The Alpha’s Warning
1308 Words
The sun had barely begun its climb, painting the sky in bruised shades of purple and gray, when Elena was jolted awake. Sweat dampened her hairline, her breath ragged, the remnants of the dream clinging to her skin like shackles she couldn’t shake.
Except… this time, she hadn’t been dreaming.
Her wrist burned. When she pulled back the sleeve of her oversized sweater, the sight made her stomach twist. A faint crescent-shaped mark glowed against her skin, pulsing softly as if it carried its own heartbeat.
Her hand trembled. “No,” she whispered, pressing her thumb against it. But the mark didn’t fade. It throbbed once, twice, as though mocking her denial.
The same mark that appeared only on those tied by true bonds.
She squeezed her eyes shut, memories of Kade’s eyes—wolf-amber and endless—crashing against her. She had tried to bury the moment when he caught her at the ball, the way his presence burned through her like wildfire. But the bond had other plans.
A knock shattered the silence.
“Elena?” A voice, low but firm. Damien.
Her chest seized. She had spent the last two days buried in herself, avoiding him, avoiding everyone. And now—now he chose to appear, his presence scratching at wounds that hadn’t even begun to scab over.
She pulled the sleeve down, shoved the thoughts of Kade’s mark away, and yanked open the door.
Damien stood there, shoulders squared, jaw locked tight. His eyes, oceans that once calmed her, now carried storms she couldn’t read. He took her in—rumpled sweater, messy hair, the sharp hollows under her eyes—and something flickered across his face. Guilt.
“You look… pale,” he said softly.
“Say what you came to say, Damien. I don’t have time for your pity.”
His nostrils flared. “You think this is about pity? Elena, do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Her stomach sank. “What I’ve done?”
“You drew his attention,” Damien snapped. The storm broke in his voice. “Kade doesn’t let go once he’s claimed an interest. Do you even realize the danger you’ve put yourself in? The danger you’ve put the pack in?”
Elena’s nails dug into her palms. “Don’t twist this on me. I didn’t ask him to save me at the ball. I didn’t—” She stopped, her throat thickening. “You weren’t there, Damien. He was.”
The words sliced between them like blades.
For a long, brittle moment, neither spoke. Then Damien stepped closer, his scent wrapping around her in waves of cedar and rain, familiar but heavy now with something darker.
“I’m warning you,” he murmured, voice dropping, “stay away from him. Whatever connection you think you feel—it’s poison. He’ll destroy you, Elena. And if he doesn’t… I’ll be forced to.”
Her breath hitched. “Forced to what? Kill him?”
His jaw flexed. He didn’t answer.
The silence was louder than any admission.
Elena took a step back, her heart pounding, her mind tangled between the ache of his nearness and the memory of Kade’s burning gaze in her dream. And there, hidden beneath her sleeve, the mark on her wrist pulsed again—hotter this time, defiant, as if mocking Damien’s warning.
She met his eyes, steel sliding into her spine. “You can’t protect me from something you don’t understand.”
Damien’s lips parted, his storm-gray eyes searching hers, but she slammed the door before he could speak. Her chest heaved as she pressed her forehead to the wood, trembling not with fear—but with defiance.
Because for the first time since the bond had shattered, she realized the truth:
She wasn’t afraid of Kade. She was afraid of herself.
The room felt too small, suffocating her with its silence. Elena paced, the floorboards creaking under her restless steps. Every time she brushed her sleeve, the mark answered with its own throbbing rhythm.
She remembered Damien’s warning, his storm-tossed eyes filled with a fear he would never admit. But beneath that warning lingered something else. A desperation. A claim he had already lost, and yet refused to release.
“Stay away from him,” he had said. But how? The bond wasn’t something she could ignore, no matter how tightly she wrapped herself in denial.
Her stomach twisted. Was this fate mocking her? To be rejected by the one she thought was hers, only to be tethered to another—a man darker, more dangerous, more consuming than any Alpha she had ever known?
A shadow fell across her window.
Elena froze, her breath caught in her chest. Slowly, she turned.
He was there.
Kade.
Perched on the edge of her balcony railing as though gravity bowed to him, his wolf-gold eyes caught the fading sunlight, burning with an intensity that stole her air. He looked as though he had stepped out of her dream, leather jacket dark against his broad shoulders, black hair tumbling in waves that framed a face both savage and sinfully beautiful.
The mark on her wrist seared.
Her hand shot to the window latch, but before she could close it, his voice slid into her mind—rough, commanding, intimate.
Don’t.
Her chest tightened. “You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered, but the words lacked conviction.
“And yet,” Kade murmured, his voice like velvet over steel, “you can’t look away.”
Her fingers curled into fists. “Damien will kill you if he finds you here.”
“Let him try.” Kade’s lips curved into a dangerous smile. He dropped from the railing to the balcony floor with the grace of a predator, closing the distance in two strides. “You already know, Elena. He couldn’t even touch me.”
She backed away, her heartbeat thundering. But when her calves hit the bed, she faltered, and he was there, towering over her, his heat searing through the scant inches between them.
Her sleeve slipped just enough to reveal the glowing mark.
His gaze fell on it, and his smile sharpened into something primal. “So it’s true.”
Elena snatched her sleeve down, but his hand was faster, strong fingers encircling her wrist. Heat surged through her veins where his skin met hers, the bond flaring like fire in the dark.
“Kade—”
“You feel it,” he whispered, his thumb brushing the mark. “You can deny me with your words, but your body won’t lie. This—” he pressed against the mark, making her gasp—“is mine.”
Her breath shook. “I’m not yours.”
His eyes darkened. “Not yet. But you will be.”
For a heartbeat, the world stilled. Only the sound of their breaths filled the room, hers sharp and uneven, his steady and sure. She hated the way her body leaned toward him, how her pulse betrayed her, how the bond sang louder with every second of his touch.
She shoved him back with trembling hands. “Get out.”
Kade’s grin didn’t falter. If anything, it deepened, slow and satisfied, as though her defiance pleased him.
“As you wish,” he said, stepping back toward the balcony. But his gaze never left hers, and before slipping into the shadows, he left her with a final, devastating promise.
“You’ll come to me, Elena. Sooner than you think.”
When he vanished into the night, Elena collapsed onto the bed, her chest heaving, her wrist burning like a brand.
And for the first time, she admitted the truth she had been too afraid to say aloud:
Damien’s warning had come too late.
Because Kade wasn’t just a danger.
He was temptation itself.
- Writer
