Alpha Of Ashes

The Mute Maid

The doors locked, and Victor Kane smiled at the maid who smelled like ash.

Everyone in Winter Fang's banquet hall stood. Winter wolves bowed their heads. Blood Stone wolves put fists to chests. That is how you greet Victor. Not like an Alpha, like a godfather. He is not the strongest wolf in the North, he is the one who decides which bloodlines get erased.

And he was looking straight at me, on my knees, in my own Phoenix white blood that I was trying to wipe off the stone with a rag.

I am Kira Storm, only female Alpha in the North, twenty one when I was buried alive, twenty four now, back as Mira, mute Omega maid, wolfless, throat burned, invisible. Or I was supposed to be invisible.

Zane was standing now too, his chair on the floor behind him. His hand was on the dagger at his belt. The same dagger he put in my hand in the Black Forest and whispered, die as my Luna so you can live as my revenge. His silver eyes were black. His wolf, which everyone thought died with me, was howling so loud I could feel it in my scar.

He said, "I have never seen you before in my life," about me, an hour ago, across the hall. He lied. And now his dead bond had snapped back for one second when my blood hit the floor, and he knows I am not Mira. Or he thinks he is going crazy with guilt.

Selene Kane, in her white surrender dress, was still smiling at me. She had just whispered, welcome home, Kira Storm, I have been waiting three years for you to come back and try to kill my father. Don't worry, I won't tell him. Yet. I need you alive. For the wedding night.

That was the twist I didn't expect. Selene knew. Or she guessed. And she wasn't turning me in.

Victor walked closer. Slow steps. He is sixty, but he looks forty. Kane wolves age slow when they feed on other packs' power. He crouched in front of me, the most powerful Alpha in the North crouching in front of a maid.

"Look up, Mouse," he said softly.

I didn't. Mute Omega maids don't look up. Mute Omega maids keep their heads down. If I looked up, he would see my eyes. Grey, like ash. Kira's eyes.

Zane moved. One step. "Victor. She is new. She is nothing. Leave her."

Victor didn't look at Zane. He kept looking at me. "Nothing smells like ash and old blood, Zane. Nothing bleeds white. Did you know your new maid bleeds white?"

The hall was dead silent. White blood is legend. Phoenix blood. The prophecy says the Ash Alpha bloodline must die before it can awaken, and when it awakens, it bleeds white fire. Victor has spent ten years hunting white blood. He engineered the m******e of Ash Pack to kill me, because a female Alpha once rejected his father and ruined his family, and he wants to erase the female Alpha gene forever.

If he finds out I am Kira Storm, he will execute me publicly this time and take my power for real.

Selene stepped in, smooth as wine. "Father, she burned herself on the stove yesterday. The human healer, Mara, gave her an ointment. It makes the blood look pale. You know these Omega tricks."

She was lying for me. Why?

Victor finally stood, but he took my rag, the one with my Phoenix white blood on it, and tucked it into his own pocket. "Keep it," he said to me. "Evidence."

Then he walked to the high table, clapped Zane on the shoulder like a son, kissed Selene on the forehead, and said, "Continue the banquet. And someone unlock those doors. We are not prisoners. We are family now."

The doors unlocked. Air rushed in. Everyone breathed again.

Zane didn't sit. He stared at me, on my knees, still holding the empty tray. His jaw was tight. Guilt-ridden, exhausted, thinking he is a monster, as the bible says. He thinks I am dead and he killed me. When he met Mira the maid, his dead wolf started howling again and he does not understand why.

He said, low, so only I could hear, "Kitchen. After. Now."

That was not a request. That was an Alpha order.

I finished cleaning, hands shaking, scar throbbing where it tore. Ember, my Phoenix wolf, who went silent for three years after I was buried alive, who woke for one second when my blood hit the floor, whispered inside my skull, *He knows. He smells us. He buried us alive and now he smells us alive.*

In the kitchen, the other maids were whispering. "Mouse bleeds white." "Mouse made Alpha Zane break a chair." "Victor took her rag." I kept my head down, mute.

Zane came in through the back door, alone. No guards. He closed the door. Locked it.

For a long moment, he just looked at me. Really looked. At the dyed black hair, at the leather collar hiding my scar, at the burned throat makeup, at the grey eyes I couldn't hide.

"You are not mute," he said.

I didn't answer. Mute maids don't answer.

"You are not an Omega," he said.

I kept my hands in the soapy water. My meaningful core struggle was right here: I came to warn him that Victor is going to destroy Winter Fang next, same as Ash. I came to get revenge. But if I speak now, I break cover, and Victor will kill us both. If I stay mute, Zane will keep thinking he is crazy, and Selene will use me for whatever she planned for the wedding night.

Zane stepped closer. He smelled like winter and pine and old grave dirt. He visits my empty grave every night. I know. I watched him from the trees.

He reached out, not touching, hovering over my collar. "That scar. Where did you get it?"

I could not answer without speaking. So I did what a mute maid would do. I flinched.

His hand dropped. Anger, not at me, at himself. "Who burned you?"

I wrote on the wet table with my finger, quick, then wiped it away: *FIRE. ASH.*

His eyes widened. Ash. Ash Pack. He knows Ash Pack burned.

Before he could say more, the kitchen door banged. Selene, in white, slipped in, locked it behind her.

"Zane, darling, Father is looking for you. And Mouse, I need you now. My dress." She looked at Zane's hand near my collar, at my wet finger, at his face. She understood everything in one second. Selene Kane is not just beautiful, she is brilliant. That is what makes her dangerous.

She smiled. "Oh, Zane, you think every broken Omega is her. You have done this for three years. Since Kira died. Every girl with grey eyes, you think is Kira. This one is not Kira. Kira is dead. You buried her. Remember? Everyone thinks you killed her. The cruel Alpha who killed his Luna."

Zane flinched like she stabbed him. That is his wound. Everyone thinks he is the cruel Alpha who killed his Luna. Only he knows he visits her empty grave every night, because he thinks he is a monster who killed her to save her.

Selene took my wrist, her nails sharp, and pulled me up. "Come, Mouse. Wedding dress. Now."

She dragged me out of the kitchen, past Zane, who didn't stop her, because he can't stop Selene without making Victor suspicious. He married Selene's family to get close to Victor. To kill him. For me. He doesn't know I know that.

In Selene's chambers, the wedding dress was hanging. White, surrender, but inside the lining, sewn in, were vials. Wolfsbane, silver shavings, and something white that glowed. Phoenix ash. Poison for a Phoenix wolf. She was planning to kill someone on the wedding night. Zane? Victor? Me?

She locked the door, pushed me against it, and whispered, not sweet now, cold, "I know you are Kira Storm. Alpha of Ash Pack. Only female Alpha in North. Twenty one when you were set to marry Zane to unite packs. Massacred on mating night. Buried alive by mate who whispered die as my Luna so live as revenge. Rogue healer found you, wolf silent, scar never healed, trained as human doctor for three years, back as nameless wolfless Omega maid to warn Zane and get revenge. Did I miss anything?"

My blood went cold. She knew everything. Word for word.

"How?" I mouthed, breaking mute.

She laughed, low. "Because I was there that night, Kira. On the balcony. I watched Zane drag you into the forest. I watched him bury you. I didn't tell Father you were alive, because I need you alive. Victor wants to erase the female Alpha gene forever. I want to wear it. I want to be the only female Alpha in the North. And I can't be that while you are alive. But I also can't be that while my father is alive. So you and I, we have the same problem."

She took the rag with my white blood that Victor had pocketed, but she had stolen it back, and she held it up. "Father took this. I took it from him. He thinks he has it. He has a fake rag with pig blood. If he had your real Phoenix blood, he could become immortal. Final plan, as your little bible says, kill Zane and use Kira's Phoenix blood to become immortal."

She pressed the bloody rag into my hand.

"So here is my offer, Alpha of Ashes. You help me kill my father on my wedding night, and I help you get Zane back. You get revenge. I get the North. Or I give this rag to my father right now, and he kills you and Zane tonight, and marries me to his Beta instead. Choose."

Outside her chambers, I heard Zane's voice, low, arguing with Victor in the hall. "She is just a maid, Victor." "Then why did you break a chair, son?" And behind that, the kitchen bell rang. Poison alert. Someone had poisoned the Alpha's wine.

And my scar, hidden under leather collar, started glowing orange. Full moon tonight. First time in three years I would shift, into a wolf made of ash and fire. Only Zane would see it. As ARC THREE says.

But I was locked in Selene's room, with a choice that would decide who dies on her wedding night, and the door was opening, not by Selene, but by someone else with a key.

Victor Kane walked in, holding a second rag, also bloody, also white, and he looked at me, at Selene, at the wedding dress lined with poison, and said, "Selene, darling, I thought I told you to never bring strays into your chambers. Especially ones that smell like my dead wife's family. Unless, of course, this stray is not a stray at all. Is she, Kira?"