped anyone from noticing though.
“What happened to him?” Faye pressed, “And where’s Solina?”
I hesitated, weighing loyalty against necessity. I exhaled before choosing the latter, “She’s safe. She’s gone. That’s all I can tell you.”
Chrisette crossed her arms, “You think this is just about her?”
I shook my head. “No. This is about all of it. The disappearances, the murders. The enemy has been more active over the last few months. Creatures are being kidnapped at an alarming rate, some turning up dead, others have yet to be found.
Not knowing the purpose for these kidnappings or these senseless deaths is just getting to him. Not having the full picture means the enemy has the upper hand, and it’s just not a good place to be in. Your brother, he thinks if he keeps moving, keeps fighting, he can control it all.”
Another warrior collapsed in the dirt, and I decided that I’d seen enough.
“Alpha, a word, please” I shouted, as I moved away from the girls and made my way into the ring. Malachai turned, eyes blazing, no doubt livid at what he thought was a display of weakness rather than exhaustion.
“What is it, Bal?” He asked, all the more annoyed that I had interrupted his training session.
“It’s been over 6 hours, and they’ve gone nonstop without a break. Kaiden has already vomited, and Jackson just passed out. Maybe we’ve done enough for today?”
“Do you think the enemy is resting?”
“Even in war, there are breaks. People tire, tactics change, regrouping is a necessity. There’s nothing wrong with pausing or at the very least giving them a minute to catch their breaths.”
“This builds their endurance, when the enemy tires we won’t,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. Still, I insisted, “They need to be ready for an attack that we all know is imminent. If we exhaust them, we’ll be tantamount to sheep awaiting slaughter.”
“Are you questioning me, beta?”
“That is not my intent, alpha,” I said, holding my ground,” When it’s not the rigorous training, it’s the endless patrols. They’re exhausted. Half of them couldn’t fight off a rogue wolf right now.”
He growled low, “And when the enemy comes? When we’re outnumbered and outmatched? Will they be ready then?”
I stepped forward, before I whispered low enough for his ears only, “Not if you break them first.”
A tense silence fell between us.
“I’ve never known you to be a callous man, Malachai. Never, not even after Elaine. We need you, Malachai,” I said quietly, my voice low but steady. “The warriors need you to lead them, to care about them. You can’t lead a pack if you don’t care about the people in it.”
“I wouldn’t be pushing them so hard if I didn’t care.”
“Malachai, they are struggling to keep up, and you won’t even take a second to look at the state of them!”
I narrowed my eyes before I mind linked him, “Have you ever taken it off? The ring.”
He flinched, but barely.
“I haven’t seen you without it once in three months.”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“It is when it’s killing the man I swore to follow.”
He looked at his watch before giving me his back, “You know maybe it’s a good thing you interrupted me, otherwise I would have been later for my meeting with the witches.”
He hadn’t even bothered to await my reply, nor did he bother to extend an invitation before he strode off toward the packhouse, surely to ready himself for the meeting. I shook my head in disbelief before turning to face our gamma, who looked at me wearily.
“You can call it for the day, Tristan. Also, pull patrols to thirty-minute intervals, and rotate the outposts every eight hours.”
Tristan blinked. “That’s not what the alpha ordered.”
I met his gaze, my voice steel. “Do you want your warriors in fighting shape?”
Silently, he nodded his reply.
“Then it is now.”
I watched as the warriors staggered off the field, some supported by comrades, others too weary to walk straight. I felt their pain, their fatigue, and more than that—their fear. They were afraid of what the world was becoming. But they were also starting to fear their own alpha.
I turned back toward the house, jaw clenched. I wasn’t just fighting to protect the pack anymore.
I was fighting to protect what was left of Malachai’s soul, and I was running out of time.
As I walked back toward the packhouse, I found myself alone with my thoughts, questioning every decision I had made since the ring was placed on Malachai’s finger.
I couldn’t let him face this alone. Not when he couldn’t even see the damage it was causing him. As I entered the packhouse, I felt the weight of the future pressing on my chest. The real war was coming, and it would destroy us all if we weren’t careful.
And for the first time since I took my oath to Malachai, I wasn’t sure he could lead us through it.
