He Refused the Mark, So I Took the Throne

Chapter 4 The Collapsing Alpha

(Kael's POV)

Blood and wet earth marked the eastern front. Silver-furred warriors held a narrow line where the barrier should have been, but the rogues kept driving them back toward the packhouse.

They needed an Alpha's command.

The rogue leader threw one of my best fighters aside. He was broad, black-furred, and scarred across the muzzle. When he howled, the wolves behind him pushed harder.

I stepped into his path. An Alpha command had ended larger attacks in seconds, so I reached for the power that used to answer me and sent one order at him.

*KNEEL.*

Nothing moved.

There was no force behind the command. I tried again and heard only my own voice under the fighting.

The rogue leader tilted his head, glanced at the warriors behind me, and grinned. Then he charged.

I met him on instinct and turned too late. His shoulder drove into my ribs and sent me across the mud. A few days earlier, Elara's power would have held my body in place or broken his charge.

Now my side struck the ground hard enough to empty my lungs. I rolled toward the defensive line while one of my warriors stepped between the rogue and my throat.

Lyra, our oldest healer, dragged me behind the defensive line.

"Stop reaching for it," she said over the fighting. "That strength belonged to Elara."

I pushed against her grip. "Explain."

"Her Lunar Seer blood amplified you for three years," Lyra said. "That bloodline carries moon power through a willing bond. Elara kept giving, and you kept mistaking the result for your birthright."

She pressed one hand against my injured ribs. "The severing ended the gift. What you have now is the strength you were born with."

My Beta, Rhys, dropped beside us with a datapad in both hands.

"Alpha, the barrier was put into maintenance mode. Someone inside the pack also muted the breach alarm."

The ward-console audit showed four days of warnings from eastern scouts. Dates and coordinates filled the screen, each report describing rogues testing the same section. Elara would once have marked every one in silver ink and put the stack on my desk herself.

Rhys opened the room's security recording. Lila entered the control room with a Level-Four token. I had authorized it over the Warden's written objection, and my seal appeared beside the door log.

On the recording, Lila laughed with a friend and emptied a vial of Elara's silver-root reserve into a potted plant because she disliked the smell. I remembered signing those medicine requests without reading the healer's warnings.

Then Lila selected *maintenance demonstration* to show off the console. The eastern runes shut down, and a red warning reported hostile pressure beyond the boundary.

She muted it. The screen kept flashing after she left the room, but the ward remained offline. The rogues who had spent four days testing that sector moved in within minutes.

Rhys lowered the screen. "Three warriors died where the barrier fell."

My authorization seal sat at the bottom of the audit.

I returned to the packhouse with mud and blood dried across my clothes. Lila started pleading as soon as she saw the guards behind me. I pulled her from her rooms, past the injured being carried into the infirmary, and down to the deepest dungeon cell.

She screamed my name until the door shut. Locking her inside did nothing for the three dead warriors or the power I had lost.

Rhys exported a read-only copy of the audit and recording for Council investigators. I ordered him to make a duplicate for me.

The file proved that Lila had deceived me. It also carried my seal on every access order and medicine approval.

I told myself Elara would focus on the deception. She would look past my seal, forgive me, and restore the bond. Silver Moon needed her strength, and I treated that need as one more reason she had to come back.

The elders shouted after me as I crossed the packhouse. I took the duplicate, left Rhys to hold the eastern line, and drove toward the Council in the rain.