The Alpha's Secret
1966 Words
Chapter Two: The Alpha's Secret
“Get in the car.”
Adrian's voice cut through the storm.
Lena stared at him.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“No?”
“I've spent the last hour being chased through a forest, discovering that strangers know a name I've never heard, and watching wolves bow to me. I think I've earned some explanations.”
Adrian looked toward the trees.
“We don't have time.”
“Then make time.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Elias stepped between them.
“She needs to know something.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“She needs to survive.”
“And she won't trust you unless you tell her the truth.”
Adrian looked at Lena again.
Something unreadable passed across his face.
“Fine.”
He turned toward the SUV.
“Get in.”
Lena crossed her arms.
“That's not exactly an explanation.”
“It's the beginning of one.”
She hesitated.
Then another howl rolled through the mountains.
Lena got into the car.
---
The inside of the SUV was warm and smelled faintly of leather and cedar.
Elias climbed into the front passenger seat.
Adrian took the driver's seat.
Lena sat in the back, still clutching her pendant.
The wolves remained in the clearing.
They watched the vehicle leave.
Lena stared through the window until the trees swallowed them.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Finally, Lena broke the silence.
“Who is Seraphine?”
Adrian kept his eyes on the road.
“You.”
“I already know that's what you think.”
“It's what I know.”
“My name is Lena Vale.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would you call me Seraphine?”
Adrian's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Because Seraphine was the name your mother gave you at birth.”
Lena stared at him.
“My mother named me Lena.”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“You were six years old when your identity was changed.”
Lena shook her head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It will.”
“That's what everyone keeps saying.”
She leaned forward.
“I want facts.”
Adrian glanced at her through the mirror.
“Your mother was named Elena Vale.”
Lena's breath caught.
“You knew her?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She worked for my family.”
Lena frowned.
“My mother was a teacher.”
“She was.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
Adrian was silent.
Elias finally turned around.
“Your mother was also a member of the Blackridge pack.”
Lena stared at him.
“A pack?”
“Yes.”
“Like wolves?”
Elias nodded.
Lena laughed nervously.
“This is ridiculous.”
Adrian didn't laugh.
“Werewolves are real.”
Silence filled the vehicle.
Lena looked at the two men.
“You're serious.”
“Yes.”
She leaned back.
“Okay.”
Her voice was strangely calm.
“Then prove it.”
Adrian looked at Elias.
Elias sighed.
“She's going to make this difficult.”
“She has every right to.”
Adrian pulled the SUV onto a narrow private road.
The road climbed higher into the mountains.
Lena looked outside.
“Where are we going?”
“My estate.”
“I don't want to go to your house.”
“You don't have to stay.”
“Then why are we going there?”
“Because it's protected.”
“Protected from what?”
Adrian's expression darkened.
“The people who are hunting you.”
Lena looked down at her pendant.
“Who are they?”
“We don't know yet.”
“That's convenient.”
“It's the truth.”
Adrian's voice was calm, but there was tension underneath it.
“We know someone has been searching for you for years. We don't know who is leading them.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone who has gotten close to discovering the truth has disappeared.”
Lena went quiet.
The storm flashed outside the windows.
For the first time since leaving the cabin, fear settled properly inside her.
Not panic.
Something colder.
Someone had been looking for her.
For twenty-four years.
Why?
---
The gates appeared through the rain.
They were enormous, made of dark iron and surrounded by stone pillars.
As the SUV approached, the gates opened automatically.
Lena stared.
The road beyond them wound through tall trees before opening onto a vast estate.
The mansion looked ancient.
Stone walls.
Tall windows.
Dark roofs.
It wasn't merely a rich man's house.
It looked like a place built to withstand a siege.
Lena got out of the SUV.
She looked up at the mansion.
“You live here?”
Adrian stepped beside her.
“Yes.”
“Do you have to be so dramatic?”
His eyebrow lifted.
“I didn't build it.”
“Who did?”
“My ancestors.”
Lena looked at the building again.
Something about it made her uncomfortable.
Not because it was intimidating.
Because it felt familiar.
She had seen it before.
A memory flashed through her mind.
Running through a hallway.
A woman screaming.
A locked door.
Lena grabbed the side of the SUV.
Adrian noticed immediately.
“What happened?”
“I've been here.”
He went still.
“What?”
“I don't remember exactly, but…”
She looked toward the mansion.
“I've seen it.”
Adrian exchanged a glance with Elias.
“What?” Lena demanded.
Elias lowered his voice.
“The memories are returning.”
Adrian nodded.
“Slowly.”
Lena looked between them.
“You knew this would happen?”
“We suspected.”
She stepped away from them.
“You've been hiding things from me since the moment I met you.”
Adrian didn't deny it.
“Because some truths are dangerous.”
“So are lies.”
His expression tightened.
“You're right.”
It was the first time Lena had heard him admit it.
---
Inside, the mansion was even stranger.
The walls were covered with old paintings.
Most showed men and women dressed in formal clothing.
But every painting had the same symbol.
A crescent moon surrounded by a crown.
Lena stopped beneath one.
“That's on my pendant.”
Adrian nodded.
“Yes.”
“What does it mean?”
“It represents the Moon Crown.”
“And what is the Moon Crown?”
Adrian looked at her.
“The bloodline that ruled the northern packs before the modern Alpha system existed.”
Lena stared.
“Ruled?”
“Yes.”
“Like royalty?”
“Exactly.”
She laughed once.
“You're telling me my family were wolf royalty?”
“Your ancestors were.”
“And me?”
Adrian didn't answer immediately.
Then:
“You are the last known descendant.”
Lena looked at her pendant.
“No.”
“You don't have to accept it tonight.”
“Good.”
She turned away.
A strange sensation suddenly moved through the room.
The lights flickered.
The pendant became warm.
Lena looked down.
The symbol on the silver surface was glowing again.
Adrian's expression changed.
“What's happening?”
“I don't know.”
The glow grew brighter.
Then every candle in the room lit at once.
Lena jumped.
Elias stared.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Don't touch it.”
“Why?”
“Because we don't know what it will do.”
Lena looked at him.
“It's my pendant.”
“And that's exactly why I'm worried.”
Before Lena could answer, footsteps echoed from the corridor.
A woman entered the room.
She was dressed elegantly, with silver-blonde hair and a stern expression.
Her eyes immediately landed on Lena.
She stopped.
Her face went pale.
“Impossible.”
Adrian turned.
“Mother.”
The woman's gaze never left Lena.
“Where did you find her?”
“In the mountains.”
The woman slowly approached.
She looked at Lena's face.
Then the pendant.
Her hands began to tremble.
“Seraphine.”
Lena stepped backward.
“Everyone keeps calling me that.”
The woman looked at Adrian.
“You brought her here?”
“I had no choice.”
“You should have sent her away.”
Lena's eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
The woman finally looked at her.
“Because if the council discovers you're alive, they will come for you.”
“What council?”
“The council that ordered your family destroyed.”
Silence.
Lena's heart pounded.
“You knew my family?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
The woman looked toward Adrian.
He gave a slight nod.
She sighed.
“Your mother discovered that someone inside the pack was selling information to our enemies.”
Lena listened carefully.
“She tried to expose them,” the woman continued. “Before she could, your family was attacked.”
“My father?”
“He died protecting you.”
Lena's throat tightened.
“And my mother?”
The woman looked away.
“She disappeared.”
Lena felt something c***k inside her.
“You said she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You told me she died.”
“I believed she did.”
Lena stared at Adrian.
“And you?”
He said nothing.
“You knew my mother might still be alive?”
“We had reason to believe she survived the attack.”
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because we didn't know where you were.”
Lena shook her head.
“That isn't enough.”
She turned toward the woman.
“Who attacked my family?”
The woman hesitated.
“We never found out.”
Lena's frustration rose.
“Everyone knows something except me.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“We'll find the truth.”
Lena looked at him.
“Why?”
He seemed surprised by the question.
“Because you're my responsibility.”
She frowned.
“I don't belong to you.”
Adrian's expression softened slightly.
“I didn't say you did.”
“Then what am I?”
He looked at her for several seconds.
“My mate.”
The word hung in the air.
Lena remembered the way he'd looked at her in the forest.
The shock.
The fear.
The strange connection she had felt when he touched her hand.
She didn't know what being his mate meant.
And she wasn't ready to find out.
“I need space.”
Adrian nodded.
“Take all the time you need.”
He turned away.
Then Lena noticed something.
A framed photograph on the wall.
Her mother stood in front of the mansion.
Beside her was a young Adrian.
And standing behind them was a man Lena recognized immediately.
Her father.
Lena approached the photograph.
“What is this?”
Adrian followed her gaze.
His expression changed.
“That photograph was taken two weeks before your family disappeared.”
Lena stared at her father's face.
He wasn't smiling.
He was looking directly at the camera.
And around his neck was the same silver symbol that now glowed on Lena's pendant.
She touched the glass.
A whisper suddenly echoed inside her mind.
Don't trust the Alpha.
Lena jerked her hand away.
“Did you hear that?”
Adrian stared at her.
“Hear what?”
She looked at him.
Then at the photograph.
The whisper came again.
He knows who betrayed your family.
Lena's heart began pounding.
She looked directly into Adrian's eyes.
For the first time, she wondered whether the billionaire Alpha had brought her here to protect her...
Or to keep her close enough to control the truth.
Outside the mansion, a wolf howled.
And somewhere deep beneath the estate, something answered.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD