Moonbound:The alpha's awakening

The Alpha

I woke up in a bed that wasn't mine, in a room I didn't recognize, with a bandaged shoulder and a man sitting across from me in the dark.

"You're awake," he said.

I sat up so fast the room tilted. "Where am I?"

"Safe house. Twelve miles outside Crestwood." He didn't move from the chair. Just watched me with those dark, unreadable eyes. "How's your shoulder?"

"It's burning. Everything's burning." I pressed my hand over the bandage. "What did that thing do to me?"

"You were bitten by a rogue werewolf." He said it the same way he'd said it in the alley. Completely flat. Like it was a medical fact. "Your body is beginning to change."

I laughed. It came out wrong — too high, too sharp. "Change. Okay. Into what?"

"A wolf."

Silence.

"I'm going to need you to say that again."

"You're going to become a werewolf, Amara." He leaned forward slightly. "I know how that sounds. But the burning you're feeling right now is the beginning of your transformation. It'll get worse before it gets better. And in the next few days, everything — your hearing, your strength, your instincts — is going to shift."

I stared at him. "And you are — what? An expert on this?"

"I'm Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack." His eyes held mine. "Sixty-three wolves. Established territory north of here. I've been aware of you for several months, Amara. I'm sorry I didn't reach you sooner."

I felt cold. "Aware of me. What does that mean?"

"It means your bloodline was flagged." His jaw tightened. "There's a power in you — dormant until now, activated by the bite. Something rare. Something a very dangerous man has been hunting for a long time."

"What man?"

"His name is Callum Voss."

The name landed like a stone dropped into still water.

"He's the one who sent the rogue," Damian continued. "He wanted you bitten and disoriented. Easier to collect." His voice hardened on the last word. "That's not going to happen."

"Collect." I repeated the word slowly. "Like — collect me. Like a thing."

"Yes."

Something cold and angry moved through my chest. "And you knew this was coming and you didn't warn me?"

He didn't look away. "I made a mistake. I thought we had more time." A pause. "I was wrong."

I wanted to be angrier. But there was something about the way he said it — no excuse, no deflection, just the plain weight of it — that short-circuited my fury.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"You come with me." He stood. He was taller than I'd registered in the alley. Broader. He filled the space the way very few people did — not aggressively, just completely. "Tonight. You can't go back to Crestwood. Not until this is dealt with."

"My bookshop—"

"Will still be there when this is over." Something in his expression shifted — not soft, exactly, but less armored. "I know you have no reason to trust me. I know this isn't a choice you should have to make at—" he glanced at the window "—two in the morning after being attacked. But I need you to make it anyway."

I looked at him. At the blood still drying on his jaw. At the tear in his sleeve from a fight he'd picked on my behalf.

"If I go with you," I said, "I want answers. Real ones. No more feeding me things in pieces."

His eyes met mine. "You'll have them."

"All of them."

The corner of his mouth moved. Almost a smile. Not quite. "All of them."

The door opened before I could respond.

A woman stepped in — dark-haired, sharp-featured, with eyes that assessed me in under a second and clearly found the assessment inconclusive. She looked at Damian.

"We have a problem," she said. "Callum's wolves. They found this location."

Damian was already moving. "How many?"

"At least four. Moving fast."

He looked at me. The almost-smile was gone. "Can you run?"

My shoulder was on fire. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. The world outside the window was dark and full of things that wanted to find me.

"Yes," I said.

"Then we go now."