Chapter4
1327 Words
CLAIMS, CHAOS & OLD WOUNDS
Kiera's POV
Rylan took another step toward Kai. My wolf exploded. I shifted partially, claws extending, fangs dropping, a growl ripping from my throat that made every wolf in the compound freeze.
"Touch him and I will rip your throat out." My voice was barely human, distorted by the wolf taking control.
Rylan stopped, his hands raised, his eyes wide. "Kiera, please. I just want to.."
"No." I moved backward, positioning myself directly between him and the door where Kai stood. "You don't want anything. Not from me. Not from him."
Behind Rylan, his pack warriors shifted nervously. Some had their hands on weapons. Others were seconds away from shifting. And behind me, engines roared to life. The Iron Valkyries had arrived.
Mika came first, her shotgun already in hand. Then Jess, Tank, and a dozen others. The Steel Reapers followed, Jax at the front with his signature baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
"Ghostwolf," Jax called out, his voice steady. "You give the word, and we handle this."
Guns c****d. Chains rattled. My family, my crew, are ready to go to war for me.
"Stand down!" Rylan's Alpha command rolled out like thunder. But it didn't work on humans. Mika laughed, dark and dangerous. "Your bark doesn't work on us, puppy. Now back the hell up before things get messy."
The tension crackled like electricity. One wrong move and this place would become a bloodbath.
"Everyone calm down." I forced my voice to steady, pushed my wolf back down. My claws retracted slowly. "Nobody needs to die tonight."
"Then tell me." Rylan's eyes never left mine. His chest heaved, his whole body trembling with barely controlled rage. "Who fathered that child?"
The question hit like a slap. I smiled. Cold. Sharp. "Not everything belongs to you, Alpha."
His face went white, then red. "What did you say?"
"You heard me." I crossed my arms. "That boy is mine. Only mine. His father is none of your business."
"The hell, it's not!" Rylan roared. "You're still my mate! You're still bound to me!"
"Bound?" I laughed, the sound breaking in my throat. "You broke that bond the second you put your hands on another woman. The second, you chose her over me."
"I never chose her!"
"Liar!" I screamed back. "I saw you! I saw her pregnant belly glowing with your Alpha energy! I saw you standing there like she was the most precious thing in the world, while I, your current mate, meant nothing!"
"You don't understand what happened that night!"
"Then explain it!" My voice cracked. "Explain why you betrayed me! Explain why you let them call me barren! Explain why you ordered your warriors to drag me away like I was nothing!"
Rylan's jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists. For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then, quietly, "The pup died."
The words didn't make sense at first.
"What?"
"The surrogate pup." His voice was hollow, broken. "It died that night. The night you ran."
I staggered backward like he'd punched me. "No. That's not... you're lying."
"The Alpha energy was too strong. The surrogate's body couldn't handle it. The pup was born dead two hours after you left." Rylan's eyes were haunted. "The healer tried everything. But it was already gone."
My legs gave out. I caught myself on the porch railing, my mind spinning. Dead. The pup was dead.
"Why?" The word came out broken. "Why would you do that? Why would you use a surrogate?"
"Because you couldn't conceive." His voice was barely above a whisper. "Three years, Kiera. Three years of trying. The pack elders said I needed an heir. They said," If you can't provide one, then.."
"Then what?" Rage surged through me, hot and vicious. "Then I was useless? Then I deserve to be replaced?"
"No! They threatened to challenge my position as Alpha. Said a leader without an heir was weak. I thought... I thought if I gave them what they wanted, they'd leave us alone. Leave you alone."
"So you betrayed me to protect yourself."
"I betrayed you to protect you!" he shouted. "They would have killed you, Kiera! The old guard, the traditionalists, wanted you gone. Dead. If I hadn't agreed to the surrogate, they would have forced a challenge, and if I'd lost.."
"If you'd lost, what? I would have been free?" I laughed bitterly. "Better than being thrown away like garbage."
"I never wanted to throw you away." His voice broke. "I loved you."
"Loved." I repeated the word like poison. "Past tense."
He flinched. My wolf stirred, confused by the pain in his voice, by the mate bond that still pulsed between us despite everything. But I couldn't let it matter. Couldn't let him matter.
"It doesn't change anything," I said coldly. "That child in there is mine. You have no claim to him."
"The hell I don't!" Rylan's eyes flashed gold. "If he carries my Alpha energy, if he's my blood.."
"You have no proof."
"I can smell it on him!" Rylan took a step forward. "That power, that strength, it's mine! He's my son!"
"He's my son!" I screamed. "I carried him! I gave birth to him alone in a dirty warehouse with no pack, no mate, nothing! I raised him! I protected him! You don't get to show up now and claim him!"
"I'm taking you both back." Rylan's voice turned hard. Final. "Back to the pack. Where you belong
"Like hell you are."
"You're still packed, Kiera. Still Luna. You never formally severed the bond."
"I left. That was formal enough."
"The pack council doesn't see it that way." He stepped closer. "You're coming back. Both of you. And if that boy is my heir.."
"He's not going anywhere with you."
Jax moved up beside me, his bat resting on his shoulder. "You heard her, wolf. Time to leave."
"This is pack business," Garrett growled.
"And she's MC now," Mika shot back. "Which makes it our business."
The two sides faced off, seconds from violence.
Rylan's gaze never left mine. "Five days."
"What?"
"I'm giving you five days." His voice was quiet but absolute. "Come back willingly, bring the boy, and we'll sort this out like civilized people. Prove he's not mine, and I'll leave you alone."
"And if I don't?"
His eyes hardened. "Then I came back with the full pack. And I take you both by force."
The threat hung in the air like smoke.
"You can't.."
"Five days, Kiera." He turned toward his bike. "Use them wisely."
The Black Howl MC mounted up, engines roaring to life. Within minutes, they were gone, disappearing into the night like shadows.
But the scent of packing remained. The threat remained. I stood there shaking, my crew surrounding me, until Rosie appeared with Kai in her arms.
"Mommy?" His small voice was frightened. "Are the bad people gone?"
"Yeah, baby." I took him, held him close, breathed in his sweet scent. "They're gone."
But they'd be back. In five days, they'd be back.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I sat in Kai's room, watching him sleep, my knife on my lap. They couldn't have him. I'd die before I let them take him back to that world of pack politics and power struggles and betrayal. We'd run. Disappear. Go somewhere even Rylan couldn't find us.
A sound outside froze my thoughts. Not an engine. Not footsteps. Something else. A scratching. Like claws on wood. My wolf surged forward, alert.
I moved to the window silently, peering out into the darkness. Nothing. Just shadows and moonlight. The scratching came again. Closer. Right outside Kai's window.
I gripped my knife, moving toward the glass. A shape moved in the darkness. Too big to be a dog. Too strange to be a wolf. Its eyes reflected the moonlight. Not gold like a wolf's. Red.Burn
ing red. The thing lunged at the window.Glass shattered. And Kai screamed.
- Writer
