The Alpha in the Mountain
2074 Words
The giant wolf stood above them on the snowy ridge.
White light filled its eyes.
Its fur was black, but silver ran through it in jagged lines, like lightning trapped under the surface. The creatures flanking it stayed completely still.
Hundreds of wolves, no shifting, no growling, no fear—they were waiting for her.
“Come closer, Luna Vale,” the wolf said again.
Its voice sounded like the woman from Luna’s vision.
Darius stood in front of Luna, his body stiff.
“No.”
The black wolf tilted its massive head.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
The creature’s mouth pulled into something too intentional to be animal.
“You wear his face differently.”
Darius’s mark pulsed under his sleeve.
Luna felt the insult hit through the bond.
Kael.
Again.
Someone else looking at Darius and seeing a dead man.
She stepped up beside him.
Not behind.
The wolf’s glowing gaze shifted to her.
“I said come closer.”
“And I heard you,” Luna said.
Darius glanced at her.
“You are not going anywhere near that pack.”
“That sounded a lot like an order.”
“It was fear.”
The honesty softened her irritation.
Luna slipped her hand into his.
“I’m not going alone.”
“You’re not going at all.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Darius closed his eyes for a second.
“I heard it.”
Ethan came up on Luna’s other side.
“That’s our father in there.”
“Possibly,” Darius said.
“He spoke to Luna.”
“Through a vision created by the mountain.”
Ronan stepped forward, studying the ridge.
“The White Fang aren’t attacking.”
Cassian looked at him.
“They don’t need to.”
“What does that mean?”
Cassian’s silver sword stayed raised.
“They’ve already surrounded us.”
The snow shifted around the vehicles.
At first, Luna thought it was just the wind.
Then white eyes opened between the trees.
Wolves came from every direction.
Behind them.
Beside them.
Blocking the road south.
Darius’s Blackwood guards drew their weapons.
The nearest creatures lowered their heads.
Not to attack.
To warn them.
“Put the weapons down,” Luna said.
One of the guards looked at Darius.
He didn’t give an order.
He studied the wolves, then slowly lowered his sword and set it in the snow.
“Your choice,” he said to the others. “But blades won’t get us out of this.”
One by one, the guards followed.
Cassian didn’t lower his weapon.
The lead wolf looked at him.
“You still carry the blade you used to kill my first body.”
Everyone turned to Cassian.
His scarred face went still.
Luna looked between him and the creature.
“You said she made you immortal.”
“She did.”
The wolf’s voice sharpened.
“And he never said he was grateful.”
Cassian lowered his sword.
Not dropping it.
Just angling it toward the ground.
“I didn’t ask for immortality.”
“You asked not to die.”
“I was scared.”
“And I answered.”
Something old passed between them.
Grief.
Hatred.
A debt neither of them had let go of.
Luna stepped forward.
Darius moved with her.
The wolf watched their joined hands.
“You can’t go in together.”
“No,” Darius said.
Luna squeezed his fingers before he could continue.
“Why?”
“The mountain understands Command.”
The wolf’s gaze dropped to his marked wrist.
“It will hear every fear he refuses to speak and turn it into law.”
Darius’s expression hardened.
“And Luna?”
“The mountain can’t command Choice.”
“So she goes in alone?”
“She goes in free.”
“No.”
This time it was Ethan.
He stepped in front of Luna.
“She’s not going into that mountain without me.”
The wolf looked at him.
“Ethan Vale.”
His jaw tightened.
“You know me.”
“I watched you bury a stranger wearing your father’s face.”
Pain flashed across him.
Luna grabbed his arm before he could move toward the ridge.
“Don’t let her get to you.”
Ethan looked at her.
“She knows where he is.”
“So does the mountain.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“No. But anger won’t either.”
The wolf’s white eyes narrowed.
“You protect him now.”
“He’s my brother.”
“You forgot him.”
The words landed exactly where they were meant to.
Ethan stiffened.
Darius growled.
Luna held her ground.
“My memories were stolen.”
“But forgetting got easier.”
Ethan turned sharply toward her.
“Don’t listen to her.”
Luna felt the wound open inside her.
Years without him.
The absence she hadn’t even known how to name.
A life built without knowing someone was looking for her.
Then Darius’s hand settled at her lower back.
Not pushing.
Not pulling.
Just there.
Luna lifted her chin.
“You know pieces of my pain,” she told the wolf. “That doesn’t mean you know me.”
The creature stared at her.
Then it smiled again.
“Good.”
Cassian exhaled sharply.
“This is manipulation.”
“No,” the wolf said. “It’s measurement.”
Luna’s expression cooled.
“No trials.”
The words carried across the snow.
The wolves shifted for the first time.
Darius looked at her, approval warming the bond.
Luna went on.
“I’m not proving myself to you, the mountain, a crown, or the dead woman you think I’m tied to.”
The lead wolf stepped down from the ridge.
Snow collapsed under its massive paws.
“You refuse without knowing what’s inside.”
“Yes.”
“You might lose the White Wolf.”
“He’s my father, not a prize.”
“You might lose the truth.”
“I’ve survived lies.”
The wolf stopped twenty feet away.
Up close, it was bigger than their vehicles.
Its white gaze moved slowly over Luna.
“You are not her.”
“I’ve been saying that for weeks.”
A low sound rolled through it.
Luna realized it was laughter.
Darius didn’t look amused.
“Release her father,” he said.
The wolf turned to him.
“Ask.”
His jaw tightened.
Luna felt the crown mark react to the challenge.
Command wanted to take over the pack.
Force the mountain open.
Drag Gabriel into the light.
Darius’s fingers closed around Luna’s.
The whisper faded.
“Will you release the White Wolf?” he asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he doesn’t want to be released.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“That’s a lie.”
The wolf looked at him.
“Is it?”
Luna remembered the vision.
Her father’s bloody hand against stone.
She’s lying.
“He wants us to come,” Luna said.
“He wants us to see him.”
“That sounds the same.”
“It isn’t.”
The wolf’s body began to change.
Bones shifted under black fur.
The massive shape folded inward.
Silver light rolled across it.
Within seconds, a woman stood barefoot in the snow.
A long black dress moved even though there was no wind. Dark hair fell to her waist. Her eyes stayed white, but the rest of her face was human.
Not Luna’s.
Not Solara’s exactly.
But still familiar in a way that made Luna uneasy.
The shape of her mouth.
The way she held herself when challenged.
A small scar above her left eyebrow—exactly like one Luna had had since childhood.
Darius moved closer to Luna.
The woman noticed.
“You’re afraid of me.”
“Yes,” he said.
The answer seemed to surprise her.
“Because I look like her?”
“No.”
Darius’s gaze stayed cold.
“Because you’re trying to reach Luna through wounds you didn’t earn.”
The woman studied him.
Then looked at Luna.
“He’s better.”
“I know.”
“I remember him kneeling.”
“He doesn’t kneel anymore.”
Darius glanced at Luna.
“For you, I might.”
Heat moved through the bond despite the cold.
Ethan rubbed a hand over his face.
“Please save that for literally anywhere else.”
Ronan coughed into his fist.
The woman’s lips curved.
“Kael never made her laugh when death was close.”
“My name is Darius.”
“Yes.”
She stepped closer.
“And mine is Lyra.”
The Book in Luna’s hands opened.
Ink spread across the page.
LYRA VOSS
Another line formed beneath it.
BEARER OF SOLARA’S MEMORY.
Luna stared.
“Memory.”
Lyra nodded.
“You carry her power… and the part of her that chose a new life.”
“And you?”
“I carry what she refused to forget.”
The mountain groaned behind her.
Images brushed through Luna’s mind.
Solara’s childhood.
Her first crown.
Lucian before the darkness.
Kael’s hand in hers under a sunrise.
Luna pulled back.
“Stay out of my head.”
Lyra’s eyes flickered.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t sound sorry.”
“I’m learning.”
Darius’s mouth tightened.
“That line is getting old.”
Luna almost smiled.
She looked at Lyra.
“Why is my father with you?”
Lyra’s expression shifted.
The confidence faded.
“He kept me alive.”
“How?”
“When the White Fang imprisoned us, your father carried the power sealed inside him.”
Her gaze dropped to Luna’s golden mark.
“It recognized Solara’s memory in me.”
“And went to you?” Cassian asked.
“Partly.”
Lyra looked toward the mountain.
“The transfer damaged the prison seals. The creatures inside Varden started waking.”
“The pack,” Ronan said.
“They weren’t wolves when they went in.”
Cold spread through Luna.
“What were they?”
“People whose true names were taken.”
Lyra looked at the white-eyed wolves around them.
“The mountain gave them forms it could control.”
Darius studied them.
“They chose you as Alpha.”
“No.”
Lyra’s voice hardened.
“I gave them their first choice.”
Luna understood.
Some had stayed.
Some might have wanted out.
“Why are they still here?”
“Because if Varden fully opens, what’s below escapes.”
Cassian went pale again.
“The Nameless.”
Lyra looked at him.
“You remember.”
“I remember screaming.”
“That was only one.”
Ethan lost patience.
“Where is our father?”
Lyra turned toward the crack in the mountain.
“He’s holding the inner gate shut.”
“Alone?” Luna asked.
“For three days.”
Her chest tightened.
“Then take us to him.”
Lyra’s white eyes settled on Darius.
“He can’t enter with Command.”
Darius let go of Luna’s hand.
“No.”
She looked at him.
He kept going before she could argue.
“I won’t risk the mountain using me against you.”
The choice cost him.
Luna felt it.
Every instinct told her to keep him close.
Still, he stepped back.
“I’ll wait at the entrance.”
“Darius—”
He touched her cheek.
“You told me love leaves room for yes.”
His thumb brushed under her eye.
“It also means knowing when I make things worse just by being there.”
Luna covered his hand.
“And if I need you?”
“Call my name.”
“The mountain listens.”
His eyes held hers.
“Then let it hear who I choose to be.”
She kissed him.
Slow. Certain. With the wolves watching.
When she pulled away, Lyra stood at the mountain’s opening.
The darkness behind her breathed like something alive.
“Come,” she said. “The White Wolf is dying.”
Luna took Ethan’s hand.
Together, they followed Lyra into Varden.
Behind them, Darius stayed in the snow.
Not left.
Not obeyed.
Trusted.
As Luna stepped into the mountain, the Book opened one last time.
A new line appeared under Gabriel’s name.
HE CAN SAVE THE PRISON OR RETURN TO HIS CHILDREN.
Then another.
HE CANNOT DO BOTH.
- Writer
