The sun reflects brightly against the snow, already melting what little had fallen through the night. I stand in the middle of the field with my party: Tabitha, the four guards, and Byron. Despite my fur cloak, I feel the crisp morning fully, and my bare face turns pink on my cheeks and nose.

There is a lone tent constructed in the distance—our neutral ground. I have never had a meeting with an Alpha before. When two Alphas speak, it is alone with no advisors or guards or generals. It is two of the Goddess's beloveds sharing words, and if there is no Alpha blood pumping under your skin, then you are not welcome.

"Are you nervous?" Tabitha asks.

"No," I lie.

The moment I see Alpha Tophet and his own group, my breath catches, and my feet begin to move. We will meet him halfway.

My heart thumps like a rabbit's foot—rapid and desperate. I know he is the tallest figure of the six approaching; an Alpha is always the biggest, the strongest, the one who intimidates and stares with a look heavy enough to crush one's last sense of hope. Alpha women are not the same. I do not tower, and I am not riddled with muscle. But my voice can demand and boom like his if I need it to. He is not as determined as I am—that I also know.

Once Tophet is close enough, I study him quickly. His tan face is a stoic statue, giving nothing away, but his eyes gaze thoroughly—reading me in return. His hair brushes the tops of his broad shoulders, wavy and dark. He is dark; everything about him is shadowed and hidden, and what lies on the surface is only what he needs in this moment. He needs to appear unbreakable and undefeatable, and he does, but it doesn't fool me. There is always more.

I would hate to see what I look like on the surface. He's probably observing a young woman he doubts is the Alpha he has asked to meet. She is utterly defeatable and breakable, but unlike Alpha Tophet, my weapons are concealed.

When our small armies meet, the Alpha peers to Byron and my guards. "Not expecting a woman?" I ask.

His eyes find mine, and something scatters in my brain like dropped coins.

"I had heard your father was replaced by his only remaining child. I figured you would be a girl when the term heir was not used," he says.

Tabitha steps closer to me. I glance to show her that I can handle it.

"You fought with your men?" I question, seeing plainly that he is not polished and pristine.

"Always."

"Oh, of course." I can't help myself. "You look like the rest of them: rugged—an animal best left to the outdoors, not council rooms. Is that why we're meeting on a battlefield?"

"Have you yet to see one? History proves that a good leader is active with his people, fights alongside them. An Alpha who remains in the keep is no more than a coward."

"And a she-wolf who places herself in a hoard of murderous wolves is no more than a... well, I'm sure you know what terrible things would happen. Oh, but I'm sure your warriors are trained better, right?" My lips remain parted though my words pause. "Anyway, I came to negotiate as requested. I am willing to listen, but I make no promises of an agreement."

He grins slightly as if playing with food then steps aside and motions for us to carry on to the tent. I move in stride with him, having to work my legs faster in order to keep up.

As I walk beside him, I realize I may have been too bold in saying I can kill him. He seems to monitor all around his person without having to turn his head. I bet he's aware of everyone's placement and their speed and whether or not they make any strange movements or gestures. I must be cautious; one nervous quiver might trigger him to pounce.

The tent entryway is open. I face my party—they know I will go alone—and I give a silent goodbye. Alpha Tophet waits for me to enter first, so I do.

As expected, there is no one inside. The rolling winter wind pushes into the canvas wall to my right, and the temperature is much more bearable without it blowing on my face.

I close my eyes and swallow when I hear the tent flaps drawing closed. Alpha Tophet moves around me, familiar in his quiet stalking, and when my eyes open, a part of me is prepared to see my chambers and my bed lying there. But reality does not bend, not today. A table with four chairs rests in the center of the circular, spacious tent, and I watch as Alpha Tophet sits in one.

He welcomes me to do so as well; an offer with one of his large, flesh-tearing hands. The second I accept and lower, he questions, "How many years have you lived?"

"Eighteen," I answer, only slightly generously considering my birthday is a measly three days away.

He sets his elbows on the wooden tabletop. "And do you believe you are capable of such a discussion? I have been doing this for a very long time."

"You can embellish your words all you want, Alpha. The truth is that you asked for a negotiation."

"Yes. At this point, it is a waste of men and resources. This was your father's war, but he is gone, and I have no interest in fighting his daughter."

I straighten my back. "Well, I'm not worried about resources. I have the men and gold to see this through, but if you give me what I want, I'll stop killing your men."

"I saw many of them—the foreign wolves. They aren't your own."

I shrug. "I have allies."

"Are you mated to an Alpha?"

"No."

"So you're fucking one." An angry chill consumes my body as my blood freezes. "Because no Alpha would be reckless enough to lend thousands of men to fight and die for the pack of a little girl."

My teeth unclench. "I do not have to open my legs to convince other leaders that I am a worthy ally. But you seem to be so bothered by the idea of that."

"And where are your thousands of borrowed men now?"

"I'm sure they're about, chewing the bones of your own."

Alpha Tophet crosses his muscled arms and leans against the back of his chair. "Well, you came to negotiate, did you not? What is it that you hope to get out of this?"

"I want my family's land back."

"No."

"I'm going to get it—the hard way, or the simple way; it doesn't matter."

Taking it would be the ultimate symbol of my domination over him and his pack. The land would make a brilliant trophy for me to kiss in victory.

"That land has belonged to my bloodline for a near-century. My people live and work that land. You will never have it, I promise you."

"Please, if you believe you can offer me something of equal value, I am willing to listen."

Alpha Tophet's aura blackens in a way I didn't expect it to. "I have my own allies, ones I have kept for hundreds of years."

I smile a smile that is both devious and anxious. "I will always have more men."

"I don't believe you."

"I know you do. After all your past negotiations, you would know if I were lying, wouldn't you? A little twitch or a stutter? Let me say it again so you can analyze; I will always have more men than you."

His stare doesn't waver, if anything, it hardens. His head tilts a sliver of an inch, and I have never felt so young and careless. "You haven't spoken with anyone more powerful than yourself," he says. "If you have, you would speak with caution. You seem to have forgotten the fact that I can kill you—right now if I need to—but you cannot do the same."

"You wouldn't."

"It would be messy, but I've done so before. With every word you speak, you convince me why I should get you out of my way now rather than deal with you later. You are the last of your line, after all. If I kill you, your pack follows."

I subconsciously stand, thrusting my chair from under me.

"Sit down," he orders.

I want to leave. I want to grab onto Tabitha and run. Let my men fight his, because a fight between the two of us is blatantly unfair. It concludes in a matter of seconds, and my head may very well be detached from my body.

"I cannot negotiate if you're threatening to kill me."

"I don't want to kill you. I prefer not to kill women—"

"Of course, but it's perfectly fine to threaten them."

"You don't want the land. You want to win. We can very much continue until a conclusion is drawn, wasting until we have nothing left." He adjusts. "Your father drained the life from your pack in a desperate pursuit. Now, you have your means to fuel an army—ones your father didn't—but you don't fight with the same blind obsession."

I think for a moment about my father. The memories of his selfishness and anger spread in my mind like spilled ink, so I lower back down and scoot my seat forward.

"I want to take my men home," I say.

"We want the same, so let's discuss, shall we?"

~•~

We negotiate for two days, one more than expected, and still do not come to an agreement.

Our words change from willing to annoyed to sarcastic to angry to exhausted. Maps are scribbled over as borders are redrawn, and amounts of gold are offered then just as quickly retracted. For two whole hours the second day, Alpha Tophet and I describe how we would ruin the other so terribly and ruthlessly that I contemplate too seriously confessing my evil dealings.

By the morning of the third day, I consider killing him, just as he did to my face, and just as I did before arriving at this snowy wasteland. He's right; I wouldn't be able to attack him as he could attack me, but with a witch at one's side and a deal with the God of Death, the impossible is made possible.

He wants me to; He whispers.

"Brea," Tabitha calls from outside our tent. She pokes her head in then the rest of her body follows. "Tophet isn't here."

I halt my dressing. "What? Where is he? Don't tell me that they're gone."

"No. No, I was told by one of his men that he's returned to his land because of an issue. They said that he'll be back in the afternoon."

"The afternoon? That tells me nothing. I want to know the exact hour."

"I don't believe they know the exact hour."

I tear off the cloak that I had just pulled over my shoulders and throw it into the ground. The balled material thuds, and I smooth over my hair, pressing into my scalp. "I don't want to speak with him anymore."

Tabitha picks up my cloak and sets it on my sleeping mat. "Then let's leave. It's not worth losing your wits."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because he's convinced me that I need to end it. He talks, and he talks, and sometimes I just sit there and I stop listening. I think that he may be tricking me, but his reasoning makes so much sense. We should end the war. I want to end the war, but he won't give me the land. I even drew out a piece of it, but—so we discussed other options, but none of them are what I need. It's just... I can't be alone with him; I can't stand him!"

"Brea—"

"Let's kill him. We have to."

She grabs my arms and beckons me to sit with her. "I think the Alpha's delay is much needed. He's getting to you, and you need a break from it."

"He won't even call me Alpha." I bury my face in my hands. "I feel so foolish."

"No. You are not a fool. He knows you are inexperienced, and he is going to try to exploit that. But what he doesn't know is that you are much more powerful than he is."

I stare at the space between my feet. "The God is more powerful than him. I am not."

"You wield the God."

"No. The God wields me."

Her frustrations leak from under her skin and dribble. "We're leaving before he returns."

"No. He must die. I cannot live knowing that he's also in this world. It'll drive me mad, I know it."

"Look at yourself—you're already acting mad. We'll have our men finish the job. He refuses our offer to end the war in exchange for the land, so we'll return to the battlefields."

I shake my head. "More of my men will die. My men, not His. You said it yourself; it's better to end the war now."

"Not by killing him." She sees the question on my lips, so she answers, "I don't know if we can."

"Of course we can."

"We cannot do it the natural way, and killing someone my way has great consequences."

I propose, "What if we use the God?"

Tabitha quiets as she thinks. "You just borrowed three thousand men, and even in battle with them, he survived."

"Can the God not send someone stronger? Not an army but a killer? Something Tophet can't beat."

"I don't know if the Goddess allows such things to enter this world, Brea."

"The God did. He entered our world."

"Yes, because he is a God."

"So the God can come back and do it."

"The God can do no harm to Tophet in this world without Tophet's submission. And you cannot force him to submit," she explains. "Please, Brea. Listen to me when I say that it's best to go. Maybe you can continue to negotiate through letters so I'm not kept from you, and you aren't alone."

My chest sinks. Perhaps Tabitha is right. Alpha Tophet does nothing but poison the air I breathe.

She stands and offers a hand. "Why don't we go for a walk? You can think about it more without being trapped in this horrible tent."

I take her hand and rise from my sleeping mat.