The Alpha’s Forbidden Valkyrie

Chapter 10

Jax’s POV

I descended the wooden stairs with heavy steps. With every single step, I felt the tightness in my chest that refused to ease. My hand was still trembling slightly—the hand with which I had just caused her pain. I could still feel the thin bones of her wrist in my grip, and I could hear that stifled groan born of pure panic.

When I entered the bar, the noise died down instantly. The pack members were there—Silas at the counter, Kane leaning against the pool table, and the rest scattered in the dim light. Thirty pairs of eyes fixed on me, and the tension in the air was palpable. They expected answers. They wanted to see that their Alpha was still the rock-hard leader who knew no mercy.

But what they saw was something else.

I stopped in the middle of the room. I didn't pour myself a whiskey, I didn't slam my fist on the table. I just stood there, with a tiny, fresh bloodstain on the sleeve of my t-shirt—her blood.

"I spoke with her," I said, and my voice was so deep and cold that even Silas tensed at it. "She told me the truth."

"And?" Kane cut in, though his voice lacked its previous confidence. "What is that mutt? Why is her scent different?"

I took a deep breath and looked over them. My pack. My family. The people with whom I had starved Freya for three days in the dark.

"Her mother was a Valkyrie," I said the word, and saw waves of incomprehension wash over their faces. "A descendant of an ancient warrior bloodline. Light and honor. And her father... her father is the leader of a vampire clan."

I fell silent for a moment to let the words sink into their minds. Silas's eyes widened. He was more educated than the rest; he knew what this pairing meant.

"A Valkyrie and a vampire?" Silas whispered. "That's impossible. Those two bloods cancel each other out."

"Exactly what happened," I took a step forward, my voice hardening. "Freya is a mutt in their eyes because her mother's blood was stronger than the predatory instinct. She is physically incapable of killing a human. She becomes physically sick from the smell of human blood. And do you know what they did to her for this? What we thought was 'just punishment' in the cellar was nothing compared to what her own kind did to her for years."

A silence settled over the bar, the kind that is heavier than any roar.

"Her father watched as the guards beat her half to death day after day," I continued, feeling the rage flood my throat once more. "They locked her in a hole, starved her, and whipped her back with silver-studded chains to 'beat' the Valkyrie light out of her. To force her to murder. But she didn't break. She chose the torture, the humiliation, but refused to become a monster."

I saw Kane turn his head away. The others started staring at their glasses or the floor. Guilt, this corrosive, bitter feeling, began to spread through the room. They remembered the cellar. They remembered mocking her as she hung there on the wall, enduring it all in silence. We thought we were breaking a cunning enemy. In reality, we were only continuing the butchery her own family had started.

"She escaped because the clan leader... her own father... gave the order for her execution," I added, my gaze sweeping over everyone. "She fled here because she thought she would be safe with us. She thought that we, wolves, respected honor."

"Jax..." a younger warrior spoke up quietly from the corner. "We didn't know."

"We didn't know?" My eyes flashed yellow. "We didn't even want to know! We only saw the fangs, and we judged immediately."

Silas put down his glass and looked straight at me. Now I didn't see distrust in his eyes, but a deep, genuine respect. And something else too: pity for his Alpha, who had just realized that fate had bound him to the purest soul, and he had trampled it into the mud.

"What's the plan, Alpha?" Silas asked softly.

"The plan hasn't changed, but the stakes have," I stated firmly. "Freya is under the pack's protection. Anyone who touches her, anyone who crosses her, or anyone who even looks at her wrong will answer to me. I won't let anyone, be it vampire or wolf... hurt her again. She is my mate. And if the Moon Goddess decided to give me a Valkyrie, then I will be her shield as long as I live."

I looked over the pack. I saw the shift. They no longer saw a "leech" in her, but a warrior who had suffered more than they had, yet remained humane. I saw heads nod. They understood.

"Silas, prepare the infirmary," I ordered as I turned to go back to her. "I'll need bandages, clean water, and the best healing salves. And Kane..."

The man snapped his head up.

"If I ever hear you call her a mutt again, I'll knock your teeth out myself."

Kane didn't say anything, he just gave a silent nod. There was no defiance in him. Just a kind of realization: the Alpha wasn't just protecting a woman. The Alpha was trying to reclaim the pack's honor.

I started back up the stairs, but this time my steps weren't as heavy. My anger had found a target. I no longer hated myself, nor Freya. My hatred now had a name: the vampire clan that had betrayed her.

But before going to war, I had something much more important to do. I had to bandage the wounds I had caused her, and I had to make sure her hand wouldn't tremble when I came near. Because I realized: I am the Alpha, the lord of the pack, but without Freya... without Freya, I would remain nothing but an angry beast in the dark.