The Alpha's Cruel Contract.

Chapter 5 - It Was A Fake

Aria's Pov.

*SIGN OR MORE BLEED*

"Oh goddess." Lyra's face went white. "He attacked a child."

"Marcus will survive, but barely." Darius's voice was tight with rage. "Our healers are with him now. His parents are demanding justice and the pack is calling for war."

War against Silver Hollow. Against an Alpha with Council connections and resources we couldn't match. It would be a m******e.

"Where's Ryker?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Heading to Silver Hollow territory to challenge Kaden directly." Darius met my eyes. "He left ten minutes ago. Said if Kaden wants to play with lives, they will settle it Alpha to Alpha."

My heart stopped. "No, no, he can't, Kaden will kill him."

"Maybe, maybe not. But Ryker is not thinking clearly right now. He is thinking like a mate whose Luna was manipulated and a pack father whose child was attacked."

Darius stepped closer, his expression grim. "You need to stop him, Aria. Before this turns into a bloodbath neither pack will recover from."

I was moving before I finished processing his words, shifting mid-run as I burst through the office door.

Luna surged forward, silver fur and desperate speed, racing through the forest toward the territorial boundary.

The mate bond pulsed like a beacon, Ryker's rage and pain and fierce protective love burning through our connection.

I pushed Luna harder, faster, until the trees blurred and my paws barely touched the ground.

The boundary line appeared ahead, the invisible marker where Crescent Peak ended and neutral territory began.

Ryker stood there in human form, naked and magnificent and absolutely feral with rage.

His eyes had gone completely gold, Obsidian staring out through human features.

And across the clearing, emerging from Silver Hollow's side, was Kaden.

He looked equally wild, equally ready to tear the world apart. Storm's ice-blue eyes blazed from his face, and I could see his wolf pressing against his skin, desperate to break free.

"You had no right," Ryker snarled, his voice carrying the Alpha command that made lesser wolves submit. "No right to attack my pack, no right to threaten my mate and no right to exist after what you've done."

Kaden smiled as he heard this and it was terrifying. "Your mate? She's not yours, Ryker. She never was, the Moon Goddess made her for me. You just kept her warm while I was away."

Ryker shifted in an explosion of black fur and rage, Obsidian launching himself at Kaden's throat.

"NO!" I shifted too, throwing myself between them just as they collided.

The impact sent all three of us tumbling. Claws and teeth and fur tangled together as two massive Alpha wolves tried to kill each other around me.

I felt fangs graze my shoulder and claws rake across my side, but I didn't back down.

*STOP!* I sent the command through every bond, every connection I could muster, letting Luna's power explode outward in a silver shock wave that forced both Alphas back.

I shifted to human form, standing naked and bleeding between two wolves who wanted each other dead.

"Enough," I said, my voice carrying power I didn't know I possessed. "Both of you, shift. Now."

They hesitated, weighing whether to obey or attack.

"I said NOW!" Luna's power crackled in the air, and I felt something ancient stir inside me, the royal bloodline Ryker had awakened, the true Luna heritage I had never fully understood.

Both Alphas shifted, standing on opposite sides of me, their chest heaving and their eyes still wild.

"You want to kill each other over me?" I looked between them. "Fine. But first, you're going to listen."

Kaden spoke first. "Aria, I…"

"You hurt a sixteen year old boy." My voice was cold. "You carved threats into a child's flesh to manipulate me. That's not love, Kaden. That's not even desperation, that's cruelty."

"He will heal," Kaden said dismissively. "It was just a message."

"He is sixteen!" My voice came out like thunder.

"And my wolf is DYING!" The words exploded from him with raw anguish. "Storm is eating me alive, Aria. Every day I wake up and feel him trying to claw his way out of my skull.”

“He is going feral because I rejected our mate, and if I don't fix this, I'll become the monster everyone thinks I am."

"So you terrorize innocent people? Destroy packs? Attack children?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"I did what I had to do to survive!" His ice blue eyes blazed. "You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to come crawling back to the Omega I rejected, begging her to save me?”

“I'm supposed to be Alpha King! I'm supposed to rule, not beg!" He added.

There it was, the truth beneath all his manipulation.

He didn't want me. He wanted what I represented, salvation, validation, proof he wasn't broken.

I turned to Ryker. "And you. You were going to get yourself killed to prove what? That you love me? I already know that.”

“What I need is a partner who trusts me enough to face impossible choices together."

"He attacked our pack…"

"So we handle it through the Council, through law and through strategy." I moved closer to him, ignoring my nakedness and the blood dripping down my side.

"Not through brute strength and suicide missions." I added.

Ryker's expression cracked. "I can't lose you to him, Aria. I can't watch you go back to the Alpha who destroyed you."

“You won't lose me to anyone” I muttered, and could see his eyes flutter for a second.

Then I turned and took a step towards Kaden “I am never going to sign your filthy contract, you can do whatever you wish to do”

I made my voice so loud that even the birds could hear me. Silence fell over the clearing.

Kaden's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

I pulled the crumpled contract from where I had tucked it against my side before shifting. I squeezed the paper and tossed it at his face.

“That's your contract, you can go ahead and do your worst, I'm never signing it”

Kaden's eyes widened and then anger filled his voice “You will regret this Aria”

I ignored him and turned to Ryker, “Let's go home”

As we crossed the boundary, I felt the mate bond between us stretch thin and fragile. And behind us, I heard Kaden's voice, soft and certain.

"We will see about that, Luna. We will see.”

*** ***

I sat on the bed alone, my eyes glued to the original contract, the one I had tossed at kaden was a fake, as much as I hated what I had done, it was the only option at the time.

I brought out my phone, and quickly wrote a text to the unknown number kaden had been using to reach me all this while.

*Meet me beside the old bar near the border, I'm ready to sign the contract.*

My hands hovered around the send button for a while before pushing it.