Claimed by His Lycan Uncle novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Home After Five Years
Nerys comes home as first overall, her sister steps back too fast, and on the first night of the Gathering she follows her wolf into the trees and turns to meet the Alpha King. He says one word: mate.
The morning after he marked me, the Alpha King rejected me in front of every pack in the realm.
I walked out of the Gathering with one bag and I did not beg.
Nine nights later I walked back in beside his uncle, the lycan Alpha that grown wolves lowered their voices for.
But the day before all that, I was only coming home.
I reached my father's gate after five years away, with one bag on my shoulder.
The gate stood open.
My mother was already crying behind it.
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
I dropped the bag in the dust.
"Mama."
She grabbed me so hard my ribs complained.
"I can't breathe."
"Good," she said. "Suffer a little."
I laughed, but her fingers kept digging into my back.
My father came up the side path with his jaw clenched.
He opened his arms, and I walked into them without a word.
"First overall, Nerys," he said against my hair.
He had said it the day I left for Highcrest Guard Academy, and I had promised to say it back when I came home.
"First overall," I said.
My little sister Cecily stood behind him, smiling.
She was twenty-one now, and I still saw the sixteen-year-old who had cried at the gate.
I took both her hands.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm so happy you're home," she said.
She stepped back too fast.
Her hair smelled of cedar and cold iron, which was not a smell I knew from home.
At dinner my mother filled my bowl twice.
My father sat across from me and corrected every detail she got wrong about my years at Highcrest.
Cecily laughed into her cup.
For a few minutes the kitchen looked like the life I had left, and I let myself sit in it.
Then my mother set her spoon down.
"The Gathering of Alphas begins tonight."
I groaned. "Mama."
"What?" she said. "I'm only saying that the Alpha King will be there, Nerys."
Cecily hid a smile.
"And he's unmarked," my mother added.
"There it is," Cecily said.
I rolled my eyes, but I took the ivory dress from my bag anyway.
The Gathering lasts nine nights, and every pack in the realm sets its tents around the Stonering, a ring of standing stones in a bowl of valley.
The lycans camp apart, high on the north ridge, because nobody wants them closer.
Their Alpha, Madoc of Blackfell, has never once come down into the valley.
I let my hair fall loose and walked down with my family as the torches were lit.
My wolf, Rue, paced inside me.
She lifted her head again and again toward the north ridge.
A wind came down from there, smelling of snow and woodsmoke, though it was the middle of summer.
I touched my chest.
"What is it?"
She did not answer.
A shoulder bumped mine in the crush.
I spun half a step and caught the nearest arm.
"Easy," a man said, and steadied my elbow. "That was me. I was watching the torches instead of the road."
He was tall, black-haired, in a leather coat with a silver clasp at the throat.
He smelled faintly of cedar.
"I was watching nothing and still nearly fell," I said.
"Then we're both fools. Did I hurt you?"
"Only my pride."
"That heals fast. I'm told." He grinned.
His eyes dropped to my hand, still holding his sleeve.
I let go fast, and my palm tingled.
"Keep it," he said. "Nobody has grabbed me all day who wasn't asking for something."
"I'm asking you to watch the road."
He laughed out loud.
A man hurried up and bowed his head.
"Alpha Hadrian, your father is asking for you."
The name hit the air.
Hadrian.
The Alpha King.
He held my stare, still smiling.
"I owe you a cup of wine for that. Find me later."
"I might," I said.
He walked away.
"Nice," Rue said inside me, sounding surprised.
"Very," I agreed, and turned back into the crowd.
Then Rue pulled me toward the trees at the edge of the torchlight.
I followed.
The scent hit me there, snow and woodsmoke and something under it that made my knees go weak.
My hand flew to my chest.
Rue went completely still.
Mate.
My hands were shaking.
I turned around slowly, and the Alpha King stood between the trees with his eyes gone gold.
"Mate," he said.
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