I Belong To You Aurelius

Chapter 3: The Feast of Lies

Aurelius pressed his fingers against his temples, trying to ease the pounding that had been building behind his eyes for the past hour. Alpha Garrett Redd’s voice droned on about trade routes and territory agreements, but the words barely registered through the fog of pain that was making everything sharp and irritating.

He’d forgotten to take his medicinal tea this morning, now he was paying for it.

A hand touched his arm and Jordan leaned in close, his voice dropping to a concerned whisper. “The headaches again?”

Aurelius managed a tight nod, not trusting himself to speak without snapping at his step-brother, who was clearly only trying to help.

Jordan cursed under his breath, the sound barely audible, but it was enough to catch their stepmother’s attention. Rebecca’s sharp blue eyes left the conversation at the head of the table and found Aurelius immediately, raising her right eyebrow slightly as she read his expression in that way she’d always been able to do since she’d married his father. She understood what was wrong without him having to say a word.

“Aurelius, are you feeling well?” The sugary sweet voice belonged to his supposed bride-to-be, Celina Redd, who was smiling at him from across the table with concern that made his jaw clench.

“Nothing important,” he said, forcing the words out even though what he really wanted to say would probably start a war. “Just a slight headache and I’m really tired. If you’ll excuse me.”

He pushed back from the table before anyone could protest, needing air and space and most definitely silence. He didn’t miss the way Celina’s face crumpled at his dismissal. He didn’t care really, couldn’t care actually when his head felt like it was being split open from the inside.

The scrape of another chair made him pause. Marcus Redd stood up with an easy smile that somehow made Aurelius even more irritated.

“Why don’t we go hunting?” Marcus suggested, falling into step beside him like they were already the best of friends. “Fresh air, proper run through the forest, should help with that headache of yours.”

Aurelius wanted to refuse, wanted to retreat to his guest quarters and down an entire pot of medicinal tea in blessed silence, but then Alpha Garrett’s booming laugh filled the hall.

“Excellent idea!” The Red Claw Alpha clapped his hands together like this was the best suggestion he’d heard all day. “Nothing forms bonds between future allies like hunting together. Strengthens the treaty, strengthens the bloodlines we’ll be joining.”

Aurelius caught Rebecca’s eye and saw her settling back into her seat, her expression telling him everything he needed to know. She’d been about to follow him, probably to check on him and make sure he was alright, but now she was encouraging him with that look that said this was important, this mattered for the pack and he shouldn’t do what he was about to do.

He loved his stepmother, had loved her since the day she’d married his father and treated him like her own son instead of just an heir to tolerate, and because he loved her, he couldn’t refuse now even though every instinct was screaming at him to get away from these people.

He forced his face into something that might pass for a smile and nodded at Marcus. “Sounds good.”

Marcus looked delighted, gesturing for Aurelius to follow him. “We’ll change into something practical. Can’t hunt in feast clothes.”

Aurelius noticed Celina standing abruptly, her expression shifting from being upset to being frustrated and needing an outlet to let loose on as he had ignored her all through the feast. He then noticed several young women who’d been lingering near the feast tables following her out of the hall.

He could have sworn he heard Celina asking someone about something, her voice sharp with irritation, but the words were lost in the general noise of the feast and honestly, he didn’t care enough to strain his hearing when his head was already killing him.

Minutes later, Aurelius found himself in simple hunting leathers, the formal clothes left behind in his guest quarters. The politics, the arranged marriage, the expectations of him as an alpha heir, his trial before he became a full alpha, the endless negotiations and false smiles, all of it was crushing him slowly and he couldn’t even talk to the one person who might have understood.

If only his father were still alive.

The thought sent a spike of pain through his skull so sharp he had to grip the doorframe to steady himself. It always happened when he thought about his father, that vicious stab of agony that came with the memories he couldn’t quite reach.

He still couldn’t remember that night, the night his father died, the night everything changed. Whenever he tried to push past the fog in his mind, tried to force himself to remember what had happened, the headaches got so bad they brought him to his knees and left him useless for hours.

Marcus was waiting outside, already dressed for the hunt. “Ready?”

Aurelius nodded and let his wolf come forward, just enough. The half-shift rippled through him, familiar and grounding despite the headache. His fingers elongated slightly, claws pushing through where nails had been. Dark fur sprouted along his forearms and the back of his hands, spreading up toward his shoulders. His canines lengthened, sharp points pressing against his lower lip. His senses exploded outward, the world suddenly sharper, clearer, every scent and sound magnified tenfold.

Marcus shifted beside him, sandy fur rippling across his arms and neck, his own claws extending, eyes flashing amber in the moonlight. This was how wolves hunted, halfway between human and beast, fast enough to chase down prey but still able to think and to strategize.

They moved into the forest and the change in Aurelius was immediate. The headache receded slightly, pushed back by the clarity his wolf brought. His body responded to the familiar rhythm of the hunt, muscles coiling and releasing as they picked up speed. Not full sprint yet, just a steady lope that ate up ground faster than any human could manage.

The forest came alive around him. He could smell everything, the rich earth, the moss on the trees, the musk of deer bedded down for the night somewhere ahead. He could hear the rustle of small prey, rabbits and foxes moving through the underbrush, the distant call of an owl.

His claws dug into bark as he used a tree trunk to pivot around a tight corner, his enhanced strength making the movement effortless. Marcus kept pace beside him, amber eyes gleaming as they tracked the scent of deer ahead.

“There,” Marcus said, his voice slightly rougher with the shift, and pointed with a clawed hand toward movement in the shadows. “Buck, maybe two does.”

Aurelius could smell them now, the musky scent of deer thick in the air. His wolf wanted to chase, to hunt, to bring down prey with tooth and claw the way they were meant to. For a moment he forgot about politics and arranged marriages and the constant pressure of being an Alpha heir.

They circled downwind, moving silent as shadows despite their speed. Aurelius’s enhanced hearing picked up the deer’s heartbeats, steady and unaware. He gestured to Marcus, coordinating their approach with the ease of predators even though they had never hunted together before.

But then something changed. A new sound cut through the night, wrong and jarring against the natural symphony of the forest. Voices, human voices, and they were raised in anger and pain. The scent hit him a moment later, sharp and metallic.

Blood.

His wolf’s attention snapped away from the deer entirely, drawn toward the disturbance with an intensity that surprised him. Something was wrong. His instincts screamed it.

“You hear that?” Marcus asked, his shift already starting to recede as he focused on the voices.

“Women fighting,” Aurelius said, and his wolf was already pulling him in that direction, claws retracting slightly as he shifted his balance from hunt mode to something else. Something protective.

They moved through the trees, faster now, no longer bothering with stealth. His enhanced speed carried him through the forest in great bounding strides, Marcus right behind him. The sounds grew louder, screams and the meaty thud of fists on flesh, and underneath it all that copper scent of blood getting stronger.

As they approached the clearing, Aurelius felt his shift receding. The fur along his arms retreated back into his skin, his claws retracted back into normal fingers, his canines shortened to human teeth. The wolf pulled back beneath his skin, settling into that quiet watchfulness it usually maintained. By the time he burst into the clearing by the stream, he looked fully human again.

Marcus’s shift had receded too, his sandy fur disappearing as if it had never been there, both of them standing on two legs as men, not half-beasts, as they took in the scene before them.

Three girls were attacking another, their hands and feet landing blows on a soaked figure who should have been curling up defensively but instead was focused entirely on the girl beneath her, pounding her face with a single-minded fury that was almost frightening to watch. The girl being beaten was screaming, her hands trying to protect her face, but the wet figure on top of her didn’t stop, didn’t even seem to notice the others hitting her from behind, just kept swinging with everything she had like nothing else in the world mattered except destroying this one person.

Aurelius couldn’t speak, couldn’t process what he was seeing, especially when he recognized Celina in the group watching the beating, his supposed bride-to-be actively participating in what looked like an attempted murder.

The disgust that rose in his throat was immediate and visceral.

“What the f**k is going on here?” Marcus’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp with confusion and anger.

That’s when Aurelius really looked at the girl who was fighting back, the one who was soaking wet and bleeding but still fighting like a cornered animal that had decided it would rather die than submit.

Everything in his world stopped.

His wolf, which had been snarling at the violence, went completely still. Silent. Focused.

Something about her face struck him, slammed into his chest with a force that knocked the air from his lungs. His wolf, which had been quiet since receding, suddenly surged forward with a violence he’d never experienced before, demanding he shift again, demanding he protect.

His wolf never acted like this, had always been controlled and quiet, an extension of himself rather than a separate entity, but now it was clawing at his insides, demanding something he couldn’t name, and the word that echoed through every part of his being made absolutely no sense.

MATE.

The girl looked up at him through the haze of violence, her green eyes meeting his, and Aurelius felt like he’d been struck by lightning. Every nerve in his body screamed at him to move, to protect, to claim, to do something other than stand frozen while she bled.

His wolf was going insane, raging at him to get to her, snarling and pacing beneath his skin like it wanted to tear its way out of him. The urge to half-shift again, to show claws and fangs and put himself between her and anyone who dared touch her, was so strong it made his hands shake.

His mind was spinning because this couldn’t be real, this didn’t make any sense. He didn’t know this girl, had never seen her before in his life.

Had he?

There was something about her face, something that tugged at the edges of memory. Every time he tried to focus on it the headache spiked viciously and the thought slipped away like water through his fingers.

“You,” he said, and the word came out rough, filled with confusion and something else, something that tugged at the edge of his memory. “Have we met before!?”