The Alpha’s Vengeance

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Seraphina’s voice barely left her lips, fogging the window as she sat behind the steering wheel, staring at the estate that once felt like home and now looked like a fortress. She leaned back into the seat, her pulse thumping wildly against her ribs. The windshield wipers made a dull screech against glass she hadn’t cleaned in days, cutting through the wet fog to reveal just enough of the towering gates ahead. Every part of her body told her to drive away, to protect what little she had left of herself. But her hand stayed firm on the wheel. She hadn’t come all this way to turn back now. “You promised, Sera,” she muttered, tapping her fingers nervously against the wheel. You told Maelis you’d come. "You told him, too.” The memory flickered before her eyes like smoke: a boy with silver-ringed eyes reaching for her in the dark, a whisper trailing from his lips that still haunted her. She pulled her coat tighter around herself and pushed open the car door before she could talk herself out of it again. The air outside hit her like a slap, cold and laced with the soft scent of night flowers and storm-soaked pavement. “Name?” The voice came sharp as steel before her boots had even fully touched the gravel. Two guards stood at the gate entrance, armed but not aggressive, their stances trained but wary. She knew the uniforms, Kael’s security team was always loyal, always precise. But the one who asked didn’t recognize her face. That might have hurt once. “Tell Alpha Draven,” she said calmly, “that Seraphina Vale is here to speak with him.” One of the guards frowned and looked her over, not in perversion, but like someone trying to place an old painting. His gaze narrowed just enough to betray familiarity. The other already had his earpiece to his lips. Static crackled in the cool air between them. Seraphina stood still, shoulders square, chin lifted, but her heart, that damned traitor, thundered like prey. “You’ll wait here.” They didn’t ask any more questions. The gate didn’t open. But they didn’t turn her away either. That alone was enough to send a rush of heat to her eyes. One step at a time, she thought. She was back on this soil, this cursed ground, and Kael knew it. She could feel his awareness stretch like a slow burn across the distance between them. “Didn’t think you’d ever come back.” The voice wasn’t Kael’s, but it struck just as hard. Seraphina turned her head slightly and found herself face to face with Nyra Draven, standing beside the column near the entry path like a phantom wrapped in designer silk. Her hair was pulled into its signature knot, her eyes as cold as her diamonds. “I didn’t come for a conversation.” Seraphina tried not to let her voice shake. Nyra smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. The woman always did have the charm of a winter storm, beautiful from a distance, deadly up close. “And yet here you are, still breathing.” Nyra stepped closer, her heels clicking softly. “You’re either very brave… or very desperate.” Her gaze drifted over Seraphina’s coat, the wear in her boots, the tension in her shoulders. Desperation ages a woman. You used to hold your chin higher.” “My sister is dying,” Seraphina replied, sharp now, sharper than she meant to be. “That’s the only reason I’m here.” Nyra’s expression didn’t change, but something behind her eyes flickered. “And Kael?” Seraphina’s breath hitched. She looked away. The answer sat unspoken between them. “Of course,” Nyra murmured. “You always knew how to make an entrance when it hurt the most.” She turned before Seraphina could reply, gliding back toward the mansion. “He’ll see you. Eventually. And if he doesn’t, I suppose that’s answer enough.” Seraphina stood there, alone again, as the gates finally opened with a mechanical sigh. The estate beyond looked just as she remembered, too perfect, too cold. Her feet moved with instinct as the guards motioned her forward. “I should’ve worn armor,” she muttered. “Ma’am?” “Nothing,” she said, brushing past. “Just talking to ghosts.” The front doors yawned open. Warm golden light spilled out across the marble, and Seraphina stepped inside the receiving hall that once held her laughter, her footsteps, her future. It had been scrubbed from her completely. But she could still smell the clove and cedar blend Kael always preferred in the air vents. That scent hadn’t changed. That, at least, betrayed him. “Don’t sit,” the guard said behind her. She didn’t plan to. Her fingers twitched at her sides as she stepped into the center of the room, framed by towering bookshelves and a cold fireplace. A single portrait stared down from above, Kael’s father, still watching like the tyrant he’d always been. “I’m not here for him,” she whispered beneath her breath. A lie. The biggest one. The seconds dragged on. Then minutes. The silence stretched until it turned sharp. Then came the voice. “Leave us.” She turned fast. That voice... Kael stood at the top of the stairs. His presence filled the space like smoke filling a chamber, sudden, thick, undeniable. His suit was black, clean lines sharp against his tall frame, but it was his eyes that gutted her, storm-dark, unreadable, but fully awake. Alive. Unforgiving. “You actually came back,” he said, not descending. “I thought you’d vanished like a ghost." Or maybe I just hoped you had.” Seraphina didn’t flinch. “I didn’t come for you.” A lie again. He descended the stairs one step at a time, like a king returning to a battlefield. “No?” he said. “Then why are you standing in the house you once set fire to?” “You know why,” she replied, her voice steady now. “Say it.” “My sister,” she said. “She’s dying." Only your blood can save her.” Kael let the words settle like dust. Then, softly, “Still asking me to bleed for you, Seraphina?” Her throat tightened. She wanted to say something, anything, but her tongue curled under the weight of what she couldn’t admit. That she’d come here for Maelis, yes. But not only for that. Not only. “Answer me one thing,” Kael said, stepping closer until they stood a single breath apart. “Do you even remember the last thing you said to me?” She did. She remembered all of it. The blood. The screaming. The moon. His voice broke. Her running. “No,” she lied. Kael smiled, slow and humorless. “Of course you don’t.” He turned to walk away. She reached for him. “Please.” He stopped. “Stay here,” he said over his shoulder. “If I decide you’re worth helping… you’ll know.” And he disappeared down the hall, leaving her alone in the house of memories she had tried so hard to forget. Outside, thunder rolled across the Missouri sky. An d in the shadows of the trees beyond the compound walls, someone else was watching her return.