The Alpha's Doomed Mate

Chapter 13: Blackhollow

POV: Asha

Twenty-nine days.

That was how much time I had left before Marrok could try to drag me back into his life.

Somehow, thirty had sounded longer inside the council chamber. In the morning light, it felt terrifyingly short.

“You're allowed further than the wing now,” Hera said, tugging open the heavy pack house doors. “Zade finally agreed you don’t need to be kept inside after what happened. You just can’t wander around alone until they figure out how that attacker got in.”

I hesitated at the threshold.

The council had been held in the adjacent building next to the pack house, so I hadn’t gotten out of the place much. Now, here I was, half-expecting the outside world to match the cold, gothic dread of the Forbidden Wing.

It didn't.

Sunlight spilled across rows of timber-and-stone houses nestled among the trees, nothing like the dark, twisted imagery Moonmere elders had painted of Blackhollow my whole life.

Closer to the pack house, the roads narrowed into old stone paths, workshops and a smithy tucked among them like the village hadn't quite decided which century it belonged to.

The smell of fresh bread drifted from somewhere close, mixing with woodsmoke and pine.

“This is Blackhollow?” I asked, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.

“What did you expect? Skulls on pikes?” Hera arched a brow.

“Something like that, honestly.”

She snorted. “Other packs are good at building reputations for us. Just not an accurate one.”

We walked further in, past a cluster of children chasing each other around a well, and an older woman sitting outside her home shelling beans. She offered me a small, curious nod as we passed.

People did stare.

A few whispered behind their hands, eyes flicking between me and Hera. But none of it carried the hostility I had expected after what happened with their former Beta.

Mostly, it looked like curiosity, the kind reserved for something they thought strange, rather than something they hated.

“I would have assumed they'd be glaring at me,” I said quietly, more to myself than to her.

“Most of them don't even know what to think of you yet,” Hera said. “No one really likes Marrok, but not many have stood up to him either.”

Just as we walked past warriors sparring with wooden staffs on a training ground, I briefly caught sight of Zade standing near the edge of the grounds, speaking with two warriors.

I looked away before he could notice me staring.

Working up the nerve, I opened my mouth to spill the question that had been lodged deep in my mind.

“Can I ask you something?”

Hera glanced over. “You seem determined to.”

“You and Zade… are you…?” I started, and immediately regretted it.

Hera stopped walking. “Are we what?”

“Together.” Heat rushed into my face. “Like… together together.”

For half a second, she just stared at me.

Then she burst out laughing, loud enough that a couple of the warriors on the training ground looked over.

“I didn’t mean to ask it that way…” My voice trailed off as I frowned.

“Zade is my brother.”

Wait.

My steps stopped. “Your—”

“Older brother. Unfortunately.”

Okay, Earth, you can open up and swallow me now.

“Is that why you kept looking at me like that?” Hera asked, laughing harder with each word.

“I wasn’t looking at you like anything.” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep the embarrassment off my face.

“You absolutely were.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then thought better of it and kept walking instead, which only made her laugh harder.

A small blur of motion shot toward us, a boy no older than six, barreling directly at my legs with the singular focus only children seemed capable of.

I froze, bracing for impact.

A hand closed around the back of the boy's shirt, yanking him clean off his feet mid-stride and swinging him around me.

“Careful,” Zade's voice rumbled from behind me.

I turned to find him holding the boy up by his collar like a misbehaving puppy, the child's legs still cycling through the air out of pure momentum.

I expected fear, or even tears. Instead, the boy twisted around, grinning.

“Alpha! Put me down!”

Zade's mouth twitched, something dangerously close to amusement flickering across his face as he set the boy back on his feet.

“Then, watch where you're running, Luca.”

“I was racing Tomi!” the boy declared, entirely unbothered, before sprinting off without a second glance back.

I stared after him, then at Zade. I had expected fear to be all anyone ever showed him. But that child had looked at him with nothing but familiar fondness.

Zade caught me staring and straightened, the softness vanishing back into his usual hardness.

“Hera. Where were you taking her?”

“Hestia's clinic,” Hera said. “Thought she could use the fresh air first.”

He nodded once, his gaze lingering on me a moment longer than necessary, before turning and walking off without another word.

I watched him go longer than I meant to, an unfamiliar warmth sitting uneasily in my chest.

“He's gone,” Hera said.

I looked at her. “What?”

“Zade. You can stop staring now.”

Heat rose to my cheeks.

“I wasn't staring,” I mumbled and kept walking.

“Right,” she called out teasingly and picked up her pace.

Hestia's clinic sat near the edge of the village. It was a low stone building lined with shelves of jars, dried herbs hanging from the rafters in neat bundles.

A small electric lamp buzzed faintly on the counter despite the sunlight outside, and the smell of medicine mixed with earth clung to everything.

“You're welcome to sit while I work,” Hestia said, already sorting through a basket of roots.

“Actually,” I said, surprising myself, “could I help?”

She glanced up, brows raised slightly.

“I'm not fragile just because I’m pregnant,” I added quickly, mumbling the last part. “And I'm tired of sitting around feeling useless while everyone else does something.”

Hestia studied me for a moment, then gestured to a pile of leaf bundles. “Pass me the Feverfew.”

I did, without needing to be told which it was.

“You know feverfew?”

“Most omegas in Moonmere were taught basic remedies.”

Hestia nodded. “Then you must know more than I can give you credit for.”

Just then, excited voices erupted from somewhere outside, drawing my attention. Through the open doorway where Hera stood, I saw a small crowd gathering near the village entrance, several warriors with dust still clinging to them.

A tall woman stepped through the gathering crowd, silver-blonde hair pulled back from her face, moving like she already knew every eye in the village would find her eventually.

Her eyes found someone in the crowd, and she smiled.

Following her line of sight, my eyes landed on Zade, a few meters away. She walked forward until she was beside him, and for the first time since I met him, Zade didn't look like he minded someone entering his space.

Something unpleasant twisted beneath my ribs.

Absolutely not. I was not jealous.

"Who's that?" I asked Hera, stepping closer to the doorway.

Hera followed my gaze, her mouth curving upward slightly.

“Sloane.”

“Sloane?”

“Our Gamma.”