The Alpha's Claim
323 Words
Pain. That’s the first thing I register when I wake up. A dull, pounding ache in my skull, the kind that comes from being hit over the head.
The second thing? The scent.
Wood. Smoke. Something sharp and earthy beneath it. The air is thick with it, familiar yet foreign.
I blink against the dim light, my head swimming. My hands won’t move. No, not won’t—can’t.
I’m tied to a chair.
Panic slams through me, adrenaline cutting through the haze. My wrists burn as I pull against the restraints, testing their strength. Thick rope. Tight knots. Not impossible, but not easy.
"She’s awake."
The voice sends a chill through me.
I look up.
A man leans against the wall, arms crossed. He’s tall, broad, with dark hair and piercing eyes that seem to glow in the low light. Power rolls off him in waves, thick and suffocating.
He looks at me like he knows me.
Like he owns me.
"Selene Voss," he says, my name a slow drawl. "We finally meet."
I don’t know him, but everything in me—every instinct, every nerve—screams danger.
"Who the hell are you?" I growl.
His lips curve into a smirk, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
"I’m Magnus," he says. "Your Alpha."
I laugh, sharp and humorless. "That’s cute. You’re delusional."
His smirk doesn’t waver. If anything, it deepens. "You’ll understand soon enough."
A door creaks open behind him. More figures step in—three, maybe four. All watching. Waiting.
Magnus crouches in front of me, so close I can feel the heat of him.
"Tell me, Selene," he murmurs. "Have you ever wondered what you really are?"
Something in my chest clenches. Something deep.
Because the way he says it—the certainty, the amusement, the knowing—tells me one thing.
He has the answers I never knew I needed.
And that terrifies me more than anything.
- Writer
