Bound by Fate (War of the Five Fangs Book 1)

  Bound by Fate

  War of the Five Fangs 1

  Asher North

  Content Copyright © 2017 by Asher North

  Cover Design © 2017 by Asher North

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Foreword

  The World of Moonvalley

  105 YEARS AFTER THE WAR FOR THE LIGHT

  1. Rhys

  2. Damon

  3. Rhys

  4. Damon

  5. Rhys

  6. Rhys

  7. Damon

  8. Rhys

  9. Rhys

  10. Damon

  11. Rhys

  12. Damon

  13. Rhys

  14. Damon

  15. Rhys

  16. Damon

  17. Rhys

  18. Damon

  19. Damon

  20. Rhys

  Appendix I: Notable Packs, Houses, and Wolves of Moonvalley

  Also by Asher North

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  This is not your typical romance novel, nor is it your typical MPREG, so thank you for deciding to give it a chance.

  I took some liberties with the genre conventions of both MPREG and romance in general in order to tell a story that wouldn’t have worked otherwise.

  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

  If you want to keep up on all of the happenings in the War of the Five Fangs—and get lots of cool, free extras from the world of Moonvalley like bonus chapters, family histories, and more—sign up for Asher’s Alphas here!

  - Asher

  To view a full resolution version of this map, tap the image or click here.

  Two,

  And one;

  The dawn has just begun.

  Moon

  And sun;

  Fate cannot be outrun.

  All

  And none;

  The war is not yet won.

  Two,

  And one;

  Will save us from the sun.

  Prophecy of the Dawn

  105 YEARS AFTER THE WAR FOR THE LIGHT

  Rhys

  Rhys crept into the council chamber through a small gap among the dozens of wolves who had crowded into the comfy, fire-lit room. The Silver Fang pack’s rules and customs strictly forbid any Omega from being present for a council meeting like this one but Rhys had never been one to follow the rules.

  “Thank you all for gathering so quickly,” his father, Juno Greyborn, called over the noise that filled the chamber. His deep, gravelly voice bounded off of the low-hanging cave ceiling and walls. The elder wolves of the Silver Fang pack surrounded Juno in a seated ring. To Rhys they each seemed worn and tired compared to his father’s muscled frame.

  “Silence, please,” Juno continued and the room obeyed. “We have serious matters to discuss and little time to discuss them.” Rhys crouched down at the very back of the cave, out of his father’s line of sight. He didn’t need to see his father speak, he only needed to hear his words.

  “As many of you might already know, the Black Claws have again shown their arrogance,” Juno said to the snarling and hissing of his fellow wolves, though Rhys had no idea what his father was referring to. It immediately piqued his interest. “Those were my thoughts exactly. For more than a hundred years we Silver Fangs have kept the peace in Moonvalley Lake, after the despicable Valen Mooneye dared shed the blood of his own brother at Aurora Falls,” Juno continued, and the snarling grew louder, so loud in fact that it hurt Rhys’s ears.

  “I have never taken that responsibility lightly and I know that none of you have either,” Juno said as he paced the small plot of earth he stood on. The wolves around Rhys erupted into cheers. “I thought so. Unfortunately, I bring you troubling news from the Whisperwood,” he said, and again the wolves fell silent. Despite himself, Rhys felt a tinge of excitement in his chest; it’d been too long since the Silver Fangs had seen anything resembling excitement.

  The Silver Fangs and the rest of the wolves of Moonvalley had known peace for as long as Rhys had been alive, and though he appreciated what his ancestors had fought and died for, he couldn’t help but find peace more than a little boring. Still, his pack continued to train an elite group of wolf warriors known only as the Rangers should any trouble surface, and Rhys wanted to join that group more than he’d ever wanted anything else.

  But Rhys was an Omega, and he knew what that meant. Despite the prowess he’d shown on the Silver Fang training grounds, he knew he’d never be permitted to bring that talent to the battlefield, if in fact the current situation ever came to it. No, his role was to stay with the pack, mate with one of the many eligible Alphas that the Silver Fangs were gifted to have, and produce an heir—an Alpha heir.

  Because as an Omega, Rhys would never be allowed to become the leader of the Silver Fangs if and when his father passed away. It was so unfair that Rhys could barely stand it and often found himself breaking the rules, in much the same way that he was now, just to get back at the world. He’d been told his entire life that the rules were put into place to protect him, but that didn’t make them any easier to obey. On more than one occasion, he’d returned from his daily training with a bloody lip or a blackened eye from being too quick to say so to an Alpha two or more times his size.

  I don’t need their protection, he thought bitterly, his father’s words turning to a blur in his mind as he droned on about something or other. It didn’t matter to Rhys. All that mattered was that an opportunity to prove himself had finally shown itself and he fully intended to take it, no matter what it might cost him. If I could only show Father and the rest of the pack I’m as capable and worthy as any of the Alphas, they’d change their minds, he thought as he watched his father continue to pace.

  “Your endless talk has gotten us nowhere,” Sayer Northstar interrupted Juno’s speech, and Rhys’s heart stopped in his chest. No one dared interrupt the pack leader. “If you have something to tell us, then tell us already,” Sayer continued. Juno slung him a look of such scorn that Rhys felt ashamed on Sayer’s behalf, but it didn’t seem to affect Sayer in the slightest. Sayer had grown restless and disobedient lately and it wasn't the first time that he'd challenged Juno's leadership.

  The Black Claw pack had been toying with the Silver Fangs for months, and Sayer had been nagging Rhys’s father about their disobedience for almost as long. Now, with each of the pack’s Alphas gathered in the same room, it was obvious to Rhys that Sayer was trying to go around his father and appeal to them directly. As ostentatious as the display was, Rhys didn’t blame him because the Black Claws clearly weren’t interested in diplomacy.

  “The Black Claws will not stop until they and they alone rule over all of Moonvalley,” Juno started.

  “Correct, and so we must smash them back to the hell they came from so they’ll never be a threat again,” Sayer said to the cheers and howls of several other wolves. “We’ve had more than enough of your peace talks, Juno. If it’s battle the Black Claw bastards want, it’s battle they’ll get.”

  “I understand your thirst for justice, better than you think I do, but I can’t overstate how important it is that we maintain the peace our ancestors fought for,” Juno said.

  “For what? So the Black Claws can continue to make a mockery of us? Should we sit with our tails between our hindquarters while the Black Claws do whatever they please?” Say
er asked. “I won't allow it. I’m starting to wonder if it’s peace you want or surrender, Juno.” The Alphas stomped their paws on the ground and growled their agreement, sparking Juno's temper.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Sayer,” Juno roared, plunging the room into silence again. “I value the peace in this great nation more than my own life. The fact that you feel otherwise frightens me.”

  “What frightens me is that you still haven’t told us whatever the hell it is you summoned us here to say, dear leader,” Sayer spat, and his oldest son, Kane, snickered behind him. Blood rushed in Rhys’s ears; his father had promised him to Kane and the thought of mating with him made Rhys’s skin crawl beneath his fur. Kane was everything Rhys despised in an Alpha: arrogant, impatient, and concerned with nothing other than his own well-being. Still, Rhys’s father had thought it was a good idea to bind their two houses together by promising Rhys to Kane, a bond he hoped would soothe Sayer’s thirst for power and cement his position as undisputed leader of the pack.

  It hadn’t worked.

  “Yesterday our Rangers found Black Claw tracks on the Homeward Path,” Juno said, his voice low, and the silence that surrounded them rippled to life as each wolf in the council’s chambers realized what this meant. Even the members of the council looked horrified. The last time Black Claw tracks were found on the Homeward Path, the one and only trail that led from the southern Silver Fang den to the central Aurora Falls, war had broken out and the great Oberon Mooneye himself had fallen.

  “Then clearly it’s war they want,” Sayer said.

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean we should give it to them so easily,” Juno said. “Have you forgotten how many noble wolves died the last time we took that route?”

  “Of course not. I’ll never forget, which is exactly why we have to take action now. We need to hit them when they least expect it, in the midst of their gloating,” Sayer said.

  “No,” Rhys’s father barked. “That’s precisely what they want. They hope to prod our honor and bait us into retaliation. I don’t have any idea what the Black Claws are plotting, but they are plotting something. Before we do anything else, we have to figure out what it is.” He looked around the room, making direct eye contact with almost every wolf, his molten-gold eyes no doubt meant to intimidate each and every one of them.

  “The numbers among the Rangers are low, dangerously low. We need to strengthen their forces if we want to find out what the Black Claws are up to. I brought you all here today to seek volunteers. It’s not the most prestigious post in the pack, but it is necessary,” Juno said and Rhys leaped to his feet. His father’s eyes snapped to Rhys almost instinctively, and as his mouth opened to order Rhys to leave, Rhys interrupted.

  “I volunteer,” Rhys called and immediately every wolf’s eyes were on him, watching him like a piece of prey. When they realized who it was, the room erupted into laughter and Rhys was grateful that none of them could see his face because it was no doubt as red as the sun.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Juno asked coldly, his eyes boring into Rhys. “There’s no place in the Rangers for an Omega.”

  “Says who?!” Rhys shouted. He knew he was testing the limits of his father’s patience but he refused to be silenced. “I’m more capable than any Alpha in this room and you know it. The only reason you won’t let me prove it is because you’re trying to ‘protect’ me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t think it’s my safety alone you need to be worried about.”

  “Leave now before you dig yourself in any deeper,” Juno said, but Rhys remained rooted in place.

  “No,” he said, his voice cracking, and again the room burst into laughter. Rhys let out a low growl, intending to make them see that he wouldn’t be made fun of, but it only made them laugh harder.

  “Run along now, little pup. Leave the fighting and ranging to the real wolves,” Sayer said to yet more laughter from the other Alphas.

  “I won’t forget this,” Rhys said to his father before he trotted out of the room, laughter and jeering enveloping him until he slipped back through the gap he’d used to sneak in.

  “Are you insane?” a voice called from the corner of the main den room when Rhys stepped out. Kaster Bloodvalley, the only other Omega his age in the Silver Fang pack, met Rhys by the door. Of course he’d been waiting and eavesdropping like the cowardly Omega he was. With wolves like Kaster around, no wonder the Alphas think Omegas are worthless, Rhys thought. Kaster’s eyes were wide and the scent of terror that came from him would’ve wrinkled the nose of any wolf, Alpha or Omega.

  “No, but my father is,” Rhys answered. “If he didn’t think of me as some delicate flower that might wilt in the wind, he’d grant me permission to join the Rangers and put my talents to good use instead of confining me here to the den and letting them go to waste.”

  “Rhys, listen to yourself. You’re an Omega and maybe the only chance this pack has to continue its lineage. Do you really blame your father for wanting to keep you safe?” Kaster asked. Rhys knew he was right but that didn’t make him feel any better. It was easy for Kaster to accept his role because, unlike Rhys, Kaster had never questioned his status as an Omega, and since he wasn’t the son of a pack leader, he wasn’t responsible for producing an heir. It would have to be Rhys.

  “I don’t blame him for worrying. I blame him for being overprotective,” Rhys said as he made his way up the naturally-formed stone stairs that led to the upper level of the Silver Fang den. To his chagrin, Kaster padded along behind him.

  “Overprotective? Overprotective?! Rhys, you’re in heat. Any wolf for leagues could smell it. Don’t you have any idea what that means?” Kaster asked. Rhys whirled on Kaster.

  “Of course I know what it means! Do you think I don’t look at this stupid mark every morning in my reflection in the water and wish it wasn’t there?!” Rhys shouted, referring to the silver streak that ran through the middle of the otherwise white fur on his head. If the scents he gave off without his control weren’t enough to clue in a willing Alpha, his mark definitely would.

  “Rhys, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to anger you,” Kaster said, cowering.

  “But you did,” Rhys said and stalked away to his sleeping quarters where he threw himself onto the ground. Rohn Greyborn had shared these quarters with Oberon Mooneye in their own day. Thinking of the legends of wolves past made Rhys realize how unfair his own situation was. Rhys was a capable fighter, he’d proven it dozens of times during training. In fact, for his first two years of life, his father and his papa had mistaken him for an Alpha.

  Nineteen years had passed since the Silver Fang council had done their inspection and officially declared Rhys an Omega, and in an instant Rhys had been doomed to a life of servitude and procreation, a life he’d never wanted and would never accept. Given the chance, Rhys would’ve changed the rules regarding Omegas years ago. It was obvious to him and anyone with a functioning pair of eyes that he wasn’t meant for the Omega life, so he couldn’t understand why everyone insisted on forcing it on him—other than because he’d been born in the wrong body with the wrong parts.

  He sulked as he thought of the small band of Rangers his father would no doubt send out into the wilds of Moonvalley Lake, searching for any sign of what the Black Claws might be plotting. Maybe they were looking for spies, or maybe they were looking for wolves lying in wait to spring a trap on unsuspecting Silver Fangs as they made their way to Aurora Falls to contemplate or say their prayers. He would probably never know.

  But then an idea struck him. He could sneak out into the darkness after the Rangers, the same way he’d snuck into the council’s chambers to hear his father’s speech. It wasn’t a foolproof plan—quite the opposite—but Rhys was confident that if his pack brothers saw him in action they would change their minds and his father’s too. He crept to the entrance of his sleeping quarters and strained his ears to hear what was going on below. The meeting had already ended, that much was obvious, but Rhys couldn’t tell if
the Rangers had been dismissed—until his father’s voice carried up the stone steps to his ears.

  “The boy is crazed with passion, which is admirable, but passion has been known to prematurely end the lives of many wolves before him,” Juno said, barely more than a whisper. Rhys didn’t know who his father was speaking to, but it didn’t matter; the fact that his father spoke well of him at all was encouraging.

  “Why not give him a chance to prove himself? Your son has one of the best noses I’ve seen in this entire pack,” a voice answered. Rhys crept further out of his quarters, staying as low to the ground as possible so he wouldn’t be seen, taking periodic glances over his shoulders to make sure no one else was there. He stopped at the edge of the upper platform that looked down on the main hall. There he saw Eleo Bloodvalley, a lithe grey wolf. Eleo was father to Kaster and leader of the Silver Fang’s Rangers. Rhys’s heart skipped a beat. If the captain of the Rangers is convinced I could help… he thought.

  “Maybe so, but he’s also in heat, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Juno said.

  “He’ll be with more than capable company if anything happens,” Eleo said.

  “Which is exactly what I’m afraid of,” Juno said. “If his scent attracts unwanted attention, it would put all of you in danger. I can’t allow it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Eleo said and without another word he loped away toward the entrance to their den and whatever mission waited for him and his Rangers outside.