Orion
The arena hums like a live wire. Floodlights glare down on a circle of scorched earth and silver dust, the boundary where wolf law and human spectacle meet. Drones buzz overhead, red lights blinking as they stream the feed to every pack network across the continent.
Hashtags scroll in real time across the giant holo-screens suspended above us:
#TheRiteOfFire
#TheHereticAlpha
#OrionVsNyx
I never wanted this. But my father stands at the edge of the ring, his voice a dagger behind my ribs.
“Prove what you are, son,” he says, loud enough for the cameras. “Prove that the blood of our line is uncorrupted.” Since the day I became the chosen Alpha, he has been trying to prove I was worth the title. He gestures toward Nyx like she’s something foul. “Burn out the infection before it sp
