The Alpha's silver

chapter 1

Aria pov

My mother was buried on a Tuesday.The sky was cloudy. It didn’t rain and It also wasn't clear either People stood around the grave quietly. Some cried. Others watched the ground. A few spoke to me, their voices low, careful. I answered without thinking. I nodded when expected. I said thank you when hands touched my arm.Nothing reached me yet.

When the service ended, they left in pairs and small groups. I stayed where I was, staring at the mound of earth.

It didn’t look real.i felt shattered looking at it. I slowly sank down beside the grave and pressed my hands into the dirt. It gave way under my fingers. That was enough to undo me.

I folded forward, my forehead close to the ground. The tears came hard and fast, knocking the breath out of me. My chest hurt, Breathing felt so wrong. I tried to stop and to pull myself together, but my body wouldn’t listen. I missed her I missed my mom.Tears blurred everything. I wiped my face with my sleeve and blinked hard, but it didn’t help. My eyes burned and kept burning.

My mother used to say I had siren eyes when I cried. Said they made it impossible to pretend I was fine.I hated that about myself right then.“I don’t know what to do,” I said. My voice sounded thin. “I don’t know how to do this without you.” where would I go I barely know him as I remembered her telling me to go back to my dad and stay with him "mum please answer me"Nothing answered.A few minutes later, rain started to fall. Light and uneven. I stayed where I was. I didn’t want to stand up.

By the time I forced myself to leave, my hands were stiff and my clothes damp. I told myself she would have wanted me to go home. She always hated when I made myself sick over things I couldn’t change.

Two days later, I was on a plane leaving California.I packed without much thought. Some of her things stayed where she left them.i couldn't carry much because everything held memories of her.I couldn’t bring myself to touch everything. I carried one bag and a weight I didn’t know how to put down.

My father was waiting when I landed.

His name was Marcus Vale. He looked older than I remembered. Tired. He pulled me into a brief hug that felt uncertain on both sides.“I’m sorry,” he said. I nodded.

The drive to Redwood Ridge was quiet. Trees lined the road, thick and close together. The town appeared suddenly, like it had been there the whole time, waiting.

His house sat near the edge of the forest.

Inside, everything was clean and bare. No photos. No signs that anyone stayed longer than necessary.

“You can take the room upstairs,” he said. “Second door on the left.”

I carried my bag up without speaking. The room was simple. A bed. A desk. A window that looked out toward the trees.

My father stood in the doorway for a moment hands in his pocket as if he was nervous.“There are a few rules,” he said.

I turned to face him. “Rules?”

“Be home before dark,” he said. “Lock the doors at night. And don’t go into the forest.”

I waited. He didn’t explain.

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t have the energy to ask why.

That night, as I lay awake listening to the unfamiliar quiet of the house. The windows creaked. Wind moved through the trees outside in long, restless waves.

Sometime after midnight, I heard it.

A sound. Low. Distant. It rose and fell slowly, not loud enough to panic, but not something I could ignore.

I sat up in bed, heart beating too fast.

It came again.

I told myself it was an animal. Or the wind. Or my imagination finding things to fill the silence.

Still, I didn’t sleep much after that.

Damien pov

Damien hadn’t meant to hear it.He was already past the council corridor when Marcus’s voice carried through the stone walls tight, careful, the way it only got when something was wrong.“I wouldn’t ask if I had another option.”Damien slowed.His father didn’t answer right away. That silence pulled Damien closer to the wall without him deciding to move.“You’re asking to bring a human into pack territory,” the Alpha said.“Now.“She’s my daughter.”

Damien stilled.

Marcus never said that word inside the hall.“She’s human,” Marcus continued, then paused. “At least… that’s what I believed. Her mother lived as one. There was never any sign.”“Until now,” his father said.

Marcus didn’t deny it."Things don’t react to her the way they should,” Marcus said."I don’t have proof. Just instincts.”

Instincts mattered when they came from Marcus."And if you’re wrong?” the Alpha asked."Then she’s a grieving girl with nowhere else to go.”A beat passed."And if you’re right?”

Marcus exhaled. “Then someone else will notice eventually. I’d rather it be us first.”

Something brushed against Damien’s senses then. Faint. Wrong. Not a wolf. Not human either. It smells fishy .He frowned. He’d never felt that before.

“Does she know?” his father asked."No" "Good "Damien swallowed.“She follows pack rules,” the Alpha said. “She doesn’t wander. She doesn’t enter the forest alone. And if she becomes a problem..”“I understand,” Marcus said.

Another pause.“Bring her.”

Footsteps moved." what's her name " the alpha asked. " Aria vale" her name is Aria vale" Damien stepped back just as Marcus passed him, eyes forward, expression closed. He didn’t look at Damien.The corridor felt smaller once he was gone.

Damien stayed where he was.

Whatever Marcus’s daughter was, the forest had noticed.

And now, so had he.