The Enemy Alpha
1844 Words
Kael Blackthorn’s silver eyes remained fixed on me.
More specifically, on my stomach.
Every instinct I had screamed at me to run.
I forced my shoulders back.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
One corner of his mouth lifted.
“That’s disappointing.”
“What is?”
“The lie.”
My pulse jumped.
Behind me, Gavin and the other Silvercrest wolves remained near the boundary stones. None of them dared cross.
Kael noticed.
“Your friends seem nervous.”
“They aren’t my friends.”
His eyes returned to mine.
“Even more interesting.”
I hated that word already.
“I crossed the wrong border,” I said. “I’ll leave.”
I took one step backward.
Kael moved.
Just one step.
It was enough.
My wolf immediately rose inside me.
Careful.
Kael folded his arms across his chest.
“You entered Nightfall territory without permission.”
“I noticed.”
“And now you intend to simply walk away?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me.
“No.”
My anger flared.
“You don’t own me.”
Something changed in his expression.
Not anger.
Amusement.
Kael stepped closer.
Up close, he was even more intimidating. He smelled like cedar and smoke, just as he had in wolf form.
There was blood on one side of his ribs.
Fresh.
“You’re either very brave,” he said, “or you have no idea who I am.”
“I know exactly who you are.”
“Then which is it?”
“Maybe I don’t care.”
For the first time, the amusement vanished.
His silver eyes sharpened.
Nyra gave a low growl inside me.
Not frightened.
Alert.
Kael tilted his head slightly.
“Your wolf is new.”
My heart stopped.
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Your scent.”
He continued studying me.
“She hasn’t settled into you yet.”
“That is none of your business.”
“No.”
His gaze dropped toward my stomach again.
“But that might be.”
My hand instinctively covered my abdomen.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
“I knew it.”
“You know nothing.”
“I know you’re pregnant.”
The Silvercrest wolves behind me went silent.
My blood froze.
Gavin took a step forward.
“What?”
I spun around.
“Don’t.”
His face had gone pale.
“Aria… whose child—”
“Finish that question and I’ll make you regret it.”
His mouth closed.
Too late.
Kael was watching everything.
His eyes became colder.
“Ravencrest?”
I said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Kael exhaled slowly.
“Well.”
I wanted to disappear.
“Forget what you heard.”
His eyebrow rose.
“You’ve clearly mistaken me for someone obedient.”
“I didn’t tell you anything.”
“You didn’t need to.”
I turned toward the Silvercrest warriors.
Gavin was already backing away.
“Don’t you dare.”
His expression was apologetic.
“Aria, Alpha Darius needs to know.”
Panic exploded through me.
“No.”
“He has a right—”
“No!”
My voice echoed through the trees.
Nyra surged forward inside me.
Power rippled through my body.
The air changed.
Every wolf around me went still.
Gavin lowered his head.
So did the warrior beside him.
I stared at them.
They were submitting.
To me.
I didn’t understand.
Kael did.
His expression became unreadable.
I stepped backward.
“What just happened?”
Nyra remained silent.
Kael walked around me slowly.
Not touching.
Observing.
I turned with him.
“Stop doing that.”
“You commanded them.”
“I yelled.”
“They submitted.”
“They’re idiots.”
One of Kael’s eyebrows lifted.
A muffled laugh came from somewhere deeper in the Nightfall forest.
I looked between the trees.
At least six wolves stood hidden among them.
Kael’s warriors.
He had surrounded me without my noticing.
“I need to leave.”
“No.”
My temper snapped.
“Would you stop saying that?”
“No.”
I stared at him.
He almost smiled again.
A howl suddenly sounded from the Silvercrest side of the border.
Gavin straightened.
Another howl answered.
Deeper.
More powerful.
I knew that voice.
Darius.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“He’s coming,” Gavin said.
Kael’s attention sharpened.
“Good.”
“Good?”
He looked almost pleased.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“More than I expected.”
“You’re insane.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
Another howl came.
Closer.
I backed away from the boundary.
I couldn’t let Darius see me. Not now. Not after Kael had announced my pregnancy in front of his warriors.
Kael noticed my panic.
The amusement disappeared.
“You really don’t want him to know.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It became my business when you crossed into my territory carrying the heir of my enemy.”
The words made my stomach twist.
“He isn’t an heir.”
Kael looked at me.
“He’s Darius Ravencrest’s child.”
“That doesn’t make him anything.”
“To an Alpha?”
His voice became quieter.
“It makes him everything.”
I knew that.
Branches cracked behind the border.
Then Darius emerged from the forest.
Human.
Fully dressed.
Furious.
Two dozen Silvercrest warriors followed him.
His eyes found me immediately.
Relief flashed across his face.
Then he saw Kael.
Everything changed.
“Blackthorn.”
Kael turned.
“Ravencrest.”
Darius stepped toward the border.
His gaze flicked toward Kael’s warriors and finally the blood on Kael’s chest.
“What did you do to her?”
Kael looked at me.
“Apparently I’ve been annoying her.”
“This isn’t a joke.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
“Aria.”
Darius’s voice softened.
“Come here.”
My body remembered that voice.
How many times had I gone to him when he called?
Tonight, I didn’t move.
His brow furrowed.
“Aria.”
“No.”
Silence.
Darius stared at me as though I had started speaking another language.
“I came to take you home.”
“I don’t have a home in Silvercrest anymore.”
His face hardened.
“You’re angry.”
“I wonder why.”
“This is not the place for this conversation.”
“Then stop following me.”
Kael’s gaze moved between us.
Darius noticed.
“Stay out of this, Blackthorn.”
Kael’s expression cooled.
“You’re standing at my border giving orders.”
“I am speaking to a member of my pack.”
“Am I?”
Both men looked at me.
Darius answered immediately.
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“You rejected me.”
“You are still Silvercrest.”
“Because you decided that?”
“Because you were born there.”
“So I belong to you forever?”
His eyes flashed.
“That isn’t what I said.”
“It sounds exactly like what you’re saying.”
Darius stepped closer to the boundary.
“Aria, come home. We’ll discuss everything privately.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Then Darius inhaled.
His entire body froze.
My blood turned cold.
His eyes moved slowly toward my stomach.
Kael saw it happen.
Darius inhaled again.
Confusion appeared first.
Then disbelief.
Then something far more dangerous.
“Aria.”
I took a step backward.
His voice changed.
“What is that scent?”
Nobody moved.
Darius crossed one foot toward the boundary.
Kael’s growl stopped him.
It wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
Every Nightfall wolf emerged from the trees at once.
Six became twelve.
Then twenty.
Silvercrest warriors shifted uneasily.
Kael stepped between Darius and me.
“Careful.”
Darius looked at him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Blackthorn.”
“Ravencrest.”
Darius’s hands curled into fists.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Kael’s voice was calm.
“She is standing on my land.”
“She is my pack member.”
“She says otherwise.”
Darius looked around Kael toward me.
“Aria, are you pregnant?”
My heart pounded so loudly I could barely hear.
He knew.
Or almost knew.
I thought of Celeste.
The rejection.
His words.
A Luna cannot be weak.
I thought of my child growing up knowing his father had wanted his mother only after discovering she could give him an heir.
“No.”
Darius blinked.
I continued.
“You don’t get to ask me that.”
His face changed.
“Aria—”
“You rejected every claim you had on my life tonight.”
His eyes darkened.
“That bond was between us. If you’re carrying my child—”
“If?”
His silence confirmed everything.
He couldn’t be certain yet.
Good.
I stepped closer to Kael.
Darius noticed.
His face went cold.
“Move away from him.”
I laughed softly.
There it was again.
The command.
The assumption.
“Why?”
“Because I’m telling you to.”
I looked directly at Darius.
“You aren’t my mate anymore.”
His jaw clenched.
“And tonight, I stopped being your problem.”
I turned away.
Darius moved.
“Aria!”
He stepped across the boundary.
Chaos erupted.
Nightfall wolves snarled.
Silvercrest warriors shifted.
Kael moved faster than anyone.
One second he stood beside me.
The next, his hand was around Darius’s throat.
Darius slammed into a tree.
The impact shook snow from the branches.
Warriors on both sides growled.
Kael’s voice was quiet.
“You know the treaty.”
Darius grabbed Kael’s wrist.
“Get your hands off me.”
“You crossed my border without permission.”
“For her.”
Kael glanced toward me.
Then back at Darius.
“And she didn’t invite you.”
Darius’s eyes burned.
“She belongs to Silvercrest.”
Something inside me recoiled.
Kael saw it.
He released Darius.
Then stepped backward until he was standing beside me again.
The two Alphas faced each other.
Kael spoke loudly enough for every wolf on both sides to hear.
“Aria Vale entered Nightfall territory of her own free will.”
Darius’s face tightened.
“She crossed accidentally.”
“Perhaps.”
Kael looked at me.
His silver eyes held mine.
“But she is here now.”
My heartbeat quickened.
Kael turned back toward Darius.
“And until she decides otherwise…”
He paused.
Darius already looked furious.
Kael smiled.
“…Aria Vale is under my protection.”
Silence swallowed the forest.
Darius stared at him.
Then at me.
“You have no idea what you’ve just done.”
Kael’s smile disappeared.
“I know exactly what I’ve done.”
He stepped in front of me.
A wall between me and Silvercrest.
Between me and the man who had rejected me.
“If you want her, Ravencrest…”
His silver eyes flashed.
“…you’ll have to come through me.”
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