My mate is the Alpha who should kill me

Chapter 5

Mira’s POV

I had come back last night.

It wasn’t planned to be anything serious—just something I needed to tell Kaelie. Something I’d forgotten before I left, something that had been nagging at the back of my mind ever since she spoke about the Boundary Forest like it was nothing more than a joke.

But when I arrived… Kaelie wasn’t home.

At first, I thought she had only stepped out. I searched around the shack, calling her name under my breath, checking the small paths she usually took. I even went as far as the edge of the street, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

I didn’t want to wake Pa Elias. He was already weak, already fading in and out of sleep. So I told myself I would wait just a little while longer.

Just a moment.

But the moment stretched into hours.

At some point, I must have drifted off in the wooden chair beside his bed.

………

The cold weather was the first thing I felt when I woke up. It was that biting, deep cold that only happens in the Grey City just before the sun tries to rise.

My neck ached from sleeping in the wooden chair next to Pa Elias’s bed.

I blinked my eyes open. The small room was dim, and the candle I had lit last night had melted into a pool of cold wax.

My mind snapped fully awake.

Kaelie.

"Kaelie?" I whispered, my voice thick with sleep.

There was no answer. Only the sound of the wind whistling through the cracks in the walls. I looked at the spot on the floor where Kaelie usually slept. Her blankets were folded neatly… she still hadn’t come back.

A heavy weight sank into my stomach. Kaelie had actually done it. She had gone to the Boundary Forest. She had gone into the home of the wolves.

“Oh, Kaelie,” I moaned, rubbing my face. “What have you done?”

I turned to check on Pa Elias. I expected to see him gasping for air, his skin grey and his eyes closed, just like when I had fallen asleep last night.

But when I looked at the bed, my heart stopped for a different reason.

The bed was empty.

The thin blankets were tossed to the side, and the pillow was on the floor.

“Pa Elias?” I called out, standing up so fast the chair tipped over with a loud thud.

Panic flared in my chest. He was too sick to walk. He was dying! How could he be out of bed? Did someone come in and take him? Did the Iron Claws come for him because of Kaelie?

“Pa Elias!” I shouted louder.

I ran to the small kitchen area. Empty. I checked the tiny washroom. Empty.

I dashed to the front door and threw it open. The morning mist was thick and white, hiding the muddy street. I stepped out, my breath huffing in the air.

“Elias Thorne! Where are you?”

I turned the corner of the shack, heading toward the small patch of dirt where Kaelie kept her extra flower pots.

I stopped dead.

There he was.

Pa Elias stood in the middle of the yard.

He wasn’t wearing his coat, just his thin nightshirt. But he didn’t look like a dying man anymore. He wasn’t shaking; he wasn’t coughing. He stood perfectly straight, his back as stiff as a board.

He was staring up at the mountain. Directly at the Obsidian Spire.

“Pa?” I said, my voice shaking. “Pa, you’re awake! You’re standing! It’s a miracle!”

I rushed toward him, my hands reaching out to hug him. I was so relieved I thought the gods had answered us at last. I thought Kaelie’s bravery had somehow worked, even if she wasn’t back yet.

“Pa Elias, you have to come back inside,” I said, trying to take his arm. “It’s freezing out here. You’ll get sick again!”

He didn’t move.

He felt like stone.

Slowly, he turned his head toward me.

I froze.

The Pa Elias I knew had kind, watery brown eyes. Always soft. Always tired.

But the man standing in front of me had eyes like burning coals.

Bright. Sharp. Unnatural.

The air around him felt heavier now, almost hot.

“Where is she?” he asked.

His voice wasn’t weak anymore. It was deep—like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

“Pa… I…” I stumbled back, my heart racing.

“Where is my granddaughter, Mira?” he demanded, stepping closer.

I swallowed hard. “She… she went to get the medicine. She went to the forest to find the Moonshade flower. She was so worried about you, Pa! She did it to save you!”

I expected grief. I expected relief. Maybe even tears.

Instead, he roared.

It wasn’t human.

The sound cracked through the air like thunder.

He slammed his hand against the wooden shack, and the wood splintered under his palm.

“Why did you let her go there?” he hissed, grabbing my shoulders with iron strength. “Why did you let her go to the wolves?”

“I tried to stop her!” I cried, tears spilling over. “I begged her! But she wouldn’t listen! She said you were dying!”

Elias released me abruptly and turned back to the Spire. He raised his hands, and faint purple light flickered around his fingers.

“I was not dying, you foolish girl,” he said quietly.

But his voice carried through the wind like a curse.

“I was hiding. I was using every last fragment of my soul to keep her hidden from the world. I was keeping the scent of the Void trapped in this house.”

I stared at him, frozen. “Hiding? What are you talking about?”

“The bloodline,” Elias said, his eyes glowing brighter. “The wolves have hunted us for a thousand years. As long as she stayed here—poor, quiet, unnoticed—she was safe. But now… now she has touched the Alpha. She has stepped into his territory.”

He let out a low, bitter laugh.

“The Moonshade flower wasn’t for me, Mira. It was a trap. The forest wanted her. The Spire wanted her. And now that she is inside those walls… the seal is broken.”

His hands trembled with dark energy.

“She thinks she is a girl. He thinks she is a Mate,” Elias whispered. “They are both wrong. She is the end of everything.”

I stumbled back, knocking over a flower pot. “Pa Elias, you’re scaring me. We have to go get her! We have to call for help!”

“No one can help now,” he snapped.

He looked up at the sky.

The grey clouds above us had begun to swirl—slowly turning a sickly shade of purple.

“The ancient war is starting again,” he said. “The wolves think they’ve found a Luna. They don’t realize they’ve invited a goddess of death into their bed.”

“Pa… what are you even saying?” I sobbed. “What about Kaelie? Is she coming home?”

He turned to me slowly.

His face looked older now. Heavier. As if something inside him had finally awakened after sleeping for decades.

“Kaelie Thorne died the moment she touched Jaxen Vane,” he said.

His voice dropped lower.

“What comes out of that tower will not be my granddaughter anymore.”