Chapter 5 – When the Alpha Hunts
1120 Words
The mark on her neck pulsed like a wound torn open.
Rhea jolted awake, a cold sweat slicking her skin. Her breath caught in her throat — not from fear, but from the ghost of his voice.
“Mine.”
It echoed through her bones, low and feral, as if Kael himself had whispered it against her ear. She clawed at the mark, her nails scraping against skin already raw. It had been silent for days. Why now?
The Moon was full above the treetops, silver and watchful. Too bright. Too quiet.
Her legs swung off the makeshift bed Eryx had given her — thick blankets layered on the floor of a hollowed-out cabin. The cold bit into her feet as she stumbled toward the open door, panting like prey. She leaned against the frame, eyes searching the forest as though she could see him watching from the shadows.
Nothing.
But her bond burned.
“Stop it,” she whispered to herself. “You rejected me. You don’t get to call me.”
The air thickened, magic stirring like smoke on her tongue. The bond wasn’t broken — not yet. And Kael knew it. That was why she still heard him in dreams. That was why her body still reacted like she belonged to him.
She didn’t.
Not anymore.
She pressed her forehead against the doorframe, rage and shame clashing in her chest. The mark throbbed again. Not pain. A pull.
Run, little Omega.
He’s coming.
“You shouldn’t be out here.”
His voice slid into the night like a blade — calm, sharp, dangerous.
Rhea turned quickly. Eryx stood a few feet away, half in shadow, half in moonlight. His shirt hung loose, dark hair tousled, and his jaw clenched like he hadn’t slept. She wondered if he’d been watching her, or if he felt it too — the mark burning.
“It’s not safe,” he said again, stepping forward.
“Because of Kael?” she asked, voice hoarse.
He didn’t answer.
“Say it,” she demanded. “He’s looking for me, isn’t he?”
Eryx’s eyes met hers. Silver flickered in their depths — not from the moon, but from whatever beast lived inside him.
“Of course he’s looking for you,” he said finally. “You’re his mate. His property.”
“I’m not property,” she snapped.
“No,” he agreed quietly. “But he doesn’t see it that way.”
The air between them crackled. Her heart thundered with a mix of fear and defiance. Eryx stepped closer, gaze lowering to her neck — to the mark that still bound her to his Alpha.
“You should’ve let me burn it off the night I found you.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“And yet, here we are — him tracking you like a bloodhound and me cleaning up the mess.”
His words stung more than they should have. But beneath the bitterness, there was something else. Protective. Desperate. Maybe even…
“I didn’t ask you to save me.”
“I know,” he said. “But I did.”
She turned away, chest heaving.
“He rejected me,” she whispered. “Why is he hunting me now?”
Eryx’s voice dropped to a near growl.
“Because Kael Draven doesn’t lose what’s his. Even if he throws it away.”
The messenger didn’t even get through the door.
Kael’s hand slammed him against the stone wall of the Alpha's hall, fangs bared.
“Say it again,” Kael growled, voice cold enough to freeze bone.
The wolf trembled. “T-The girl. Rhea. She’s alive. Outside the border. She crossed into rogue territory—”
A sickening crack echoed as Kael released him, letting the messenger crumple. He turned his back, fists clenched at his sides. The bond — the one he’d tried to bury — snapped back to life in his chest like a curse.
Alive.
She was alive.
And she hadn’t come crawling back.
He paced toward the windows, jaw grinding. His mark still burned on her skin. Her scent still haunted his lungs. And yet she’d dared to leave — no, flee — without permission. Without his claim.
“She’s with Eryx,” someone muttered behind him.
Kael froze.
“The Beta?” he said, voice low.
“He took her in. He protects her now.”
His vision flashed red.
Eryx. His own Second. The one who’d always looked at Rhea too long, who never bowed deep enough when it came to matters of the bond. Kael had tolerated it when Rhea was nothing — an Omega girl he could reject and forget.
But now?
Now she was his.
Moon-damned fate. Moon-damned bond.
“Get me my blades,” Kael said flatly.
“Alpha—shouldn’t we assemble the guard?”
Kael turned, his eyes glowing silver. “No. I go alone.”
“Why?”
A smirk twisted across his face — cruel, cold, beautiful.
“Because I want her to know who’s hunting her.”
She stood in the clearing, barefoot in the dew-soaked grass, the wind lifting her hair like threads of shadow and silver. The forest whispered around her — branches creaked, the Moon pulsed.
He’s coming.
Her blood knew it.
But for the first time… she didn’t flinch.
Eryx stood a few paces away, arms crossed. He’d been watching her in silence, letting the weight of her decision settle. She turned to him slowly.
“I want you to train me.”
His brow lifted. “Train you?”
“To fight.”
He stared at her, unreadable. “You're not ready. You're still healing. You don’t even know how to shift without collapsing—”
“I don’t care.”
Rhea stepped closer, her voice shaking with rage barely held together.
“I’m tired of being prey. Of running. Of being someone’s bonded thing.”
“And you think training for a few days will change that?”
“No,” she said. “But it’s a start.”
Eryx’s gaze dropped to her hands — still trembling — then rose to her eyes. Whatever he saw there made him sigh and reach behind his back. He pulled free a training blade and held it out to her, hilt first.
“This isn’t how you break a bond.”
“No,” she replied. “But maybe it’s how I survive it.”
Their fingers brushed as she took the blade.
And under the Moon’s watchful eye, Rhea Hale began her first lesson —
Not as a Luna.
Not as a mate.
But as the weapon fate forgot to fear.
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