Alpha Kael

Chapter5

Serena’s POV

Three days into Thornwood, a message arrived from Silver Ridge, just like I had expected.

Rook found me at the training ground mid-morning. He pressed a folded note into my hand without ceremony and watched my face as I read it.

‘Serena, come home. We can talk about this. Calder.’

Come home?

How easy was it to write such a thing to me?

I had white-hot fury on my face.

He sounded like I was something he'd misplaced or like I would fold myself back into the shape he'd discarded the moment he beckoned.

The thought of him knowing where I was made me colder.

He'd found me.

Which meant Silver Ridge knew exactly where I was.

I folded the note into my fist and went to find Kael.

His office was on the second floor and his door was open, which I was learning meant he was available. He was at his desk reading something, and he looked up the moment I appeared.

I held up the note.

"Silver Ridge reached out this morning," he said, before I could speak. "I was going to tell you."

"Calder went through pack channels?"

"No, it was through Alpha Keran. A formal inquiry about a missing pack member." He set down what he was reading. "I responded that you arrived willingly and submitted a proper sanctuary request. Keran accepted it, provisionally. But Calder's message was unofficial. Rook intercepted it before it fully entered our communications." he paused for a bit. "Which is why I didn't see it first."

There was something underneath that last sentence.

"I want it blocked," I told him.

He then reached for a form on his desk without pause. "Sign this and I'll have Rook log it officially."

I crossed the room without hesitation and signed it. My hand was steady and I was proud of that.

Kael took it back and looked at it for a moment. Then he looked at me.

"You're angry," he said.

"Yes."

"Good." He said simply. "Anger keeps you moving. Grief stalls you. You can grieve later but only when it's over and you're somewhere safe enough to afford it."

I looked at him. "Is that how you've handled it? Whatever made you… " I stopped. That was too personal. "Sorry. That's not my place."

He didn't deflect. He just sat with the question for a moment, like he was actually checking the answer rather than reaching for the nearest acceptable one.

"Most of the time," he said quietly.

The silence that followed was different from the others.

I then stepped back. "Thank you…for the block."

"Don't thank me. Just don't become a problem." He picked up his papers again.

I almost smiled. "I'll do my best," I said, and turned to leave.

On getting to the door, I bumped into a female figure. “I'm sorry.” I said instantly, packing up my hair that had loosened from its bun.

“Urghh!” I heard her spat. She sounded like she would poke on me. “Do you know I can punish you for this mess?” she threatened.

I looked up at her in worry and froze.

The blue-eyed girl from earlier?

She stared at me like my presence was threatening her patience.

“I apologize!” I mumbled and ran out of her face.

I found Sable in the common room that evening. She'd become, in three days, something close to a fixed point in a way I was grateful for.

She didn't hover and she never pretended. She simply showed up in the same place at roughly the same time and didn't ask questions I didn't volunteer answers to.

"You got the message," she said.

"Word travels." I muttered.

"Pack," she said simply. "Everything does." She studied me over her mug. "How are you?"

"I will be fine," I said. "Not yet. But I will be."

She nodded once, accepting the answer without requiring it to be better. "There will be a patrol at dawn. East ridge. You're with me."

"That's good," I said genuinely, and surprisingly meant it.

What I didn't know yet was that someone else had been watching us the whole time and suddenly, my eyes caught her intense gaze. “Holy s**t! Not her again!! Who's that blue-eyed she-wolf?” I spat out of nowhere.

Sable traced my eyes and scoffed as her eyes caught the shewolf from a distance. “That's Lyra Weston, a senior warrior. You should ignore her. She's been here for two years and is rude as hell.” Sable then smirked. “She thinks she will be Luna someday. How delulu!”