My Mate is the Alpha who should kill me

Episode Three

Kaelie's POV

The heavy footsteps came closer… then they stopped.

A low sniff followed, slow and deliberate. The sound sent a shiver through my bones, sharp and instinctive, as though the forest itself was holding its breath alongside me.

Then the footsteps shifted again, heavier this time, circling slightly… before fading away into the trees. Not toward me. Not searching. Just continuing their patrol like I was nothing more than a shadow that didn't matter.

I stayed frozen long after the sound disappeared, my cheek pressed into the damp earth, listening to nothing but my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Minutes passed like that, stretched thin and unbearable, until the silence finally felt real again.

Only then did I move.

Slowly, carefully, I pushed myself up, shaking dirt from my coat. My hands were trembling so badly I had to press them against my thighs just to steady them.

"I have to be faster," I whispered under my breath, though my voice barely sounded like mine.

The forest around me looked unchanged, but it no longer felt empty. It felt watched.

I turned back toward the stream, every step quieter than the last.

The Moonshade couldn't wait. Not anymore. Not after what just happened.

The clearing was still there when I returned. The three blue flowers shimmered faintly near the rocks, untouched, waiting like they didn't care how close death had just passed by.

For a second, I looked around vigorously. Then I knelt again.

"Just one," I murmured, forcing my shaking fingers into focus. "Just one and I'm gone."

The soil was softer now, damp from the stream's edge. I worked carefully, digging around the base of the closest flower.

A branch creaked somewhere behind me.

I stopped instantly, my hands frozen mid-motion.

Nothing followed. No growl. No step.

Just silence again.

My breath came out in a slow, uneven thread as I forced myself to continue. The flower resisted only slightly before loosening, roots sliding free with a soft pull that made my heart jump.

Then it was in my hand.

The Moonshade glowed brighter up close, its blue light pulsing faintly against my skin as though it recognized me. For a moment, something warm flickered in my chest—hope, fragile and dangerous.

I tucked it quickly into my leather pouch, pressing it down carefully as if it might vanish if I wasn't gentle enough.

"Maybe, one more," I whispered. "That's all I need… two…"

I reached for another moonshine. Suddenly, a scream ripped through the forest.

It wasn't close and wasn't far either.

A man's voice, raw and broken, filled with terror so sharp it cut through the stillness like a blade.

My blood turned cold.

The pouch slipped slightly in my grip as I froze, every instinct screaming at me to run in the opposite direction. But the sound didn't fade. Instead, it was followed by movement—heavy, organized, purposeful.

Voices. Wolves. And something worse.

Another scream echoed, shorter this time, strangled halfway through.

I didn't think. I moved.

I crawled behind a large stone near the edge of the clearing, pressing myself flat against it, barely daring to breathe. Slowly, I leaned just enough to look around the edge.

A few yards away, the forest opened into a wide clearing, lit by broken shafts of moonlight. Two massive wolves stood like statues near the perimeter, their glowing eyes scanning the darkness with patient violence.

And in the center… A man knelt. Even from a distance, I could feel the weight of panic in him.

Another huge man, wearing a long black coat that moved slightly with the wind, circled the area in slow, controlled steps before finally stopping

I looked closely.

Could this be Alpha Jaxen Vane?

I had never seen him before, but I suspected it might be him instantly.

In Grey City, everyone had their own description of him.

Some said he was scarred, some said he looked like the devil himself walking in human skin, others swore he was beautiful as sin, the kind of beauty that made you forget to breathe the moment you looked at him.

The man on his knees was bleeding, his hands shaking as he tried to push himself backward through the dirt.

"Please, Alpha Jaxen!" he cried, voice cracking. "I only did it for the money! I didn't mean to tell the North Pack about the sensors!"

It's him! I screamed in my head, my thoughts scattering as panic surged through me all at once.

The ruthless Alpha Jaxen Vane.

My eyes widened instantly, fear locking into my chest as I struggled to process the weight of what I was seeing right in front of me.

He didn't respond to the man kneeling before him, not even the slightest acknowledgment as the desperate voice continued begging at his feet.

He simply stepped forward. The man reached out, trembling, fingers scraping toward Jaxen's boot as if mercy could be pulled from it.

But Alpha Jaxen moved too fast.

One moment he was standing still. The next, his hand shifted and silver claws slid from his fingers with a quiet, horrifying ease. There was no struggle, no hesitation, only one clean motion and a single s***h.

The man collapsed immediately, the sound of his body hitting the ground swallowed by the forest's silence. No final breath, no last word—only stillness.

I pressed my hand over my mouth, my entire body shaking so violently I thought I might fall apart right there.

My vision blurred at the edges as panic clawed its way up my throat.

I had to leave.

Now.

Carefully, I pulled back from the stone and turned, forcing my body to move even though every instinct screamed at me to stay frozen. I crawled backward first, then stumbled into a crouch, keeping low as I tried to find the path I had come from.

The fence. I just needed the fence.

Suddenly, my foot caught a thick root. I fell forward hard, my shoulder slamming into the ground with a sharp, painful thud that knocked the breath out of me.

Everything stopped.

I didn't move. I didn't breathe. My face pressed into the moss as silence swallowed me whole.

Maybe they didn't hear it.

Maybe the wind covered it.

Maybe…

The sudden change in the air made my eyes sting with hot tears. Slowly, I turned my head.

Jaxen Vane stood ten feet away.



Facing me.