Marked By The ShadowFang Alpha

# **📘 CHAPTER 8 — “The Alpha Who Shouldn’t Exist”**

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*(~1200 words • Full Chapter • No grammar errors)*

The world felt painfully still.

Aria knelt beside Kael’s unconscious body, her fingers trembling as they hovered above his bruised skin. His breath came in slow, ragged pulls—each one sounding like a silent battle.

He looked powerful even in weakness.

Dangerous even in peace.

Beautiful even in brokenness.

“Kael…” she whispered, brushing a strand of dark hair from his forehead.

He didn’t move.

Rowan knelt opposite her, his expression tight with worry—and something else. Something he was afraid to say.

“Rowan… tell me everything,” Aria demanded, voice barely steady. “I need to know what’s happening to him.”

Rowan exhaled shakily.

“Aria… you won’t like the truth.”

“I don’t need to like it,” she snapped softly. “I need to hear it.”

For a moment, Rowan was silent. His eyes shifted to Kael’s limp form—the Alpha who had always been the strongest, the most feared, the most controlled. Now, he looked like a fallen warrior.

Finally, Rowan spoke.

“Kael was never meant to be an Alpha.”

Aria’s heart hammered.

“What do you mean?”

“He was born… wrong,” Rowan said quietly. “Different. Dangerous. A wolf that shouldn’t exist.”

Aria’s breath caught. “Stop calling him that.”

“I’m not insulting him,” Rowan said. “I’m telling you what the Elders believed from the moment Kael shifted for the first time. When he was just ten years old.”

Aria frowned. “His first shift? What happened?”

Rowan swallowed.

“He didn’t shift into a normal wolf. His form was bigger—darker. And the shadows… they followed him, even then. The Elders said he carried a curse in his blood.”

Aria shook her head.

“No. Kael protects everyone. He saves people. He saved ME.”

Rowan looked away.

“That’s the problem. Every time he saves someone… he gets worse.”

Aria froze.

“What?”

“You saw it today,” Rowan said. “He loses control. The darkness takes over him. The bond with you forced him to push past his limits, and his wolf nearly… broke.”

Aria felt cold all over.

“So the shadows—those things around him—what are they?”

Rowan hesitated.

“They’re part of the curse.”

He looked directly into her eyes, voice low.

“Kael is a Shadow Wolf.”

The world seemed to tilt.

A Shadow Wolf.

Aria had heard that word once—whispered in stories children weren’t supposed to hear. Wolves touched by darkness. Wolves born with power too dangerous to control. Wolves destined to either save the world…

…or destroy it.

“That’s just a myth,” Aria whispered.

“No,” Rowan said. “It’s not. Kael is living proof. The shadows answer to him—and they consume him. Slowly. Painfully.”

Aria looked down at Kael’s face—so strong, so cold, now so vulnerable.

“No…” she whispered, voice cracking.

“He didn’t want anyone to know,” Rowan continued. “Not even the pack. Only the Elders and I ever saw him lose control. We’ve been trying to keep it contained for years.”

Aria stared at Kael, her eyes burning.

“But why does it get worse around me?” she asked quietly.

Rowan’s expression softened.

“That’s the part Kael feared the most.”

Aria’s breath hitched.

“What is it?”

Rowan leaned forward.

“Your presence stabilizes him, Aria. But it also intensifies him. You calm the wolf—but you also wake the power inside him. You make him feel emotions he’s spent years suppressing.”

Aria’s pulse thundered.

“So I’m hurting him?”

“No,” Rowan said firmly. “You’re the only thing keeping him alive.”

Silence fell between them.

Kael shifted slightly, a faint groan slipping from his lips. Aria’s heart twisted at the sound. She reached for his hand, and the moment she touched his skin—

Kael’s fingers twitched, curling around hers weakly.

As if clinging to her.

As if he recognized only her, even in unconsciousness.

“See?” Rowan murmured. “He finds you even in the dark.”

Aria swallowed hard.

“But if I’m helping him… why did he lose control like that?”

Rowan’s jaw tightened.

“Because he felt you were in danger. The bond snapped inside him. A Shadow Wolf reacting to protect his mate… that’s the one thing even he can’t control.”

Aria felt her chest tighten painfully.

“I didn’t mean for that—”

“It’s not your fault,” Rowan said sharply. “This is bigger than both of you.”

Aria wiped her tears angrily.

“What happens now? Tell me how to help him.”

Rowan looked conflicted, as if debating whether to speak. Finally, he said:

“There is a prophecy written in the ancient scrolls. It talks about a Shadow Wolf who will either rise as the strongest Alpha in history… or fall into madness and wipe out everything he loves.”

Aria’s blood ran cold.

“And what determines which path he takes?” she whispered.

Rowan stared at her.

“You.”

Aria’s breath stopped.

“Me?”

“Yes,” Rowan said. “The prophecy says the Shadow Wolf’s fate rests in the hands of ‘the marked heart’—the girl who bears his bond.”

Aria’s entire world trembled.

“So I’m supposed to save him?”

Rowan nodded slowly.

“Or destroy him,” he said quietly. “Depending on what you choose.”

Aria’s hand shook as she held Kael’s.

He suddenly murmured her name—broken, faint.

“Aria…”

Her heart shattered.

She leaned over him, whispering with fierce determination:

“I’m not letting anything destroy you. Not your curse. Not the shadows. Not fate. Nothing.”

She pressed her forehead gently to his.

“You hear me, Kael? I’m not letting you go.”

Behind her, Rowan exhaled.

“Then you need to prepare,” he said. “Because saving him comes with a price. A high one.”

Aria lifted her head slowly.

“What price?”

Rowan answered with a whisper.

“You’ll have to bond with him completely. Soul to soul. Heart to heart. Life to life.”

Aria’s heart pounded violently.

A full bond.

Unbreakable.

Eternal.

Dangerous.

And the only thing that could save Kael.

She looked down at his face—her Alpha, her protector, her cursed wolf—and she knew one thing with painful clarity:

She would pay any price.

Face any danger.

Break any rule.

To save him.

To love him.

To keep him alive.

No matter what the prophecy said.

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