The Alpha’s Son
1091 Words
Betrayal still burned beneath my ribs as we pulled into the driveway.
By the time Austin and I reached the house, the yard was already overflowing — pack members, elders, servers, distant relatives, clan allies. Decorations were half-finished. Tables lined the grass. There was too much noise, too much energy, too much… expectation.
At noon.
Why noon?
Why so early?
Why were they all here like they were waiting for a prophecy to fall out of the sky?
Something was happening.
Something I wasn’t clued in on.
My birthday party wasn’t meant to be an entire pack event. Or was it? I didn’t know anymore.
I spotted my uncle carrying tables with Andrew. My heart squeezed sharply — I didn’t want Andrew to see our father like this. Not crumpled. Not defeated. Not the ghost of the Alpha he once was.
“Okay, my uncle's gone. We need to hurry,” I murmured, shoving the seat forward.
Austin and I hauled my father’s limp weight into the house, avoiding the eyes of pack members who looked away out of respect — or pity. They remembered who he used to be. Who he was supposed to be.
Upstairs, we laid him on the bed. His breath rasped. His skin was gray beneath the stubble.
“I’ll get him showered and changed,” Austin offered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Automatically, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
But the gesture felt wrong.
Foreign.
Like kissing someone through a glass wall.
Because all I could think about was Carmon’s messages burning into Austin’s phone.
Thanks for last night.
It’ll stay our little secret.
And how he said helping her shift didn’t mean anything.
He didn’t understand what sharing a shift meant.
But my bloodline did.
My wolf did.
I left him to care for my father and walked downstairs—straight into trouble.
“Aubrey.”
My aunt Camille’s voice snapped from the hallway like a twig underfoot. I nearly tripped on the last step.
Of all people to run into…
“Auntie Camille,” I forced a tight smile. “How are you?”
“Don’t start with that.” She waved me off, lips pursed like she smelled something suspicious. “I want you to meet someone before you get too busy.”
Perfect. Her obsession with matchmaking was alive and well.
“Aunt, really, I just need to find Mom.”
“One minute,” she insisted, tugging my wrist.
I sighed and let her drag me toward the front living room.
That was when I smelled it.
Not cologne.
Not aftershave.
A scent so primal it felt like fingers brushing the back of my neck.
Earth. Cold river. Iron.
Mint crushed between a warrior’s teeth.
Smoke curling from a fire burning in the middle of the night.
The scent wrapped around me like a hand on my waist, pulling, claiming, demanding attention.
I stepped into the room and stopped breathing.
A man sat on the couch.
Not a boy.
Not someone unsure of himself.
A man whose very existence made the air heavier.
He turned his head.
My breath left me in a soft gasp I couldn’t bite back.
He was beautiful in the kind of way that hurt to look at — dangerous and dark, sculpted by something older than the clans. Hair black and wild like a raven’s wing. Eyes obsidian, deep and sharp and alive. Tattoos snaked along the muscle of his forearm beneath a white shirt that clung to his chest a little too well.
A leather jacket hung off one arm, a motorcycle helmet in the other.
Black jeans.
Boots made for riding into storms.
A presence that filled the entire room and left no space for air.
My wolf went still.
Then she lunged.
Mine.
Her voice hit me so hard I swayed.
“Caleb,” my aunt announced proudly, oblivious to the way my pulse detonated. “My niece, Aubrey — the one I told you about. Aubrey, this is Caleb. The Alpha’s son and successor of the BloodRisen clan.”
An Alpha’s son.
Every part of me tightened.
My heart.
My throat.
My thighs.
Suddenly I was acutely aware of how I looked — messy bun, no makeup, leggings, oversized shirt. Mortal. Human. Ordinary.
Next to him, I felt like a candle held up to a wildfire.
“Um… nice to meet you,” I stammered. My voice didn’t sound like mine. “I don’t want to be rude, but I really need to help my mom, maybe we can talk later?”
He rose from the couch like a shadow gaining height.
Slow. Controlled. Predatory.
And when his eyes found mine…
heat shot through my belly so fast I nearly took a step back.
He didn’t just see me.
He studied me.
Like he was reading every flicker of breath I took.
Like he was memorizing me.
Like he had waited for this moment and wasn’t disappointed.
“Of course,” he said, voice smooth, edged with something sinful. “My apologies for interrupting. Anything for the birthday girl.”
A tremor rolled through me.
His eyes dipped, just for a heartbeat, down my body.
Not crude.
Not disrespectful.
Curious.
Hungry.
Like he wondered how I would look under him.
My stomach fluttered sharply.
Was he flirting?
I didn’t know. I didn’t care. Because my body had already answered for me.
Heat pooled between my thighs, sudden and startling, as if my wolf reached out and touched his.
His gaze flickered, barely, like he felt it.
He stepped closer, close enough that his scent stroked over my skin, a dark promise and a warning.
“I’ll help with the preparations in the back,” he said.
His voice dipped lower at the last word — back — and gods help me, my mind went somewhere I wasn’t prepared for.
When he walked away, I exhaled sharply, every muscle in my body finally unclenching.
I hadn’t reacted like that to anyone.
Not ever.
Not even Austin.
My wolf purred.
Him.
I glared at Aunt Camille.
“Aunt, what exactly are you up to?”
“Oh, nothing,” she lied with the worst innocent smile I’d ever seen, then scampered away before I could interrogate her.
I was left standing there in the hallway, breath uneven, legs unsteady, heart pounding like I’d just survived something or like I’d just met the man who was going to ruin me.
- Writer
