The Alpha Of My Ruins

Chapter 3

DAVINA’s POV

I wasn’t afraid.

Fear had been beaten out of me that day I searched for Rowan’s body in the bushes like a lost cub amidst thousands of slain bodies. I’d sworn to never feel it since the moment my father agreed to sign a truce to the very being who started it all.

My father stood from the throne behind me, along with some of the pack elders. I took a glance at them before turning back to the Alpha, who was already in front of me.

And then, I felt something even worse than hatred seep quietly through my veins. My eyes narrowed in bewilderment.

Recognition.

The bond.

The moment his storm-grey eyes stared into mine, I felt it, like chains wrapped tight around my neck, and I was pulled to come closer to him. My wolf clawed violently inside my chest. My knees weakened, but I controlled them, straight refusing to express submission.

My eyes narrowed.

No. No… This wasn’t possible.

Not Xavier Blackmoon. Not the man who had orchestrated so much bloodshed. Not the man who looked at me as if I was prey rather than the Luna fate demanded he accept.

Xavier’s jaw tightened, and I saw it in the way his nostrils flared, and his eyes got slightly wider – the bond hit him too. The Moon Goddess must be mocking us both.

“Davina of Silverfang,” he started, ignoring my father and the other elders like they meant nothing to him. “You look smaller than I expected.”

I lifted my chin, staring him in the eye, pushing the bond pull far in my head. “You were expecting prey. I’m not prey, Alpha. I’m poisonous or maybe even worse.”

The guards shifted with unease. Xavier’s lips twitched; I couldn’t tell whether with amusement or irritation. He leaned forward, an intimidating aura oozing from him.

“Poison kills silently,” he said. “But you seem fond of being loud.”

“Better loud than spineless.” My voice, deliberately higher, sliced through the air.

I felt the bond spark at that moment, even if I thought I had controlled it. His wolf was surging forward…I could feel it, like an enclosed storm wind, demanding submission. The room pressed tensely on my shoulders, and my wolf whined as I pushed her to the back of my mind.

“Bow,” Xavier commanded softly. “To your Alpha.” Too softly. It was subtle, more dangerous than a loud roar.

I laughed, the pull of his wolf tugging behind me as I struggled to stay still. The surrounding guards shifted, but his face remained unreadable.

“Never”

The word echoed in the broken hallway, audacious, mocking. The guards gasped. Xavier’s grey eyes darkened. He walked closer from the entrance, every step he took up the stairs as heavy as a predator cornering its prey. I didn’t flinch; if I thought I would, then he was going to be disappointed.

He stopped inches from me. He was taller, radiating power that would’ve crushed a lesser wolf – but definitely not me. His scent, a daunting fragrance of burnt wood and incense, curled its way into my lungs, dizzying me with the bond. I refused to bend.

“You will regret that,” he murmured deeply.

I forced a bitter smile. “I’ve been regretting things my whole life, Xavier Blackwood. Add this to the list.” His gaze flickered with something foreign, anger, frustration, maybe even the tiniest bit of reluctant respect. But then he leaned down. I could feel his hot breath graze my ear.

“Careful, Luna.”

My pulse thumped wildly, and I hated the way my body responded to him even when my mind wanted nothing but to resist. I pushed him back with both my hands, the contact sending fire up my veins. He stumbled half a step, not from weakness, but from shock. His eyes widened, and in that instant I knew — he’d felt it too.

The cursed bond.

It wasn’t gentle. It was violent, clawing, demanding. Fate hadn’t paired us to heal. It had paired us to destroy. The guards shifted in unease. No one dared to intervene. This was not politics. This was the primal law.

Xavier straightened slowly, comporting himself, his face slid back into that cold, emotionless mask. But his fists were clenched at his sides; he was holding back, too. “You will bow,” he repeated, softer now, like he was speaking to himself. I tilted my head, red hair falling to one side, “You’ll die waiting.”

The air between us was charged, too tense, too thick to breathe. My wolf raged, not in submission but in an uncontrollable will to challenge. And then, without warning, Xavier’s hand was out, gripping my wrist. The place his skin met mine exploded in sparks. I held my breath, and a shudder ripped through me.

And then his voice dropped, intimate and lethal. “The bond doesn’t care what you want, Davina. It will break you.” I met his gaze, letting him see every minute of my defiance. “Then it will find I’m not so easy to break.”

For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. His grip was sturdy as iron, the mate bond blazing between us like wildfire. And then…

A warrior stumbled onto the scene, blood dripping from a large injury across his chest. The guards turned to him, ruffling with tension.

“Alpha!” he shouted, fell to his knees. “The rogues… they’re attacking our border.”

The tension shattered in the atmosphere like brittle. Xavier released me, spinning towards the warrior, his aura emitting brutal authority. But as he turned, I felt it, that cursed tug in my chest, that invisible thread binding us. His wolf was mine. My wolf was his. Whether I wanted it or not.

And for the first time, a splash of terror cracked through my defiance because this wasn’t just a marriage anymore. This was a war written in our very blood.