Imprisoned Alpha
1090 Words
CHAPTER TWO
Alpha Kael’s POV
I have faced death without flinching.
I have stood knee-deep in blood, bones cracking beneath my fists, enemies begging at my feet. I have stared down beasts older than memory and gods that demanded obedience.
None of that prepared me for the moment I felt my soul tear open.
Pain is not supposed to feel like recognition.
When the bond ignited, it wasn’t a clean strike—it was a violent unraveling, a force ripping through every wall I’d built inside myself. My chest burned as though something long-buried had been clawing its way out, desperate and furious.
I dropped to one knee before I could stop myself.
The clearing blurred. The noise faded.
All I could see was her.
She stood at the center of the stones, moonlight bleeding across her skin, eyes wide but unbroken. No mark. No glow. No sign of fate’s blessing.
And yet—
My body knew her.
My wolf surged forward with a roar that rattled my bones. Mine.
I clenched my jaw, breath coming hard, as heat seared across my chest. I tore open my shirt, fingers shaking—not from fear, but from the terrible certainty already taking root in my gut.
There it was.
The mark.
Carved deep into my flesh like it had always been waiting for this moment to be revealed.
The crowd gasped, the sound distant and unreal. I barely heard them. My entire world narrowed to the girl the Moon Goddess had dragged forward like a sacrifice.
Lyra.
The name slid into my mind uninvited.
Recognition slammed into me, sharp and unforgiving. The bond snapped tight, locking into place with brutal finality.
My mate.
Unmarked. Unclaimed. Forbidden.
The Moon Goddess screamed.
The sound cracked the sky, raw with fury, and it snapped something inside me loose. I lifted my head, snarling as I forced myself to my feet despite the pain tearing through my chest.
“What did you do?” I demanded.
Selunara’s borrowed face twisted, her beauty sharpening into something cruel. “Corrected an error.”
Her gaze flicked dismissively toward Lyra, as though she were nothing more than an inconvenience. “She is not meant to bind you. She was erased.”
Rage flooded me, hot and blinding.
“You don’t erase what belongs to me.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
The clearing went dead silent.
The Goddess turned slowly, her attention snapping fully to me for the first time—and in that instant, I understood the truth that made my blood run cold.
She hadn’t planned this.
She had not foreseen the bond surviving her interference.
“You forget your place, Alpha,” Selunara said softly.
The air around me constricted, invisible pressure slamming into my chest. My knees buckled—but I did not bow.
“I know my place,” I growled through clenched teeth. “And it isn’t at your feet.”
Gasps rippled through the pack. Wolves stared in shock, fear rolling off them in waves.
Selunara laughed, sharp and mirthless. “You are mine, Kael Nightfang. Chosen. Blessed. Bound by divine law.”
Her gaze cut to Lyra, venomous. “And she is nothing.”
Lyra straightened.
Even through the pain, even with divine power bearing down on her, she lifted her chin and met the Goddess’s stare.
“Then why,” she asked quietly, “does he wear what you stole from me?”
The moon flickered.
Just once.
But it was enough.
Fear flashed across Selunara’s face before she smothered it beneath rage.
“Remove her,” the Goddess snapped. “Now.”
Before I could move, priestesses surged forward, silver chains gleaming in the red moonlight. Magic snapped into place, ancient and binding, wrapping around Lyra’s arms and throat.
“No!” I roared.
I lunged—and slammed into an invisible wall.
Divine law hit me like a fist.
Pain exploded behind my eyes as magic coiled around my spine, forcing me back to my knees. My wolf snarled, claws scraping uselessly against power older than us both.
“You will not interfere,” Selunara said coldly. “You are bound to my will.”
Lyra struggled as they dragged her away, chains biting into her skin. She didn’t scream. Didn’t beg.
She looked at me.
And gods help me—I felt it.
Not fear.
Trust.
“I’ll find you,” I promised, the words tearing out of my throat.
The Goddess snarled. “You will forget her.”
Her power surged, slamming into my mind like a blade.
Memories shattered.
Not erased—but buried beneath crushing force. The bond screamed, resisting, lashing out as pain tore through my skull. I bit back a roar, blood filling my mouth as I fought to stay conscious.
“You will kneel,” Selunara commanded.
My body obeyed.
My soul did not.
As darkness closed in, one thought burned through everything else.
I would kill a goddess for her.
⸻
When I woke, the moon was silver again.
As if nothing had happened.
I lay on the cold stone of the clearing, the pack gathered at a careful distance. No one spoke. No one met my eyes.
Shame curled in my gut.
An Alpha does not kneel.
An Alpha does not fail to protect what is his.
I pushed myself upright, ignoring the ache that lingered in my bones. My chest throbbed beneath torn fabric—the mark still burned, undeniable.
Proof I hadn’t imagined it.
“Where is she?” I asked.
No one answered.
My beta, Rowan, stepped forward cautiously. “The Goddess commanded her imprisonment.”
The word hit harder than any blow.
“Where.”
“The old sanctum,” he said quietly. “Warded. Sealed by divine magic.”
My jaw tightened.
A cage built by gods.
“Did the Goddess say anything else?” I asked.
Rowan hesitated. “She declared Lyra a blasphemy. An affront to fate. Anyone who aids her will be punished.”
Good.
Fear made people sloppy.
I rose to my feet, ignoring the way my wolf strained against the bond, aching, furious. Lyra’s presence lingered at the edge of my awareness—dim, distant, but there.
Alive.
That was enough.
The Moon Goddess thought she had won.
She was wrong.
Because she had made one fatal mistake.
She had reminded me that even gods bleed.
And when I reached Lyra—not if, when—I would tear the heavens apart to prove it.
- Writer
