The Alpha King’s Hidden Luna

Chapter 4: What Hunts in the Rain

Lyra’s POV

I didn’t know how long I walked.

I only knew that somewhere along the way, the sky had darkened, clouds rolling in low and heavy, the air turning sharp with the smell of rain before the first drop even fell. I didn’t care. I kept walking, my feet moving without any real direction, my mind replaying the same image over and over until it had worn a groove into me. Caleb’s face. The f*****g w***e whose eyes were bored and unbothered. Six months, Caleb!

Lightning cracked somewhere in the distance. I barely flinched.

It wasn’t until the storm broke fully, rain soaking through my clothes within seconds, that I finally looked up and realized how far I’d come. The streets here were unfamiliar, narrower, the buildings older and closer together, the city thinning out into something wilder at the edges.

North.

I stopped walking.

Aunt Maeve’s voice rose up from somewhere in the back of my mind. Promise me. If life ever changes suddenly, do not travel north.

A humorless laugh escaped me. Of course. Of course this was the direction my feet had chosen, today of all days.

I turned to head back the way I came, and that was when I heard it.

A growl. Low and warning.

I froze, my pulse suddenly loud in my own ears. Behind me was nothing. An empty road, rain hammering the pavement, dark buildings pressing in on either side. I told myself it was nothing. It was a dog, the wind; anything but what my heart already seemed to know it was.

Then, three men stepped out from an alley ahead, blocking the road.

I stood still.

One of them looked me over, slow and unhurried, the kind of look that made my skin crawl.

“Well, look what we have here.”

“Move,” I said, my fingers curling at my sides.

The tallest one smiled. “Relax.” He looked behind me. “Running from somebody?”

“No.”

“Then why you shaking?”

I wasn’t. Was I?

Please move.”

The tallest one tilted his head.

“Pretty girls shouldn’t walk alone.”

I stepped backward. He stepped forward. My heartbeat increased.

“Don’t touch me.”

Another laugh.

“Touch you?” The man grinned. “Who said anything about touching?”

They surrounded me slowly, rain dripping from their clothes, blocking every exit. Panic spread through my body. I searched for a gap between them, anywhere to run, but there was none.

“Please.”

The third man stepped closer. Something about him felt wrong in a way i couldn’t name, his eyes, the way he tipped his head slightly, like he was scenting the air.

You smell weird,” he said.

My heart skipped. “What are you talking about?”

“Doesn’t matter.” He reached for my arm.

I pulled back. “Don’t touch —”

He grabbed me anyway, hard enough that I gasped, fear flooding through me so fast it left me dizzy.

“Let go!”

The tallest one laughed, unbothered by my struggling.

My breathing became uneven. Not again. Please, not again.

Suddenly, a deep growl filled the street. Everything stopped. The men turned. So did I.

At the end of the road, someone stood there. Tall, broad-shouldered, dressed completely in black. Rain poured around him. Yet somehow, he looked untouched. His eyes caught the streetlight.

Gold.

The growl came again, from him.

“s**t,” the tallest man muttered. “You.”

The stranger finally spoke. “Let her go.” His voice was calm. Too calm.

“Mind your own business,” the tallest one snapped, though his voice had lost its earlier confidence.

The stranger kept walking. “Last warning.”

Something changed. The air itself changed, heavy and dangerous. The men noticed too. The one holding me pushed me away like I’d burn him.

“You think you’re scary?”

The stranger stopped. Rain slid across his face. His expression never changed. Then his eyes glowed brighter.

The men went silent. One whispered, “Oh shit.”

Everything happened fast. Too fast. The stranger moved. One second he was far away. The next he was standing in front of them.

One of the men screamed as a fist connected with his jaw—a wet, sickening crack that made my stomach lurch. Bodies collided. Another wolf went down, his snarl cutting short as something heavy drove him into the pavement.

I stumbled backward. What was happening?

The tallest man transformed first. Bones cracked. His body changed. Fur. Claws. Teeth. I couldn’t breathe.

The stranger didn’t look surprised. His eyes glowed again. Then he changed too.

I stopped breathing. Massive. Terrifying. Silver-black fur, huge, far bigger than the others. The ground shook beneath him. My knees weakened.

No. Not wolves. Please.

I hit the wall behind me and slid down it, my legs no longer willing to hold me.

The fighting became chaos. Growls, rain, movement, everything blurred together. I couldn’t tell whose snarl belonged to whom, couldn’t tell where one body ended and another began. and somewhere in the middle of it, old memories clawed their way up from wherever I’d buried them. Blood. Screaming. My parents. I clamped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t block anything out. It never did.

“No” My voice shook. “No…”

I wanted to run. My legs wouldn’t listen. I wanted to look away. I couldn’t.

My knees buckled. The last of the attackers scattered into the dark, whimpering, and the wolf turned from them entirely, closing the distance between us in three long strides.

The giant wolf suddenly looked toward me. Golden eyes. The same eyes. Looking directly at me.

He didn’t attack.

He slowed as he reached me, the massive shape of him blotting out the streetlight, rain sliding off fur the color of storm clouds. Up close, he was even larger than I’d let myself believe, powerful enough that a single movement could have ended me,and yet he just stood there watching,his breath rough and controlled.

My legs gave out completely.

I didn’t feel myself fall. I only felt the ground rushing up to meet me. Then something caught me, warm despite the rain, strong arms closing around me before my head could strike the pavement. I registered the shift only distantly, fur giving way to skin, a low voice saying something I couldn’t quite catch over the ringing in my ears.

“I’ve got you.” The voice was steady, almost gentle, nothing like the growl that had filled the street moments ago. “You’re safe now.”

Even through the haze, I heard him inhale sharply, like he’d caught a scent he didn’t expect.

“What the hell…” he murmured, more to himself than to me. Then his arms tightened. “That’s why they were drawn to you.”

I wanted to ask what he meant. I wanted to ask who he was. My mouth wouldn’t cooperate, my vision swimming at the edges.

Aunt Maeve. Her face flashed through my mind, the way she’d looked at me that morning, like she was saying goodbye. I’d promised to come home. She’d be waiting. Watching the road.

“I have to…” I tried to speak, but my voice came out wrong, barely a whisper. “She’s waiting…”

The stranger’s arms tightened around me, impossibly gentle for someone who’d just torn through wolves like they were paper.

“Who’s waiting?”

I couldn’t answer. The darkness was already pulling me under. The last thing I felt before it swallowed me completely was the strange, unfamiliar warmth of being carried, and the steady rhythm of a heartbeat that wasn’t my own.