The King's Wrath
1466 Words
[Alpha Kael’s POV]
The snow beneath my boots crunched heavily as I stood at the edge of the Silver Moon Pack’s territory. The sun was just beginning to rise, painting the sky in shades of blood red—a fitting color for what I was about to do.
My beast was restless, clawing at my mind, demanding violence. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face.
Elara.
My beautiful, fragile mate, lying in the snow, broken and crying because of some weak, arrogant boy. The mate bond had snapped into place the second her scent of vanilla and rain had hit my nose in the Dark Woods. I had waited over a century to find her, and when I did, she was running for her life.
A low, vibrating growl ripped from my chest, causing the trees around us to shake.
"Alpha," my Beta, Silas, stepped forward. He was a massive Lycan, yet he kept his head respectfully lowered. Behind him stood two hundred of my most lethal warriors, their eyes glowing in the darkness, waiting for a single command to tear the forest apart. "The Silver Moon patrols have spotted us. They are panicking."
"Good," I rumbled, my voice laced with lethal intent. "Let them tremble. Break down the barrier."
Silas didn't hesitate. He shifted mid-stride, his bones cracking and reshaping until a monstrous, dark-grey wolf stood in his place. With a deafening roar, Silas and the frontline warriors slammed into the magical barrier protecting the Silver Moon Pack.
The barrier shattered like cheap glass. It was pathetic. This was the pack that thought they were too good for my mate?
I didn't bother shifting. I walked through the broken border in my human form, my aura fully unleashed. The sheer weight of my dominance pressed down on the entire territory. I could hear the whimpers of weaker wolves miles away as the crushing pressure of a true Alpha King forced them to their knees.
Within minutes, the Silver Moon Pack’s warriors rushed out of the trees, surrounding us. But not a single one dared to attack. Their weapons shook in their hands, their wolves whining in absolute terror.
Finally, the crowd parted, and the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, a balding, weak-looking man named Richard, stepped forward. Beside him was a young boy who looked exactly like him, though he reeked of arrogance and cheap perfume. Lucas. The boy who dared to reject my Queen.
"King Kael!" Alpha Richard gasped, falling to his knees instantly, his face pale as a ghost. "T-to what do we owe the honor of your presence? We have paid our annual tributes! We have not broken any treaties!"
I stepped closer, ignoring the father completely. My glowing crimson eyes locked onto Lucas, who was suddenly trembling, his arrogant mask slipping away.
"I am not here for treaties, Richard," I said, my voice cold enough to freeze the blood in their veins. "I am here for a debt. A blood debt."
I pointed a single, clawed finger at Lucas.
"Bring me the boy. He broke something that belongs to me, and now, I am going to break him."
The silence that fell over the Silver Moon Pack was absolute. It was the heavy, suffocating silence of prey realizing that the apex predator was not just at their door, but already inside their house.
Alpha Richard remained on his knees in the freezing snow, his hands trembling so violently that he could barely support his own weight. He looked up at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and pure, unadulterated terror. Behind him, the crowd of Silver Moon wolves parted like the Red Sea, exposing the two people I wanted to see the most.
Lucas.
And the female he had chosen over my mate.
Lucas was no longer the smug, arrogant boy who had stood tall the night before. His face was completely drained of color, his scent reeking of sour fear and panic. The girl beside him, Selene, was clutching his arm, her eyes darting between my massive, dark-grey Lycan warriors and my glowing crimson eyes.
"K-King Kael," Richard stammered, his voice breaking. "A blood debt? I swear to you on the Moon Goddess, we have not harmed anyone from the Blood Moon Pack. There must be a misunderstanding. My son, Lucas, is to be the next Alpha. He just found his mate last night. He hasn't left our borders!"
A dark, guttural laugh ripped from my throat. The sound was so deep and menacing that several of the younger wolves in the crowd whimpered and dropped to their bellies, fully submitting to my aura.
"Your son," I began, my voice dangerously soft, carrying easily in the crisp morning air, "is a fool who couldn't recognize a diamond if he was holding it in his hands. He didn't just find his mate last night, Richard. He rejected her. In front of this entire pathetic pack."
Richard blinked, confusion momentarily replacing his fear. "He... he rejected an Omega, my King. Elara. She is the weakest in our pack. It is customary for an Alpha heir to seek a stronger Luna. It was an internal pack matter."
"AN INTERNAL MATTER?" my voice boomed like thunder, shaking the very ground beneath their feet. My control snapped. The beast inside me roared, demanding blood for the insult to our Queen.
In a fraction of a second, I moved. I didn't even give them time to blink. I crossed the distance between us, my hand shooting out and wrapping entirely around Lucas’s throat. I lifted him off the ground with a single arm. He choked, his hands desperately clawing at my thick, muscular arm, trying to break my iron grip. His legs kicked uselessly in the air.
"LUCAS!" Selene screamed, falling to her knees.
"Please! Alpha Kael, please!" Richard cried out, crawling forward in the snow, but a low growl from Silas, my Beta, pinned him to the spot.
I squeezed Lucas's throat just enough to cut off his air, letting him stare directly into my glowing red eyes. I wanted him to see the monster he had awakened.
"That 'weak Omega'," I snarled, my face inches from his turning-blue skin, "is my fated mate. She is Elara, the true and only Queen of the Blood Moon Pack. She is my Luna. And you, you insignificant little insect, dared to break her heart. You dared to make her cry. You dared to cast her out into the freezing woods to die."
The collective gasp that rippled through the Silver Moon Pack was deafening. Whispers erupted among the crowd.
The Omega?
King Kael's mate?
The Moon Goddess paired an Omega with the most powerful Alpha in history?
Selene looked like she was going to faint. The realization of what they had done, of who they had thrown away, was finally sinking in.
"M-mercy..." Lucas choked out, tears of pain and regret streaming down his face.
"Mercy?" I whispered, tilting my head. "Did you show her mercy when you humiliated her? Did you show her mercy when she begged you?"
I didn't wait for an answer. With a swift, calculated movement, I shifted my grip and grabbed his right arm. With a sickening CRACK that echoed through the silent forest, I snapped his bone cleanly in half.
Lucas’s agonized scream tore through the air, piercing the ears of everyone present. I dropped him to the snow like a discarded piece of trash. He curled into a fetal position, sobbing and cradling his ruined arm.
"Listen to me very carefully, Richard," I commanded, stepping over his whimpering son and looking down at the trembling Alpha. "I am sparing his life today only because I do not want my mate’s hands stained with his pathetic blood on her first day as Queen. But there will be consequences."
I raised my voice so every single wolf in the territory could hear their fate.
"First, Lucas is officially stripped of his Alpha heir title. If he ever attempts to lead, I will return and slaughter every male in this pack. Second, the Silver Moon Pack will surrender eighty percent of its winter resources and hunting territories to the Blood Moon Pack by sunset. Third, if anyone from this pack ever speaks Elara's name with anything less than absolute reverence, I will mount your heads on spikes around my borders."
I looked down at Selene, who was shaking uncontrollably. "And you. You wanted to be a Luna so badly? Enjoy ruling over a broken, starving pack with a crippled mate."
I turned my back on them. The message was delivered. The debt was paid, for now.
"Silas," I called out to my Beta. "Gather the resources. Ensure they comply. I am going back to my Queen."
- Writer
