Chapter 6 – The Pact
548 Words
Kael paced the floor like a caged beast.
His shirt was torn, chest streaked with dried blood from the rogue fight the night before. But it wasn’t the blood or the bruises that disturbed Lira.
It was the way his eyes kept changing — flickering between gold and black, like something inside him was waking up.
Lira dropped the folder onto his table.
Kael stopped moving.
“What’s this?”
“Your truth,” she said, voice cold.
He opened it slowly. Read the first page. Then the second. His hands tightened as he reached the third.
By the fourth, he stopped breathing.
“Project Alpha Rebirth,” she said. “Torran brought you back. But not fully. He didn’t save you, Kael. He used you.”
Kael said nothing.
Lira kept going. “You were the first vessel. The test subject. Whatever he summoned — it’s living inside you now. And he’s preparing another.”
Still, Kael didn’t speak.
Then he slammed the folder shut and roared, the sound shaking the walls.
Lira didn’t flinch. Not this time.
“I trusted him,” Kael growled. “He was my brother.”
“He still is,” Lira said quietly. “And he used your death to create a monster.”
Kael’s fists hit the wall. Cracks split the stone.
“You’re not a monster,” Lira said. “But whatever’s inside you — it’s trying to take over.”
He turned to her, eyes wild. “And what happens when I lose control?”
“Then I’ll stop you,” she said. “But I don’t think you’re gone yet.”
His expression changed. Shock. Gratitude. Grief.
“You don’t even know me.”
“I knew who you were,” she said. “And I see pieces of that man in you now.”
Kael sat down, head in his hands. “It’s like I’m in a war… inside my own body. Some days I remember things. Others, I hear voices that aren’t mine. I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“You’re the Alpha,” she said. “Whether you want to be or not.”
Kael looked up. “What do we do?”
Lira placed the journal on the table beside the folder. “We find out what Torran did. Where the second vessel is. And we end this before he creates another one of you.”
Kael stared at her.
Then he nodded. “You help me, I protect you. No matter what I turn into.”
Lira gave a half-smile. “Deal.”
They stood in silence for a moment, a quiet storm building between them.
Then Kael whispered, “I remember something.”
“What?”
His eyes went distant. “The day I died… I wasn’t killed in battle. I was taken.”
Lira’s blood ran cold.
“Torran made a deal,” he continued. “He gave them me… in exchange for power.”
“Who?” she asked.
But Kael didn’t answer. He was shaking again.
She stepped forward. Put a hand on his arm. He flinched — then slowly leaned into her touch.
He looked so broken, so human in that moment.
“You’re not alone anymore,” she said.
Not a promise.
A vow.
- Writer
