THE ALPHA'S DEVIDED BOND

07: BURNED THE HANMOK CITY

The word “mate” still echoed in the courtyard long after Ahrem spoke it. Silence did not soften the blow. It sharpened it.

Hanmok warriors stood frozen, hands gripping steel, eyes flashing between their Alpha, their future Queen Luna, and the rogue who dared to claim her under the open sky.

Princess Lyara’s breathing was steady on the outside. But inside of it, was like a war. As if her wolf clawed at her ribs, demanding recognition and demanding for acceptance. The bond pulsed hot and alive, wrapping around her senses until the rogue’s scent drowned everything else, on her.

The wind from the mountain, a wild pine. After those silver storm that pass in her life. She finally met her enemy who just entered the city, but unexpectedly.. instead of fighting and killing him.. she didn't. She can't avoid her destiny, to meet her “Mate” in this kind of situation.

But a strict father’s voice cut through the tension like a blade.

“Seize him.”

Everything exploded at once.

Ahrem moved before the first sword fully cleared its sheath. He did not act to attack. He pivoted, catching one warrior’s wrist and redirecting the strike past his shoulder. The second lunged from behind. Ahrem ducked, sweeping his leg low and knocking the man onto his back with a c***k of armor against the stone.

He did not draw a weapon. He did not shift to his wolf. He just refused to give them a reason to kill.

“I did not come for blood,” he growled.

The Alpha of Hanmok stepped forward, his aura crushing the air. His power rolled off him in suffocating waves, forcing even his own warriors to step aside.

“You came into my city,” the Alpha said coldly, “and marked my daughter with your scent.”

“I marked nothing,” Ahrem replied evenly, though his pulse thundered. “The Goddess did.”

A collective snarl rippled through the courtyard. “Blasphemy!”

Princess Lyara stepped between them before she fully decided to.

“Enough,” she snapped. The authority in her voice was unquestionable. Warriors hesitated. Even her father’s gaze flicked toward her with warning.

“You feel it,” Ahrem said quietly, his eyes never leaving hers.

Her jaw tightened. “Yes.”

The single word shifted everything.

Her father’s expression hardened like a stone. “You would side with a rogue?”

“I would not deny what the Moon herself binds,” Princes Lyara shot back.

The Alpha’s control cracked.

“Take him to the lower cells,” he ordered. “Until I decide whether prophecy is worth more than my city.”

This time, Ahrem did not resist. Not when iron cuffs locked around his wrists. The four warriors surrounded him. They dragged him directly through the inner gates, but that’s when he met her gaze one last time. He told her silently.. “This is not the end,”

Princess Lyara’s wolf answered with a low, furious promise, a sound that trembled with more than anger. It carried hunger. Vengeance and a warning.

When the night comes. The storm clouds devoured the sky in thick, churning waves, swallowing the moon as if afraid of what its light might reveal. The air tightened, heavy and electric, pressing against their skin like a held breath. And somewhere in the darkness, something lurked, and its patience had run out.

In the lower districts of Hanmok, unrest wolves from another pack spread like a rats beneath the polished stone.

Whispers moved through taverns and barracks. About the rogue. The mate bond. The Alpha’s fury. But whispers were not the only thing moving in the dark, tonight ..

Beyond the eastern wall, figures cloaked in black gathered in silence. They are wolves from another pack. And they did not come to debate a prophecy.

They suddenly came with torches. The first explosion shattered! where the silence just passed the midnight.

The eastern gate burst into flames as the oil-soaked the woods and caught with fire in an instant. The guards stationed above barely had time to shout a warning before a rain of flaming arrows came pouring down.

Screams of civilian wolves followed.

Inside the lower cells, Ahrem’s head snapped upward.

Panic scented the air instantly. Footsteps pounded overhead. Alarm bells began clanging violently.

“Attack!” Ahrem hears it. He rose slowly despite the chains binding his wrists to iron rings in the wall. His wolf surged, furious and wild.

Across the city, Princess Lyara jolted awake before the second blast tore through the outer marketplace. She was already pulling on her leathers when a guard burst into her chamber.

“Enemy,” she gasped. “Eastern wall breached.” Her blood went cold.

“How many?” She immediately asked the head of the guards outside.

“Too many.”

Princess Lyara run before he finished speaking.

Flames painted the sky as orange as she reached the upper battlements. The eastern district was now with the chaos. Civilian wolves fled through smoke filled the streets. Warriors clashed with masked attackers wielding silver tipped blades.

The attacked was like a strategic planned. This was no random raid.

Below, a storage tower collapsed in a roar of fire.

And then Princess Lyara realized, something that froze in her mid step. The lower cells were in the eastern quadrant, it is the place where Ahrem was chained.

Her father appeared beside her, issuing rapid commands to captains.

“Protect the inner district,” he ordered. “Let the outer burn if it must.”

Princess Lyara turned sharply. “The lower cells are outer district.”

The Alpha's gaze flicked to her. “You would risk my city for him?”

“I would not let an innocent burn because of pride,” she shot back.

Another explosion shook the wall beneath their feet.

Time ran out.

Without waiting for permission, Princess Lyara leapt from the battlement to the lower rooftop, shifting midair. Her wolf burst free in a blaze of amber fury.

She hit the ground running.

Smoke clawed at her lungs as she tore through panicked streets. The attackers scattered at the sight of her, but some stood their ground, raising silver blades. She barreled into them without slowing. Bone snapped between her jaws and blood hit the fire, before the ground.

She did not stop.

Until she finally reached it, but found the lower cell was blocked, it was already engulfed with fire. Flames devoured the wooden supports near the entrance. Guards lay injured across the steps.

Through smoke and chaos, she caught his scent. He is still alive!

Shifting back to human form just long enough to shove through falling debris, she ignored the searing heat biting at her skin.

“Ahrem!” she called.

In the darkness below, chains rattled.

“I’m here,” he answered, his voice is steady despite the crackling inferno above.

She found him half shrouded in smoke, iron still binding his wrists. Without speaking, she grabbed the fallen key ring from a dead guard and unlocked the cuffs.

The moment that metal fell away, something changed. The bond surged like a released storm. He did not hesitate. He shifted. Silver and black fur exploded outward, larger than any wolf she had ever seen. Even in firelight, he was breathtaking.

For a split second, they stared at each other.

Then the ceiling groaned.

He lunged forward, seizing her by the back of her tunic in his jaws just as the beam collapsed. They burst through the side wall in a shower of stone and flame.

Outside, the eastern district was a battlefield.

The enemy pushed inward with frightening coordination. More fires spread deliberately toward supply depots and food stores.

“This was planned,” Princess Lyara breathed.

Ahrem shifted back beside her, eyes blazing. “They want Hanmok weakened.”

A group of masked attackers charged toward them, recognizing her instantly.

“Take the Princess!” one shouted.

Ahrem stepped in front of her without thinking. He moved like a lightning.

The silver wolf met the steel wolf.

Disarming one. Breaking another. Sending a third crashing into a burning cart. Princess Lyara fought at his back. They moved instinctively, bodies aligned as if they had trained together for years.

Fire roared around them.

Above, the Alpha of Hanmok finally descended into the fray, his massive wolf form tearing through wolf ranks with terrifying precision. But the damage was done.

Half of the eastern district was ablaze. Civilians cried out as homes collapsed.

And through it all, Ahrem realized something cold and certain. This attack had nothing to do with him. It was not about rogue blood. It was not about mate bonds, it’s a challenge about destabilizing both of the two cities.

If Hanmok fell, Danver City would be next.

When the final wolf attacker retreated beyond the breached wall, now the dawn was already creeping over a city scarred in ash, and the smoke coiled into the pale sky.

Princess Lyara stood in the ruins of the lower district, chest rising heavily.

Ahrem stood beside her, alive and free!

Her father approached slowly, shifting back into human form. His gaze swept over the devastation. Then it landed on Ahrem.

“You fought for my city,” the Alpha said quietly.

“I fought for what is right,” Ahrem replied.

Flames still crackled behind them. The scent of an enemy lingered in the air. But it was no longer coming from the rogue. It was coming from beyond their borders.

Princess Lyara stepped forward, ash streaking her face.

“They will come again,” she said.

Her father did not deny it.

Ahrem looked toward the eastern horizon where attackers had vanished. “War had just changed”

Hanmok city had burned not because of a divided bond. But because something greater was moving against them all. The night Hanmok burned would not be remembered as the night a rogue invaded. It would be remembered as the night where enemies forced them to reconsider who truly stood across the battlefield.

And as smoke drifted into morning light, Ahrem said, “three truths became impossible to ignore”

“What are you saying?” the Alpha asked.

“The bond was real. The threat was larger than the city. And peace would not come without blood."