chapter 3: Blood and Burden
1175 Words
CHAPTER THREE
Pain has a way of dragging you back to the truths you were raised under.
In my world, no truth was heavier than my father.
No one feared the name Alpha Kael Cinderclaw without cause.
He was not merely the Alpha of the Silver Pine Pack,he was the Alpha other Alphas listened to when war loomed, when borders were threatened, when blood debts were whispered beneath the moon. His authority had not been inherited.
It had been claimed.
Won through claw, fang, and an iron will that shattered rivals and bound broken clans beneath one banner.
Even humans in Silver Pine City knew his name.
Not all who lived under him were wolves, but every soul within his territory slept under his protection.
Alpha Kael Cinderclaw did not tolerate weakness.
Not in himself.
Not in his rank.
Not in his blood.
So when the healer spoke the word...
Pregnant.
The world tilted.
My father did not move.
His shoulders remained squared, his razor-edged posture unbroken. His eyes fixed on the pale stone wall behind the healer as though daring it to crumble beneath the weight of that single word.
Pregnant.
My heart dropped straight into my stomach.
No. It couldn’t be.
I had only been with someone once.
Once.
And I didn’t even remember it.
The night was blurred by too much wine, too much noise, too much grief I hadn’t known how to carry. I’d been reckless. Stupid. Afraid.
How could something so permanent come from one forgotten mistake?
My father finally shifted. The chair scraped softly against the floor as he turned to face the healer, his fists clenched so tightly the veins stood like cords beneath his skin.
“That is incorrect,” he said flatly. “Run the test again.”
The room swallowed his words whole.
“She has not found her mate. She cannot be carrying life.”
I sank lower into my seat, the weight of my own body suddenly unbearable.
I was seventeen, barely weeks from eighteen and every she wolf in the pack knew the law carved into bone and blood alike:
A she wolf saved herself for her fated mate.
To break that rule was not merely sin.
It was exile.
The men were forgiven.
We were not.
“And I,” my father continued in a hollow voice, “did not raise a daughter who would disgrace herself like this.”
The healer hesitated, then straightened.
“Alpha Kael… I ran the test myself. Twice. I would not bring you falsehood wrapped as truth.”
My father’s jaw clenched.
“No,” he said sharply. “You are wrong. My daughter is not a stain on my House.”
The words did not shout.
They cut.
Among wolves, there was no curse heavier than one who carried a child not bound by mate.
Rogue-born women were not simply cast out.
They were erased.
Stripped of pack name.
Stripped of protection.
Stripped of belonging.
Free to survive, they said.
I had watched such women fade into the edges of our city before.
Hungry. Forgotten. Ghosts still breathing.
I had pitied them.
Judged them.
And now.. I was becoming one.
The room began to spin. The walls leaned closer. The ground felt suddenly… very far away.
“I will run it again, Alpha,” the healer said quietly, retreating as though from a storm.
My father rose.
He paced.
Each step echoed like distant thunder.
“You are not that kind of girl,” he said suddenly, stopping in front of me. “You would not do this.”
His voice wasn’t hard.
It was broken.
He was not accusing.
He was begging.
I wanted the floor to open and take me with it.
The healer returned too quickly for hope to breathe.
One glance at his face told me everything.
“The results are unchanged, Alpha.”
Silence followed.
Then...
“She is strong,” the healer added carefully, “but her wolf has not awakened yet. That makes this… dangerous. The sickness, the weakness it comes from carrying life without Alpha bonds to protect her.”
My father turned toward me slowly.
“What danger?”
My throat closed.
“I… I don’t know who the father is.”
The room shattered.
The healer stiffened.
My father did not shout.
Did not strike.
Did not move.
And somehow, that was worse.
When he finally spoke, his voice barely existed.
“Leave us.”
The healer obeyed instantly.
The door closed.
And the storm had a face again.
He stared at me, not with fire, but with something far colder.
“Look at me.”
I lifted my head.
His eyes were empty.
“Haven’t I taught you better than this?”
Tears blurred my sight.
“Father… please…”
“You were meant to awaken first,” he said quietly. “Your mate was meant to come after your wolf. Never before. Never this way.”
“I didn’t plan this,” I whispered. “I swear on my soul.”
Something in him finally fractured.
He crossed the space between us and cupped my face , not gently, not cruelly, desperately.
“You don’t understand what this means,” he breathed. “A child conceived before awakening carries old magic… forbidden magic.”
I trembled beneath his hands.
“And the father?” His voice hardened at once. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” I broke.
Darkness flickered in his eyes.
Then...
His fist slammed down on the desk.
The windows rattled. Power surged outward like a living thing, his wolf straining against bone.
“An unknown male will not place a threat in my house!” he roared. “Not when enemies circle! Not when they wait for weakness!”
“I never wanted this!” I sobbed. “I swear on my wolf!”
He froze.
Fear crept into his expression.
Real fear.
He released me and stepped back.
Then said quietly,
“Bring me the scent you woke with.”
I shook my head slowly.
“I don’t have it. I don’t remember. I don’t know.”
His gaze sharpened into a blade.
“Then we erase the mistake.”
My heart stopped.
“You mean..”
“We end the pregnancy.”
The words pierced clean through me.
I stared at him.
At the man who had once held me when I was small.
“The Moon Goddess forbids this,” I whispered.
“I do not care.”
I stood abruptly.
“Father, no… I won’t.”
“This is the only way.”
“It’s my child,” I cried. “My first life. Please.”
“There is no child,” he snapped. “Only a threat.”
“No!”
His eyes burned into mine.
“Refuse me… and you refuse my blood.”
The world ended.
“You are no longer my daughter.”
The words shattered what little remained of me.
I stumbled back.
Breathless.
Broken.
Alone.
- Writer
