Page 130 of The Ashpaw: Part One

And yet, part of her still wanted him. Even after all he had done to her, she still longed for the day he would look at her with the same love and adoration he reserved only for Kyntha.

A tear fell down her cheek, the hopelessness of her situation too much to bear. He didn’t want her, but he didn’t want to see her with anyone else either, and it was driving both of them to misery.

“He’ll never let me go,” she replied, and Reinn sighed, wiping the tear away with his thumb.

“I know. I know.”

Then he placed his hand on her back. “We will certainly be late now if we don’t hurry, so best not look at me with those beautiful green eyes like that or I will whisk you away from this awful place at once.”

“This place may be awful,” Fern said. “But there’s only one Kyntha here, and it sounds like there are several back where you’re from.”

“Who said we would go back to where I’m from?” he asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge. When she smiled, he returned it. “Now, for my family—Head Alpha Dane…”

He was just finishing the last of his guidance when they entered Hearth Hall through large doors.

Massive cedar beams crossed the ceiling high overhead, blackened by smoke, while iron chandeliers shaped like intertwined antlers hung between them, every candle already lit despite the lingering daylight outside.

A great circular hearth dominated the center of the room, its fire crackling low beneath a vent cut into the vaulted ceiling.

Long tables curved in crescent shapes, allowing every seat a view of the center, while banners of Sabletail black and Ironcoat gray hung side by side from the walls, interspersed between large tapestries depicting wolfkin as both man and beast, at peace and at war.

The head families from both clans filled the hall already—alphas with broad shoulders draped in furs and leather and beta mates dressed in fine fabric, heavy jewelry glinting gold and silver in the firelight.

Conversations quieted as Fern entered on Reinn’s arm, heads turning one after another, noses sniffing to confirm what only her scent could say.

“Alpha Reinn, so good of you to join us,” Alastair called out, his voice filling the room. “Clan Ironcoat, allow me to introduce our blessing from the moon.”

The Ironcoat Head Alpha smiled. “Omega…”

Chapter 30

Fern

“Head Alpha Dane, my uncle and Kyntha’s father, is like Alpha Alastair without any of the humor.”

“Wait… but Alpha Alastair isn’t—”

Reinn nodded grimly. “Exactly.”

The Head Alpha of the Ironcoat Clan was impossible to miss, standing nearly a head taller than the other silver-haired wolfkin on the right side of the room.

Fern lowered her gaze, bowing her head to show her neck and dipping into a curtsy.

And then a wall of alpha scent hit her all at once.

She thought she was used to it by now, but the addition of the new alphas in the room, one of them the head of a clan large enough to rival the Sabletails, was overpowering her senses. Like drowning in strength, dominance, and wolf musk all at once.

Her knees weakened, and then failed, almost falling to the floor before Reinn was able to grab onto her arm.

“Fern, are you alright?”

The alphas all moved slightly, flinching to rise as though they had meant to cross the distance to help her themselves.

With embarrassment stinging her cheeks, she looked at the floor again, unable to meet any of their gazes. It was almost laughable how quickly she’d failed at this, too. “My deepest apologies, I just… I’m not accustomed to so many… so much…”

“Reinn!” Dane barked, the alpha next to her stiffening and waiting for the command. “Bring the omega to her chair already. Poor thing is about to pass out.”

Then he addressed Fern, his tone softening. “I’ve heard of the effect alphas can have on an omega. You mustn’t be ashamed, little one.”