Scaleborn Book 1 - The Breeder's Runaway Daughter.

Chapter 1 - Part 2

His kind hardly ever batted an eye at an assassination.

They were in fact bored by a lack of bloodshed within The Circle every so often, and wolves who made no more than idol threats without ever delivering on them were disregarded and looked down upon among the ranks

He wasn't exactly expecting congratulations from any of the high-ranking alphas or instant respect after getting his hands dirty for the first time, but of course that all depended on who you managed to kill.

The key was in the success. Sure, the Higher-Circle alphas might think he had balls if he straight up tried taking one of them out. That would naturally be the quickest way to achieve the power he desired, but not the smartest. He had heard stories of young alphas who had climbed the ranks by killing an older and more powerful wolf, but he had heard more about young wolves who had failed....

If he wasn't careful about this then it wouldn't matter if anyone thought he had balls, because he would be dead. The alphas themselves probably wouldn't mind an assassination in their midst, as the ranks were constantly shifting anyway – usually due to the tragic yet mysterious death of a high rank wolf or more. Regardless, he wouldn't live to tell the tale if he made a daring move like that now. It was much more likely that one of the dead alpha's pack members would take him out in revenge or another alpha would kill him just to make a point - or even more likely – because he just felt like it.

Survival, that was the most important thing – high ranking wolves generally didn't care if you killed someone to gain power, even if it was someone from their own circle.

The bigger threats to his life would most likely come from wolves who were loyal to the wolf he killed, or someone else who saw him as an easy picking to gain more power for themselves. "Just get the job done and stay alive." He muttered to himself out loud. A more daunting task than it sounded like. He not only had to survive the act itself, but also the aftermath of whatever drama his crusade stirred up – and perhaps even more importantly he had to succeed. He had been staying alive out of pure spite from the moment his father had first laid eyes on him, so that wasn't the part he was worried about. To fail though, was an offence to your rank and pack. It was the biggest shame you could bring to your name as a werewolf in this society. That was definitely not something he could afford, or wanted to survive. As he was already considered shamed at birth due to whom he was birthed by – and his general pack rank was more or less non-existing.

The rule in this world was, "Kill or be killed and if you don't kill him well enough then you'd better wish you were dead." He wasn't going to be dismissed and ignored anymore – he just couldn't be.

A thousand unpleasant thoughts and possibilities poured over him like the showering rain, and all his worries and insecurities stuck to his skin like the wet fabric he wore. "Why are you really doing this?" "Do you really need to do this?" the frightened voice of a little boy whispered in his mind. Did he need to do this? Yes, he did. It was the only quick way to bolster his rank in the circles and the least likeliest way to get himself killed while doing so. Why was he doing this? A million reasons flashed through his mind, along with more unwanted questions. He wasn't that frightened little boy anymore. The truth though was that he didn't want to do this, but from everything he had seen thus far, it seemed like a more or less occupational hazard. Someday, for some reason – he would have to kill a wolf for his own gain. Might as well start with an easily reached and relatively harmless target so that I can build up a stomach for it, he thought.

He could imagine his father's face so clearly, sneering at his weakness. Part of him didn't understand why he still felt the need to make his old man proud. The man was an abusive asshole and better yet, he was fucking dead. Why did he bother pleasing a man he had hated his entire life? Self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps? Or maybe one too many beatings and mistreatments had gotten to his head, and he had sunk into some kind of delirium that made him believe that if he tried hard enough then he would gain respect from his dead father and the pack he had inherited from him.