The Demon Alpha's Songbird

Episode2

Lyra's POV

Rowan moved in front of me, his voice cold. "You'll leave now, before I make you regret stepping into our territory."

Kael smirked slightly, the corner of his mouth curving up. "You think this is your territory, boy?"

Then everything happened at once.

The guards rushed forward, but they didn't make it far as a wave of dark energy pulsed from Kael's hand, sending them crashing to the ground as if struck by lightning.

Rowan was not spared either.

Screams filled the air.

I stumbled back, clutching my chest as the silver pendant around my neck suddenly burned hot against my skin. When I looked up, Kael was already looking at it before his cold eyes flickered to my face.

"You don't even know what you are, do you?" He said, his voice low but cutting through the noise like thunder.

Instead of responding, I gulped hard and tottered backward, clutching my burning chest as the air around me grew heavy with smoke and panic.

The men and guards snarled and began shifting into their werewolf forms but before any of them could even lunge forward, another wave of black smoke cut through the air, severing their heads from their shoulders.

Blood sprayed across the marble floor and a scream tore through the hall. Mine.

No one moved and no one breathed. Even the wolves lowered their heads, unsure whether to attack or bow. He had just killed seven of our most powerful and trusted Betas without raising a finger. And now, his eyes were on me.

"Stay away from my daughter. She has no business to do with you," My Father warned, his voice trembling with rage as he took a step forward. Behind him, my Mother sobbed quietly, clutching the edge of her gown like it could hold her together.

I wanted to run to her, to hide behind my Father's broad shoulders, but my legs refused to move. My heart hammered painfully against my ribs as I turned to see Rowan still lying on the floor, unmoving. His shirt was stained with blood, and his face was turned to the side. The sight of him, my best friend and my almost husband, burned into my chest like fire.

What if he was... what if he was dead?

Tears filled my eyes, blurring the monstrous figure standing before me. But even through the haze, I could feel the weight of his cold and terrifying gaze. He didn't look at my Father or Mother. He only looked at me, like nothing else in the world existed.

And then, in a voice that sent chills racing down my spine, he said, "She is mine by the right of the first bond. No one can claim what was already promised."

As if his words had awakened something buried deep inside me, my chest flared with searing pain. The pendant around my neck, my parents' gift and my supposed protection, began to glow against my skin.

"Lyra!" Mother cried.

Just as my name left her mouth, the pendant shattered, scattering into fragments across the floor.

"No!" I screamed, clutching my chest as tears burned my eyes.

The pain was unbearable, like my very soul was being pulled apart. I could hear my parents shouting, their voices fading under the chaos, but all I could focus on was the emptiness where the pendant had been. It had always protected me... and now it was gone.

Still lost, staring at the scattered pendant on the ground, I barely noticed when Kael walked straight towards me, stopping just a breath away.

"Who... what are you?" I whispered, my voice shaking as I stumbled backward, but he followed, closing the distance with slow, deliberate steps.

He tilted his head, the faintest smirk curving his lips as he replied. "Your new master."

The world seemed to stop.

My heart stuttered, my breath hitched, and before I could say another word, he stretched out his hand and the shadows surged toward me like a living tide.

Someone screamed my name, maybe Father, maybe Mother. But it was too late as darkness swallowed me whole. And then, there was nothing.

****

THE DEMON'S LAIR•••

The first thing I felt was softness.

A mattress beneath me, smooth sheets brushing my skin. For a moment, I thought I was back home, that everything had just been a horrible dream. But then I opened my eyes and all I saw was darkness.

Pushing myself up slowly, my head throbbed and my heart pounded wildly against my ribs. The room around me was dim except for the faint flicker of a dying candle on a nearby table. Then I felt it, an ache in the center of my chest.

My hand flew there.

The pendant was gone.

In its place, a burning scar pulsed against my skin, raw and hot, as if fire lived beneath it. The last thing I remembered was the smoke twisting through the hall, the crowd screaming, the guards shifting into wolves, and him.

Kael.

The man with eyes like blue flames and a voice that cracked through the air like thunder. He had taken me. And for some reason, I think he was behind my shattered pendant.

Swinging my legs off the bed, my bare feet touched the cold floor and shivers racked up my spine. Every instinct in me screamed danger and my pulse quickened as I looked around the room in panic, searching for a door, for anything familiar—anything that could mean escape.

I was still wearing my wedding gown, its heavy fabric clinging to me like a ghost of everything I'd lost. Gathering it up in my hands, I rushed to the window and yanked the dark curtain aside.

The world outside wasn't like any I'd ever seen.

The ground was far, far below, so distant I could barely make out the shapes that moved across it. Smoke drifted upward, blurring the view, while the endless gray sky stretched above with faint streaks of red, like fading fire.

It didn't feel like a pack or a kingdom.

It felt like the edge of the world.

A shiver ran through me.

Where was I?

Where was Rowan? My Father? My Mother?

"What have you done, Kael?" My voice trembled as I whispered to no one.

As if my words had summoned him, the door burst open behind me. I spun around, my breath catching in my throat as he stepped inside without hesitation, filling the doorway like a shadow made of solid.

Only his eyes held any color—a piercing, icy blue that sliced through the darkness. Everything else about him was black: the long cloak sweeping the floor, the leather gloves and boots gleaming faintly in the dim light, and the dark, tousled hair framing a face that looked as if it had been carved from granite.

"Good," Kael said, his voice deep and smooth. "You're awake."

I stumbled back a step as every muscle in my body tightened.

"Where am I? Why did you bring me here?" I demanded, trying to steady my voice. "You had no right to interrupt my wedding..."

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he closed the door behind him and tilted his head slightly.

"Hmmm," he hummed, as though the word amused him. "Is that what you call it?"

I glared at him.

"You ruined everything! Do you have any idea what you've done?" He walked closer, and I took another step back. "Take me back—now. My Father will have your head for this. Rowan..."

"Rowan," he cut in, his tone darkening. "The man who tried to claim what was already mine."

"I'm not yours." I bit out, "Why would I ever be yours?"

His smile was small and cruel. The type that sent shivers down my spine and made my hands tremble. Even as I tried to sound furious, fear tasted metallic in my mouth, but I kept swallowing it down.

"You are mine. Fated to me. Marked to me. There is no why beyond that."

I laughed, a short, rough sound that surprised me. "You must be insane, mad, totally out of your mind,"

Kael's eyes flashed like steel. "No. I'm the only sane man left in a world of lies."

"Still, you had no right to take me away from my family. You had no right to..."

"You think rights matter?" He asked and laughed softly, taking another step forward. "Laws, packs, bargains... all thin paper when the first bond wakes. You belong to me, Lyra. Your voice is mine, your body is mine, and your soul is mine. You are bound by something older than your Father and forefathers combined."

I tasted bile. "You'll never keep me. I will scream. I will fight. Someone will come. They will take me back."

Kael's face changed then, dark and pleased in the same breath. He took another step forward and I took two steps back until my spine hit the wall. Realizing I was stuck, I pressed into the cold, hard surface, wishing I could disappear.

"Let them come," He said with a menacing grin. "I will break their strongest warriors and hang their leaders from the old stones. If anyone helps you, I will find them and make their blood answer for it."

His words landed heavy, but I did not fall to my knees. Anger was warmer than fear.

"You cannot threaten my family,"

"I think it's clear enough that I can do whatever I damn well please," He said as his voice turned colder. "Try to run and I will mark you. A single scent, a single trace on the wind, and every hunter and hound in a hundred leagues will track you."

My hands went white beside me as my skin paled. I wanted to scream, to throw myself at him, to do anything but listen. I wanted Rowan to kick the door down and tear this man apart. I wanted to wake up from whatever nightmare this was. But I couldn't move or say a word, not with his eyes holding me still like a spell.

"You will not escape, Lyra," Kael said softly, his smile cutting through me like a blade. "You will run and I will hunt. You will hide and I will burn. You will pray and I will listen. You can fight, you can scream, you can rage. But in the end, you will still belong to me."

"What if I choose death?" I asked, my voice coming out small.

I had thought of it once, a foolish thought I had quickly chased away. But now the thought burned with a different kind of hunger: Better dead than this.

He looked at me then, amusement flickering in his eyes as if I'd offered a pleasant puzzle. "Then I will bury you so deep not even the wind will find you. Or perhaps I'll bind your soul to mine, and you'll live long enough to watch everyone you love grow old and die. That, too, would be a beautiful punishment. One that lasts for all eternity,"