The Alpha's Ruined Mate

Chapter 10: The Alpha's Invitation

The estate smelled of blood.

By sunrise, the eastern gate was nothing but splintered wood and twisted iron.

The dead had been removed.

The wounded were being treated.

And yet nobody was celebrating the fact that we had survived.

Because we all understood what had happened.

They had come to see me.

And now they knew.

I stood at the shattered gate, staring into the forest.

The stranger was gone.

The wolves were gone.

But the feeling remained.

Someone was watching.

My wolf was quiet.

Not asleep.

Listening.

Father approached from behind.

“You should rest.”

“I've heard that several times tonight.”

“And you ignored it every time.”

“I've had a busy evening.”

He gave me a tired smile.

For a moment, he was simply my father again.

Then his expression became serious.

“We need to leave.”

I turned.

“Where?”

“Somewhere secure.”

“This estate is the most secure place in the northern territories.”

“Not anymore.”

I looked toward the ruined gate.

“No.”

He frowned.

“I don't want to run.”

“I didn't say run.”

He looked at me carefully.

“I want to know what you're planning.”

“So do I.”

He sighed.

“That's not an answer.”

“It is the only honest one I have.”

I walked past him.

“Twenty years ago, everyone decided my life for me. My parents decided what I could know. My enemies decided I needed to disappear. Adrian decided I would eventually belong to him.”

I stopped.

“I'm done letting other people decide what happens to me.”

Father watched me silently.

Then he said something I hadn't expected.

“Good.”

I turned.

He nodded toward the house.

“Then it's time you saw the room we've kept locked for twenty years.”

My heart skipped.

“What room?”

“The one containing everything we know about Elaria.”

---

The hidden room was beneath the library.

I had lived in this house for twenty years.

I had never known it existed.

Father pressed his palm against a section of stone.

There was a click.

The wall moved.

A staircase appeared.

Caelan stared down into the darkness.

“You've got to be kidding me.”

Mother sighed.

“You were never supposed to find it.”

Caelan looked at me.

“I suddenly feel much better about all the times they told me not to touch things.”

I smiled faintly.

Then we descended.

The room below was enormous.

Bookshelves covered the walls.

Old maps were pinned beneath glass.

There were weapons.

Jewelry.

Scrolls.

Paintings.

And at the center of the room—

A portrait.

I stopped.

A woman stood beneath a silver crown.

She had long dark hair.

Golden eyes.

And my face.

Not similar.

Not resembling.

Mine.

I couldn't move.

Mother stopped beside me.

“That is your mother.”

My biological mother.

I stared at the painting.

She looked young.

Beautiful.

Powerful.

And unbearably familiar.

“What was her name?”

Mother hesitated.

“Queen Isolde.”

The title sent a strange sensation through me.

My wolf stirred.

Mother.

I touched the portrait.

Pain exploded behind my eyes.

I gasped.

The room disappeared.

I was standing somewhere else.

A palace.

Smoke filled the halls.

People were running.

Someone was screaming.

I heard a woman crying.

Then—

A pair of arms lifted me.

A woman's voice whispered against my hair.

“Forgive me.”

I felt something warm against my forehead.

A kiss.

Then the voice again.

“They will tell you that you are alone.”

The vision shook.

“They will tell you your kingdom is dead.”

The woman held me tighter.

“But you are the crown.”

A door slammed open.

She looked up.

Fear filled her eyes.

“Take her.”

Another woman appeared.

My mother.

The woman who had raised me.

She was younger.

Terrified.

She took the baby from Queen Isolde.

“Go,” Isolde whispered.

“I won't leave you.”

“You must.”

“They'll kill you.”

“They already have.”

My vision fractured.

I saw fire.

A sword.

Blood.

A crown falling onto marble.

Then one final image—

Lucien.

Standing in the burning palace.

Young.

Bloodied.

Watching me being carried away.

I snapped back into reality.

I stumbled.

Lucien caught me before I fell.

His arms closed around me.

For a second, I couldn't breathe.

“You saw it.”

I nodded.

“My mother.”

“Yes.”

“She knew she was going to die.”

“Yes.”

“And you were there.”

His expression was haunted.

“I was too late.”

I pushed away from him.

“What happened?”

He looked at the portrait.

“Elaria was betrayed from inside the palace. The royal guard was divided. Someone opened the gates.”

“Who?”

“We never discovered the person who gave the final order.”

“But you said you knew who was responsible.”

“We know who benefited.”

“That isn't the same thing.”

“No.”

His gaze hardened.

“And that's why this isn't over.”

I looked at the maps.

There were territories marked in red.

Some I recognized.

Some I didn't.

Then I noticed something.

Several of the red territories surrounded the Valerian lands.

My stomach tightened.

“They're everywhere.”

Father nodded.

“Not all of them know about you.”

“But some do.”

“Yes.”

“And Adrian?”

Silence.

I looked at him.

Father didn't answer.

Mother did.

“Adrian's family was connected to the old royal court.”

My blood ran cold.

“What?”

“Not directly to your family.”

“But they knew.”

“Yes.”

I remembered Adrian's face in my first life.

The way he'd smiled while telling me he had never loved me.

The way he'd spoken about my family's wealth as though it had always belonged to him.

Suddenly, his obsession with my territory seemed different.

It hadn't started with money.

It had started long before he met me.

A guard rushed down the stairs.

“Alpha.”

Father turned.

“What is it?”

“A messenger arrived.”

“From whom?”

The guard looked at me.

“Blackwood.”

Father's expression darkened.

“Bring it.”

The messenger entered carrying a sealed letter.

Father opened it.

His face changed.

“What?”

He handed it to me.

I read the first line.

To Seraphina Valerian,

My pulse quickened.

The next line was worse.

Or should I say, Princess of Elaria?

I read the letter twice.

There were only a few sentences.

Blackwood requested an immediate meeting.

Not with my father.

Not with the Valerian council.

With me.

And at the bottom was a signature.

Alpha Adrian.

My fingers tightened around the paper.

“He knew.”

Lucien's voice was quiet.

“He suspected.”

“That's not what this says.”

“No.”

I looked at him.

“He knows who I am.”

Mother's face had gone pale.

Father reached for the letter.

“Burn it.”

I didn't give it to him.

“No.”

“Seraphina.”

“If he knows, pretending he doesn't won't make him forget.”

Father's jaw tightened.

“This is exactly what we've been trying to prevent.”

“And now it's too late.”

I looked at Adrian's name.

Something strange happened.

I wasn't afraid.

In my first life, seeing his name would have made my heart flutter.

Now it made my blood run cold.

But underneath the fear was something else.

Recognition.

Not love.

Not longing.

A challenge.

My wolf whispered:

He comes.

I folded the letter.

“Tell Adrian I'll meet him.”

Lucien immediately stepped forward.

“No.”

I looked at him.

“He's expecting me to hide.”

“He's expecting you to walk into a trap.”

“Then I'll know what to look for.”

“Seraphina.”

“I need answers.”

“So do I.”

His voice was low.

“But answers aren't worth your life.”

I stared at him.

“And hiding isn't worth mine.”

He went silent.

Then he looked away.

I knew that expression.

He hated the idea.

But he understood me.

Finally, he said,

“Then I'm coming with you.”

“No.”

His eyes snapped toward me.

“Absolutely not.”

“Lucien—”

“You're not walking into Adrian's territory alone.”

“I'm not asking you to stay behind.”

“Then what are you asking?”

I looked directly into his golden eyes.

“To trust me.”

Something shifted in his expression.

He stepped closer.

“I trust you.”

His voice softened.

“I don't trust him.”

Neither did I.

I looked down at the letter again.

There was one final detail I'd missed.

A date.

Tomorrow.

And beneath it, a location.

Not Blackwood territory.

Not Adrian's pack.

A place I had never heard of.

The ruins of Elaria.

My breath caught.

I looked at Lucien.

He had seen it too.

His face changed completely.

“No.”

“What?”

“You can't go there.”

“Why?”

He stared at the letter.

“Because those ruins aren't abandoned.”

My blood ran cold.

“What is there?”

Lucien looked at me.

And for the first time since I had met him, I saw genuine fear in his eyes.

“The throne.”

I couldn't speak.

The throne.

The one that had supposedly been empty for twenty years.

The one everyone believed was dead.

The one my blood had apparently awakened.

I folded the letter.

“Then that's where we're going.”

Mother grabbed my hand.

“Seraphina, you don't understand what you're walking into.”

I looked at her.

“No.”

My wolf stirred.

We do.

I turned toward the stairs.

“For the first time…”

I looked back at the portrait of Queen Isolde.

“I think I'm finally going home.”

And somewhere far beyond the estate—

a wolf began to howl.

Then another.

Then hundreds.

Not attacking.

Not hunting.

Calling.

My wolf lifted her head.

And answered.