Chapter 7
570 Words
The last rogue dropped at her feet.
Elira stood there, breathing hard, blood on her hands and the silver glow fading from her claws. The forest was quiet again. Too quiet.
She was alone.Body filled with blood that for the first time wasn't hers.
And for the first time in her life, no one was there to hurt her anymore.
Then footsteps.
Slow. Measured. Not afraid of the bodies.
A man stepped out from between the trees.
He wasn’t wearing Alpha robes. No crown. No guards. Just a worn black jacket, dark hair, and tired eyes.
He looked like any other lone wolf passing through.
His gaze moved over the dead rogues. Then to her.
To the lashes on her back. To the blood on her knuckles. To the way she was still standing.
"That was efficient," he said. His voice was rough, quiet. "I’ve been tracking them for a week."
Elira didn’t answer. She didn’t have the strength.
"Can you walk?" he asked.
She nodded once.
He didn’t touch her. He just started walking, expecting her to follow.
She did. Because she had nowhere else to go.
They walked in silence until they reached a small clearing. A rundown park on the edge of the woods. Benches broken. Swing set rusted. This was territory no big pack wanted.
A _low pack_ territory.
He stopped by a bench and finally looked at her. Really looked.
"I’m Gabriel Byrne," he said simply.
Elira frowned. The name meant nothing to her.
He saw it on her face and gave a small, humorless smile.
"Alpha of the Thunder Howl Pack. Or what’s left of it."
Her breath caught.
_Alpha._
This man in a torn jacket, in a dead park, was an Alpha.
Not like Evelyn with her gold and her guards. A low pack Alpha. The kind other Alphas looked down on.
"Why are you telling me this?" Elira whispered.
"Because under the Old Law," Gabriel said, leaning against the bench, "I can claim any wolf cast out unjustly. And I’m claiming you, Elira."
She flinched at her name. "How do you—"
"I know a lot." He cut her off gently. "Like that Evelyn whipped you and threw you out. Like that you just killed three rogues with a back that should’ve put you on the ground."
He pushed off the bench.
"My pack is small. We’re broke. We’re weak. And we need you."
His golden eyes met hers. Not with pity. With purpose.
"So come home with me. Let my medic fix your back. And then I’ll teach you how to use whatever that silver thing was."
Elira looked at the pack behind them. At this Alpha with nothing.
At the bodies behind her.
At the life she had before. Gone.
She took a step toward him.
"Okay."
Gabriel nodded once. "Good. Don’t look back."
And they walked out of the pack borders together.
The banished girl and the Alpha of the Thunder Howl Pack.
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