Fated to My Vampire Lord novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Struck
On her twenty-second birthday Willa is Struck from the pack before nine hundred wolves and the cameras, then walks across the circle and offers the vampire heir a one-year fake courtship; the sister who promised to stop it collapses behind her, and Willa's hand is warm for the first time in years.
At sunset on my twenty-second birthday, my father read my name off the pack roll in front of nine hundred wolves.
Four cameras stood on tripods at the edge of the stone circle.
The yearly peace ceremony with the vampires is broadcast to all of them, so every vampire was watching me stand there in a white dress.
Keeley had picked the dress.
That morning she had braided my hair and pinned it up herself.
"Dad would never do it," she'd said, tying off the last braid. "He promised me. If he tries, I'll stop him myself."
I believed her.
She was my sister, and I had believed her for seventeen years.
Dad stood at the edge of the dais with the roll in his hands.
He was the Alpha of our pack, and he had carried me out of a burning cabin when I was five and given me his name.
He had walked me up the steps himself and straightened my collar before he let go of my arm.
"Willa," he said quietly, so only I heard. "Look at me, not the cameras."
Then he turned to the Ridge and read the roll in a steady voice.
"Willa Bellegarde is twenty-two today and has not shifted."
His voice carried over the whole Ridge, and it shook once on my name.
"By pack law and by the Accord, she is Struck."
Struck meant my name came off the roll.
A wolf with no name and no wolf went to the vampire Courts as a servant for life.
Nobody gasped.
They had all known it was coming. They had known for six years.
Keeley's hand closed around my wrist.
"Breathe," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."
Her fingers were warm, and mine had gone numb to the elbow.
That happened every full moon, when Dad made me stand at her left side in the circle while she shifted.
"Family stands together," he always said.
I had stood there in a dress for six years, with no fur coming in, and my hand gone dead.
On the visitors' dais sat the vampires.
The Council's witness sat in the front chair, a tall man in a plain black coat, with black hair and pale grey eyes.
Tiernan Crowhurst, the Crowhurst heir.
An hour ago Dad had offered him Keeley as a pledge of peace, and Tiernan had turned her down in front of everyone.
He had turned down three vampire brides this winter, too.
Everyone on the Ridge had heard.
"Under clause six of the Accord," Dad said, "a Struck wolf is surrendered to the Court's witness. Lord Crowhurst, she is yours."
The whole Ridge turned to look at the vampire.
Tiernan did not look at me.
He looked at the nearest camera.
I had read the Accord forty times, because I was the one who kept the pack archive and nobody else opened it.
Clause nine said a Struck wolf courted by a Court's heir fell under his name for one year, and neither pack nor Council could touch her.
No wolf had ever claimed it.
So I pulled my wrist out of my sister's hand.
I stepped off the dais.
Nine hundred wolves moved out of my way, and nobody spoke.
I walked across the circle to the vampire's chair and stopped in front of him.
"Lord Crowhurst," I said. "Clause nine."
His eyes came up.
"Recite it."
"A Struck wolf who is courted by a Court's heir is under his name for one year," I said. "Nobody can touch her."
"I know the clause," he said. "I did not think any wolf did."
"I keep the archive."
Behind me, Dad said my name.
I kept my eyes on Tiernan.
"Your Council has been pushing brides at you all winter," I said. "Say you're courting me. A wolf pairing is the one thing they can't overrule. You get a year of peace, and I keep my name."
"A wolf the pack has just declared dead," he said. "The Council will call it an insult."
"Then they'll be insulted at you, not at me."
The nearest camera turned its lens toward us.
Tiernan looked at it for a long moment.
Then he stood and held out his arm.
"One year," he said quietly. "One deal."
I put my hand on his sleeve.
His coat was cold under my fingers.
So I walked out of the circle on a vampire's arm.
"Willa."
Dad had come down off the dais.
He stopped an arm's length away, because Tiernan's hand had gone to Dad's wrist before I saw it move.
"She was Struck," Tiernan said. "You said so yourself, Harlan Bellegarde, in front of every Court."
Dad didn't look at him.
He looked at me, and his voice dropped so only the three of us could hear.
"You will come back," he said. "A wolf with no wolf has nowhere to go. You'll crawl up this Ridge by spring."
I didn't answer him.
Behind him there was a sound I had never heard from Keeley.
She was on her knees on the dais with one hand pressed flat to her chest, and her face had gone white.
Two wolves ran to hold her up.
I should have gone to her.
I had gone to her every time since I was five.
Instead I stood with my hand on a vampire's sleeve and looked down at my own fingers.
For the first time in six years, they were warm.
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