The Alpha I Saved

Little Moon Girl

The room went so quiet I could hear my own breathing.

My finger glowed beneath the torn glove, silver-blue light pulsing softly under my skin. It was not bright enough to blind anyone. It was worse than that. It was subtle. Living. Like moonlight had slipped into my blood and decided to stay there.

I stared at my hand, waiting for the light to disappear.

It didn’t.

“What is happening to me?” I whispered again.

No one answered.

That scared me more than if they had screamed.

Mara stood frozen beside the medical tray, her face drained of color. Rhys had stopped halfway across the room, one hand still near the knife at his belt. Around us, injured wolves and guards stared at me like I had just become something out of an old nightmare.

Kael was the only one who moved.

He reached for my hand.

Mara snapped back to life. “Alpha, don’t.”

Kael’s head turned slowly toward her.

The warning in his eyes was enough to make the air tighten.

Mara lowered her voice, but she didn’t back down. “You don’t know what she is.”

Kael’s fingers closed around my wrist anyway.

The glow beneath my skin flared.

I gasped.

So did half the room.

Heat rushed up my arm, but it wasn’t pain. It felt like standing under moonlight after being cold for years. Like something inside me had heard Kael touch me and answered before I could stop it.

His grip tightened slightly.

His eyes darkened.

“You feel that,” he said.

It wasn’t a question.

I swallowed. “I feel a lot of things right now, and most of them are panic.”

His thumb brushed once over my pulse. The silver-blue glow followed the movement beneath my skin, blooming brighter where he touched me.

Kael went still.

For the first time, he looked less like an Alpha and more like a man trying very hard not to lose control.

“Mara,” he said without looking away from me. “Explain.”

The older healer’s eyes stayed on my hand. “I can’t.”

Kael’s voice dropped. “Try.”

Mara looked like she would rather face the hunters again. “Moon blood is supposed to be a myth.”

I laughed once.

It came out shaky and wrong.

“Great. Perfect. Love being a myth after midnight.”

Rhys glanced at me. “You’re handling this better than expected.”

“I’m not. This is sarcasm.”

Mara stepped closer, careful now, like I might explode. “There are old stories about humans born with lunar bloodlines. They were said to survive Alpha bonds. Some could heal wolves. Some could strengthen packs. Some…” She stopped.

My stomach twisted. “Some what?”

Her eyes flicked to Kael.

“Finish,” he ordered.

Mara’s jaw tightened. “Some were used as weapons.”

The words settled over the room like ash.

I pulled my hand away from Kael, or tried to. He let me go, but only because he chose to.

“No,” I said. “Absolutely not. I am not a weapon. I am a medical intern with student debt and a dying car.”

Rhys frowned. “What is student debt?”

“Another kind of curse,” I snapped.

Kael’s mouth twitched, but the amusement disappeared almost immediately. His gaze dropped to my glowing finger again.

“The hunters knew,” he said.

Mara nodded slowly. “They must have suspected.”

“How?” I asked. “I didn’t even know werewolves existed until tonight. How could hunters know something about me that I don’t?”

The room fell quiet again.

This time, I hated it.

Kael’s expression hardened. “Rhys.”

Rhys straightened. “I’ll question the ones we took alive.”

“Now.”

Rhys nodded and left the room, taking two guards with him. The moment he was gone, the lodge seemed to grow colder. Rain still blew through the broken front doors somewhere down the hall, and distant voices carried through the walls as the pack secured the grounds.

I should have been helping the wounded.

Instead, everyone was looking at me.

I hated it.

I hated the fear on their faces even more.

“I need a bandage,” I said, lifting my injured finger.

Mara blinked. “What?”

“For the cut.” I held up my hand. “Unless glowing blood magically prevents infection, I still need to clean it.”

For a second, no one moved. Then Mara almost smiled.

She handed me gauze and antiseptic. “You are very strange.”

“I’ve had a long night.”

Kael’s eyes stayed on me as I cleaned the cut. The silver burn had faded, leaving only a thin mark across my skin. The glow dimmed but didn’t vanish completely. It shimmered faintly beneath the surface, like a secret refusing to be buried.

Kael tried to stand.

I pointed at him without looking up. “Sit.”

He sat.

The room went silent again.

I glanced around. “What now?”

Elias, who had returned unnoticed and was standing by the door, looked absolutely stunned. Mara stared at Kael like she had just witnessed a historic event. Even the wounded guard on the floor lifted his head.

“What?” I demanded.

“No one tells him to sit,” Elias said.

“I do,” I said.

Kael leaned back in the chair, watching me with a look that made heat crawl up my neck. “Yes,” he murmured. “You do.”

That voice should have been illegal.

Especially while he was bleeding through fresh gauze.

I turned away first because apparently I had survival instincts only when romance was involved.

Mara cleared her throat. “Alpha, you need rest. The silver is out, but your body still has to heal.”

“I will rest when the threat is gone.”

“The threat is not gone,” Elias said. “We found three more traps near the north line. Silver wire. Fresh.”

Kael’s expression went deadly.

The wound at his side began bleeding again.

I made a frustrated sound and pressed clean gauze against him. “If you rip these stitches before I even put them in, I’m charging you.”

His eyes dropped to my hand on his body. “With what currency?”

“Patience. And mine is expensive.”

His mouth curved. “I can pay.”

My face warmed instantly. “Not like that.”

His smile deepened.

Mara made another strangled sound. “Alpha.”

Kael looked at her, but his hand covered mine where it rested against his side. The contact sent that same heat through me, softer this time but deeper. The glow in my finger pulsed once beneath the gauze.

Mara saw it.

So did Kael.

His eyes sharpened.

“You are tied to me now,” he said.

I hated the way my heart jumped. “You say that like it’s already decided.”

“It was decided before I met you.”

“No.” My voice came out firmer than I felt. “I saved your life. That does not mean you get mine.”

Something flickered across his face.

Not anger.

Pain.

“I do not want your life,” he said quietly.

I looked at him.

His voice lowered. “I want you alive in it.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

That was inconvenient, because I had been doing really well hating him.

A shout rang out from the hallway.

Then running footsteps.

Elias reached for his weapon as Rhys burst into the infirmary, rainwater dripping from his hair, his face more serious than I had seen it all night.

“The hunter talked,” he said.

Kael stood so fast my hand slipped from his side. “Who sent them?”

Rhys looked at me first.

My stomach dropped.

“Tell me,” Kael said.

Rhys’s jaw tightened. “The order came from Redthorne.”

Mara whispered something under her breath.

Kael went utterly still.

I looked from one face to another. “What is Redthorne?”

No one answered fast enough.

I took a step back. “Why does everyone keep doing that?”

Kael’s eyes were on me now, and there was something in them I did not like.

Regret.

“Redthorne is a pack,” he said.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “And?”

Mara’s voice was softer than before. “A violent one. Old. Powerful. They hate Blackpine.”

Rhys added, “Their Alpha has been trying to take Kael’s territory for years.”

I swallowed. “So this is pack politics.”

Kael’s silence told me it was worse.

“Say it,” I said.

His jaw flexed. “Their Alpha collects rare things.”

My skin went cold.

“Rare things,” I repeated.

“Bloodlines,” Mara said. “He believes old blood can be used to make a pack stronger.”

The glow beneath my bandage pulsed once, like it understood.

I backed away until my shoulders hit the cabinet. “No.”

Kael moved toward me.

I lifted a hand. “Don’t.”

He stopped.

I hated that he listened. It made him harder to hate.

Rhys’s voice was gentle now. “Mira, the hunter said Redthorne already knows your name.”

The room tilted.

My name.

Not just my scent. Not just Kael’s blood on my hands.

My name.

“How?” I whispered.

Rhys hesitated.

Kael looked at him. “All of it.”

Rhys exhaled. “They had a file.”

My blood went cold. “A file?”

“On you,” Rhys said. “Your clinic schedule. Your apartment address. Your school records. Everything.”

For a second, I couldn’t breathe.

My apartment.

My school.

My life.

They hadn’t found me because of Kael.

They had already been watching.

Kael’s eyes burned gold. “Where is the file?”

“With the hunter in the cells.”

“I want it.”

Rhys nodded. “There’s more.”

I closed my eyes. “Of course there is.”

“The hunter said Redthorne gave one order if they couldn’t take you alive.”

Kael’s growl shook the room.

Mara stepped back.

I forced myself to ask, “What order?”

Rhys looked at Kael, then at me.

His voice was grim.

“To kill the Alpha’s human before the bond completes.”

The words landed like a blade.

Before I could react, every light in the infirmary went out.

Darkness swallowed the room.

For half a second, no one moved.

Then something cold pressed against my throat.

A hand covered my mouth.

And a stranger whispered against my ear, “Too late, little moon girl.”