Alpha's Regrets: Hidden Lycan Queen

The Forest Search

Oliver Knox’s POV:

I stood by the river’s edge, waiting for news on Malory with my heart practically in my mouth. Yet, in the deepest corners of my mind, I couldn't shake the irritation. She wasn’t some cheap stage magician who was going to suddenly leap out from under the spotlight and laughingly declare this entire nightmare was just an elaborate prank.

The tracking parties had spent hours scouring the length of the violent stream. Along the rocky banks, we managed to recover several scattered items: a delicate high heel, a shattered silver bracelet, and a ragged piece of fabric stained deeply with blood. The discovery only solidified my conviction that she wasn't coming back. A mere human plunging from such a dizzying height into a raging current, already bleeding and broken—even if we couldn't find her body, there wasn't a shred of hope for her survival.

Further up the bank, my father was doing his best to comfort Mr. and Mrs. Grenade, who stubbornly insisted on waiting out the night. Rhy had also thrown himself entirely into the search team. My father murmured soft words of reassurance to the weeping couple, sweat dripping from his chin as he paced back from the icy water.

I, however, hung back. I refused to join the search with any real enthusiasm; they were all blinding themselves with empty, futile hope. It had been three long hours. For a fragile, foolish human, she had likely already sunk to the bottom of the river and found herself a watery grave.

Honestly, the sheer irony of the situation was almost comical. Everyone in the pack understood the reality of the situation, yet no one dared voice it aloud. And why? All because of our forced, modern obsession with treating every species as equals. We were told it was a high crime to look down upon the weak. It was utterly ridiculous. We were a species of apex predators, born with divine strength, yet we were forced to bow our heads in artificial mourning for a useless human.

I felt no remorse for what had transpired. In fact, rejecting Malory was probably the most logical and successful decision I had ever made in my life. Despite the messy accident that followed, it was a far better outcome than having her tied to my side, dragging me down for the rest of my days.

I was destined to be a powerful Alpha. I had absolutely no need for a weak, helpless mate holding me back. I could only thank the heavens that she had accepted my rejection; if my father had ever discovered she was my fated match, he would have beaten me until I accepted her.

Had Malory been just another ordinary pack member, I wouldn't have minded maintaining the polite, superficial 'respect' everyone demanded. But I absolutely refused to accept her as my mate. I had no intention of spending my entire life catering to a fragile girl who had no abilities, no wolf, and fell catastrophically behind the others during every basic training drill.

With her clothes torn and soaked in blood, she was undoubtedly dead. If she had drowned, her body couldn't have drifted too far down the current. Fearing a wild beast might have dragged her into the deep woods, my father had even dispatched a specialized team to search the nearby thickets, terrified of missing any window to save the precious Grenade girl.

But three hours of searching in freezing temperatures yielded nothing. Anyone with a functioning brain knew it was time to call off the search. My father stood near the edge of the cliff, staring silently down into the abyss, lost in heavy thought. Yet, he still hadn't ordered the pack to stand down. How much longer were we going to waste our energy on a useless, frozen corpse?

The searchers were visibly exhausted. Why throw away a perfectly good night on a body that could easily be recovered under tomorrow's sun? Even if we never found her, it changed absolutely nothing. The dramatic tears being shed tonight would dry up and be forgotten the moment the sun rose. Aside from her adoptive parents, nobody truly cared about Malory anyway.

“Father, you need to send everyone back to get some rest,” I muttered, stepping beside him and pulling him slightly away from the crowd.

My father’s face was etched with deep, heavy regret. He took his responsibilities as Alpha entirely too seriously, but I had no desire to see him carrying a mountain of guilt over such an insignificant loss. He hadn't done anything wrong. In fact, it was already an incredibly generous act of charity when my father permitted Mr. and Mrs. Grenade to adopt a stray human into our pack lands all those years ago.

“But Oliver...”

“The pack is exhausted, Father,” I pressed firmly. “We can't halt the entire territory's life for this. She is a human. I wouldn't survive a fall from that cliff, let alone her. There is no point in lying to ourselves anymore.”

My father let out a long, defeated sigh. His broad shoulders seemed to physically slump, his face suddenly looking incredibly worn and tired. Ever since he took over the pack, he had been a pillar of absolute strength and certainty. Seeing him so completely broken over the loss of a fragile human girl made me realize, with a sudden jolt, that he was getting old. The burden of leadership was becoming too heavy for him.

Yet, seeing his defeat only intensified my resentment toward Malory. She was a weakling. Did she honestly believe the entire world was obligated to revolve around her just because her adoptive parents spoiled her? It was a simple rejection. She would have faced thousands of rejections in the human world. Was she so incredibly pathetic that she had to throw her life away just to make me feel guilty?

Such a useless person didn't deserve to have an entire pack of warriors freezing in the dark for her.

“I'll tell the search parties to wrap it up,” my father whispered, clenching his fists. After a long moment of hesitation, he walked heavily toward the grieving couple.

“I am so sorry, Mr. Grenade. It is past midnight, and the pack is reaching their limit...”

Mrs. Grenade wept softly into her handkerchief, forcing a fragile, heartbroken nod.

“It’s alright, Alpha Knox. We understand. Malory is... she's likely already...”

She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, but the grim truth hung heavily in the air.

My father sent out a collective mind-link to the remaining searchers, instructing them to climb out of the freezing water and return home to their warm beds. There was no longer any reason to waste the night looking for a willful human.

As we walked back toward the main settlement, a suffocating, heavy silence fell over the forest.