Bound by Moonlight: The Alpha's Choice

Chapter 2

Awareness returned in fragments. The soft crackle of a fire. The scent of pine and something earthy, like moss after rain. A wool blanket scratching against bare skin.

Bare skin.

Lena's eyes flew open. She was human again, wrapped in an unfamiliar blanket on an unfamiliar couch in an unfamiliar cabin. Panic seized her chest before memories flooded back—the fever, the transformation, the wolf, the man...

She sat up too quickly, head spinning, clutching the blanket to her chest. The cabin was rustic but comfortable, all wooden beams and stone hearth, with large windows that revealed moonlight painting the surrounding forest silver.

"Easy." The deep voice came from a shadowed corner. "Your body's been through a lot."

The man who emerged from the darkness was even more imposing in human form. Tall, with broad shoulders and lean muscle that his simple henley and jeans did little to hide. His hair was dark, nearly black, with dramatic silver streaks at the temples despite him appearing no older than his mid-thirties. But it was his eyes that held her—the same storm-gray eyes that had stared at her from the wolf's face.

"Who are you?" Lena demanded, voice cracking. "What did you do to me?"

"I'm Ethan Blackwood." He approached slowly, like she was a skittish animal. Perhaps she was. "And I didn't do anything to you, Lena. This is who you've always been."

"How do you know my name? Where are my clothes?" Questions tumbled out as fear and confusion fought for dominance. "What did you mean, 'who I've always been'? I've never turned into a—" She couldn't even say it. The word stuck in her throat.

"Wolf," Ethan finished for her, sitting in an armchair opposite the couch. "And yes, you have. You just didn't know it yet. As for your clothes..." He gestured to a neatly folded pile on a nearby chair. "I found them outside your apartment. First shift is always unpredictable. Most of us lose a few outfits in the beginning."

Lena stared at him, searching for signs of deception, of madness, of anything that would make his words make sense. "This can't be happening."

"But it is. And it's been coming for a while, hasn't it? The dreams. The heightened senses. The feeling that something inside you was trying to break free."

"That doesn't prove anything." But even as she protested, her certainty wavered. The dreams had been so vivid, as if she'd lived them before.

"Your mother was Elise Morgan, wasn't she?" Ethan's question sent a jolt through her.

"How do you know that? She died when I was a baby."

"She didn't die, Lena. She returned to the pack. Our pack. Your heritage."

The declaration hung in the air, impossible and world-shattering. Lena's grip on the blanket tightened until her knuckles whitened. "My mother died in a car accident. My father raised me alone until cancer took him five years ago. I don't have any other family."

"Is that what Thomas told you?" Ethan's expression softened with something like pity. "Your father loved you, I don't doubt that. But he lied to protect you, to keep you from this world."

"This world of... what? Werewolves?" She laughed, the sound brittle and desperate. "That's insane."

"We prefer 'shifters,'" Ethan replied, unruffled by her skepticism. "Werewolves are the stuff of horror movies—mindless beasts driven by the full moon. We're born with the ability to shift between forms. It's in our blood. Your blood."

Lena shook her head, refusing to process his words. "If what you're saying is true—and I'm not saying it is—why now? Why am I suddenly... changing at twenty-five?"

"It typically happens earlier, during puberty. But your father kept you from triggering the shift. He moved you to cities, away from forests and open spaces where your wolf might awaken. He probably had you on iron supplements, ate lots of meals with sage and wolfsbane."

The odd herbal teas her father had insisted on. The iron pills he'd called vitamins. The way he'd discouraged her interest in camping and hiking through her teen years.

"No," she whispered. "Dad wouldn't have hidden something like this."

"He was trying to give you a normal life." Ethan leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "But when you moved to Pinewood Falls after his death, you came too close to pack territory. Your blood recognized its home."

Lena suddenly felt suffocated by the cabin, by Ethan's steady gaze, by revelations that couldn't possibly be true yet explained too much. "I need air."

She moved to stand, forgetting momentarily about her nakedness beneath the blanket. Ethan immediately turned away, gesturing toward a door.

"Bathroom's through there. Take your time. Your clothes are on the chair."

Gathering the blanket around herself, Lena grabbed her clothes and retreated to the small bathroom. Her hands trembled as she dressed, avoiding her reflection in the mirror above the sink. She was afraid of what she might see now—the amber eyes, some other sign that she wasn't the person she'd always believed herself to be.

When she emerged, Ethan was in the kitchen area, pouring something that smelled rich and meaty into a bowl. Her stomach growled betrayingly.

"You need protein after a shift," he said, offering the bowl. "Beef stew. Nothing weird in it, I promise."

Lena hesitated before hunger won out. She took the bowl and sat at the small wooden table, watching him warily as she ate. The stew was delicious, and she devoured it with embarrassing speed.

"So," she said between bites, "if you're... like me... a shifter... does that make you some kind of werewolf leader or something?"

A smile ghosted across his face. "I'm the Alpha of the Silver Lake Pack. We control the territory from the mountains down to the western edge of the lake."

"Alpha. Like in wolf documentaries? The dominant one?"

"It's more complex with shifters. The Alpha protects the pack, makes the difficult decisions, settles disputes. It's as much responsibility as privilege."

Lena set down her spoon, the magnitude of the situation hitting her anew. "And you think I belong to this... pack?"

"I know you do. Your mother was one of us—one of our strongest. When she left with your father, it weakened us. Her return could have restored much, but she never made it back." Real grief shadowed his features. "We've been watching for you ever since."

"Watching me?" A chill skittered down her spine. "For how long?"

"I sensed a new shifter in the area the day you moved to town. Once I caught your scent, I knew. You have her eyes."

The familiarity in his voice triggered a spark of indignation. "So you've been stalking me for three years?"

"Protecting you," he corrected. "Making sure you were safe until your shift came. I had hoped to approach you before it happened, explain things gradually, but your wolf had other ideas."

Lena pushed her empty bowl away, mind racing. "If what you're saying is true... what happens now? Do I just go back to my life and pretend this never happened? Pretend I don't occasionally turn into a wolf?"

Ethan's expression grew grave. "It doesn't work that way. Now that you've shifted once, it will happen again, especially around the full moon. Without training, without control, you'd be a danger to yourself and others."

"So I'm stuck with this." It wasn't a question.

"You were born with this, Lena. It's not a curse unless you make it one."

"Easy for you to say. You've had your whole life to accept it."

Ethan stood, moving to the window, his profile sharp against the moonlight. "Tomorrow I'll take you to meet the pack. They're your family too, whether you're ready to acknowledge that or not. For tonight, you can stay here. I'll sleep in the guest room."

"And if I want to leave? Go home?"

He turned, eyes reflecting silver in the dim light. "You're not a prisoner. But shifting is unpredictable for new wolves, especially without an anchor. For your safety, I'd ask you to stay at least until morning."

Exhaustion suddenly crashed over Lena, the adrenaline of the day giving way to bone-deep weariness. "Fine. Just... I need time to process all this."

"Of course." Ethan moved toward a hallway, then paused. "There's something else you should know."

"What now? Am I part vampire too?"

His lips twitched, almost a smile. "Among our kind, there's something called a fated pair. Two wolves whose souls recognize each other. It's rare, but when it happens, the connection is... undeniable."

A strange heat prickled beneath Lena's skin. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because when I saw you today, when our wolves met, I felt it." His voice dropped, something raw and honest breaking through his controlled demeanor. "And I think you felt it too."

Before she could respond, he disappeared down the hallway, leaving Lena alone with her racing thoughts and the unsettling sense that despite everything she'd learned tonight, Ethan Blackwood was holding something back—something that might change everything.