SERVING THE ENEMY ALPHA

The Silver Pool

LIANA

Strangely, he didn't bother. His gaze landed on the water again.

I was utterly numb in the icy water, the cold grabbing me somewhere between my shoulders and my neck. I could feel my heart hammering so loud I was almost sure Kyran would be able to hear it. He was only a few meters away, naked, yet gorgeous. A scary but mesmerizing statue in the moonlight. Slowly, he came down to the Silver Pool.

The coldness of the water shocked his body, but Kyran is not the one to show his pain. After detaching himself from the side of the lake, he dived into the lower part of the lake. I stared at him as he moved through the water. He was like a night creature, gorgeous and lethal, cutting the water in the dark.

After a while, Kyran merely stayed on the water, his face toward the sky, and his strong chest slowly going up and down with breaths.

Suddenly, his sharp, blue, eyes were pointed at my location.

It was too dark for him to see me clearly, but he was an Alpha. He could feel things. He could sense the disruption in the air, the abnormal warmth of a body where there should be none.

He was coming after me, the water showing a dark and quiet ripple as his approach.

No. I have to get away. Not like this.

The most frightening thing about him was his silence. He was coming nearer, following the manner of a hunter stalking her victim.

Without hesitation I took a huge breath, sunk my hand in the water, and using all my strength, brought it out in an upward direction.

“Who are you?” He growled behind me.

I splashed the water violently at his eyes and

fled from the water, not caring about the noise or the cold. I hurried to the edge, wrapped myself in a towel, and picked up the uniform. I did not stop to put on my clothes. I ran, barefoot and dripping, toward the cover of the trees, holding the clothes tight to my chest.

“Stop!” The Alpha's voice commanded.

Even the water was shaken but I went on with my escape. I was fast enough, adrenaline rushing down my veins. I didn’t slow down until I was back in the aide’s quarters, locking the door and leaning against it, shaking from cold, fear, and relief. I had gotten away. Luckily.

The whole night I couldn't sleep, afraid he might summon guards and search for an intruder in the pack house. But nothing happened. It was dead silence.

The following day, the Pack House was quiet.

I found out that Kyran had gone to the northern border to settle a pack dispute. He was expected to get back by the evening.

The short absence gave me a little bit of calmness. While I was cleaning Kyran’s study, the place where he had held a dagger to my throat, Jacob, a junior guard, approached me.

“Lancaster, where did you disappear last night after the branding?” He twitched his thick, brown brows.

“Ehm…I left early. I was exhausted.”

“You missed the drama. Gamma Anthony was in a terrible mood. He almost killed the poor maid. Fortunately, Alpha ordered him to stop.” Jacob whispered, leaning on a shelf.

"I heard," I said, keeping my tone of voice to the minimum. "The Alpha seems to be really busy with border troubles."

Jacob took a deep breath and his face turned serious. “The border trouble has been going on non-stop. It all changed three years ago when the previous Alpha, Kyran’s father, was assassinated.”

I stopped dusting. Here was the moment to discover something and to understand the nightmare that Kyran had become.

“What happened?" I asked in a soft voice.

Jacob came closer and whispered even more. “It was a betrayal. The previous Alpha had a closet aide, just like you, a man named Valen. Valen had been with him for twenty years. But he was working with the Silent River Pack, our enemies. He gave them the layout, the schedules, everything.”

My blood ran cold. The words 'aide' and 'betrayal' landed very close to my chest.

"Because of that betrayal," Jacob went on, his voice turning cold, "the Silent River Pack killed the previous Alpha and his eldest son, Damon. They shot both of them. His mother, our Luna, never got over it. She shut herself in her room and hasn’t come out ever since.”

I quite frankly felt a sudden and sharp pang of sorrow. The Kyran I was familiar with is a bully, but this one is a tragedy.

"Kyran didn't want to be the Alpha. He was too young, barely twenty. But his uncle, Elder Marcus, pressured him. He told the pack that if they didn't have an Alpha now, then they would be the next ones to be killed. So Kyran became the Alpha. After that, he was never the same. He was very ruthless. Very cold. He doesn't trust anyone, especially not an aide,” Jacob explained. He suddenly wheeled and stood up straight like a soldier. “Don't let anyone know that I told you this, Lancaster."

Sia felt my fear.

"I-I won't," I assured him while my thoughts were spinning out of control.

“Be careful around Alpha Kyran.” He said, before leaving the study.

The ruthless Alpha, Kyran Salvatore, was a boy who had his family torn apart by betrayal. That explained the coldness in his blue eyes.

I felt a flash of empathy, a pinch of pity. However, the memory of his teenage self, laughing at the fat girl with the curly hair, came back to me so fast that it made my heart cold again. Yes, he may be broken now, but he was the one who broke me first.

The pack was getting restless late in the afternoon when the sound of the alarm bells could be heard. The Alpha was back.

I, together with the guards, went to the receiving parlor in a hurry. Kyran was at the middle point with his patrol on either side. His face looked unpleasant and dusty, but his eyes seemed very tired and angry at the same time. Surely, they had a fight.

The very first thing I noticed was that his left arm was bleeding. He looked around the room with his sharp eyes, and it seemed that he found me straight away.

"Lancaster," He ordered, his voice barely audible. "My study. Immediately."

I went along with him to his study. After me, he closed the door with a bang.

It was complete silence. Instead of talking, Kyran turned his back on me. Without a single moment of hesitation, he took off the shirt that was full of blood and held over his head, and let out a slight grimace as the cloth tore away from the injured skin.

I couldn't help but stare at his beautiful back and broad shoulders. Then, something snapped in me, and a thought cut through my mind that he deserves it.

"Get the first aid kit out of the cabinet and the strongest antiseptic that we've got," he said, removing the shirt that was covering the floor.

The wound was a deep, jagged cut that had gone through the muscles of his upper left arm, and he was still bleeding slowly.

"Lancaster, be quick."

I didn't waste a moment. I took out the things that were necessary for the job. I put a clean cloth soaked with the strongest and most pungent antiseptic. I was all ready, I knelt down a little, and started to clean the wound.

His gaze was focused on the floor, while mine were tracing down the sharp features of his face. For the first time, I had seen him so close.

My eyes were in constant conflict. They kept moving away from the wound to his face. The dirt that was on his cheekbone just made the beautifully carved and perfectly sharp side of his jaw more visible. His eyes were still, and on them, there was the thickest, darkest lash which was lying against the skin. At that point, forcibly separated from the rage and power which he usually thrashed out, he was almost like a little helpless kid.

I was dabbing the deepest part of his wound.

"For a warrior, you are surprisingly gentle, Lancaster," He whispered, his eyes glowing feral with suspicion.

I didn't say a word. I was only concentrating on the work and at the same time, I was aware of my hand taking the dirt off. I was almost done with cleaning his wound when out of nowhere his hand was darting like a whip.

With that one long finger he caught my wrist and yanked my hand from his arm.

"Tell me, Leon," He said, lowering his voice dangerously. His cold, blue eyes locked on mine, probing and evaluating. "Why do I get the feeling that I know ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌you?”