Zaria~

They say some wars are fought with steel.

Mine?It’s fought with scent. With secrets. With skin.

And I’m about to win it all.

The tavern burned behind me.

No literal flames yet. But the tension Jasper left in his wake was enough to set every wall crackling. I could still feel his breath against my mouth. His voice in my blood. His rage braided into the tether that pulsed under my ribs like a war drum.

I hated that he still moved me.

I hated more that I let him.

But there’s a difference between feeling a pull and following it. And I had no intention of crawling back into a collar, no matter how much gold they poured over it.

I made it two miles into the woods before I felt him again.

Not Jasper.

Levi.

His presence wasn’t a roar it was a shadow. Silent. Familiar. A comfort wrapped in chaos. I knew he’d follow me. He always did.

“You still smell like him,” came his voice from the dark.

I didn’t turn. “And you still think that bothers me.”

He stepped out from between the trees, shirt half-unbuttoned, chest rising with the rhythm of a storm barely held back.

“It should bother you. He’s the reason you were exiled.”

“And you’re the reason I survived it.”

Silence.

Gods, it hurt to look at him sometimes.

Levi wasn’t just a Beta. He was the only wolf who didn’t flinch when I bared teeth. Who didn’t try to tame me, chain me, or break me. He knew how to fight beside me not above me.

He moved closer.

“You let him touch you,” he said, low. “Why?”

I met his eyes. “Because I wanted to remind him what he lost.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Zaria.”

I smiled. “Good. Danger’s the only thing that makes me feel alive.”

He reached for me. Not roughly. Not like Jasper. He cupped my jaw like I was made of ash and starlight something precious and barely held together.

“I know you don’t need anyone,” Levi said. “But d*mn it, Zaria, I’m here anyway. I always have been.”

My throat tightened.

He leaned in.

I let him kiss me.

It wasn’t fury like Jasper’s.

It was something else. A promise. A prayer. The kind of kiss that tasted like home if home had ever been safe.

But safety wasn’t what I needed right now.

Power was.

I broke the kiss with a breath that trembled more than I wanted it to.

“Tell me what you’ve heard,” I said, switching gears before I crumbled into him again.

Levi stepped back, jaw clenched.

“There’s movement in the east. Alpha Ronin’s packs are shifting toward Red Hollow. They smell blood in the water.”

“And they’ll drown in it if they think Jasper will fall that easily.”

Levi’s gaze hardened. “And what about you, Zaria? Where do you stand in all this? With the King? Or against him?”

I didn’t answer right away.

Because the truth?

I didn’t know yet.

JASPER

“She left you standing in a pile of your own power,” Cade muttered as he stitched a wound on my side. “Bet that felt nice.”

I didn’t kill him.

That’s how you know I’ve matured.

“She’s planning something,” I said through gritted teeth. “She wouldn’t show up just to tease the throne. She wants a war.”

Cade nodded. “Then maybe it’s time we give her one.”

I stared out the window of the war room.

The sky was turning black.

Not with clouds.

With wings.

Scouts. Messengers. Smoke trailing behind.

And every single whisper they carried was the same.

Zaria. Zaria. Zaria.

My exile had become her legend.

And now the legend was coming home.

ZARIA

Mother Myra didn’t flinch when I returned.

But her voice was steel wrapped in velvet.

“You kissed him again, didn’t you?”

I blinked. “You spying on me now?”

“I don’t need eyes to smell your soul.” She pointed at my chest. “It’s fraying.”

“It’s burning,” I corrected. “That’s different.”

Myra shook her head, mixing herbs with something that hissed and smoked. “You can’t war with two men at once. Not when one still holds your name in his blood, and the other holds your heart.”

“I’m not choosing between them.”

“No,” she agreed. “You’re choosing yourself. And that’s why it terrifies them.”

LEVI

I found the Alpha King’s guard before they found me.

Stalking near the southern ridge. Trying to pick up Zaria’s trail.

Idiots.

I killed the first one fast. Arrow to the neck. He never made a sound.

The second begged.

I didn’t listen.

The third?

I left him alive. Just barely.

“Tell your King,” I whispered, crouched beside his bleeding body, “that she’s not his anymore. And if he touches her again, I’ll burn his palace to the ground brick by brick.”

Then I walked away.

Because Levi the Beta wasn’t soft anymore.

Not when it came to her.

ZARIA

The next night, I stood on a cliffside, wind whipping through my hair, cloak snapping like a banner of war.

Below me? Red Hollow glowed like a city of embers.

Behind me? Wolves stirred. Rogues. Outcasts. Scars on their skin and fury in their eyes. My army wasn’t royal. Wasn’t pureblooded.

But it was mine.

“We ride at dawn,” I said, loud enough for the stars to hear.

“To take back what they tried to bury.”

“To carve our names into the bones of kings.”

And deep in the dark, the tether snapped.

Not broken.

Activated.

Jasper felt it too I knew he did.

Because for the first time in years…

He howled.

And it wasn’t a call for power.

It was a warning.

That the Queen was coming.

And she wasn’t coming to kneel.

She was coming to reign.

~​LEVI~

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I haven’t slept in days.

Not because I’m tired. Because I’m awake. Wide-eyed and bloodthirsty. The kind of wakefulness only obsession brings.

Zaria is the match.

And Jasper? He’s the fuel.

But me?

I’m the explosion waiting to happen.

I knew this would come to a head eventually. I knew the moment she rose from exile wearing a grin made of war and a scent soaked in sovereignty, it would only be a matter of when, not if, the King and I would meet.

But gods… I craved it.

Not just to fight him.

To ruin him.

To carve Zaria’s name into the inside of his skull so that no matter how many crowns he wore, no matter how many thrones he built

He’d never forget who made him bleed.

I stood at the edge of the southern bluff, eyes on the citadel where his wolves trained. Watched them march. Watched them grunt. Watched them pretend they were ready.

They weren’t.

Because they’d never faced me.

Not Levi the Beta. Not the quiet one. Not the shadow.

No.

They were about to face the monster she made.

JASPER

The smell of Levi’s kills was still fresh when I arrived.

Three guards dead.

One gutted and staked to a tree like a d*mn warning flag. Another strangled with his own entrails. The last? Left alive just long enough to piss himself and die whispering her name.

Zaria.

Her scent lingered, but she hadn’t touched these bodies. He had.

Levi.

F*ck*ng snake.

I used to trust him. Used to keep him close. Used to believe that Betas were loyal by nature, that their instincts would never allow them to rival an Alpha let alone challenge one.

But Levi wasn’t just a Beta.

He was a problem.

And I was going to solve him.

With steel. Or fire. Or both.

LEVI

I found Jasper before his wolves did.

Because I wanted to.

He was on the eastern ridge, overlooking the ruins of the Moonspire Watch an old territory I burned for Zaria two years ago. Funny how ghosts circle back when you least expect them.

“You’re getting sloppy,” I said, stepping from the trees.

Jasper turned. Slow. Controlled.

His eyes were gold-glowing slits.

“Still hiding behind your Beta rank like a coward?”

“I’m not hiding,” I replied, tossing a blade to the dirt between us. “I’m waiting.”

He stared at the weapon. Then at me.

“So this is it? You want to fight me over her?”

I laughed. Low. Cruel.

“You’re not worth fighting over, Jasper. You’re worth ending.”

Lightning cracked above us. Rain hadn’t started yet, but it wanted to.

Just like us.

Jasper moved first predictably. Arrogant. Alpha.

He swung wide, heavy. Like he thought I’d cower.

I ducked. Slammed an elbow into his ribs. He grunted.

“You forget,” I snarled, “I trained with you. I know where your rage lives.”

He caught my next punch. Twisted my arm. I felt the bone pop.

“I also know where yours breaks.”

We clashed like beasts.

Fists. Fangs. Fire in our blood.

He tackled me into a tree, and I kicked him off with both legs, launching him backward into the dirt.

Blood in my mouth. Bone in my shoulder grinding like gears.

Still wasn’t enough.

Because I saw it in his face.

He still thought he had the right to her.

And that?

That was unforgivable.

ZARIA

I smelled them before I heard them.

The blood.

The madness.

The history.

It was thick in the air masculine, primal, stupid.

I dropped down from the ridge, landing silently between trees slick with dew. My cloak tangled around my legs, but I didn’t stop.

Didn’t pause.

Because I could already see it:

Levi and Jasper fighting like gods in the dirt, ripping through each other like the throne was made of my bones.

Idiots.

“Are you two done measuring your dicks,” I called, “or do I have to break them for you?”

They froze.

It was Levi who turned first.

His face was bloodied, one eye swelling, lip split but he still grinned like I was a miracle.

Jasper didn’t grin.

He growled.

“Tell your lapdog to back off, Zaria,” he said, wiping blood from his mouth. “Before I bury him.”

“Funny,” I replied, stepping between them, “because from where I’m standing, it looks like he buried you.”

That set Jasper off.

He lunged but I moved faster.

Faster than both of them.

My claws caught his throat not to slice. Just to warn.

His golden eyes met mine.

I could feel his pulse hammering under my fingers.

“Touch him again,” I whispered, “and I’ll end you before your wolves even find the body.”

Jasper held my gaze. “He’s poisoning you.”

“No,” I said, letting go. “He’s protecting me from you.”

Then I turned to Levi.

His hands were clenched at his sides, eyes burning with questions he’d never ask out loud.

“I told you not to come,” I said softly.

“I never left,” he replied.

And gods… I hated him for that.

Because it made it so much harder to hate him at all.

JASPER

She sided with him.

Publicly.

I could’ve burned the forest down.

Instead, I straightened. Wiped the blood from my face. And did the one thing neither of them expected.

I smiled.

Because if Zaria thought siding with a Beta made her strong…

She hadn’t seen what an Alpha King becomes when he’s finally pushed to war.

“You want to challenge me, Zaria?” I said. “Fine. But I won’t fight you in the shadows.”

I pointed to the moon full, glowing, cruel.

“Tomorrow night. Red Hollow. The old arena.”

“Trial by bond?” she asked, eyes narrow.

“No,” I said, voice like smoke. “Trial by submission.”

She tilted her head. “You still think I’ll kneel?”

“You don’t have to kneel to break.”

She didn’t flinch.

Didn’t blink.

Just smiled.

“You better pray I don’t, Jasper,” she said. “Because if I ever do… you’ll be under me.”

LEVI

The moon rose higher as we descended from the bluff.

Zaria walked ahead, shoulders straight, cloak fluttering like wings.

Jasper vanished into the trees licking wounds and planning vengeance.

And me?

I followed her.

Not because I was behind her.

But because I chose to be.

Because while Jasper played at war…

I was building a revolution.

One carved in the blood of kings.

And crowned by the only Omega who ever dared to bite back.

ZARIA.

Red Hollow doesn’t just smell like blood.

It tastes like it.

Iron and ash on the tongue, centuries of wolves tearing each other apart for the right to rule.

The arena isn’t a monument. It’s a graveyard with better lighting. The bones have been swept away but I feel them under my boots, screaming.

I don’t flinch.

I don’t pray.

I arrive.

Leather clings to my skin like armor, fury and power perfuming the air where my scent once marked me cursed. Now it marks me Queen.

Crowds pack the cliffs above the pit, thousands of eyes glinting like coins, claws scraping stone, breath fogging in the cold. Shifters of every rank, rogue and royal alike. They came for a trial.

They’ll leave having witnessed a reckoning.

Levi walks behind me. Not beside. Not ahead.

Behind.

Not because he’s beneath me. But because he trusts me to lead.

There’s a difference.

A dangerous one.

Jasper is already waiting in the center of the ring, stripped to the waist, tattoos glowing with the old magic of the Alpha Kings. Gold eyes locked on mine. Unapologetic. Unafraid. Hungry.

“You came,” he says.

“You challenged me,” I shrug. “I don’t back down from men who can’t even win a fair fight.”

He smirks. “Nothing about us was ever fair, Zaria.”

“No,” I agree. “That’s why you lost me.”

The crowd hushes. Every wolf tuned into the tension like it’s oxygen.

The Arbiter shuffles forward. Old, pale, dripping with sanctity no one believes in. His staff hums with the moon’s power.

“By ancient law, we gather under the full moon to witness the Trial by Submission,” he intones. “Two wolves enter the arena. One will rise. One will bow. And the pack shall accept the will of the bond.”

He looks to Jasper. “Do you challenge?”

“I command,” Jasper answers, his voice booming.

The Arbiter looks to me. “Do you accept?”

I smile slow. “I dare.”

He raises his hand. “Then let the trial—”

“I’m not finished,” I cut in.

Gasps ripple like water. Claws scrape rock. Magic crackles in the air.

Jasper tenses. “Zaria…”

“I accept this trial,” I say, stepping closer, voice a blade. “But I will not be claimed. No mate bond. No marking. No chains wrapped in ceremony.”

The Arbiter blinks. “That is… not how the trial works.”

I close the distance until my breath fogs his face. My growl vibrates the stones beneath us.

“Then rewrite the f***ing rules.”

The arena explodes. Howls, screams, fury, but no one moves to stop me. Because they can’t. Because they won’t. Because deep down every wolf here knows:

I’m not the Omega they cast out anymore.

I’m the storm they unleashed.

JASPER

She’s magnificent.

And I hate her for it.

She moves like fire—beautiful, chaotic, consuming. Every word a blade. Every glance a challenge. And gods help me…

I still want her.

Not weaker. Not smaller.

Mine.

Completely. Utterly. Irrevocably.

When the signal drops, I don’t hesitate.

I lunge.

She dodges. Of course she does.

She’s always been faster. Always been smarter.

But I’m not here to win by force.

I’m here to prove something much more terrifying:

That I’m still the only one who can match her madness beat for beat.

We circle like predators too arrogant to admit we’re prey. Her claws flash. Mine meet hers mid-air. Sparks fly—real ones, from the tether we still pretend doesn’t exist.

“You never could fight me without wanting to f*** me,” she snarls.

“Because war looks good on you,” I snarl back.

She drives a kick into my ribs. I grunt, laugh, spit blood.

Gods, I missed this.

ZARIA

His strength isn’t the problem.

It’s the way he remembers.

Every step I take, he anticipates. Every blow, he absorbs like a language only we speak.

I land a punch to his jaw. He takes it.

Then his hand closes around my throat. Not tight. Not cruel.

Claiming.

I slap it away, spin, slash claws across his chest. His blood hits the air like thunder. The crowd howls. The old magic trembles.

I don’t hear them.

I hear the pulse between us.

The heat never extinguished, just banked. Waiting.

He grabs my waist. I throw him over my shoulder. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and past sins. He pins me. I flip him. He grins. I snarl. My teeth find his shoulder—not to mark. To warn.

“I’ll never belong to you,” I hiss.

His breath is ragged. “Then let me belong to you.”

I freeze. Not from fear. From shock.

Because Jasper—the Alpha King—on his back beneath an unmated Omega, is looking at me like I’m the last wild thing in a world of cages.

The tether howls between us.

He bares his throat.

Submits.

Before the Arbiter can speak. Before the crowd can process. Before even Levi can react.

I rise.

Covered in sweat. Blood. Glory.

I don’t gloat.

I command.

I lift my voice to the masses and roar:

“Your King has bowed. Now you will rise… under me!”

The arena detonates. Not in dissent. In worship.

LEVI

I watch Jasper break.

It isn’t weakness.

It’s something more dangerous.

Clarity.

Because surrendering to her isn’t a loss.

It’s strategy.

He bowed so he could stay close.

I knew it.

She knew it.

But the rest? They saw an Omega bring a King to his knees and crown herself in his place. And they would follow her anywhere.

Even into the dark.

Even if it meant dying.

And me?

I’d already died a hundred times for her.

Now I was ready to kill.

Because the arena didn’t end a war.

It started a reign.

ZARIA

Later, at the cliff’s edge, cloak snapping, wind screaming, the world below kneeling—

Two monsters stand beside me like a prophecy:

Jasper at my right. Bloody. Bowed. Still dangerous.

Levi at my left. Watchful. Silent. Lethal.

I don’t choose.

I lead.

Because for the first time in history…

An Omega doesn’t serve a pack.

She rules it.

And gods help anyone who forgets that.