UNKNOWINGLY MARKED THE ALPHA

CHAPTER ONE

PROLOGUE.

“Did you find her?”

The question cut through the silence the moment the door opened.

Elder Francis stepped inside, bowing his head slightly, but there was no hiding the unease in his eyes.

“Greetings, my Alpha… And yes, we do have results from the search.”

Alpha Cyrus turned to face him, his expression calm.

“Speak.”

Elder Francis took a steadying breath.

“We found graves. Many of them.” He paused briefly before continuing. “Ophelia Hawthorne died fourteen years ago. Her mate and her daughter-in-law all died years before her. Her only son died quite recently.”

Silence followed.

Alpha Cyrus' hands curled into fists at his sides.

“Fourteen years…” he repeated under his breath.

Fourteen years of searching.

Fourteen years of nothing. And now this.

“She’s gone,” Alpha Cyrus growled.

“Yes, my Alpha.” Elder Francis hesitated, shifting slightly. “But… that is not all.”

That was enough to snap the Alpha's full attention back to him.

His eyes hardened.

“Go on.”

“Before her death, Ophelia had a granddaughter,” Elder Francis said carefully. “The child lived with her. She survived.”

Alpha Cyrus went completely still.

“Where?” Alpha Cyrus asked.

“She lives in Hollow Mountain pack,” Francis replied. “She was taken in by Ophelia's former apprentice. A young healer named Dorothy.”

“And her name?”

Elder Francis met his gaze fully this time. “Meadow Hawthorne.”

********

MEADOW'S POV.

"Ahhh....!!!"

I bit back the rest of my scream as pain ripped through me without mercy.

"Meadow!"

I could barely make out Dorothy's voice calling me through the ringing in my ears.

Another wave of pain shot through me, and I gasped, my body arching as fire burned through my chest and down into my bones. Every breath hurt. Every heartbeat felt like I was being ripped apart. The mate bond screamed inside me—betrayed and torn open.

Lucian was with her again.

Every night they were together, I felt it all.

Every touch. Every movement. Every sound. The bond screamed from the betrayal, and I was the one who took the hit.

My wolf, Penny, whimpered deep inside me, curling in on herself as if she could hide from the pain. I couldn’t move. Could no longer cry out. My voice was gone and I could only endure.

“Meadow…”

Dorothy's voice broke through the haze.

She was beside me in a moment, her hands shaking as they hovered over my body. “I heard you,” she whispered. “Your pain woke me. How can he keep doing this to you, for goddess' sake? The Alpha knows what it does to you every time he touches her. And Clarissa…” Her voice cracked. “What kind of sister does this?”

Another pain ripped through my insides, and my mouth opened in a soundless cry, tears rolling down my sweat-soaked face. My whole body shook from the pain and the bed shook under me.

Dorothy shook her head sadly. "The Alpha's behavior I can understand. But Clarissa? How can she be such an ingrate? I remember how your grandmother used to harbor her and her mother whenever her psycho father chased them out of the house. I remember how your parents always took care of her as if she were their own whenever Eloisa was stupid enough to leave Clarissa behind with Ophelia and return to that madman she calls a mate. How can Clarissa and Eloisa do this to you after everything your family had done for them? How could they be such ingrates?"

Dorothy kept talking, going on about all the things my parents and my grandmother had done for the mother and daughter and how unfair their betrayal was. But I could barely comprehend half of what she was saying through the agony.

After what felt like forever, I felt it.

“It’s over,” I whispered weakly. “They’re done.”

But the pain wasn’t.

Dorothy helped me sit up, holding me until the worst of it passed. It took over an hour, but the pain finally started to dull. Together, we moved slowly into the sitting room.

We had barely settled when the knock came.

The door opened before either of us answered.

Clarissa, my stepsister, walked in.

Her eyes skimmed over me with a faint, cruel smirk before turning to Dorothy.

“I’m here for my medicine,” she said smoothly. “You were told to prepare it. I need help sleeping better.”

Dorothy's control snapped.

“Do you really have no conscience?” she demanded. “What kind of sister are you?”

Clarissa tilted her head. “Excuse me?”

“How can you do this to her?” Dorothy pressed. “After everything she's suffered. After everything her family has done for you and your mother. Isn't it enough that you stole her mate after rejecting yours, for goddess only knows what?! How could you be so shameless?!”

Clarissa turned to me, her eyes cold.

“She’s not my sister,” she said flatly. “We were raised by the same woman. That’s all. And she's dead. Both of them, actually. Both her mother and her grandmother. I owe nothing to no one.”

My hands clenched.

“Is that all you have to say?” I asked.

Clarissa stepped closer. “Were you expecting more?” she asked coldly. "Lucian rejected you, so what? You're an outcast, Meadow. No Alpha wants an outcast for a mate, and no pack would approve of one for a Luna. Lucian chose me. His father prefers me for him because I'm better fitted for the Luna position of this pack. Move on, Meadow. The world doesn’t revolve around you.”

Without another word, she took the medicine from the table and left.

The door closed behind her with unnecessary force and a loud sound.

Silence followed.

"You need to find a way to leave this pack, Meadow," Dorothy said. "I don't know how long your wolf will be able to endure this torture. She's growing weaker and weaker by the day. As long as the bond is not fully broken, every time the alpha touches another, your wolf dies a little more. If you don't leave Hollow Mountain soon, I fear what will happen. This could kill you. You need to put a distance between you and him, that's the only way."

I sighed, still clutching my stomach from the ache. "What do you want me to do, Dorothy?" I asked. "I can't leave Hollow Mountain, and you know that."

After Lucian rejected me to be with Clarissa, he feared that I might leave the pack, and that could cause his wolf to grow weak and unstable. And so he bound me with an Alpha's command, making sure I wouldn’t be able to cross the border of Hollow Mountain. Every time I tried, it tortured both me and my wolf. I was stuck here.

“Are you strong enough to go out and get the moonflowers?” Dorothy asked softly.

“I am,” I nodded, carefully pushing myself up.

She hesitated. “You had that dream again earlier.”

I frowned. "What dream?"

"The same one you've been having since your first shift. You told me it came back on the night of the rejection, remember? It's been months since the rejection, Meadow, and you're still having it."

The memory hit me hard.

Warm hands. A deep voice. Hunger. Possession.

"Mine."

That same deep voice sounded in my head, and I shivered slightly.

I blinked and shook it off.

“It wasn’t Lucian,” I said firmly, already knowing what Dorothy thought every time I had that dream. And for a while I let myself believe it too, until I realized what a snake he really was.

Dorothy stepped forward. "Meadow, you've never seen his face—"

I shook my head. "I don't need to. It's not him, Dot. I used to think so too, but I realize now I was wrong. It's not Lucian. This one feels... different."

Dorothy studied me. “Dreams like this don't just come, Meadow. Someone is reaching for you.”

Her words caused me to look away immediately. Dorothy wasn't just a witch; she was a seer. She always said this whenever I had that particular dream, but lately it made me feel uncomfortable because it only reminded me of one thing—or rather, one person. The stranger I had accidentally marked that night in the woods over six months ago while trying to suck poison out of his veins.

That memory always came in fragments, like something my mind refused to fully accept.

That night… everything had already fallen apart.

The night my father died in my arms in the pack dungeon.

The same night Lucian rejected me and mated Clarissa. I had buried my father myself that night with the help of Dorothy.

I didn’t know what to do with myself. Grief had no shape in my chest—only emptiness and something that burned beneath it.

So I worked.

I stayed busy until my body hurt more than my thoughts.

When Dorothy needed herbs from outside pack borders, I volunteered immediately.

At the time, Lucian hadn’t bound me with his command yet. I could still leave. I could still breathe.

I told myself I just needed air so I went alone.

The forest beyond Hollow Mountain territory was quieter, darker—untouched in a way that made it feel like another world entirely. I was gathering plants when I heard it.

Voices, then movement.

At first, I ignored it, until I heard the pain. The groan. The crash. And then something heavy hitting the ground.

My instincts moved before I did.

I followed the sound deeper into the trees, and that was when I saw them.

A man lay on the ground, his body convulsing violently. Another knelt beside him, panic written all over his face as he tried to hold him still.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” the second man was saying.

I stepped closer.

One look at him told me everything I needed to know.

Poison.

His skin was already discolored. Veins darkening beneath the surface. He had made contact with something poisonous.

A forest plant—deadly if it entered the bloodstream too fast.

I noticed something about his eyes as well. They were quite... unique. One silver, one blue. For a moment I wondered if that was also the effect of the poison.

“Move,” I said immediately.

The kneeling man snapped his head toward me. “Who are you—”

“I said move.”

Something in my tone made him hesitate just long enough for me to push past him.

I dropped to my knees beside the convulsing man and grabbed his wrist, slicing it open.

Dark blood spilled out as I forced the poison to surface faster, squeezing his arm, pushing and sucking it out of his system before it reached his heart.

But then I saw it.

The vein pattern shifting, crawling upward toward his neck, toward his brain.

If it reached there, he wouldn’t survive it.

I didn’t think. I leaned in, and I bit him, right into the side of his neck where the vein was headed.

Warm blood filled my mouth instantly as I focused, pulling the poison out through instinct more than logic.

Then a sound escaped him_ a low, broken groan that sounded more like pleasure than pain.

His hand shot up and grabbed my head, his fingers tightening in my hair—not to pull me away, but to hold me there, to pull me closer.

I froze_for half a second.

Then I realized what I was doing.

My teeth were still in his neck.

The man beside us shouted, “What do you think you're doing?!”

He lunged forward and shoved me hard.

I fell back onto the forest floor, landing on my hip, stunned. I quickly threw away the mouthful of blood.

For a moment, I just stared at them.

The sick man was being lifted carefully by his companion.

And then he looked at me.

Alive.

Very much alive.

But extremely furious.

“What did you do to me?” he demanded.

I blinked. “I saved you. There was poison in your veins heading right for your brain. I was just drawing it out.”

His expression twisted. “I don’t recall giving you permission to touch me.”

Silence.

For a moment, I sat there, shocked and confused.

Then something inside me snapped.

I spat out the remnant of blood in my mouth and wiped my lips with the back of my hand.

“You’re welcome,” I said coldly. “Next time, I’ll just let you die and respect your ‘permission’ while you rot in the dirt.”

The other man stepped forward immediately. “Watch your tone. Do you even know who you’re speaking to?”

I turned to him.

“Should I care? If I hadn’t stepped in, he would be dead.”

That shut him up for a second.

I stood, grabbed my knife from the ground, and turned away.

I had already wasted enough time. It was getting late, and I had to get back before Dorothy started to worry.

But then I barely took two steps when I heard it.

“Wha—Did you just imprint on me?”

The voice stopped me.