Chapter 1 – The Dead Walks In
404 Words
The scent of blood hit Lira before the gates slammed open.
She was kneeling in the infirmary, her hands slick with herbs and blood from a scout’s torn shoulder. He’d been mauled by rogues — again. This was the third attack this week. The air in the pack had been tense for days, and now it felt like it was cracking open.
The wind outside roared like it carried bad news.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered.
A loud howl erupted from the gate. Then shouts. Growls. Running feet.
Lira dropped the bandages and rushed outside. A crowd had already formed near the edge of the clearing. Warriors stood frozen. Some had their claws out. No one moved closer to the figure slumped in the dirt.
He was huge. Covered in blood. Clothes shredded, half-human, half-shifted. His black hair clung to his face like he’d crawled out of the grave. His scent hit Lira next — sharp, earthy, familiar.
She gasped.
It was impossible.
“Alpha Kael?” someone whispered.
The man groaned.
Lira’s heart slammed into her ribs. Kael had been dead for a year. She remembered the funeral. Remembered the tears. The hunt for his body that ended in a pile of ash and claw marks. Yet this man — this beast — looked just like him.
No, not just like.
Exactly like.
The pack hesitated. Then Torran — the Beta — stepped forward.
“Kael?” he asked, voice tight.
The man lifted his head. His eyes were glowing — bright gold, too bright.
“I… don’t know that name,” he said hoarsely. “But… this place… it feels…”
His head dropped again. He collapsed.
Lira didn’t remember moving, but suddenly she was kneeling beside him, fingers to his pulse. Alive. Strong. Her hands trembled.
She looked up at Torran. “He’s not lying. He’s alive.”
“But how?” another warrior muttered. “We burned his body.”
“We burned something,” Torran replied, his tone unreadable.
Lira leaned closer, brushing hair from the man’s face. It was Kael. Every scar. Every line. Every detail. But something was wrong. His skin was colder. His scent… off.
Still, her heart thudded louder than reason.
He stirred, whispering her name.
Lira froze.
He knew her name?
She backed away slowly. The entire pack stared in silence. Thunder cracked in the sky above.
The dead Alpha had come home.
- Writer
