The Alpha Of My Ruins

DAVINA’s POV It wasn’t the scene of gruesomely torn bodies that made me want to shatter. It was the horror of searching for his own. I struggled to keep my puffy eyes open as the metallic odor itched in my throat, refusing to leave, no matter how deeply I inhaled. My eyes swept the graveyard of torn bodies that stretched before me, my head pounded, knees ached as I sank into the mud. The moonlight revealed horrors too raw for daylight. I dug my nails into the ground, desperately searching for him. For Rowan. “Please,” I whispered, my voice terribly hoarse. Filthy fingers scraped against bushes and crushed grass as if digging hard enough would bring him back. “Please… Please, Rowan, answer me.” No answer. Only deathly silence. Only the wind rustling through the slain bodies of wolves of my pack, fur covered in blood, carrying the grotesque scent of death along with it. They told me Rowan was gone, murdered along with more than half the pack soldiers. Then, they expected me to stand up and hold my head high like the future Luna of Silverfang should. But they didn’t understand. They couldn’t. Rowan was my future, my everything. And without him… without him, the bond between us was nothing but a sharp sword, piercing deeper inside my ribcage every time I tried to breathe. I found his cloak. Torn. Drenched in blood. My hands shook as they pulled it from beneath a hideously slaughtered soldier. His scent lingered faintly on the fabric, already fading, as though the Goddess herself was mocking me. “Davina” I heard the voice call my name as a hand held my shoulder lightly. My Beta, Dmitri, stood by my side, his voice steady but urgent, “We need to leave. The Blackmoon patrols will move soon. If they find us here…” “I’m not leaving him!” A scream raged out of my mouth without control. I shoved his hand off my shoulder and kept digging, nails splitting. “His body must be here. He can’t just—” my voice was hoarse now. “Davina,” Dmitri said, softer now, like one might speak to a cornered wolf, “We’ve been searching for hours. He isn’t here.” I froze. The words struck something inside me harder than any sword. “He isn’t here?” Dmitri's look was not assuring. He’d lost hope. They all had. “Then where is he?” The question was more to myself. Uneven, tense breaths took over my already tired lungs, the pull of the mate bond a constant throbbing ache in my chest. If Rowan was truly dead, the bond should have broken, leaving me void and dazed. But it hadn’t. The ache was alive, mocking. Which meant…? That he was alive somewhere? That maybe they’d taken him? That Xavier, the ruthless Alpha of Blackmoon, had ordered him executed and burned his body to ash, so I’d never have closure? My chest heaved as rage flooded my head. If Xavier had done this, if Blackmoon’s Alpha had stolen Rowan from me, then the Moon Goddess herself would have to protect him from my wrath. Because I would tear down his empire brick by brick. “Davina,” Dmitri called again, glancing over his shoulder, “The Alpha and council are calling for you. There’s… news” I stared numbly at him for a moment, then dragged myself up, my legs trembling with combined grief as I followed him back to what was left of Silverfang Creek. The grief of staring at my once-proud pack shattered so deeply, watching the few less-injured survivors tend to wounds of the more affected ones, seeing children crying for fathers who would never return, mothers digging shallow graves because we no longer had the strength for funeral pyres. The elders waited, countenance laced with grief. My father sat on the edge of the table, wearing a simple black robe. His face, bare and emotionless, with scar lines running down his cheek. But his eyes… they were heavy with something I recognized, something more dangerous than pity. Resignation. “Daughter of Silverfang,” Elder Mira said, stepping forward, her curly silver hair tangled with ash. “The war has finally ended.” I almost laughed, a bitter sound escaped my lips, “Ended? Look around you. Do you see an end here? Or just bodies and ruin?” My father spoke now, his voice cold and filled with authority as it always was. “The council has negotiated a truce.” I narrowed my eyes. My heart thudded uneasily. “A truce? With them? After everything they’ve taken from us?” “Peace is the only way for our people to survive,” he said. “We cannot fight the Blackmoon any longer. Their Alpha has agreed to halt bloodshed… under one condition.” A chill rippled down my spine. “What condition?” His silence was enough. Another elder, Garen, cleared his throat. “You, Davina of Silverfang, daughter of our Alpha, will be bound in marriage to Xavier Blackmoon.” The words weren’t making sense. They echoed in the night air, absurd and impossible, like a cruel jest. Then the meaning sank in: was this really their solution?! My fists clenched so tightly, I could feel my filthy nails cut into my palms. The pain was an unsuccessful distraction from the anger surging through me. “No,” “Davina…” “No!” My voice cracked, raw and furious, like the sound of thunder. “You dare ask this of me? To marry the… butcher who destroyed us? The man whose hands are drenched with Rowan’s blood?” My voice shook in the last sentence; the mention of Rowan made my chest ache. Mora’s eyes softened. “Child…” “I am not your child!” I spat, tears burning on the edge of my eyes. “I am Rowan’s mate. And I… I swear on the Goddess’s name that monster would never own me. Never” But even as I uttered those words, my stomach twisted, the bond in my chest throbbed excruciatingly, as if punishing me for my defiance. I could see my father stare at me like my existence meant nothing to him, even if I was his only child. He didn’t flinch, and the elders didn’t either. They all stood firm, like I had just performed. “Without this union,” my father said coldly, “the Blackmoon will finish what they started. Do you wish for the Silverfang pack to burn completely? For your people to perish because of your pride?” I stared at him, bitterness rising in my throat as I narrowed my eyes. They had already chosen. My grief, my fury, Rowan’s death – none of it mattered aside from the survival of the pack. The choice that didn’t seem like a choice at all. My vision blurred as tears welled in my eyes, even if I refused to let them fall. I lifted my chin, heaved with digested anger, my voice trembled, but I didn’t let it affect the sharpness of the words I was about to speak. “I will marry Xavier Blackmoon,” I said, each word like falling ice. “But hear me well. It would never exceed a marriage of truce. If he thinks he can control me, he will learn soon that I am not the woman anyone pushes around.” The bond in my chest tore again, mocking, as if laughing at my defiance. I shut my eyes, turned my face away from them toward the night sky, my jaw set. Let him come. Let the infamous Alpha see what kind of Luna he was being chained to. I was Davina of Silverfang. I had already lost everything worth loving. And if Xavier thought he could defeat me the way he defeated Rowan, he would soon understand what it meant to be bound to a woman who had nothing else left to lose.