Alpha Of Ashes

The Second Death Begins

Dawn came grey and cold over Winter Fang, and Selene was already gone, her white dress no longer in the packhouse, her scent going north, toward Blood Stone, toward her father. She took my secret with her, the recording smashed in snow but her memory perfect, a mute maid who is not mute, a dead Luna who is not dead, a Phoenix Wolf who finally shifted after three years. How long do we have before Victor comes?

Zane and I walked back from the hunter cabin before sunrise, not touching, but not apart, my maid dress torn, his shirt around me, my scar still glowing faint white, his cheek still red from my slap. He said you do not get to decide if I live or die, and he understood, but understanding does not stop a war, does it?

By eight in the morning, the alarm howled, not a wolf howl, a horn, Blood Stone horn. Fifty warriors in red and black, flamethrowers on their backs, silver cages on sleds, and in the middle, Alpha Victor Kane in his war furs, his branded chest that I burned still glowing, his priest beside him chanting to detect Phoenix blood, and Selene behind him, eyes down, not looking at Zane.

Zane met them at the gate in full Alpha armor, silver eyes dead again, mask back on, cruel Alpha who killed his Luna, everyone thinks. He left me hidden in the infirmary, back in grey maid uniform, ash paste reapplied quickly, mute again, head down, but my scar was too hot now, the paste kept melting.

Victor did not waste time with pleasantries, he never does when he wants to erase female Alphas. "Zane Crowe, you have been hiding a fugitive," he said loudly so all Winter Fang could hear. "My daughter tells me your mute maid is Kira Storm, Alpha of Ash, who was supposed to be dead, who is an abomination, a female Alpha, a Phoenix that must be culled. Is this true?"

The whole pack turned and looked at me, the maid with the bucket, the wolfless Omega who stitches wounds the human way. Did they believe him? Did they think their Alpha hid a dead Luna in plain sight?

Zane's jaw clenched, and he looked at me once, just once, and I saw his decision in his silver eyes, not to bury me again, not to decide for me, but to stand with me, even if we die together, as he promised in the cabin.

"No," Zane said, his voice flat, cold, lying to protect me, lying like he did three years ago when he said I have never seen you before. "Mira is a wolfless Omega from the south. Selene is jealous of a maid, Father, you know how she is."

Victor smiled, that wide, too calm smile that makes pups cry. "Then you will not mind if my priest tests her, will you? If she is wolfless, the chant will not burn her. If she is Phoenix, it will make her glow."

His priest stepped forward, old, scarred, holding a crystal like the one that can steal a Phoenix heart, chanting low in old tongue, words about female Alphas being an abomination, about ash that must be scattered.

I stood there, bucket in hand, mute, head down, but inside Ember was snarling, fire rising, ready to burn the priest, ready to burn Victor, ready to burn everyone who called me abomination.

Zane stepped between me and the priest, just a half step, but everyone saw it, Selene saw it, Victor saw it, and Victor's smile got wider, because now he knew.

"You protect a maid, Zane?" Victor asked softly, dangerously. "You, who killed your Luna because she was weak? You protect a wolfless Omega? Or do you protect Kira Storm because you never killed her at all, because you buried her alive and lied to me three years ago?"

The air went still, snow stopped falling, fifty flamethrowers pointed at pups in the nursery, at omegas, at the packhouse where I scrubbed floors. This is how he controls Alphas, not with strength, but with hostages.

"Kill her," Victor said, tossing a dagger to Zane, the same kind of dagger, always the same dagger, silver, ritual, old. "Kill the maid, right now, in front of all packs, to prove loyalty to Blood Stone, to prove female Alphas die, or I burn Winter Fang and Ash ruins tonight and every pup in them. You buried her once to save her, Zane. Will you kill her for real to save them?"

It is happening again, is it not? Three years ago, he put a dagger in my hand and told me to stab myself. Now Victor puts a dagger in Zane's hand and tells him to stab me. The prophecy repeats, but this time who decides?

Zane caught the dagger, his hand shaking, not with fear but with rage, with guilt, with three years of visiting an empty grave every night. He looked at me, at my grey uniform, at my scar that was glowing through paste now, impossible to hide under priest chanting, and he whispered so only I could hear, "What do you want me to do?"

What do I want him to do? Do I want him to kill me again publicly to save his pack, to save pups who never asked to be hostages? Do I want him to refuse and watch Winter Fang burn, Ash burn again, because of me?

I looked at the pups peeking from the nursery window, at Hilda the head omega who hired me, at the warriors who thought I was mute and useless, and I made my decision, not his, mine, Alpha decision.

I stepped forward, out from behind Zane, took the dagger from his shaking hand, and pressed it to my own heart, just like three years ago, but this time I was not dying, I was choosing.

"My name is Kira Storm," I said, loud, not mute, not maid, not dead, my voice Alpha, ringing across the courtyard, making snow melt, making Victor's priest flinch, making Selene finally look up. "Alpha of Ash Pack, Phoenix Wolf, female Alpha, abomination, whatever you want to call me. I am not hiding in the south. I am right here."

The chanting crystal shattered in the priest's hand from my voice, from Ember's fire, from three years of being silent finally screaming.

Victor's eyes went wide, then hungry, so hungry, because a live Phoenix is worth more than a dead one, because my blood while I am fully risen, while I am Ash Queen, can make him immortal.

"Take her," he shouted to his warriors, flamethrowers up, silver cage opening. "Take her alive, her heart must beat while we steal it, paralyzed but breathing!"

Zane roared, his wolf finally, truly alive after three years, silver and white and huge, bigger than Victor's Beta, and he stood over me, not to kill me, but to die with me, as he promised.

And I, Kira Storm, who was buried alive on my wedding day, who returned as a mute maid, who shifted into ash and fire for the first time in three years, who slapped her husband who killed her, looked at Victor Kane and smiled, because this is exactly what I wanted.

Let him try to kill me a second time, in public, with all packs watching. Let him put a dagger in Zane's hand again. This time, I will not die, this time Ember will not go dormant, this time the Phoenix will fully awaken and burn his entire army alone.

"Do it, husband," I whispered to Zane, holding the dagger to my heart, offering it to him, not as Luna, but as Alpha to Alpha, equals, mates, monsters together. "Stab me again, if you dare, and watch what happens when a Phoenix dies a second time."

The second death was beginning, and the whole North was watching, and Selene, who started it by telling her father, was crying in her white dress, because she finally understood that some female Alphas cannot be erased, only awakened.