The Future Alpha
1839 Words
Chapter 4: The Future Alpha
The Alpha Manor had never felt so quiet.
Long after the Sacred Clearing emptied, the silence lingered like a heavy fog over Bloodfang Pack. Servants whispered behind closed doors, warriors doubled their patrols, and every lantern in the manor remained lit despite the late hour.
No one wanted to admit it aloud.
Something had changed.
Selene followed Mara through the stone corridors with slow, uncertain steps. The familiar halls that had once felt merely lonely now seemed almost foreign. Every servant they passed lowered their eyes before quickly hurrying away, as though afraid that standing too close to her would bring misfortune upon them.
"They're scared," Selene murmured.
Mara sighed softly.
"They don't understand what happened tonight."
"Neither do I."
Mara stopped outside the small servant's room Selene had called home since she was six years old. The wooden door was worn with age, its paint chipped from countless winters. It had never been much, but it had always been hers.
"You should rest," Mara said gently.
"I don't think I can."
The older woman reached up and brushed a loose strand of dark hair behind Selene's ear.
"You don't have to carry the whole world's questions tonight."
A weak smile tugged at Selene's lips.
"I wish they were only the world's questions."
Mara's expression softened with sympathy, but before she could answer, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.
A young servant nearly stumbled as she rounded the corner.
"Mara!"
The older woman turned.
"What is it?"
"The Alpha is asking for you."
Mara frowned.
"Now?"
"Immediately."
She looked back at Selene, reluctant to leave.
"I'll return as soon as I can."
"I'll be alright."
"You promise?"
Selene nodded.
Only after Mara disappeared down the corridor did she quietly slip inside her room.
It was exactly as she had left it that morning.
A narrow bed.
A small wooden table.
A cracked mirror hanging crookedly on the wall.
Nothing had changed.
Yet everything felt different.
She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her trembling hands.
They looked perfectly ordinary.
No silver light.
No strange markings.
No answers.
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
The image of the silver lake returned immediately.
The enormous moon.
The woman cloaked in shimmering light.
"My child..."
Selene's eyes flew open.
The voice still echoed inside her mind.
Who was she?
Why had she called Selene her child?
And what had she meant when she said, "They stole everything from you"?
A sharp knock at the door shattered her thoughts.
Before Selene could answer, the door swung open.
Kael Draven stood on the other side.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Selene quickly rose to her feet and lowered her head.
"My lord."
Kael remained in the doorway, his expression unreadable.
"I didn't come as your lord."
She blinked.
"I came because I have questions."
Silence settled between them.
Selene wasn't sure whether she should invite him in. No member of the Alpha family had ever entered the servants' quarters before.
Kael seemed to notice her hesitation.
"May I?"
She stepped aside.
"It's... not much."
His eyes briefly swept across the tiny room.
The worn blanket.
The chipped wooden chair.
The single bookshelf containing only three old novels and a small journal.
His gaze lingered for a moment before returning to her.
"You've lived here all these years?"
"Yes."
He frowned almost imperceptibly.
"I didn't know."
Selene smiled faintly.
"There was never a reason for you to."
Kael didn't argue.
Instead, he folded his arms.
"When you touched the Moon Stone..."
His voice grew quieter.
"...did time stop?"
Selene's breath caught.
She stared at him in disbelief.
"What?"
"I asked if time stopped."
"How could you possibly know that?"
A flicker of uncertainty crossed his usually composed face.
"Because..."
He hesitated, choosing his words carefully.
"For one moment..."
"...everyone disappeared."
Selene's heart began pounding.
"You saw it too?"
Kael slowly shook his head.
"No."
"I saw you."
She frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"You weren't moving."
His voice remained calm, but something in his eyes betrayed his confusion.
"The beam appeared."
"The crowd vanished behind the light."
"And you simply stood there..."
"...looking at something that wasn't there."
Selene wrapped her arms around herself.
"I wasn't imagining it."
"I don't think you were."
Those words surprised her more than anything else.
Everyone else had looked at her with fear.
With suspicion.
Kael looked at her as though he were trying to solve a puzzle.
"I heard a woman," Selene admitted quietly.
Kael remained silent.
"She called me her child."
His eyes narrowed.
"What else?"
"I don't remember everything."
That wasn't entirely true.
She remembered, more than she admitted.
She simply wasn't ready to tell anyone about the silver lake...
Or the warning.
Or the darkness that had swallowed everything whole.
Kael studied her for a long moment.
"You don't trust me."
Selene looked away.
"I don't know you."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
It was small.
Gone almost as quickly as it came.
"That's fair."
For the first time that evening...
The Future Alpha laughed.
Not loudly.
Not mockingly.
Just once.
A quiet, genuine laugh.
"I suppose I haven't given you much reason to."
Selene found herself smiling in return.
Only slightly.
Only for a moment.
Kael's quiet laugh faded almost as quickly as it had come.
Silence settled over the small servant's room once more.
For the first time in years, Selene found herself standing in the presence of the future Alpha without fear.
Not because he wasn't intimidating.
He was.
Even now, dressed in simple black training clothes instead of ceremonial robes, Kael carried himself with the quiet confidence of someone born to lead. Broad shoulders, straight posture, calm eyes that seemed to notice everything.
Yet unlike everyone else...
He wasn't looking at her as though she were a curse waiting to happen.
He was simply...
Looking.
Trying to understand.
His gaze drifted around the room once more.
"You've lived here since you were six."
It wasn't a question.
Selene nodded.
"After my parents died."
His eyes landed on the cracked mirror hanging beside the bed.
The wooden frame had splintered years ago.
She had repaired it herself using old pieces of twine.
Then...
His attention shifted to the blanket folded neatly at the foot of the bed.
It was noticeably thinner than the ones issued to the manor servants.
"You've never asked for another room?"
Selene blinked.
"No."
"Why not?"
She looked genuinely confused.
"This one isn't mine."
Kael frowned.
"...What?"
"It belongs to the Alpha Manor."
She shrugged lightly.
"I'm only allowed to stay here."
Her answer caught him off guard.
Allowed.
Not given.
Not welcomed.
Allowed.
He slowly looked back around the room.
The walls were bare.
There were no family portraits.
No keepsakes.
No jewelry.
Nothing that suggested someone actually lived there.
It looked less like a home...
And more like a place someone merely occupied.
"You own very little."
"I have everything I need."
"You call this enough?"
A faint smile appeared on Selene's lips.
"When you've grown up with very little..."
She gently ran her fingers across the worn blanket.
"...you stop wishing for more."
Something about the way she said it unsettled him.
There was no bitterness.
No resentment.
Only acceptance.
Kael realized he didn't know whether that made it better...
Or worse.
A soft knock echoed outside.
"Future Alpha?"
One of the manor guards stood outside the half-open door.
"Alpha Magnus requests your presence."
"I'll be there shortly."
The guard nodded before disappearing down the corridor.
Kael looked back at Selene.
"My father has already ordered the Elders to search the archives."
She tilted her head.
"Because of me?"
"Because of what happened."
She lowered her eyes.
"They're afraid."
"They're confused."
"Aren't those the same thing?"
He considered the question.
"No."
"They're afraid because they don't understand."
Selene looked toward the moonlight spilling through her window.
"I wish I understood."
Another silence settled between them.
This one wasn't uncomfortable.
It simply...
Was.
Finally, Kael spoke again.
"If you remember anything else..."
She turned back toward him.
"Anything at all."
"...tell me before you tell the others."
Her brows furrowed.
"Why?"
His expression became thoughtful.
"Because once fear takes hold..."
He glanced toward the corridor beyond her room.
"...people stop searching for the truth."
Those words lingered in the air long after he finished speaking.
Selene wasn't sure why...
But she believed him.
Kael turned toward the door.
"I should go."
"My lord..."
He paused.
She hesitated before speaking.
"...Thank you."
He looked back over his shoulder.
"For what?"
"For believing I wasn't lying."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"I didn't say I believed everything."
Selene laughed softly.
The sound surprised both of them.
"I only said..."
Kael opened the door.
"...I believe you believe it."
With that, he stepped into the corridor.
The door closed quietly behind him.
Selene remained standing where she was for several moments.
She wasn't sure what had just happened.
No one had ever come to her room simply to ask how she was.
No one from the Alpha family had ever treated her as though her words mattered.
Yet tonight...
Kael had listened.
Not judged.
Listened.
She slowly sat back on the edge of her bed.
Outside, the manor gradually fell silent as midnight approached.
One by one, the lanterns throughout the corridors were extinguished.
Soon...
Only moonlight remained.
Selene lay down, hoping exhaustion would finally claim her.
Instead...
Sleep refused to come.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the endless silver lake.
The veiled woman.
The darkness racing toward them.
"You must not awaken—"
The unfinished warning echoed through her thoughts.
Awaken?
Awaken what?
She rolled onto her side, trying to push the memory away.
A sudden warmth spread across her left wrist.
Selene frowned.
She pushed back the sleeve of her dress.
Nothing.
No mark.
No light.
Just pale skin.
"...I imagined it."
She let out a slow breath and pulled the blanket over herself.
Outside her small window, clouds drifted across the full moon.
The room grew darker.
Then brighter again.
As the moon emerged from behind the clouds...
A single silver glow flickered beneath the skin of her wrist.
So faint...
It could have been mistaken for moonlight.
Selene had already closed her eyes.
She never saw it.
Far beyond the walls of the Alpha Manor...
Beyond the village...
Beyond Bloodfang Pack's borders...
A lone wolf stood atop a rocky cliff overlooking the forest below.
His silver-gray fur shimmered beneath the moonlight.
Ancient golden eyes remained fixed on the distant lights of the pack.
For the first time in eighteen years...
He lowered his head.
Not in submission.
But in recognition.
Then, without another glance toward the sleeping pack...
The ancient wolf turned.
His silver fur vanished into the shadows of the forest.
As though he had merely come...
To see her with his own eyes.
Then he vanished into the shadows once more.
- Writer
