The Alpha Who Waited
946 Words
CHAPTER EIGHT
Roseline POV
I fell.
Through light.
Through shadow.
Through something that wasn’t air at all.
It was like drifting through a dream and drowning at the same time.
Then....
A shockwave slammed into my body.
I gasped, choking on cold night air, and my eyes flew open.
I was lying on wet grass.
Back in the forest.
Back in Kael’s territory.
The sanctuary was gone… vanished as if it had never existed.
Rain still fell lightly, but the storm had quieted, reduced to a soft dripping through the leaves.
I pushed myself up on trembling hands, my breath uneven.
Everything felt… different.
Heavier.
Sharper.
Like my senses had expanded and the world had too much color, too much sound, too much everything.
The goddess’s words echoed in my mind:
“You are meant to die once… and return.”
A shiver ran through me.
I didn’t have time to think.
A scent hit me—cedar and frost.
My heart lurched painfully.
Kael.
Before I could stand fully, shadows moved between the trees, fast, purposeful, radiating power.
Alpha Kael emerged first, rain sliding down his bare chest, his breath fogging in the cold air. Behind him came his Beta and warriors, weapons drawn, eyes scanning for threats.
But Kael wasn’t looking at the forest.
He was looking at me.
His gaze locked onto my face—raw, fierce, burning in a way I’d never seen before.
“Roseline.”
He said my name like it was a punch to his lungs.
I stumbled back instinctively.
I couldn’t face him.
Not after everything.
Not after the sanctuary.
Not after hearing the prophecy about my death.
But Kael took a step closer, his brows slashing down.
“Stop moving away from me.” His voice was low, almost rough.
I froze.
He exhaled hard, shaking his head once as if trying to clear his thoughts.
“I don’t understand what I saw,” he said quietly. “I don’t understand what you did. And I damn sure don’t understand what just happened to you.”
His eyes dragged over me—slowly, searching every inch.
“You’re glowing.”
My breath hitched.
I looked down.
He was right.
My skin still shimmered faintly with silver light, fading slowly like embers after a fire dies.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Stay back,” I whispered.
Kael stiffened.
“Why?”
Because if he got closer…
If he touched me…
If he saw how broken and scared I was…
I would shatter.
“You shouldn’t come near me,” I said louder. “It’s not safe.”
He took another step anyway.
“Let me decide what’s safe.”
His voice was different tonight—not cruel, not mocking, not detached.
It was almost… desperate.
But before he could reach me, his Beta grabbed his arm.
“Alpha!”
He pointed at the ground beneath my feet.
The grass around me was curling away—burning without flame, turning silver at the edges.
As if my presence was warping the earth.
Kael’s eyes widened.
He whispered, “Moonfire…”
My heart stuttered.
He recognized it.
Of course he did.
Only the royal bloodlines studied the ancient powers.
Only the future leaders were taught forbidden histories.
Kael swallowed hard, voice low and shaken.
“That power vanished centuries ago. Only one wolf was ever born with it.”
His gaze sharpened.
“And she died in rebellion.”
I wrapped my arms tighter around myself.
I wanted to tell him everything.
But the goddess’s voice lingered:
“He will watch your fall… and break.”
I forced myself to speak past the lump in my throat.
“I’m not who you think I am.”
Kael’s expression hardened.
“Then who are you?”
I looked away.
Someone chosen.
Someone feared.
Someone destined to die.
But I couldn’t tell him that.
Not yet.
My voice cracked.
“No one. I’m no one.”
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“Don’t lie to me.”
A dangerous softness entered his voice.
“Not now.”
He reached out—just a fraction.
My breath caught.
His hand hovered inches from my cheek.
Then—
A wind swept violently between us, knocking leaves into the air. A presence—cold and ancient—brushed my spine.
Kael’s head snapped up.
His wolf growled.
Something was coming.
Something that smelled like ash and blood and prophecy.
Kael stepped in front of me protectively, claws sliding out.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
For the first time in my life…
He protected me.
But I whispered:
“No.”
Silver light sparked across my fingertips again.
Kael turned sharply.
His eyes widened with disbelief and something like fear.
“Roseline—”
Before he could finish, the forest exploded with movement.
Dark shapes burst from the shadows—more rogues, marked with the same strange sigils as the ones before.
They weren’t here for Kael.
They weren’t here for the clan.
They were here for me.
“Kill her!” one snarled. “Before the 21st moon rises!”
Kael’s head whipped toward me.
“What did they just say?”
My heart pounded.
But before I could answer—
The leader rogue stepped forward, his eyes blazing with hatred.
“She is the girl of the prophecy,” he spat. “The one who will die and return in moonfire. The curse of our kind!”
Kael’s entire body tensed.
He turned slowly…
staring at me with a look I couldn’t read.
Shock.
Realization.
Fear.
And something deeper,
A dawning horror that everything he thought he knew about me was wrong.
- Writer
