CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The First Alpha
2000 Words
The air in the cavern tasted like iron and old graves.
The figure climbing out of the pit moved like it owned time itself. Slow. Deliberately. It had my face.
“I am the first alpha,” it said again. My voice, but scraped raw. “And you are mine now.”
Kade didn’t move from in front of me. The bond between us was gone. I could feel the empty space where it used to be, like a missing tooth.
“Stay behind me,” he said.
The first alpha tilted its head. “You can’t protect her from me, pup. She’s mine. She’s always been mine.”
Mara was on her knees, forehead pressed to the stone. “My lord,” she whispered. “We kept her safe. We kept her for you.”
“Safe,” the first alpha said. “You locked her in a coffin for twenty years and called it safety.”
Mara flinched but didn’t rise
Elder Blackwood hadn’t moved either. They were waiting.
For him.
For me.
For whatever came next.
“Step aside, boy,” the first alpha said to Kade. “Or I will carve you out of her myself.”
Kade didn’t answer. He just shifted, putting more of himself between me and the thing in the pit.
I grabbed his wrist. My hand was shaking.
“Kade,” I said. “Don’t.”
“I’m not losing you again,” he said.
“You won’t,” I said. “But not like this.”
The first alpha laughed. It was my laugh.
“Touching,” it said. “Really. But you don’t get a say, Lyra Vale.”
It stepped forward.
Kade moved.
Too fast for a human eye to follow. He launched himself at the first alpha, claws aimed for its throat.
The first alpha didn’t even flinch.
It caught his wrist mid-air and twisted.
Bone snapped.
“Kade!”
I ran to him before I could think.
“Don’t touch him,” the first alpha said.
I ignored it. I knelt beside Kade, pressing my hands to his wrist.
“Hold still,” I whispered.
“Run,” he said.
I shook my head. “Not without you.”
The first alpha sighed. “Sentimental. Weak. No wonder the packs fell apart.”
It raised its hand.
Black light pooled in its palm, coiling like smoke.
“This ends now,” it said. “Lyra Vale. Come to me.”
My body moved before my mind caught up.
It was not the bond Something older. Something in my blood that recognized this thing as kin.
“Lyra, no!” Kade grabbed my ankle with his good hand.
“Fight it lyra",” he said."
I could feel it. The pull. The first alpha was part of me. Or I was part of it.
“Don’t you see?” the first alpha said. “You’re me. I’m you. We were split. And now we’re whole.”
Mara looked up, eyes shining. “The prophecy is fulfilled. The blood returns to the source.”
“Shut up,” Selene said. She stepped forward, putting herself between me and the first alpha. “You don’t get her. Not like this.”
The first alpha’s gaze slid to her. Cold.
“Selene Blackwood,” it said. “The traitor who married into Vale blood. Tell me, did you love your sister? Or did you just love her throne?”
Selene’s face went pale.
“Don’t you dare—”
“I dare,” the first alpha said. “Because I remember everything. I remember what you did to keep the Conclave from finding her. I remember what you buried.”
Selene froze.
“What did you do, Aunt Selene?” I asked. My voice came out quiet.
Selene didn’t look at me.
“Lyra"
“Tell me,” I said.
The first alpha smiled. “She killed the messenger. The one who was going to tell the Vale where you were. She slit his throat in the Blackwood woods and blamed it on wolves. All to keep you hidden. All to keep the Vale from coming for you first.
Selene’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t deny it.
“I did what I had to,” she said. “To keep you alive.”
“You killed for me,” I said.
“I would do it again,” she said.
The first alpha laughed. “And now you want to stop me from doing the same?”
Selene didn’t answer. She just stepped forward again.
“Lyra, listen to me,” she said. “Whatever this thing is, it’s not you. It’s not family. It’s a parasite. It wants your body. Your power. It will burn the world to get it.”
The first alpha’s smile widened.
“She’s right,” it said. “I will burn the world. Starting with the Conclave.”
It turned its hand.
The black light shot forward.
Selene moved.
She threw herself in front of me, arms wide.
The light hit her chest and exploded.
She didn’t scream.
She just collapsed.
“Aunt Selene!”
“Kade,” I said. My voice broke. “Kade, help her.”
“She’s gone,” he said.
No, she couldn’t be.
The first alpha watched with detached interest.
“One down,” it said. “Who’s next?”
Elder Blackwood stepped forward, bowing his head.
“My lord,” he said. “The Blackwoods are yours. Command us.”
The first alpha looked at him.
“Good,” it said. “Kill the boy.”
Elder Blackwood didn’t hesitate.
Kade rolled, pulling me with him.
“Get up!” Kade hissed. He was on his feet despite the broken wrist, putting himself between me and the wolves.
I stood.
The first alpha was watching me.
“Lyra,” it said. “Last chance. Come willingly, and I’ll spare them.”
“You’ll spare them anyway,” I said.
“No,” it said. “I won’t.”
It snapped its fingers.
The wolves attacked.
Kade was a blur of gold and blood, fighting three wolves at once. His broken wrist hung useless at his side, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.
Elder Blackwood came for me.
I had no weapon. No magic. Just my hands.
He grabbed my throat and lifted me off the ground.
“End of the line, girl,” he said.
I hit him with everything I had.
His grip tightened.
“Lyra!” Kade’s voice was distant.
I could see him, fighting off two wolves, blood streaming down his face.
I wasn’t going to make it.
I wasn’t going to—
The bond flared.
Not the bond with Kade.
The old one.
The one with the first alpha.
Power flooded me. Hot and wrong and familiar.
Elder Blackwood’s eyes widened.
“What—”
I didn’t let him finish.
I drove my hand forward, and black light poured out of me.
It hit him in the chest and threw him back like a ragdoll.
He hit the wall and didn’t move again.
Silence fell.
The wolves stopped.
Kade stopped.
Everyone was staring at me.
At my hands.
The first alpha smiled.
“There she is,” it said.
I looked down at my hands. They were shaking.
“What did you do to me?” I whispered.
“I didn’t do anything,” the first alpha said. “I just woke you up.”
Kade stepped in front of me again.
“Stay back,” he said.
“You can’t keep doing that, pup,” it said. “She’s stronger than you now.”
I felt it. The power thrumming under my skin.It wanted to burn.
“Lyra,” Kade said. “Look at me.”
I looked.
His face was bloody, bruised and beautiful.
“Don’t let it take you,” he said.
The first alpha laughed.
“Too late,” it said.
It moved.
Fast.
One moment it was across the cavern, the next it was in front of me, hand outstretched.
Kade roared and lunged, but he was too slow.
The first alpha’s hand closed around my throat.
Not to choke.
To connect.
Black light surged between us.
And I was falling.
Falling into myself.
Falling into memory.
---
Snow. Blood. A throne of bone.
A child with my face, screaming as chains wrapped around her wrists.
A man with Kade’s eyes, begging for mercy and getting none.
A voice: “The blood must be bound, or the world will burn.”
The first alpha’s voice echoed through the memory.
“This is why, Lyra,” it said. “This is why the bond existed. To keep me caged. To keep you safe.”
“Safe?” I said. “You call that safe?”
“I call it necessary,” it said.
I saw myself. Older. Angrier. Standing over a field of bodies.
My bodies.
My kills.
“I was the monster,” the first alpha said. “And you will be too, if you don’t accept me.”
“No,” I said.
“You already have,” it said. “Look at your hands.”
I looked.
“Stop,” I said.
“Make me,” it said.
I tried.
It hurt. God, it hurt.
Like tearing my own soul in half.
“Lyra!” Kade’s voice cut through the darkness.
I opened my eyes.
He was in front of me, holding my face in his good hand.
“Come back,” he said. “Come back to me.”
The first alpha tightened its grip.
“Let her go,” it said. “She’s mine.”
Kade didn’t let go.
“Never,” he said.
He leaned forward and kissed me.
Hard. Desperate.
Like he was trying to pull me back with nothing but his mouth and his will.
The first alpha hissed.
“What are you doing?” it snarled.
“Saving her,” Kade said against my lips.
And it worked.
The pull loosened.
The black light receded.
I gasped and pulled back, away from the first alpha’s touch.
My legs gave out.
Kade caught me.
“Lyra,” he said. “Are you okay?”
I nodded.
The first alpha stared at us.
Hatred twisted its face.
“Fine,” it said. “If you won’t come willingly, I’ll take you by force.”
It raised its hands.
The cavern shook.
Stones fell from the ceiling.
The pit roared.
“Run!” Kade shouted.
He scooped me up and ran.
The wolves gave chase.
The first alpha followed, walking through the chaos like it owned it.
We hit the stairs.
My lungs burned. Kade’s breath was ragged. His wrist was still broken.
“Keep going,” he said.
We burst out into the night air.
Cold. Clean. Real.
The old Vale territories stretched out before us, dead and silent under the moon.
Behind us, the cavern entrance collapsed with a roar.
Dust and stone filled the air.
Then the first alpha stepped out of the dust cloud, untouched.
Smiling.
“You can’t outrun me, Lyra,” it said. “I am you.”
Kade set me down and stepped in front of me again.
“Then come through me,” he said.
The first alpha laughed.
“Gladly.”
It moved.
Kade moved to meet it.
And I did the only thing I could think of.
I screamed.
Not with my voice.
With the power.
Black light erupted from me, a wave that hit the first alpha and threw it back twenty feet.
It hit the ground and didn’t get up right away.
Kade grabbed my hand.
“Go,” he said.
We ran.
Into the dead land.
Into the dark.
Into whatever came next.
---
Behind us, the first alpha rose to its feet.
Its eyes burned.
“Run,” it whispered. “Run while you can.”
---
- Writer
