The Alpha's Fierce Luna Kyra

The White Devil

~

The party had been going for four hours with no sign of slowing down. I was on the sofa, watching a group of friends play truth or dare — a game I'd never actually played with a group before.

I recognized almost everyone in the circle, all of them easygoing, familiar faces. One girl I didn't know, perched on her mate's lap, glanced up and smiled at me. She whispered something in his ear, and he shifted over to open a space in the circle.

"Kyra, the birthday girl! Want to join us?" the girl called out.

Everyone turned my way, waiting. I hesitated for a beat, half-expecting someone to object — then nodded and slid into the open spot.

The rules were simple: spin the bottle, whoever it landed on got asked "truth or dare." The girl who'd invited me gave it the first spin. It slowed to a stop in front of the guy next to me — one of the few faces I didn't recognize. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. For some reason, I hadn't wanted it to land on me.

"Intense, right?" the girl grinned.

I laughed at myself and nodded.

"Truth or dare, Daniel?"

"Dare," the guy beside me said immediately.

"I dare you to fight Kyra tomorrow," a guy — Tom, I was pretty sure — said gleefully.

Daniel shot me a nervous look and groaned. "No, that doesn't count. You said tomorrow, not today. Dares have to happen today."

Laughter and headshakes went around the circle. I couldn't help laughing too — the guy practically radiated helplessness. Eventually it was settled: he'd face me in MMA the next morning.

The bottle spun again and landed on me. Every eye turned my way. "Truth or dare?"

I knew better than to pick dare with a group I barely knew.

"Truth."

"Can I ask?" a petite girl named Amber said, hand half-raised. Everyone shrugged, which she took as a yes.

"Have you and Jayden ever been in a romantic relationship?"

The circle went quiet, curious eyes locking onto me. I opened my mouth, closed it again, genuinely thrown that someone would ask.

"Remember — the truth. Nothing but," Amber said, arms folded.

I stared at her, stunned. What the hell?

"Jay and I have always been platonic. Completely. We're basically siblings — his parents raised me, for god's sake."

"So you call our future Alpha 'Jay'? Doesn't he hate that?" she pressed, leaning in, holding my gaze.

My wolf's unease spiked the longer she stared — like she was issuing a challenge. I focused on my breathing, the way I'd been trained, and forced my temper down a notch. Just explain it. She probably just wants clarity. But the wolf in me didn't want to explain anything — she thought the question didn't deserve an answer at all.

Still, I kept my voice level. My temper already had a reputation; I didn't need to prove it further.

"I've called him that since I was a toddler. It's just a nickname. I thought this game was one question per turn."

"You're right, Amber. I do hate being called Jay." A deep, familiar voice sounded behind me.

I turned to find Jay standing there, two red cups in hand — he'd finally found the Coke I'd been craving.

"I hate it from anyone who isn't Kyra," he said coldly, eyes on Amber until she bared her neck in submission. "'Jay' belongs to her. My sister. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," she said quickly, neck still exposed.

Honestly, I'd stopped paying attention to any of it — all my focus was on the cup in his hand. I reached for it, and he bent down to hand it over. I gulped the Coke down, the fizz settling my stomach. I always craved it after my wolf hunted — a weirdly specific habit, but there it is.

Jay dropped onto the sofa beside me and waved for the game to continue. The bottle spun a few more times, landing on nearly everyone, all of whom picked truth.

Then it landed on me again. Truth, again. This time no one rushed to ask — not with Jay sitting right there.

Daniel spoke first. "You have to answer honestly, okay?"

I rolled my eyes, laughing. "I know how the game works."

"Do you think you could beat Irene in a match?" he finally asked.

The circle gasped, all eyes on me. Even people across the room stopped what they were doing to look over. It felt like everyone was holding their breath.

I doubt anyone expected what came out of my mouth next.

"Who?"

Chaos erupted.

Everyone talked over each other at once, standing, gesturing wildly. Through the noise: "How do you not know who Irene is?" "Do you live under a rock?" "She said WHO?" "That's the spirit!"

I glanced at Jay, equally confused. He just shrugged and kept sipping his drink.

Good plan. I did the same, waiting for the noise to die down — which, to my surprise, happened faster than I expected.

Daniel spoke again first. "So do you actually not know who she is, or are you just saying that to prove you don't see her as a rival?"

Everyone quieted, waiting. I shrugged and took another sip, unintentionally cranking the tension up further. Realizing they wanted an actual answer, I said, "I really don't know who Irene is."

A few gasps. A couple sharp breaths.

Who is this girl, to get this kind of reaction?

My curiosity spiked watching everyone's faces — clearly I was missing something big, though that tracked. I'm always the last to know anything.

"Damn, you really do live under a rock," the girl who'd invited me said, climbing off her mate's lap and settling in front of me instead.

"Okay, is someone going to explain who Irene is or not?" I asked.

"Gladly," she said, winking. "I'm Hana, by the way." She kept going before I could respond. "Ever since you became the first female warrior in the country, other female wolves have been following your lead. A couple months back, a wolf named Irene started winning every match she's fought."

That's... a good thing, isn't it? Another female wolf dominating her matches sounded amazing to me. Half of why I travel for matches is to prove what females are capable of.

"What pack's she from?"

Silence.

"Well?" I prompted.

"The BlackShadowed Pack," Daniel said quietly, watching my reaction.

Oh.

I'd never set foot on their territory, and had no plans to. The rumors around that pack were dark, and plenty of them. Their former Alpha had earned the nickname "the Mad Alpha" for how ruthless and shady his methods were — methods that apparently worked, since they're the most powerful pack in the country. Two years since his death, and the pack still runs the same way. Word is the current Alpha, young as he is, is every bit his father's son.

"Anyway — Irene's been challenging the best fighter in every pack. You included," Hana continued, chin propped on her hand. "She's undefeated so far."

So she wants to fight me. Honestly, that sounded like real competition — and I couldn't pretend that wasn't exciting. But excitement wasn't the same as permission. I had to think about our pack's reputation. We couldn't afford to be linked with that pack, not with the clean record we'd built.

The Imperial Pride ranks second only to the BlackShadowed Pack in power, territory, and influence. The real difference between us comes down to how we run things — and how we handle money.

"That's not even all of it, Kyra," Hana said, pulling my attention back. "She's been running her mouth for months, calling herself 'better than you' in every way. Since you never responded to her request, she's started calling you a coward. A poser. She's known for leaving opponents nearly dead by the end of a fight — calls herself 'The White Devil.' It's been the talk of every pack lately. We figured you already knew."

Oh. Well, damn.

"Wow," I said, flat. Inside, I was seething.

This girl didn't know a single thing about me and had the nerve to judge me like that. I hadn't even known she existed, let alone that she'd requested a match — until right now.

Magnus usually handles match requests for me, notifies me the moment one comes in. So why hadn't he mentioned this one? Because of the pack she belonged to?

And leaving opponents "almost dead"? Any strong fighter could do that. Where's the respect in it? A sparring match is about testing skill, not about seeing how close you can get to killing someone. That's what battlefields are for.

"So? Do you consider her a rival?" Daniel asked. "She's stirring up the whole community. Last time anyone caused this much noise, it was you."

"Are you gonna accept the fight?" someone else called out.

I stayed quiet, careful not to say the wrong thing. If I so much as hinted at accepting, it'd be all over social media within the hour. Magnus had a reason for keeping this from me — I needed to find out what it was before deciding anything.

"We'll review the terms of the request before anyone decides anything, so hold off on asking," Jayden said, stepping in. I shot him a grateful look — he always knew exactly when to step in.

I stood, stretching legs gone numb from sitting too long. Did they really think Irene could beat me? The way they talked about her, it almost sounded like they believed it.

Could she? There was no way to know without seeing her fight. I wondered if there was footage anywhere.

~~

A couple hours later, most of the guests had cleared out. Only a handful stayed to help clean up — just me, Jay, Hana, and her mate, who I now knew was named Michael.

Thankfully, cleanup was limited to the ground floor — upstairs had been off-limits the whole party. A downstairs bathroom comes in handy for exactly this kind of thing; otherwise people find excuses to snoop through bedrooms.

Kaitlyn and Magnus came down the stairs to check on us. There are moments I catch myself noticing how different I look from them — not that it should matter, since we're not related, but it used to bother me more when I was younger. I stood out. It made it obvious I didn't quite belong.

Jay got his parents' curly golden-blond hair. His green eyes came from Kaitlyn; Magnus has brown. I'm basically their opposite — waist-length chestnut waves, storm-grey eyes framed by thick dark lashes. Cheeks that flush naturally, which makes people assume I'm sweet before they learn who I actually am. And I bite my lip when I concentrate, which turns it red — a habit Kaitlyn's been trying to break me of for years.

"Hana, Michael — thank you both for helping. That was kind of you," Kaitlyn said, walking over with a smile.

"Our pleasure, Luna," Michael said immediately, bowing slightly.

"We've already let your parents know you're here, but head home and rest — you've done more than enough," Magnus added.

"Thank you, Alpha." Hana smiled, then turned to wave at Jay and me. "See you guys around!"

"Bye!" we called back together.

Watching Michael lead Hana out, my mind drifted straight back to Irene and the match request. I set down the trash bag I'd been holding and walked over to the Alpha and Luna.

Their smiles widened as I approached. "How's the birthday girl? How was your first big party?"

"Really good, actually. More fun than I expected," I said honestly.

"Good. That's exactly what we hoped for," Magnus said, ruffling my hair.

I smiled up at him, alidiot sure he'd understand why I might want to accept the request. Something in me had ignited — a real need to prove that girl wrong.

"Magnus, I need to talk to you about something," I said, my tone shifting serious.

His eyebrow lifted slightly before he waved me toward his office. I followed him up the stairs, catching Kaitlyn mouth What's this about? behind his back. I mouthed back, Just come.

I glanced around for Jay, only to find him passed out on the couch — literally half his body hanging off the edge, the rest sprawled on the floor. I bit back a laugh and kept walking.

We settled into his office, Kaitlyn right behind me, clearly curious. Once I was seated across from his desk, I got straight to it.

"Today I found out a girl named Irene, from the BlackShadowed Pack, requested a match with me — months ago. She's been using my silence against me this whole time, mocking my ability to fight. Why wasn't I told about this, Alpha?"

Magnus eased back in his chair, fingers tapping the desk. I glanced at Kaitlyn, surprised to see she looked completely unbothered.

"You knew too?" I asked her, stunned. "Wow. I really do live under a rock."

"I didn't tell you because I don't trust that pack," Magnus said. "One of their conditions is that the match happens on their territory. Once you're there, I have almost no control over what happens to you. That's what worries me."

"I can handle myself. I'll bring pack members with me, same as I always do when I travel."

He should know by now — I've never gone into another pack's territory unprepared.

"With other packs, I know the Alphas and Lunas personally. I trust your safety there because we're allies. The BlackShadowed Pack doesn't play by the rules, and we have no treaty with them. They can do almost anything and answer to no one."

I shook my head, frustration building. "If they hurt one of our people on purpose, wouldn't that start a war?"

Magnus shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time they've done it anyway. Look — Irene hasn't lost a single match. If she's from that pack, she's got dirty tricks up her sleeve, guaranteed. I don't want you caught on the wrong end of one of them. I don't want you beaten unfairly."

I nodded slowly, letting that sink in. "You really think she could beat me?"

"With whatever tricks she's got? Yes."

I understood his point, even if it stung. I'm considered an anomaly — a female wolf who outmatches most males isn't something that happens often. If Irene's really as good as everyone says, there's probably more to her story than what's on the surface.

"Because I care about you, I'll let you make this decision. As your Alpha, I want you to think it through carefully first. Whatever you decide, Kaitlyn and I will stand behind you."