Haunted by the alpha king

The Alpha king’s hunt

~ Aria ~

The blood moon bled across the midnight sky, swollen and inflated, tinting the valley in red light. Its glow adhered to the wolves gathered below, hundreds in a crowd, infusing the air with the sharp bite of fear and anticipation.

The Blood Moon Gathering: A sacred, violent tradition in which unwed she-wolves are offered for Alphas’ scrutiny and their fates settled by whatever wolf they claim.

I didn’t picture myself here.

My trembling hands cradle the gauzy white dress the elders urged me towards. It’s a burial cloth rather than a dress, lightweight in the chilly night air and exposing me to crawling eyes. Girls pace nervously around me, wailing or staring at the dirt in the belief they can be exempted by expressing servitude.

It won’t.

Not tonight.

Since tonight, he is here.

The earth shakes first, as if the earth knows a quake is approaching. A wave of silence spreads through the clearing. The crowd parts without a signal, all the wolves bowing spontaneously, heads down, shuddering forms.

And then he appears.

Alpha King Kael.

He stands taller than any man I’ve ever met, shoulders broad under a black coat billowing like armor around him. His presence looms down like a storm. Tattoos wind around his throat, hidden under his collar, signs of power inscribed in his body. His jaw is sharp-pointed, his mouth not-smiling, his face sculpted from stone.

But it is those eyes which freeze the audience—grey, cold, afire for hunger.

The king was never married. Rumor whispers he doesn’t require a wife, he is too cold-blooded, too hard-hearted, too consumed by a hunger for power. And yet he looms across the clearing like a hunter.

Sounds of gasps ring in his approach. Wolves avert and tremble more the closer he gets. Not one dares speak.

And then his head rotates.

Toward me.

I stand stock still as those eyes pin mine, hard and relentless. His nostrils flare wide, chest rising as he takes a deep breath. Something flashes across his visage—something feral.

The other girls shrink away from me but can’t move.

“No,” I whisper, though no one is listening. “Not me.”

But it’s already too late.

In the blink of a heartbeat, he’s in front of me. One moment a dash across the clearing, the next a towering figure at my left flank, erasing the blood moon. His scent washes over me—cedar smoke, steel and pure Alpha power.

I take a stumble backwards, but he throws a hand around my jaw in a grip that is hard. His eyes blaze as he dips his face down, the nose breaching the curve of my neck. Fire, shame and shocks surges through me

“Mine,” he growls, voice gravel and fire.

Gasps ripple the crowd. The shocked murmurs surface, yet none of them dare confront him. Not one Alpha is reckless—or stupid—enough to battle the King for a mate.

Terror strikes me, but beneath it, something more writhes. My wolf is agitated, digging at my very vitals. I despise it. I despise the way my body betrays me by shuddering beneath the contact of this man, my breathing in short gasps.

I struggle to turn away. “You can’t—”

But his grip tightens, forcing me to look at him.

“You feel it too,” he says low and surely. “The bond. The pull. Don’t waste your breath denying what’s already sealed.”

I try to speak in protest, but his thumb passes along my lower lip and shuts me up. A perilous smile tugs at his lips.

“Defiant,” he breathes. “Good. I’ll enjoy breaking you.”

Before I can even speak, his lips trace down my neck. The audience gasps while the teeth bite at my flesh. Pleasure and pain combine in a shock wave and leave me stumbling in my knees. A strangled sound erupts from me, raw and embarrassing.

Kael mutters happily and steps back far enough to speak in my ear.

“You’re mine, little mate. Marked before the moon, before the packs, before the goddess herself.”

And louder he roars down the valley, crashing like thunder in his voice:

“I claim her!”

The words echo off the cliffs. Shouts of elation from a few, snarls from others. But none emerge.

I struggle in his arms, frantic, furious, fearful. “I’m not yours! I won’t—”

“You will.” His voice lowers now, dangerous. His lips brush my ear. “I’ll show you what it’s like belonging to me.”

Before I even have a chance to struggle, he lifts me off the ground and he pull me out of the clearing as if I weigh nothing. My hands beat at his chest in futility.

“Put me down!”

His gaze burns as he looks at me. “Never.”

The crowd is gone behind us. The woods surround us in quiet except for the pounding in my chest.

The carriage at the edge of the clearing is black and polished and is pulled by massive wolves whose eyes glow like molten gold. Darkly armored warriors in rows stand with bowed heads as he approaches.

He opens the door wide and pushes me inside, getting in himself. The door shuts behind me and confines me in the vehicle with him.

The atmosphere is thick with his scent and my breasts heaves as I push across the chair in anger at him.

“You can’t steal me from my life!”, my voice breaks and trembles. “I have a family—I—”

“You had a life,” he cuts in, settling across from me, his legs apart, his presence taking up every inch of space. “Now you have me.”

I shake my head, my tears stinging. “I’ll never agree.”

His lips curl onto a perilous smirk. “You already have.” He gets closer, forearms resting on his knees, eyes flashing at me. “Your scent tells me everything I need to know. You’re trembling in fear, yes. but in need too. Don’t even deny it. I can smell you.”

My face burns. “That’s a lie.”

His laugh vibrates from his stomach. He’s quicker than I can blink and immobilizes me within the constraints of the chair, his body looming over mine. His single hand cradles a knot in my hair and lifts my head, exposing my throat.

“You think you can hide from me?” His voice is a growl. Low and rough. “I could tear through every one of the walls you build. Every. Single. One.”

My heart thrums as his lips rest at my flesh, his breath hot. My wolf whines, in fear and hunger.

“You’re mine,” he breathes in my neck. “Mine to break. Mine to claim. Mine to worship.”

Desperately, I push at his chest, yet he lets me push him off. He gazes at me through blazing eyes, as if amused by my disrespect.

The carriage jerks me forward, away from the world I was used to, deeper into his world.

“You’ll regret this,” I whisper, trembling.

He leans back, relaxed, one arm slung around the chair. His smirk is total sin.

“No, dear mate. You’ll regret fighting me.”

The ride appears endless. His gaze does not waver from me, intense and hungry, a kind of caress I am unable to shake. When the carriage starts slowing down, my nerves are frayed.

The door creaks. And the vision robs me of breath.

Black spires reach for the darkness, serrated under the blood moon. A great castle looms in front of us, unforgiving, the stone walls engraved with wolves and moons. The battlements burn bright with torches, the firelight warming the darkness.

The Alpha King’s fortress.

The creaking gates swing open and disclose a yard filled with warriors in a line. They all sink down onto one knee as Kael steps out, still holding my hand. It’s a low growling chant in one voice.

“Alpha King.”

At last, he halts before a pair of massive doors carved with wolves. He shoves them open and pulls me inside.

His chambers.

The room is vast, dominated by a bed draped in thick furs. A fire blazes in the hearth, filling the air with stifling heat. His scent lingers everywhere—powerful, overwhelming, inescapable.

The doors slam shut behind us, and I stumble back, heart racing, my gaze snapping to the bed.

Kael leans casually against the doors, his eyes stripping me bare. “You look terrified.”

“Because I am.”

He pushes off the door and prowls toward me, each step tightening the air around us. I retreat until the bed presses against the back of my legs.

He cages me in, bracing his hands on either side, his body looming over mine. His scent wraps around me, suffocating.

“You belong to me now,” he murmurs, his lips grazing my ear. “Every breath, every sound, every inch of you.”

Heat coils low in my stomach, but I clench my fists and shake my head. “I’ll never be yours.”

A dark laugh rumbles from him. His teeth graze the mark on my neck, sending a shiver I can’t suppress.

“You already are,” he whispers. “You just don’t realize it yet.”

His chest rises and falls, his wolf straining beneath his skin. His eyes flash silver, hunger barely restrained.

“Tonight,” he says, his voice thick with promise, “you’ll learn what it means to belong to the Alpha King.”

His fist twists in my dress, dragging me closer. My gasp is swallowed by his feral growl.

The fire roars. The blood moon glows. His shadow consumes me whole.

And in that moment, I know my fate is sealed.

The real hunt has only just begun.