Claimed By The Wrong Alpha

3

The rogue Alpha took a step toward me, his jaws agape, dripping greenish slobber.

I fumbled blindly around me until my fingers collided with the bone hilt of the dagger.

I didn't think twice. I raised my arm and threw it in desperation straight at his face.

The metal struck him right above his left eye. The beast let out a sharp squeal of pain and violently shook his head.

I seized that second of confusion. I gritted my teeth against the excruciating pain of my fractured ribs and sprang to my feet, breaking into a run with the last breath left in my lungs.

"Run toward the cliff. Hurry."

The voice in my head was no whisper; it was a command that echoed in my eardrums, forcing my legs to respond despite the agony.

Behind me, the entire forest began to creak. Several guttural howls answered the Alpha's squeal.

The entire pack of rogues was closing in on me.

A second later, the bushes burst open to my left, and three dark wolves leaped onto the path.

I reached the edge of the forest, and the ground vanished.

A black abyss opened at my feet, with the Black River roaring dozens of meters below, crashing against the rocks like a monster of foam and shadows.

I slammed on the brakes.

The stones at the edge crumbled under my boots, plunging into the void.

I turned around. Seven... no, eight rogue wolves emerged from the shadows, forming a perfect semicircle.

The wounded Alpha walked at the front, a trickle of blood dripping down his muzzle, his gaze warped with an absolute desire to kill me.

I was cornered.

"—This is my end..." I whispered, pressing my mother's amulet against my chest.

The Alpha issued an order with a harsh growl, and all eight wolves lunged at me simultaneously.

Then, my body burst into flames.

A deafening snap echoed inside my ears.

I felt liquid fire flood my veins, a heat so scorching it burned my skin from the inside out.

I fell to my knees on the earth, clawing at the rocks as a shriek of pure agony escaped my chest.

My hands deformed before my eyes.

My fingers elongated, my nails snapped to give way to thick, razor-sharp claws covered in an immaculate silver fur that gleamed under the moonlight. My bones fractured and rearranged themselves at a terrifying speed.

"Trust me. We are one."

The rogue wolves halted their onslaught mere meters away from me.

Horror took hold of their wild faces.

They retreated, whimpering through their teeth as they felt the crushing pressure of the aura beginning to emerge from my body.

I was no ordinary wolf.

My mouth filled with ivory fangs, and when I looked up, my sight was no longer human: I saw the world tinged in shades of pure light, perceiving the movement of the wind and the racing heartbeats of my enemies.

A deafening, beastly roar tore from my throat. I was no longer in command; I was a passenger in my own mind, watching as my wolf took absolute control.

What followed was a slaughter of blood and flesh.

My wolf pounced on the first rogue with inhuman speed.

She ripped his jugular open with a single swipe before the animal could even react.

The silver claws dug into the enemy fur, breaking bones and shattering throats.

Screams of agony echoed throughout the canyon as enemy blood splattered the white dress that still hung from my back.

We were an unforgiving storm. In less than a minute, all eight rogues lay dead upon the earth, disemboweled and swimming in their own blood.

The last one to fall was the Alpha. My wolf snapped his neck with a swift bite, tossing his corpse into the bushes.

But the victory lasted only a second.

An agonizing pain struck us full force. My wolf collapsed onto the edge of the ravine, squirming on the rocks.

The strain of awakening after eighteen years of suppression was tearing her body apart from within.

The bones of our paws cracked as they tried to maintain the animal form, and a sharp wail burst from our muzzle.

"—Make... it stop..." I begged her from the depths of my consciousness. "—Make it stop!"

"I'm sorry... I can't hold it..." her voice whispered, weakening with every passing second.

The shift reversed with the same violence with which it had begun.

I became human once again, lying on the cold mud, coughing up blood, every muscle in my body paralyzed by sheer exhaustion.

My ceremonial dress was in tatters, stuck to my skin with sweat and foreign blood.

A snap of dry branches forced us to look up.

From the depths of the dense forest emerged a colossal figure.

This was no ordinary rogue; it was a massive black beast standing over two meters tall, with deep scars crisscrossing his back.

His eyes glowed with a deep reddish-purple hue—the color of absolute madness.

He walked toward me slowly, knowing I couldn't move a single finger.

The monster pounced on my neck.

An agonizing struggle ensued as we rolled over the dirt; his claws dug into my shoulder, and his teeth grazed my jugular. My wolf tried to surface once more to defend us, but she had no strength left.

"I can't... Katerine... forgive me..."

The weight of the beast pushed us toward the edge of the cliff. The ground beneath our bodies gave way completely.

I felt the fall into nothingness.

We plunged down the cliff together.

The impact against the icy water of the Black River felt like slamming into a stone wall.

The air was knocked right out of my lungs. The raging current dragged us down into the depths, spinning us as if we were dry leaves in the middle of a storm.

I barely managed to break the surface, swallowing gulps of freezing water as I tried to claw onto the rocks of the riverbed.

The giant wolf was thrashing just a few meters away from me, swept along by the same colossal force.

In the distance, the roar of the water grew deafening. A massive waterfall opened up at the end of the stretch.

I fought against the current with the last bit of strength I had left, digging my nails into a flat rock just two meters from the edge of the drop.

The rogue wolf was not so fortunate: he let out a panicked howl before being swallowed by the void of the waterfall.

I dragged myself out of the water, falling face-first onto the wet stone.

Every breath was absolute hell. The cold was freezing my blood, and our vision was beginning to fade to black from the loss of consciousness.

"Rest... little one... everything will be fine..." my wolf whispered, fading away in the back of my mind.

A heavy crunching sound at the edge of the forest drew my blurry vision toward the underbrush.

A sharp, overpowering scent filtered through my senses: sandalwood, fresh snow, and ancient ash that caused the pain in my body to go numb for a fleeting second.

From the shadows of the pines stepped not a wolf, but a man.

He was of an imposing stature, draped in a cloak of dark furs over black leather armor reinforced with steel.

His face looked as though it were sculpted from cold marble, featuring sharp, rugged features and a short, impeccably groomed beard.

But what turned my blood to ice were his eyes: two glowing, incandescent silver orbs that cut through the darkness of the night.

He radiated an aura so brutal and powerful that the air around him seemed to vibrate.

Behind him, a surviving rogue attempted to leap from the rocks to attack him from behind.

The man didn't even turn around; he extended an arm with supernatural speed, caught the giant wolf by the throat mid-air, and lifted him off the ground like a piece of dirty trash.

The sound of the rogue's neck bones snapping echoed dryly through the valley.

The man tossed the corpse aside without giving it the slightest thought.

He walked slowly toward where I lay dying. Each of his steps echoed upon the stone.

He came to a stop just inches from my agonizing body.

He slowly knelt down, enveloping me completely in his shadow and his overwhelming scent.

He raised a black leather-gloved hand and, with chilling gentleness, tucked a strand of wet hair behind my face.

"—So here you are..." he whispered. His voice was a deep thunder that made me tremble to my core. "—Five hundred years waiting for this moment."

I tried to speak, but the darkness swallowed me whole, and I slipped into unconsciousness.