Ancient forest greens consumed in blood stare down at the head that lands at my half's feet.

He looks into my eyes, holding them. A flash of fang from me, a ripple of musculature showcasing the Wild within. Testing Odin with the tone of my vision, trying to bring him down like the rest of the females that surround me with the soft part of their throats angled to my teeth.

A seduction of power so great, it's hard not to split apart from it. A rush of whispers, edging at the shell of my ear, licking in a hum of sound to take what I can have.

Alpha, the chant growing louder on the wind. The extended limbs of the trees rubbing together seem to be saying what the wind wants me to hear.

Alpha

It's hard to maintain my stability.

Odin's takes the first shaky step towards my radius. He's without hesitation of strides, powerful vibrations that run up into the very marrow of my bones. This male made of flesh, sinew, and bones stands solidly in front of me.

Cheek to cheek

An inhaled breath from him, I can feel it expanding his chest against mine.

His hand runs from my neck, down the length of shifting spine. The ridge fur that was starting to stand on end settles itself down. Again and again, he does the same thing, running his hand from the base of my neck to the arch of my back. Leaning into him, taking that breath to expand tightening lungs. His dark, fertile scent violently washes within my body. A sigh outwards, with eyes that close fractionally.

My half

"Where is the third, Odin?" It's as if my words cause the wind to sway the canvas of tents. Looking around I find her. Taking myself away from his radius, inching forward, the ground holds my displeasure, vibrations tumbling outward into those around.

They shake, I rage.

Standing above her, a claw comes out from my index finger. The same bloody hand that is still holding the necklace. It's easy to lift her up to a standing position, brushing my cheek against her. Lips pressed against her ear, "I'm going to send you to the Moon as a Warrior."

She smiles with all her teeth, a real feral smile that makes me smile my War of teeth back.

The cocoon of skin opens itself up, the Wild now stands almost head height to the female who startles backward. The third meeting her death with her shoulders back, head high and a smile on her face. There is no slow or gentle bite, it's a force that spills the throat of life from the third, no recovery from the injury. The Wild sniffs once to trot away not looking back - her muzzle drips blood on the path forward, that she is creating for herself. No one is leading her on this trail she's running at a speed that is uncatchable.

There is a surging violence of energy that only the Wild within can contain, Nature's full power sinks into flesh, sinew, and bone.

Gluttony, wanting more, needing more of this feeling. Is this what the Moon herself feels when her body is full in the nighttime sky?

Power is seducing our soul with the need to keep it all for ourselves.

It's late, or at least I think it's late when we shift from fur to skin going into the tent. The light of the sun is still high in the sky.

Odin is laying down, all he does is open the fur blanket for me to slip inside.

Skin against skin

An indulgent mouth seeks to feast on my bare flesh.

He stops momentarily to place his cheek against mine, his whole body is revolting. The layering of skin, flexing, shifting, quivering.

Inhale, exhale.

His mouth touching the shell of my ear, "help me make it to the ceremony, my Half." The sound of him strikes as if he's in great distress.

Nails digging, clinging themselves to me. Teeth scraping my neck, vibrations from deep within his chest percusses sound waves to ripple through my body.

When I look at his eyes, he's pleading silently with me. Heaving breathes from a male whose limitations are breaking loose.

There is an unbinding within him, his resolve, fortitude is vanishing replacing with tremedous gluttonous greed of want.

I want my Half but not like this, not with him revolting within himself trying so hard to maintain himself.

Putting my hands on his chest, pushing away. A warning sound coming from his body, it's a deep, meaningful sound that startles me. He's never used that blatant tone with me before.

Odin's reasoning is lost, I can feel the emotions within myself so strong that even my spine is starting to crush with how powerful a male Alpha's needs and wants are.

Lifting my eyes to his, in a blatant act of challenge. A flash of fang, a smile starting to show teeth. Odin's responding to my outward display, gone now is the pulse of pleasure but the rise of his hierarchy.

There is that familiar crush of the vertebra that I feel when he holds my vision. The compression of the spine has me wanting to turn my shoulders, hang my head down. Tail wanting to curl under. Keeping it at his level, his own body rebels within itself just as much as mine is.

Odin grunts outward while my molars feel like breaking from the tension in my jaw. This hurts the force of this, trying to overpower something that is fighting tooth and claw to overpower you.

He's more than me, a trickle of sweat running down the center of my chest, beads of sweat starting on his forehead. Another grunt from Odin who lifts his lip to showcase his arsenal of War.

The dilation of his pupils that consumes both eyes is starting to constrict showing the bloody sclera to make way for the Ancient forest greens. He does not bend to me, he fights his fight while I have slipped slightly. The downward pressure on my neck makes me want to give in to him. Which I do, blinking my watering eyes, that signals his win. He doesn't look happy, a straight line lip but he does breath easier than a few seconds ago.

"You could have won if you didn't give up." Odin's voice is next to me, he's tucked me into him, my head laying on his arm as a pillow. A fur getting thrown over our shoulders.

"Why did you give up?" Odin's voice is calm, heart rate mellowing.

"You were too hard to beat."

"No, I wasn't. You didn't want it enough."

"Maybe? Maybe I just wanted you to stop yourself from doing something you would regret? It was a choice I had to make; I chose to challenge you knowing you would answer that challenge instead of wanting to answer the call of your Nature's needs."

"It was a smart move on your part and it worked well. I just want you to know from now on, if you challenge me again, I want you to at least try, push yourself even if it hurts, even if you feel as if you might throw up. It's just pain, Charlie. It will go away, eventually." His hands are on my head, running his fingers through my hair.

Before letting my eyes close, he presses closer. No space between us. "Thank you for stopping me, my Half." That's the last he speaks before a rhythmic rise of his chest tells me he's fallen asleep.

Throughout the next week, Odin keeps those hands to himself as if he's put on a stronger lock on his greed.

Our hunting together has given us a bountiful supply of dried meat. I'm not sure how we are going to carry it all back to the Winter camp. I realize that what Elska said is right, going back is going to be the real challenge loaded up with the burden of survival of the winter.

When stirring the stew for dinner, Odin's father approaches the fire. He sits on a log, close to me. His hands are folded together, he's just looking into the heat of the flame.

"It smells good." The sound of his voice seems so strange.

"Would you like a bowl?" Offering him some of the simmering meat that has been cooking since morning. The wild garlic, onions, and cattail roots all tender and ready to eat.

"I would like one." Ladling out a bowl for him and myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elska sitting by her fire, alone her ear turned our way. She's sewing something, but I can tell she's trying to listen. She has no clue how to hide the fact her she's trying to listen in on the conversation. He doesn't eat until I have taken the first bite. His eyes find mine when that happens.

"I'm here to speak with you about the ceremony." Swallowing down the food it almost catches in my throat, and I have to cough slightly. He seems just as uncomfortable as I am.

"What about the ceremony? Leery voice for Borson who takes another bite of food I provided from my tent.

"Within our pack, it's custom for the Alpha, to do or get something that the future Luna desires. We make a trade."

"What would be the trade?" My stomach drops low as if I am going over a big steep hill.

"You go through the ceremony, and I will give you what you ask for, within my abilities as the leader of the Far North pack."

"You have nothing that you could give me for a trade of that significance." Telling him this while taking another bite of my food, that I hunted, that I skinned, that I butchered into manageable pieces.

"Just think about it, is there anything that you want, gold, silver, for me to never talk to you again?" There must be something that I can attain for you." Borson is still eating, not looking at me but the fire. Elska has fallen off the log.

"What did Bessa ask for?"

"I don't know, she never told me what my father gave her. It's something that she has kept from me all these years. Before my father died, he told me about the Trade. He told me that I am to give you what you ask for, within reason and my ability to provide that request. Odin will do the same for the next Luna." Borson finishes his bowl, getting up and placing it in the box that is for washing in the stream later on after Odin and I have eaten.

"That was well made." The words seem hard to get out of his throat.

"Thank you." He stands to leave.

"Think about what I said, Charlie." Is words are spoken softly towards me and I can't believe this is the same male that harbors such rage and hate in his body from my father and myself.

When I see Odin, he's barefoot as his usual. I'm going to have to get used to seeing him with shoes. Luna Bessa was telling me he has always gone without shoes in the summer grounds. She could hardly get him in the tent at night, he always wanted to sleep outside, with his spear in his hand protecting the entrance to the tent. He didn't want any sharp-fanged beasts getting it to his family.

"My father was here?" Odin's sniffing around, looking at my entire body as if to find it not the same as he left me.

"He was."

"What did he want?"

"He ate some stew, and told me that it was well made." Odin shakes his head. "I think since you beat him, he's softening up to you." That Odin smile that I hardly see lights up his face.

"It was nice having him not scowl at me."

"I think he's seeing you as you should be seen and not what he wants to see."

"What does he want to see, Odin?"

"That you are your father's daughter, I think he might be seeing you as my mate." Odin's getting a cup for the stew because the rest of our dishes are dirty from the day. He starts to eat, and I see a male sitting on a log full of hope that his father might be softening in his hate. How do I tell him, it's not him softening but him Trading something special to me?

Exhale, Inhale, smile without teeth.

I don't tell Odin about the trade, he's in a great mood. I let him stay in that spirit and it last and last because his father is talking with me more. Interacting with us as a couple even inviting me to their fire for a proper meal which has Luna Bessa giving him a kiss on his mark which has Borson turning bright red.

When he is without his hatred, he is a good grandfather. He is a good mate and a good father to his three children.

I know what I will ask of him, I know exactly what he will give me to give myself to Odin who is my half.

My sacrifice for Odin to have a father who is free of his hatred.

Within a few days, our camp is packed up, and everything we have harvested is on our backs. It takes twice as long going back. Twice as much work and effort. Even Warson, Elska's male feels the effects because he is made to carry double what he carried in. When he complains, Odin is there to explain that we all must carry more, and he is no different.

On one of our rest stops, our progress is stopped because of a female births her pup on the path. We can hear her struggles. The healers are with her, and a part of me wants to go and help. But a part of me knows that I am not welcomed in the tent of life. The females might tolerate me, but there is no love, except when my mother's twelve regard me. I hold a deep fondness in their eyes, they even touch their cheeks to mine at times.

My hair is now long enough to carry the braids my mother likes to wear. The ends almost touching my shoulders. Borson is near the stream we will cross as soon as the new mother has birthed her pup. I can't believe that she will start to walk so early after the delivery. Odin said all the pack will help carry her belongings because she will set the pace home beside Odin and his sister.

"Father wolf," calling him by a name most of these wolves us on their mate's parents. He stiffens at the sound of my voice.

"I have thought of a trade." I try not to pick at my fingers, holding myself solidly in front of him.

"What would that be?" His voice is not of the hardness I expected. He seems so much older to me than when we first started the journey to the summer grounds.

"I want you to forgive my father. Make peace with him. That is my terms."

"I can't do that." The hardness comes back to his eyes.

"Then you have no trade." Spitting it out, turning my back on him before walking away from a wolf who has no idea what he's missing out on if only he would let go of the past.

Odin starts to walk slightly ahead of the female that just gave birth; there is no stopping the movement forward, no resting too long because the light of the day is starting to become a dim dusk. The summer is ending ushering in the fall.

We do make it to the winter grounds, home. I've never been so happy to see my bed, my stove, a bathroom. I'm going to soak in the tub for an hour.

"We leave for your birthpack tomorrow Charlie," Odin tells me this after everything is put away, while I'm soaking in soapy water.

"What?"

"We're going tomorrow for the Exchange, it's happening earlier than normal."

"What?" Getting out of the water, almost jumping into his arms. I can't hide the excitement the mouth turning smile. I think I scream because he scrunches his face at my sound. I kiss him on the mouth, his mouth turns up smiling into my kiss.

I can't sleep that night, I can't sit still in the truck as we make it to my territory. The curvature of Odin's lip matches mine. Heart racing I see my mother crying, my father holding her in his arms. I see Shamus, Paley, Keegan, I see them all. My eyes start to water with happiness. Odin feels his chest while looking at me, a funny look on his face. Reaching for the door, Odin stops me.

"Let them hear you, Charlie. Walk with your sound." A feral flash of teeth from my half makes me step out of the truck with all the silent sound I possess.

Author's Notes

Hi everyone!

Waves, twirls, I'm excited just like Charlie. If anyone wants to be part of a private Facebook group called Rachelle's Books. Come on by it's a place to discuss all the books, all the lives of the characters.

Thanks for reading and I am just so happy right now, I can't even begin to explain it but I am like Charlie going back home to see her family happy.