The Last Blue Lycan

The Bet

They put Kael in the stocks for screaming. For "night terrors and disturbing the Alpha's peace." Two wooden boards around his neck, locked in the center of the courtyard at dawn, right under the Stone King's kneeling shadow, so everyone could see the half-caste who screamed a dead Seer girl's name in the night.

His wrists were locked. His ice-blue eyes were dull from no sleep. Blood from where the guards kicked him dried on his lip.

The parchment with the Contest Rules was nailed to the board above his head, flapping in the wind.

Alpha Moros the second came down personally to look at him at 7 a.m., holding the fake dagger. Behind him, Zara, her right hand bandaged from frostbite, her black eyes furious.

"Lyanna," Alpha said slowly, tasting the name Kael had screamed. "Where did you hear that name, half-caste?"

Kael kept his mouth shut. Lyanna was Elara's mother. If Alpha connected Lyanna to Elara, Elara would be killed as Blue Demon sympathizer blood.

"I said, where did you hear that name?" Alpha kicked the stocks, making Kael's neck jerk.

Zara leaned in, her bandaged hand held up like a weapon. "Father, it's the Seer girl's dead mother. The one who died giving birth to the failed Seer. This scrap has been sneaking behind the temple with her. I told you. He is obsessed with her."

Alpha looked from Zara's bandaged hand to Kael's blue eyes. He didn't know Kael was Blue Demon yet. But he knew a half-caste who knew a dead Seer's name was a loose thread.

"Guards told me you also screamed about a door," Alpha said. "And a candlestick."

Kael's heart stopped.

That was Lyanna's last stand. No living Black Wolf should know about that. Only Queen Lira saw it, and Queen Lira died.

Unless one of the six Black Wolves who killed Lyanna was still alive.

And standing in front of him.

Alpha Moros the second smiled, a slow, black-eyed smile. "Twenty years ago, during the cleansing of the Seer Temple, a young Seer girl did pick up a candlestick. Foolish girl. Thought she could stop us. I cut her down myself. Lyanna. Yes, that was her name. Malor's bastard daughter."

Kael strained against the stocks so hard the wood creaked. "You killed her."

"I cleansed her," Alpha said. "As I will cleanse all demon lovers. But I am curious, how did you, see that?"

Behind Alpha, the Moon Temple doors opened. High Seer Theron dragged Elara out. Her eyes were brown again, exhausted, but her white streak was brighter. Her wrists were tied with Seer prayer rope to "help her control her visions."

She saw Kael in the stocks and ran, despite her father trying to hold her.

"Kael!"

Zara stepped in front of her, blocking her with her bandaged hand. "Don't touch him, failed Seer. He's contagious."

Elara ignored her. She knelt by Kael's stocks, her hands hovering over his bleeding lip, gold light already flickering blue.

"Don't heal him," Zara snapped. "He's being punished."

"He's hurt," Elara said, quiet but loud enough for the gathering crowd.

"He's a half-caste who screamed your dead mother's name," Zara said, sweetly cruel. "How does he know your dead mother's name, Elara? Did you tell him bedtime stories behind the temple?"

The courtyard, which had been gathering for morning market, went silent. Fifty wolves stared.

Elara's hands froze. She looked at Kael, terrified. If Zara told Alpha they trained behind the temple, Alpha would know they knew about Blue Demon blood pulling.

Kael, neck in stocks, did the only thing he could. He lied to save her.

"I heard the name from the old Seer diary," he said loudly. "In the Forbidden Archive. Elara showed it to me. I didn't know who it was. I had a nightmare."

It was a good lie. It put the blame on a book, not on Elara.

Alpha narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe it, but he couldn't prove otherwise.

Zara, however, saw her chance. She had been humiliated. She wanted blood, but she wanted it clever, like her father.

She turned to her father and said, "Father, let's make a bet. A Moon Goddess bet. Before the pack."

Alpha raised an eyebrow. "What bet, daughter?"

Zara pointed at Kael in stocks, then at Elara kneeling by him.

"Tomorrow is Blue Moon Contest. This half-caste says he heard about Lyanna from a diary. Elara says she's a failed Seer. I say they are both lying and they are demon lovers practicing forbidden magic behind the temple. So I bet this:"

She raised her bandaged hand.

"If this half-caste attempts to pull the real dagger tomorrow and fails - which he will, because he's weak Omega trash - then Elara becomes mine. My personal Seer slave. She will leave her father's temple and live in my chambers and heal only me. And she will never see him again."

Elara gasped. "What?"

"If," Zara continued, her black eyes gleaming, "this half-caste does NOT attempt, or if he attempts and succeeds - " she laughed at the absurdity, " - then I will kneel and apologize to him in front of the pack and wash his feet like an Omega. And I will give Elara my mother's moon necklace, which she has wanted since we were ten."

Kael stared at her. Washing feet was the worst humiliation for a Princess. Moon necklace was a royal heirloom.

It was a bet Zara thought she couldn't lose. Kael would never pull the dagger. No one had in twenty years. So she would win Elara as a slave, separating them forever.

Alpha Moros laughed. "A Princess's bet! Witnessed by the pack! I accept as Alpha!"

He looked at High Seer Theron. "Seer, witness it."

High Seer Theron, pale, had no choice. He raised his staff. "The bet is witnessed by the Moon Goddess."

Elara looked at Kael, tears in her eyes. "Kael, don't. Don't attempt. If you fail, I become hers."

Kael looked at Elara, at her white streak, at her brown eyes that had turned blue for him and frozen Zara's hand.

He remembered his dream: Lyanna holding a candlestick against six wolves for him. Queen Lira carrying both babies.

Lyanna died so Elara could live free. Not as a slave.

Kael, neck still in stocks, looked up at Zara and said clearly, for the whole courtyard to hear:

"I accept your bet, Princess. And I will attempt."

The courtyard erupted.

Elara's hands flew to her mouth. "Kael, no!"

Zara smiled triumphantly. "Then tomorrow, half-caste, you fail, and she is mine."

Kael, locked in wood, bleeding, looked at Zara's bandaged frozen hand and said softly, so only she could hear:

"Check your hand, Princess. It's still cold."

Zara looked down. Ice was forming again on her bandage, despite the morning sun.

Because Elara, still kneeling by Kael, was staring at Zara's hand with blue eyes again.

And this time, she wasn't stopping.