THE ALPHA WHO COULD NOT HOWL

The First Howl

Kael screamed.

It was not a human scream. It was half human, half animal. The silver mark on his chest was burning brighter than my white mark.

"Kael!" I fell to the floor with him, holding him. "Kael, what's happening to you?"

Elder Okon crawled back, terrified. "No... no, it's happening... The Alpha who could not howl... his wolf is returning!"

All the werewolves in the hall covered their ears. A power was building in Kael, something they had never felt before. The air shook.

Inside my head, Selene was laughing, but not cruel. Excited. Like a mother finding her lost child.

*"For 19 years I was split. Half in you, half waiting in him. That's why he could never shift. That's why you seemed wolfless. We were incomplete! We needed to touch to be whole!"*

I held Kael's face. His eyes were no longer silver. One was silver, one was white — like mine. Tears were falling from his eyes, but he wasn't sad. He was in pain, but also... relief.

"Luna," he choked out, "I... I can hear him... for the first time in 23 years... I can hear my wolf..."

"What's he saying?"

"He's saying your name."

The moment he said that, Kael's body arched. Bones cracking. Everyone gasped — they knew this sound. Shifting. The Alpha who had never shifted in 23 years was finally shifting.

But it wasn't normal.

Black fur started growing, but mixed with white and silver. His body grew bigger than any Alpha wolf anyone had seen. Twice the size of Beta. His claws were silver.

He was not just a wolf.

He was an Alpha Prime — a wolf that hasn't been seen for 1,000 years.

He threw his head back and howled.

The first howl of Alpha Kael.

The whole pack house shook. Windows shattered. Every werewolf in a 10-mile radius, even from other packs, heard it and fell to their knees and howled back. They couldn't stop themselves. It was a command.

Vanessa and the other Alpha daughters were crying, covering their ears, but also bowing.

I was the only one not bowing. Because Selene inside me howled WITH him.

Our howls mixed — his deep, mine high but powerful.

When the howl ended, Kael was in wolf form, giant, beautiful, silver-black-and-white. He turned his huge head to me.

And he walked to me, slowly, and lowered his giant head to my feet. Submitting.

The Alpha submitting to the cleaner.

Elder Okon screamed, "THE PROPHECY IS TRUE! THE ALPHA WHO COULD NOT HOWL BOWS TO THE LUNA WITH NO WOLF! SHE IS THE TRUE ALPHA! SHE IS SELENE REBORN!"

Kael shifted back to human in a flash of light. He was n***d, but he didn't care. He grabbed my face and kissed me.

His first kiss. My first kiss.

And the moment our lips touched, both our marks exploded with light and every wolf in Nigeria howled at the same time.

Because the Cursed Pair was not cursed.

We were blessed. We were the beginning.