The Alpha Of The Border
893 Words
The settlement gates creaked open as the hunters marched Aria inside. People stopped what they were doing to stare.
Whispers followed immediately.
“Who is she?”
“She’s injured.”
“Rogues?”
“No… something else.”
Damon walked ahead, hands in his pockets as though he had done this a hundred times. The hunters flanked Aria, crossbows still at the ready.
Aria swallowed hard. “Does it always feel like a parade when you bring someone in?”
“No,” Damon replied. “Only when they’re interesting.”
“I’m not—”
He cut her off. “Debatable.”
Before she could argue, the lead hunter lifted two fingers and whistled sharply.
“Alpha! Brought you something!”
Aria froze.
Alpha?
Great, another pack, another chance to be thrown back into the woods like trash.
The crowd parted as footsteps approached—slow, steady, controlled. Not rushed, not defensive. Confident.
A man emerged from between two guards — tall, broad shoulders, dark hair swept back, wearing a black coat embroidered with silver thread. His eyes were sharp gold, the kind that assessed everything in two seconds and missed nothing.
Alpha Leon.
His gaze flicked over the hunters, then Damon, then finally landed on Aria.
He didn’t speak immediately. He just took her in—from her torn clothes, scraped knees, and mud-stained skin to the makeshift bandage on her leg.
A long beat of silence stretched.
“Where did you find her?”
“North ridge,” the hunter replied. “Running. Rogues behind her.”
Aria flinched at the memory.
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How many?”
“Twelve, maybe more. All moving as one.”
The settlement murmured at that—rogues rarely coordinated.
Leon looked at Aria again. Not like she was prey. More like she was a puzzle he intended to solve.
“Who are you?”
Aria hesitated. The last time she answered questions from an Alpha, it ended with rejection and exile.
Damon stepped forward. “She didn’t give her name.”
Leon didn’t take his eyes off Aria. “Then I suggest she does now.”
Aria straightened, ignoring the pain in her ribs. “Aria.”
“Aria what?”
She opened her mouth—and stopped.
She didn’t have a last name. The Beta family gave her food, shelter, and clothes… but not their name. She was always just Aria. The quiet orphan with no wolf, no identity, no place to belong.
Leon caught the hesitation.
“No family?”
Aria lifted her chin. “I was found. Raised. That’s all.”
Damon’s eyes flickered, like he recognized that answer.
Leon’s expression didn’t change. “Very well. Why were rogues chasing you, Aria-who-was-found?”
“I don’t know,” she said. It wasn’t entirely a lie—she didn’t know why, only that they were relentless.
“Rogues don’t hunt without purpose,” Leon replied. “Especially not in coordinated packs.”
Aria’s voice trembled despite her best effort. “I didn’t ask them to.”
Leon ignored the hunter’s smirk and turned to Damon. “You brought her in. You read?”
Damon shrugged. “Not rogue. Not pack-marked. Not dead weight.”
Aria blinked. “Excuse me?”
He added, “Didn’t faint once. Even when bleeding.”
One of the guards muttered, “That’s the requirement now?”
Leon cut a hand through the air. “Enough.” Then to Aria: “Do you belong to a pack?”
Aria froze.
She could say no and avoid explaining exile.
She could say yes and risk being sent back.
Either answer could get her killed.
Leon read the pause again. He was too good at that.
“I’ll take the silence as a complication.”
Aria finally said quietly, “I belonged. Not anymore.”
The settlement murmured again.
Leon exhaled. “Exile.”
Not a question. A conclusion.
Aria’s heart thudded.
Leon turned to his guards. “Get her to the infirmary. Clean wounds. Feed her. And put watchers on the door.”
Aria stiffened. “Watchers?”
Leon met her eyes again. “Until I decide whether you’re a liability, a threat, or something else.”
Damon smirked faintly. “Told you. Interesting.”
Aria shot him a glare. “You have a strange definition of interesting.”
Leon said nothing further as the guards led her away. She wasn’t cuffed, but they walked close enough that running would be pointless.
Inside the infirmary, a woman with sharp eyes and quick hands cleaned her wounds while the guards stood near the wall whispering.
“Exiled?”
“Must have done something.”
“Or something was done to her.”
Aria stared at the ceiling until the whispers faded.
Damon’s voice drifted from the hallway. “So? What’s your verdict?”
Leon answered calmly. “No verdict. Not yet.”
“You think she’s dangerous?”
“I think she isn’t what she says.”
Aria closed her eyes.
She had escaped rogues, had escaped death, and she had escaped rejection.
This Alpha?
He wasn’t going to let her slip through so easily.
And for the first time since Kaelan cast her out, Aria felt an unfamiliar sensation coil in her chest.
Because Alpha Leon clearly recognized something she didn’t even understand about herself.
- Writer
