1.
TESSA POV
I try not to think of my family’s anger when they find my letter explaining why I’ve vanished. The chilly breeze is stabbing daggers into my aching head.
At least I’m alone on this ancient train platform. It is not surprising. Hardly anyone chooses to leave here. Better than working in hellish underground mines, or facing the cold of the mountains. Farming is considered a winning option by most.
I’m officially quitting this life. Pretending last night never happened. That he never happened.
Ignoring the lingering pain just above my right hip I keep my eyes trained on the horizon, willing my train to arrive faster.
I have to wait almost three years to apply. Alpha Hale stopped all recruitment just as I came of age.
But I kept training. Honed my skills in archery, and when shifted into wolf form, scent tracing. Two sought-after skills. The kind that gets you a permanent Beta position in the packhouse. Never seeing anyone from here again.
Wardens judged my skills in complete silence during the trials. I acted calm, but wept with quiet joy when my acceptance letter finally arrived.
Out of nowhere, the scent of violet hits me, my wolf stirring with unease.
“Juno! We’re going to miss the train!”
I know that voice. Malva Kellett. Short and curvy, with a messy black pixie cut, her non-stop mouth demands attention. I grip my bow and arrows, long copper hair swishing over my shoulder. My wolf urges me to hide.
Shit! They’ve been selected too?
Forever a coward, I dart into the nearest dark corner where a wide wooden post merges into a thick holly bush. It’s pathetic but necessary, the sharp leaves scratching my cheek.
The two women cling to vicious gossip and a fake friendliness that won’t last once the Alpha starts ranking and cutting. I’m wearing clinging tan pants and white-buttoned shirt. Nothing like their heavy, brown farmers skirts. I wanted to look like someone who can fight.
“Now, I know Bethany cheated with that lumberjack. What about Liam Connory? He found his mate…Raeanne Birch?”
“Yes! That’s right. Bet he wishes he hadn’t screwed her sister now!” Juno snorted, swishing her thick brown curls.
Malva continued her usual vicious rant. “Miserable little sourpuss isn’t she? Did you hear about Alice Graham’s youngest sister, the slutty one, she is now mated to…oh I cannot get the name…”
“Was it that Luca character? The scarred one? He’s just got out of lock-up?”
My heart freezes, my meagre possessions almost hitting the floor. My mind dredged up the last time I saw Luca. Wild black hair swinging, my blood smeared upon his face, those dark eyes filled with the most dangerous intent.
“No! Luca spent the whole night asking where Tessa was! My mama told him to get away from her stall.”
Juno tuts before giggling, her brown curls shaking. “Tessa Darnell? Eurgh. Why bother booking for her?”
“Boring virgin sex?” Malva sarcastically jabs. “Riveting conversation?”
“You know she attempted the skills trials too?”
I winced at Malva’s cackling. “What the fuck in? Mutism? How to pick potatoes! Can she even shift because she can’t fucking talk!”
“With that shitty family tree, I doubt it! Maybe into a rat.”
“Juno you’re too evil!” entertaining themselves at my expense.
There is nothing like being witness to your own character assassination. Maybe I deserve it. I dodged a lot of full moon runs and am currently standing silently behind a bush.
The scent of thick, choking smoke approaching leaves me beyond grateful.
“Train!” Malva screeches. A blood-red, rusting steam engine quickly screams into view, the squealing brakes deafening. Burgundy carriages trundle past, etched signs on each shining door.
As per our acceptance letter, the final four coaches are marked “First Years.”
Malva leaps at the carriage door. “HEY EVERYONE!”
Huge clouds of hot smoke billow around, trapped under the stations shoddy wooden roofing. Juno splutters whilst I sprint, scrambling into a different carriage just as a whistle blows.
If someone questions it, I’ll say the smoke stopped me seeing the signs.
Moving quickly, eyes still stinging, I stride forward, my head high. Only for my foot to hit something solid. A bag or pair of boots just as the train shunts forward.
The entire floor lurches beneath my feet, my long coppery hair flying into my eyes, my bag and bow scattered to the floor.
I don’t scream, but another firm chug sees me plunging towards the right hand side of the carriage. My feet leave the ground, my hands clawing at thin air.
My ass is going to smash through the train window. If I don’t die from blood loss, I’m definitely going to die of shame.
Except I land onto something solid. Warm. Smelling of earthy oak and berries. A surprised grunt reminding me of a feral dog. Only for even more solid, leather-clad heat to wrap around my waist.
Oh Goddess. I’m on a guy’s lap. Already blushing, I look up and flinch. I’ve landed upon one smirking, very amused-looking man.
Short, curling dark brown hair, matched with a short, scruffy beard. But the eyes of a tiger. Amber with green at the very edges. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
The train’s juddering track keeps me unbalanced, my feet dangling like a child’s. Propped up on his thighs, I’m almost at his eye level. His other arm lifts up, palm flat against the chair ahead forming a barrier, my throat tightens up.
This is mortifying.
“Working fast there Maxim, we’ve not even left the peasant section!” a man shouts, his short black hair twisted into spikes. A group of men and women chuckle along.
Peasant section. Of course that’s what they think of people from the farming set.
“They’re just throwing themselves now!” another shouts across, gaining himself a round of laughs. The spiky-haired man added merrily, “Hazel won’t be pleased!”
“Killjoy!”
This Maxim guy seems annoyed at her name being mentioned. I should get out of this weirdness immediately.
“Did she not come visit you in the summer?” his friend shouts down the carriage.
“Princesses don’t drop down the levels, ” Maxim replies curtly before looking straight at me with curiosity.
I know I look furious. My cheeks will be red, my brown eyes narrowing. So he means Hazel as in the Alpha’s daughter? Princess Hazel?
Goddess this is just too much to understand in one go. He is too much. At least judging by his tight, navy blue shirt, he isn’t a Warden. Just some guy I can forget I ever crashed onto.
I lean forward to get my feet to the floor and leave, but he roughly whispers, “Don’t.”
I freeze. “What?”
“Stay right there, Feisty.”
Before I can inform him I’m not a damn pet, his friends stand up and move towards our end of the carriage.
My wolf betrays me completely, sending a hot bolt of warmth down to my toes as his hand tightens around me each time the carriage hits bigger bumps.
It’s keeping me steady, or edging me closer to his chest. Either way he’s up to something.
His gathered friends are all wearing the same Gamma navy blue shirts. Their eyes flit between me and Maxim, my ass bouncing into him harder with every racing mile of track.
“You heard?” the spiky haired one says in a low voice. “Alpha Hale’s latest?”
“Apart from opening up to new recruits? What now?” a shaggy blonde, heavily bearded man asks. Without thinking I sat up a little straighter, ignoring the tightening hand on my waist.
“Being mated outranks where you come in your skills tests.”
“Bullshit!” The blonde exclaimed.
“Alpha Hale said it himself to the Wardens. Mated Gammas and Betas won’t run off like headless chickens in the middle of a battle to get their claiming bite and dick in-”
“Or botch an assassination?” Maxim adds just as I shudder at the mention of biting. “More reliable Betas and Gammas. I get it. Makes sense.”
The blonde shrugs, “Well then, it only makes it harder for us single guys now. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”
“Doubt it. I heard Alric was the fourth one in three years to find their mate and ditch years of training mid-battle.”
Another judder causes Maxim’s hand to land on the sore bit of my hip. When I flinch he quickly lifts his thigh, casting me upwards so that I crash against his chest, his arm now wrapped around my shoulder. “Hmm,” rumbles quietly out of him.
His friends look as awkward as I feel. The man with the dark spikes has his baby-faced features twisted into a grimace, “Well, I think it’s a shit rule. It should be about ability only.”
Maxim said nothing. Has he forgotten he still has hold of someone against their will?
“The fucker abandoned his post.” the shaggy blonde added, leaning over the seat in front of us like a lion. “He deserved the Pit for that. He could have handled everything so differently.”
“I dunno. When it’s a mate bond, they say all thinking goes out of the window.”
My stomach tightened painfully. The Pit. A shove over a clifftop delivered by the gigantic Alpha Hale himself. Victims hope to die on the way down and not with shattered bones and hungry rats.
“Maxim, I think we’re scaring your girl,” the lion-like blonde added, frowning down at me with honey-coloured eyes.
Maxim’s grip loosens. “Well this feisty thing can go and -” only for Malva to slam open the connecting door.
“Hey guys! I’m a first year but I’ve got a cousin in-” before her mouth hung open in blissfully silent shock.
She’s never seen me on a gorgeous stranger’s lap before. Certainly not with another two muscular titans for company.
“Oh my Goddess! Tessa?”
I say nothing. Mainly because I can’t. Glancing down I see the top two buttons of my shirt have been open this entire time. They must have given way whilst I flailed like an idiot. The only answer seems to be leaning into Maxim a little more, raising my hand onto his chest to cover the swell of cleavage.
Malva scowls, her green eyes darting around furiously. “Tessa? Come on, what are you doing in this carriage? How are you even a first year? Are you joining the servant staff or something?”
I don’t know if Maxim senses my discomfort or just wants to be a dick but he immediately snaps, “She’s good here.”
I look at firm jawline and amber eyes, noticing how quickly they can appear cruel. He didn’t look like that before.
“Oh. Is she now?” Malva sneers, folding her arms, her thick skirt matching the sway of the train. “Not so shy now are you Tess? Sneaking in here…”
My hand remains pressed on the thin material of his blue shirt. Underneath is a sturdy pulse and a wall of muscle. Maxim’s cheek brushes my forehead before turning on a wide, completely fake smile, “I think you’ll find mates travel together.”
I freeze in his hold, my wolf springs with curiosity. What the actual fuck has he just said?
“You two? Mates! What!” Malva squawks. His friends exchange silent grins but Maxim isn’t done causing chaos.
“Malva is it?” Maxim asks lightly. “Funny that your name means delicate when you tramp in here shouting like an damn ape. Do you need anything else?”
She’s blushing and furious at the same time. “I…I… No, but-”
“Then get the fuck back to your own carriage,” he snaps, before turning to me, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Tessa’s with me.”
