Training to become an elite warrior after her soulmate brutally rejects her, Violet Caldwell meets the king of all wolves-and joins him in his quest for justice on the brink of a surging war.
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~Five years later~
"Vi, if you don't hurry up you're going to be late to your own ceremony, and you know a certain royal highness will be in attendance, so..."
Alexei's voice reached a high pitch towards the end of her tirade that I hadn't heard come from her mouth in all the five years I'd known the she-wolf.
I glanced down at my ceremonial outfit for the night and smiled at what I saw. I was in an ethereal golden gown with leaf accents and my legs were clearly visible through the sheer fabric dotted with gorgeous sparkling beading.
My makeup had been professionally done for that night, to cover up most of my facial scars and injuries sustained the night before to prove that I was worthy of the Warrior's Mark that was about to be placed on my body.
The King hadn't been there, but I could tell he had been watching from his room—his window was open with the light on and I could see his silhouette in the shadows of his room, watching the duel, watching me fight with every last ounce of strength I had ever had in order to get to where I was tonight.
I wondered if my parents would have come if they could have attended. Surely, Jackson was the Alpha of Arctic Delta by now, my brother was Beta, and my parents were living leisurely in retirement. One could only hope.
I had lost contact with them once I had reached Intermediate warrior status; they knew it was coming because I texted them and called more than three times a day, including with my siblings but never my old friends. Sadly Angie had stopped returning my calls and texts exactly three years after I had left.
I couldn't keep my old contacts with my new status in Lupus Bellator, in the King's pack. On one of his highest clearance teams.
Close ties are your weakness.
Sometimes I wasn't sure I was capable of loving someone else intimately, ever. Not after they'd tortured that desire out of me during my training.
I was now an Elite.
Once you reached that status, you could request an audience with the King whenever you wanted, and you could choose to turn down missions at that point, which is why they made it so hard to become an Elite, only around two hundred wolves in the entire kingdom reached that status in as many years.
And I was one of them.
I had already earned my Beginner's mark, a brand on the inside of my right thigh in the shape of a crescent moon inside a circle. Next came my Intermediate mark, a brand in the shape of a canine tooth on my right inner forearm.
