THE ALPHA'S WOLF IS MY ENEMY

Chapter Three: Beneath the Council Chamber

The scratching stopped the moment I stepped away from the floor.

I remained where I was, staring at the stone beneath my feet while the words I had just heard repeated themselves in my mind.

Don't trust his wolf.

It had been my mother's voice.

There was no mistaking it.

I had not heard that voice since I was six years old, but some things were buried too deeply to be forgotten. I could still remember the way my mother used to call my name when she wanted me to stop playing and come inside, the softness that usually followed whenever she told me not to be afraid.

She had been dead for sixteen years.

At least, that was what everyone had told me.

Marissa Vale disappeared during the northern border war when I was six. No body had ever been found, but the elders had declared her dead after months of searching. My father had disappeared soon afterward, and I had been left with relatives who rarely spoke about either of them.

For years, I accepted what I had been told because I had been too young to question it.

Now her voice had spoken to me from beneath the Alpha's council chamber.

I crouched again and placed my palm against the cold stone.

Nothing happened.

I waited.

The scratching returned.

Three slow scratches.

A pause.

Three more.

The sound was coming from underneath the floor, and there was something deliberate about its rhythm. It didn't sound like an animal trapped beneath the building. It sounded almost as though someone was trying to communicate with me.

I pressed my ear against the stone.

"Mom?" I whispered.

No answer came.

I remained there for several seconds before forcing myself to stand.

I should have found Cassian.

Instead, I began examining the chamber.

The council room was much older than the rest of the Alpha's residence. Dark wooden shelves covered two walls, and enormous paintings of former Alphas hung between them. A black fireplace stood at the eastern end of the room, its stonework carved with two wolves facing each other.

Something about the fireplace bothered me.

I walked toward it and crouched.

There was a thin line in the floor beneath the hearth.

I brushed away a layer of dust with my fingers and discovered a narrow outline running across the stone.

A door.

My pulse quickened.

I pushed against it.

Nothing happened.

I tried again, putting more of my weight behind my hand.

A faint click sounded beneath the floor.

The stone shifted.

I immediately pulled my hand away.

A section of the floor slowly opened, revealing a narrow staircase descending into complete darkness.

Cold air rose from below and brushed against my face.

The smell reached me a moment later.

Damp earth.

Old wood.

And something metallic that made my stomach tighten.

Blood.

I stood there for a long time, staring into the darkness.

Every sensible part of me told me to close the door and find Cassian.

Unfortunately, curiosity had always been one of my worst qualities.

I took a candle from the table, lit it from the fireplace and began descending.

The staircase was narrow, forcing me to place one hand against the wall as I went. The temperature dropped with every step, and by the time I reached the bottom, the warmth of the council chamber above already felt like a distant memory.

The passage continued ahead of me.

Ancient carvings covered the walls. Some showed wolves running through forests, while others depicted people kneeling before enormous beasts. Most of the symbols meant nothing to me, but one of them stopped me completely.

A crescent moon surrounded by three claw marks.

My fingers moved toward it before I could stop myself.

The moment I touched the carving, pain shot through my head.

The candle fell from my hand.

For a few seconds, I couldn't breathe.

The passage disappeared.

I was six years old again.

Snow covered the ground around me, and my mother's hand was wrapped tightly around mine as she pulled me through the forest.

"Don't look back, Nora," she told me.

Her voice trembled.

I was crying so hard that I could barely see where we were going.

"Where are we going, Mom?" I asked her. "Why are we running?"

She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she pulled me closer and glanced over her shoulder.

There was fear in her eyes.

"Somewhere they can't find you," she finally said.

"Who are they?"

My mother stopped walking.

She knelt in front of me and placed both hands on my shoulders.

"Listen to me carefully, Nora. Whatever happens tonight, you must never let them take your wolf."

I frowned because I didn't understand what she meant.

"My wolf?"

She nodded.

"Your wolf knows something they are afraid of."

A howl echoed somewhere behind us.

My mother's expression changed.

She stood abruptly and pushed me behind her.

A huge black wolf emerged between the trees.

Its fur was darker than the night surrounding it, and its golden eyes remained fixed on us.

But it wasn't the wolf that frightened me most.

Someone was standing beside it.

A boy.

He couldn't have been more than ten or eleven years old.

He had dark hair and the same intense eyes I had seen earlier tonight.

Cassian.

I tried to move closer, but my mother grabbed my arm.

"Run," she whispered.

The memory broke apart.

I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on the cold floor, gasping for breath.

The candle had gone out.

For several moments, I couldn't move.

My mother's words kept returning to me.

Your wolf knows something they are afraid of.

I had always believed that my wolf had never awakened.

What if that wasn't true?

What if my wolf had been taken from me?

The thought was so disturbing that I almost rejected it immediately.

Then another piece of the memory surfaced.

A hand pressed against my chest.

A man's voice whispered words I couldn't understand.

My mother screamed.

Pain spread through my entire body.

Something inside me cried out.

My wolf.

I opened my eyes again.

The corridor was empty.

I looked down at my hands, which were trembling despite my attempts to steady them.

A sound came from somewhere farther ahead.

Footsteps.

I quickly stood.

The footsteps grew louder.

Someone was approaching.

I pressed myself against the wall and held my breath until a familiar figure appeared at the end of the passage.

Cassian.

His expression hardened the moment he saw me.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"I heard something," I replied.

His gaze moved past me toward the open staircase.

"You opened this?"

"Yes."

"You shouldn't be here, Nora."

"You knew this passage existed."

He didn't answer.

I took a step toward him.

"Did you know this was underneath the council chamber?"

Cassian's eyes narrowed.

"I asked you what you're doing here."

"And I'm asking you a question."

His jaw tightened.

"You don't give orders to me."

"I didn't give you an order. I asked you something."

He stared at me for a moment before looking toward the darkness behind me.

"Come with me."

"No."

His eyebrows rose slightly.

"You seem to have forgotten who you're speaking to."

"I know exactly who I'm speaking to."

I folded my arms.

"I'm also beginning to think you're hiding something."

His expression became colder.

"You've known me for less than a day."

"And already I've learned that you lie."

Cassian stepped closer.

"What exactly do you think I've lied about?"

I hesitated.

"My mother."

His expression changed.

Only slightly, but I saw it.

"You said she was dead," I continued.

"She is."

"I heard her voice."

"Nora, grief can make people hear things that aren't there."

"I know what grief sounds like."

I swallowed hard.

"That was her."

Cassian remained silent.

"She told me not to trust your wolf."

The muscles in his jaw tightened.

"Anything else?"

I shook my head.

"She also warned me about this place."

Cassian looked toward the walls.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing about the passage. She only said your wolf couldn't be trusted."

He looked at me again.

His expression was impossible to read.

Then I heard Rook.

She's not telling him everything.

I looked at Cassian.

"Your wolf says I'm not telling you everything."

Cassian's eyes narrowed.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"You are."

Rook spoke again.

Ask him about the forest.

My stomach tightened.

I looked directly at Cassian.

"What happened in the forest when I was six?"

His face changed immediately.

"What forest?"

"The forest where my mother took me."

"I wasn't there."

"You were."

"No, Nora. I wasn't."

"I remember you."

Cassian shook his head.

"You were six years old."

"I know how old I was."

"You don't remember me because we never met."

"I saw you."

He moved closer.

"What exactly did you see?"

"A black wolf."

His expression remained still.

"He had golden eyes," I continued. "You were standing beside him."

Cassian said nothing.

I studied his face.

"You know something."

"No."

"You do."

"I said no."

The anger in his voice made me step back.

Then Rook spoke.

She's right.

Cassian closed his eyes.

His hand went to his temple.

For the first time, he looked genuinely troubled.

I watched him carefully.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"I'm fine," he replied.

"You don't look fine."

He lowered his hand and looked at me.

"Get some rest."

"You're avoiding the question."

"I said get some rest."

He turned toward the stairs.

I watched him take two steps before Rook spoke again.

Don't let him leave.

"Wait."

Cassian stopped.

He looked over his shoulder.

"What?"

I didn't know how to explain what I was hearing.

"Your wolf says you shouldn't leave."

His expression tightened.

"What exactly does he want?"

"I don't know."

"Then why are you listening to him?"

"Because I can hear him."

Cassian stared at me.

Neither of us spoke for several seconds.

Then, unexpectedly, he gave a short laugh.

"You really are strange."

I frowned.

"Your wolf is the strange one."

His amusement disappeared.

"What did he say?"

"That I'm strange."

Rook immediately corrected me.

I said she's brave.

I looked away before Cassian could see the surprise on my face.

"You shouldn't speak to him," Cassian said quietly.

"I don't have much choice."

"You always have a choice."

"No," I replied. "Not when he's inside you."

Something about my answer made him go silent.

He looked at me for another moment before turning toward the stairs.

I didn't follow him.

My eyes had returned to the photograph I had noticed earlier.

It was hanging on a wall near an old wooden desk.

Three people stood in the photograph.

A younger Cassian.

His father.

And my mother.

I walked toward it.

Cassian noticed what I was doing.

"Nora, don't."

I stopped.

"You knew her."

"I told you, I didn't."

"She's standing beside your father."

"I know."

"Then explain that."

He didn't answer.

I took the photograph from the wall and turned it over.

There were four words written across the back in faded ink.

KEEP HER AWAY FROM ROOK.

My fingers went cold.

I turned toward Cassian.

"Who wrote this?"

He stared at the photograph.

For the first time since I had met him, Alpha Cassian Rook looked genuinely frightened.

I heard Rook's voice immediately.

Burn it.

I looked at Cassian.

"Your wolf wants me to burn this."

Cassian didn't respond.

Something slammed against the wall behind us.

I jumped.

A second impact followed.

Then a third.

Cassian moved in front of me, his entire body tensing as his eyes flashed gold.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I don't know."

Another sound came from inside the wall.

This time it wasn't a bang.

It was scratching.

Slow and deliberate.

Three scratches.

A pause.

Three more.

Cassian looked at me.

"What is that?"

"I heard it before you came."

His expression hardened.

"Stay behind me."

I didn't argue.

The scratching became louder.

A crack appeared in the stone.

Cassian shifted his stance, ready to attack whatever was coming through.

The wall suddenly split.

A hand pushed through the opening.

I froze.

The fingers were pale, trembling and covered in dirt.

A woman's voice came from the darkness beyond the broken stone.

"Nora."

My entire body went cold.

I knew that voice.

I had heard it when I was six.

I had heard it beneath the council chamber.

And now it was coming from directly behind the wall.

My lips parted.

"Mom?"

The woman on the other side of the wall began to cry.

Then she whispered my name again.

"Nora."

My knees nearly gave way.

My mother was alive.