Alpha Of Ashes

The Hundred Queens Under The Floor

The bunker wall cracked and a hundred dead queens opened their eyes.

I was ash fire wolf, huge, burning, not dead after second stab, Kira lets Zane stab her again, this time she does not die, Phoenix fully awakens and burns Victor's entire army alone. Tonight it was ten Blood Stone wolves. They were ash already. Victor Kane was on his knees, leg smoking white from Selene's poison vial, face smoking white from my fire that makes ground fertile where he wanted sterile for generations.

Behind me, the Frost bunker, warded against wolfsbane and fire and erasing, only female Alpha blood can open it, cracked behind my mother's bed. Behind that crack was not dirt. It was bone. Hundred bones. Hundred crowns too big, bent, rusted, waiting.

My mother Kara, who faked her death with a potion on my m******e night while in labor with miracles Lyra and Lorn after the doctor said no more, who stayed in this bunker warded while my pack burned above me and while Zane buried me alive in the Black Forest, whispered, "Yara. My mother. First Frost."

Selene, in her torn white surrender dress, half Frost half Kane, Yara's granddaughter who wants to be the only female Alpha in the North, held the twins tighter. Lyra, three years old, crown too big, black eyes with a white star, Void turned to Ash. Lorn, empty chest alive, Void that gives without dying. Miracles that never took a first breath outside.

Lyra touched the Frost door and locked us in. Small hand, thousand year old power. "Sister, if you are Ash Queen now you need a castle not a grave. You need a bunker not an altar. You need North and South not divided. So I lock door so Victor never opens again."

Zane stood over me, dagger bloody with my white Phoenix blood, silver eyes black, guilt-ridden, exhausted, the boy who thinks he is a monster and visits my empty grave every night. He married Selene to get close to Victor to kill him for me. He thought I was dead. When mute maid Mira arrived his dead wolf started howling again and he did not understand why. Now he understood.

"Kira, stop burning," he said, kneeling in the nursery among furs. "You will burn the bunker. You will burn your mother. You will burn Lyra and Lorn."

I couldn't stop. Ember, my Phoenix wolf who went silent for three years after I was buried alive, who woke when my blood fell on the banquet floor and Zane smelled it and his dead bond snapped back for one second and he said I have never seen you before in my life and lied, was fully awake now. She was howling inside my skull, *Ash must die to awaken. Whole line, not one. Burn.*

That was my meaningful core struggle. I came back as Mira, mute Omega maid, to warn Zane that Winter Fang was about to be destroyed the same way Ash was, to get revenge, to find out why he killed me. Now I know. Prophecy says Ash bloodline must die before it can awaken. If I had lived that night as Alpha, Victor would have executed me publicly and taken my power. By burying me alive Zane broke our bond temporarily and hid my bloodline. My wolf went dormant to survive. I am not Omega, I am Phoenix that must die to become stronger. And now I am burning, and my mother and twin siblings who never breathed outside air are in the same bunker I am burning.

I forced myself human again. Naked, scar bleeding ash, glowing orange then white then blue then black, Phoenix Frost Void Winter all together. I fell to my knees among the furs, among the hundred bones behind the cracked wall.

Victor laughed, coughing white smoke. He wants to erase the female Alpha gene forever because a female Alpha once rejected his father and ruined his family. He engineered my pack's m******e. He is now using Zane. "You burn like Yara," he said. "She burned too before my father buried her alive longer than any daughter for saying North should be one not divided."

Mother Kara crawled to me, frost hands, frost tears, frost power flaring, trying to freeze my burning scar to keep the bunker warded, to keep Lyra and Lorn alive, to keep the hundred crowns from waking.

I whispered, "Let them wake, Mother. Let them."

A hundred crowns, a hundred female Alphas buried alive for saying no over a hundred years, climbed from behind the cracked wall. Not ghosts. Pack. Because Ash must die to awaken and we finally all died together, second death, mine, not dying. They had cracked crowns, grey eyes like ash like mine like Yara like Selene.

One, oldest, white hair, crown biggest, stepped forward. She looked at me, Kira Storm, only female Alpha in the North at twenty one, set to marry Zane to unite packs, massacred on mating night, dragged to forest, made to stab herself, buried alive by mate who whispered die as my Luna so you can live as my revenge, survived by rogue healer Mara, wolf silent, scar never healed, trained three years as human doctor, back now as nameless wolfless Omega maid, then ash fire wolf.

She said, "We are North. We were buried alive longer than any daughter for saying North should be one not divided into packs. Victor's father buried us. Victor buries daughters to make ground sterile for generations so no daughter ever lead again. Now you burn. Now we are awake. Now we are Ash Queen's pack. Now we are Alpha of Ashes."

Victor stood, leg smoking, holding my white blood rag, holding a knife, and said, "You can't be a pack, you are bones, you are dead, I erased you, I sterilized, I caged, I bombed nursery, I shot Winter, I drank milk later that remembers that makes ground fertile again, but now I erase again with your white blood to become immortal, final plan ARC NINE kill Zane and use Kira's Phoenix blood to become immortal."

He lunged at me, not at the hundred crowns, at me, to take Phoenix blood properly on the altar where I was supposed to marry Zane.

Zane moved faster. White Winter Fang wolf, huge, scarred, dead wolf howling again, and bit Victor's arm, the arm that held knife, the arm that held rag, the arm that ordered m******e.

Victor screamed. White blood on rag fell on hundred crowns, on bones, on floor, and hundred crowns drank it, not drinking, remembering, because Phoenix milk that burns that remembers makes ground fertile.

Hundred crowns glowed orange white blue black all together, Phoenix Frost Void Winter, Alpha of Ashes true.

Lyra stamped her foot, three year old stomp thousand year old power, and hundred crowns knelt, not to Victor, not to Zane, to me.

Lorn, empty chest alive, Void that gives without dying, looked at Zane's chest, at the boy ten years old from the future who will hold black beating heart white orange blue black and give heart to Winter to resurrect without killing mother, and whispered, "Brother, you will give heart later, but now sister gives fire."

Selene, torn white dress, Yara's granddaughter, bleeding Kane blood that chose Ash, looked at hundred crowns kneeling to me, at me ash fire wolf human naked scar glowing, at Zane white wolf biting Victor, at mother Kara frost tears, at twins, and she knelt too, but not to me, to Lyra.

"Yara," she whispered to Lyra, to oldest crown, to great grandmother who rejected Kane father. "Grandmother."

Oldest crown, Yara, first Frost who rejected Kane father and ruined his family, looked at Selene, at half Frost half Kane who wants to be only female Alpha, and said, "You chose Ash over Blood Stone when father put dirty knife to throat, you warned about wolfsbane bomb under nursery that Kira neutralized with white blood that became rain, you smashed immortal vial Phoenix beating heart machine on stone altar, you froze army, you stole rag, you held twins. You are Frost. You are not Kane. You are North."

Victor, arm bitten, leg smoking, face smoking, fell back, holding rag bloody white, and shouted, "No, she is Kane, she is mine, she is white dress surrender, she is engaged to Zane to get close, she is mine to erase female Alpha gene."

But his voice was weak, because hundred crowns were howling now, not as ghosts, as pack, hundred female Alphas buried alive for saying no, howling for first time in hundred years, howling for Kira Storm Alpha of Ash Pack thought dead three years back as nameless wolfless Omega maid Mira and Zane said I have never seen you before in my life and lied.

As they howled, bunker door, Frost door warded against wolfsbane fire erasing only female Alpha blood can open, that Lyra locked, cracked again, not from outside, from below, white root and black root, North and South, first female Alpha buried alive for saying North should be one and first male Alpha buried alive for saying only sons should lead, both reaching up from under altar, from under bunker, from under empty grave on hill, whispering, *One of us must die, as wolf whispered season ends with feeling baby kick and wolf whispering one of us must die.*

North and South entwined root white and black one pushed up through bunker floor, through hundred crowns, through nursery furs, through mother Kara's bed, through Lyra and Lorn, through Selene's torn white dress, through Victor's smoking leg, through Zane's white wolf paws, through my ash fire scar bleeding ash. War bell stopped ringing blue frost behind us. Winter Fang stopped burning.

Mara, rogue healer who found me buried alive in forest after Zane put dagger in my hand and pointed at heart, who said scar will never heal and taught me human doctor stitching while wolf silent, burst through hole in altar base with human medicine kit, with pups who called me Miss Mira hiding in laundry, with Winter Fang survivors, and shouted, "Kira, don't burn bunker, Phoenix pregnancy kills mother, you are burning, you are pregnant, you are Ash Queen, you reclaimed Ash Pack, you made ground fertile, you burned army alone, but now you burn mother and twins and hundred crowns and North and South One, you burn all, you burn future."