The Alpha’s Forbidden Mate

NINE: THE FORBIDDEN PROPHECY

[ELDRIC POINT OF VIEW]

The table slammed against the wall, splintering into jagged teeth.

Books tumbled. Bottles shattered.

Maps curled in the flames clawing up the hearth. None of it mattered.

Impossible. It was impossible!

The dagger in my grip still shimmered faintly with poison — the same blade I drove into the alpha's heart.

The same blade that had ended every life it ever kissed.

No creature had survived its touch. Not once.

But he did.

⸻ (FLASHBACK)

I returned to where I left him. Kieran's lifeless body should have been there, cooling in the dirt.

But the spot was empty—only dark stains marked the ground where I had left him fallen.

Low snarl rumbled in my chest.

I followed the trail — sharp splashes of red, half-hidden in leaves — deeper into the trees. Then I heard them. Their voices.

I crept closer.

Through the branches, I saw him. Kieran.

Standing. Breathing... and alive.

Not alone — his friends surrounded him, their laughter scraping like broken glass in my ears.

Questions boiled in my skull.

H-how? How could he be alive?

Rage clawed at my insides, demanding I tear into him, finish what I'd started. But the Beta's child lingered too close, and striking now would only spiral into a mess I couldn't risk. No... patience. Control.

I needed answers more than blood.

How had he survived? How had they dragged him back from the grave I left him in? Until I knew, I would bide my time, no matter how much it burned.

I waited until they left before slipping toward the cabin.

The door groaned as I pushed inside.

There — on the floor — a small kit, scattered open.

Cloths soaked through with dark, rusted red. Bandages, salves, things to treat wounds.

But when I leaned closer, my senses caught it instantly — sharp, metallic, wrong.

There was no trace of those two useless shadows Kieran called friends.

Only two scents lingered here—one was unmistakably his, and the other... something I hadn't expected at all.

Human blood. I froze.

So... the one who saved Kieran... was human.

How? How could a useless human do what no wolf could?

My grip on the dagger tightened until my knuckles ached.

Old memories clawed their way out from where I'd buried them.

⸻ END OF FLASHBACK

Later, under the cover of night, I stood before my comrade — the Elder who had betrayed Kiegan, betrayed the pack.

The one who had made my plan possible... especially the alpha's death.

"Kieran lives," I snarled.

The Elder's gaze narrowed. "Impossible. The dagger's poison is drawn from magic older than the moon. Even the alpha fell to it in seconds."

"I saw it with my own eyes!" I roared, the sound tearing from my throat. "He's alive. Not weakened. Better."

The Elder leaned forward. "How?"

"I don't know," I admitted, voice low, dangerous. "But I do know this — a human treated him. I smelled it. Her blood was in the cabin. She's the one who saved him."

The Elder rose slowly from his throne, eyes flickering with a thought that had just sparked in his mind. "No werewolf — no ordinary human — can heal someone poisoned by dark magic... unless—" He paused, measuring me. Then, slow and deliberate: "There's only one blood that can counter that poison. Blood we thought that vanished years ago."

I stepped closer. "You mean... human blood?"

He nodded, eyes glinting. "Not just any human. The rare kind. The kind we believed dead."

"Tell me clearly," I urged, the need to unravel his words gnawing at me.

The old wolf's voice rasped through the silence of the Hollow of Sanctum heavy with years of secrets.

I leaned forward, every word pulling me deeper.

"There is something the pack must not forget," he said, his eyes gleaming with a knowing fire. "Prophecy spoken long before most of you were born. There's a warning written in the ancient tongues, guarded by our forebears."

"They spoke of a child born human, but not ordinary," Maeron continued. "Human girl whose blood bears no scent — a rarity among mortals. This blood is unlike ours, unlike theirs. It carries the power to both unravel the chains of darkness... and bind them tighter."

He let his words linger, watching the flickers of unease ripple through the room.

"Her blood," he said lower now, "can be used to counter dark magic — to strip away its strength, to break its hold. But should it fall into the wrong hands, it becomes a vessel of destruction. That same blood can be twisted, corrupted, and made to fuel the darkest rituals. With it, a sorcerer could bend shadows themselves, command life and death."

I shifted forward. "So this girl is both weapon and curse?"

The Elder lips pressed into a grim line. "Exactly. Exactly. You witnessed it yourself—Kieran survived, when he should have perished. The girl who saved him repelled the very poison that slaughtered the Alpha."

I murmured, voice low with amusement. "So it's true then... a fragile little human saved the alpha's son? How amusing. The mighty wolves brought to their knees, only to be pulled back up by the weakest of creatures."

"She is not ordinary," the Elder murmured. "Her blood was never meant to exist among our kind. It is rare, silent, hidden—but when spilled, it awakens power beyond anything a werewolf should touch."

My pulse thundered in my ears. I leaned forward, unable to contain the surge of hunger rising in me. Power... mine.

"Power?" I breathed, my voice trembling with a thrill I could no longer disguise. "How can it be used? Tell me, Elder—how can her blood grant such strength?"

The old wolf's eyes gleamed like dying embers. "Through dark rites," he said slowly, each word deliberate, meant to bind me deeper. "Her blood carries no scent, no signature of life. That emptiness is what makes it dangerous. When invoked, it fills the void of another—grafting strength upon strength until the vessel overflows."

I felt my lips curl into something that might have been a smile, but it burned too hot to be joy. It was obsession.

"But why," I pressed, my voice rough with anticipation, "why would the Moon curse such a gift upon us? Why is her blood branded forbidden?"

The Elder leaned closer, his whisper colder than the damp air of the Sanctum. "Because it does not belong to the balance. Her blood can twist fate itself. Whoever drinks it, whoever binds it with ritual, will not just rise above alphas... they will become untouchable, wolf beyond death... beyond the Moon's law."

My jaw tightened. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Twenty years ago, when that human child was born, the late alpha Kiegan led a secret mission to find and kill her. He told us he succeeded—that the girl had been slain, the prophecy cut short before it could bring ruin. But..." The Elder's eyes darkened, and his jaw tightened. "He lied. That child lived. He deceived us all to protect her."

One slow, burning smile crept across my lips as I sat back in the chair.

The pieces slid together in my mind.

So the alpha had carried this secret for two decades. So the girl still lived.

Her blood—her precious blood—was out there waiting.

Shiver of exhilaration tore through me. I could barely contain it, my hands clenching into fists.

My breath came fast, sharp, as if the darkness itself was feeding me.

"She is the key," I whispered, almost reverent. "The cursed key to power they could never give me."

The words lit something inside me — not hope, but hunger.

The Elder's mouth curved into a slow, cruel smile. "Find that human first, Eldric. Before Kieran hides her away. If he already knows what her blood can do, he'll protect her from us — because that blood isn't just salvation. It can be twisted. The cursed blood that can use in dark magic."

For one breath, my chest went still.

Then the rage came back, hotter, sharper, flooding my veins.

So... she was the one who saved him.

Now... she would bleed for it.

But even through the fury, another thought coiled in my mind.

Even if I hadn't killed the alpha's bastard son... I had given myself something better — the chance to claim the greatest weapon of all.

The chance to become the most powerful werewolf alive.

and I knew exactly where to start.

She'd be drawn back to him. Humans always return to the ones they save.

The one thing I had to do... was wait.