BOUND TO BILLIONAIRE ALPHA: A Forbidden Love Across Timelines
653 Words
Chapter 1 — Part 4: The Alpha’s Mark
The camp stayed on edge long after the Skathians had vanished. Guards doubled their patrols, the fires burned higher, and every whisper carried the weight of what had just been seen.
Kael returned to the healer’s tent without the sword in his hand, but the storm in his eyes had not faded. Amelia sat where he’d left her, though her hands were clenched in her lap, nails biting into her palms.
“They knew me,” she said, voice barely more than a breath.
“I told you not to look,” he replied, his tone sharper than he meant it to be. Regret flickered across his face. “Amelia… you cannot understand what they are capable of. A Skathian’s interest is never casual.”
Her frustration boiled over. “Then make me understand. Because right now, all I know is that I was pushed out of my own world into yours, and creatures I’ve never seen somehow know my name.”
Silence stretched between them. Then Kael reached into his coat and pulled out something wrapped in soft leather. He unrolled it to reveal a fragment of parchment, edges singed as if it had survived fire. The ink was faded, but the lines were delicate and deliberate—a woman’s silhouette standing between two moons, one silver, one red. Wolves knelt on either side.
Beneath it, the words in Eldorian script curved like vines.
“What does it say?” Amelia asked.
Kael hesitated. “It speaks of a bridge between worlds. A mortal from beyond the Veil who will decide the fate of both realms—either to unite them… or to break them forever.” His voice lowered. “Some believe that bridge must be claimed by the Alpha to keep balance. Others… believe it must be destroyed before it chooses.”
She stared at him. “And you?”
His eyes locked on hers, something dangerous and vulnerable flickering there. “I believe you should still have a choice.”
Before she could respond, Liora the healer swept in with a bowl of steaming broth. “Eat,” she ordered Amelia, though her glance at Kael was weighted. “Your pulse is fast as if you’ve been running. The Skathians stirred old fears tonight.”
Kael ignored her, still watching Amelia. “The mark is already on you.”
“What mark?”
He reached forward, gently taking her wrist. Heat seared through her at his touch—unexpected, electric. He turned her hand over, and there, faint but visible in the dim firelight, was a thin line of silver beneath her skin, spiraling like a crescent moon.
Her breath caught. “That wasn’t there before.”
“It appeared when they saw you,” Kael said. “It means the prophecy has already begun.”
Outside, a horn sounded again—not the deep roll of warning, but three short blasts. Kael’s head snapped toward the sound.
“They’re calling for the council,” he muttered. “Stay here.”
But as he turned to leave, Amelia grabbed his arm. “If this prophecy is about me, I have a right to know what they plan.”
He looked down at her hand on his sleeve, and for a moment the world outside seemed to fade. “You don’t know the price of being in that room,” he said quietly. “Once they see you as the bridge, there will be no going back.”
Her grip tightened. “Too late for that, isn’t it?”
The faintest smile—half admiration, half warning—touched his lips. “Very well. But stay close to me.”
And with that, he led her toward the council tent, where the fate of two worlds was about to be argued… and where enemies might be sitting only a few feet away.
- Writer
