The wolf's heir

The Alpha's trap

Chapter 5

The air that night was thick with silence. Too still, too heavy. The kind of silence that made Kael’s skin prickle.

He had spent the day training alone, trying again and again to force the change. Each attempt left him doubled over, coughing blood, his body rejecting him. His failures weighed heavily—but Selene’s words lingered like light in the dark. “Do you believe him… or the fire in your blood?”

He wanted to believe her.

But as Kael made his way back toward camp, something felt wrong. The forest was too quiet. Not even the crickets sang.

Then he smelled it. Wolves. Not one or two, but many. Hiding. Waiting.

Kael froze. His heart thundered as shadows emerged from the trees. One by one, they closed in—Veynar’s enforcers. Their eyes gleamed yellow in the moonlight, their snarls low and hungry.

At their center stepped Veynar himself. His presence was suffocating, his aura pressing down on Kael like a storm. His cold smile twisted the scar along his throat.

“Running off to whisper secrets in the woods?” Veynar’s voice cut through the night like a blade. “You’ve been busy, boy.”

Kael’s stomach dropped. Selene…

He forced himself to stand tall, though fear clawed at him. “What do you want from me?”

Veynar’s laugh was cruel. “What I’ve always wanted. For you to finally break. But you just couldn’t stop digging, could you? Dreams of blood, whispers of the past… You should have stayed useless, Kael. Useless wolves live longer.”

He lifted a hand. The enforcers surged forward.

Kael’s instincts screamed. He ducked the first strike, claws raking the air where his throat had been. Another wolf lunged, teeth snapping for his shoulder. Kael twisted, shoving it aside, but a heavy blow caught him in the ribs and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

Pain exploded through his body. He gasped, scrambling to his feet as blood dripped from his lip. The ring of wolves tightened.

“Shift, boy!” one taunted. “Show us your Alpha blood!”

Kael tried. Gods, he tried. His bones burned, his vision blurred, his claws half-formed—but the fire in his blood sputtered, collapsing before it could take shape.

The enforcers laughed.

Veynar’s shadow loomed over him. “Pathetic.” His voice dripped venom. “You think you carry my brother’s blood? You are nothing. A mistake that should have died with him.”

Rage flared through Kael, hot and desperate. “You—” he choked on the words—“you killed him, didn’t you?”

For a fraction of a heartbeat, silence fell. Veynar’s smirk froze, his eyes hardening. The truth lingered in the air between them like smoke.

Then he snarled. “Finish him.”

The wolves lunged as one. Kael fought with everything he had—dodging, clawing, striking wild. But he was outnumbered, outmatched. A heavy blow slammed into his side, shattering the bone. Another tore across his back, blood spraying into the night.

He stumbled, vision fading, until his heels hit stone. He glanced down. His stomach dropped.

The cliff. The mountain’s edge. Below, only darkness and the roar of the river hundreds of feet down.

The wolves circled, grinning. Veynar stepped forward, savoring his victory. “This ends here, boy.”

Kael’s body screamed in agony, but something in his chest burned brighter than the pain. The voice of the bloodied wolf echoed in his mind: “Remember who you are.”

He met Veynar’s gaze, his amber eyes blazing with defiance. “I’ll never bow to you.”

And with the last of his strength, Kael hurled himself backward into the abyss.

The world became a rush of wind and shadow, the river roaring

closer, closer. Pain swallowed him whole.

Then—darkness.