Betrayed by the Alpha, Bound by Destiny

Blood at the Border

The glowing red eyes multiplied in the dark, replicated along the tree line until dozens of them were there.

Selene's wolf snarled, hackles raised, as a low rumbling growl came from her depths.

Rogues.

She had fought them before; scavengers, lone wolves, broken souls tainted by madness and hunger. Too many of them this time, though, moving in unnatural ranks, like a pack with a purpose.

And here, face-to-face, with the one man she'd sworn she'd never see again.

Kael didn't vacillate. He shifted in a flash, black fur pouring over his massive frame, his Alpha wolf towering and bristling with killing power.

Mate bond pulsed, pulling Selene so strongly that her knees seemed to buckle.

Her wolf darted forward, occupying the space, shifting her in a heartbeat. The world came into sharp focus, all the scents, all the sounds, all the beads of fear sliding from the rogues as they converged.

Kael's silver-eyed wolf looked at her. A silent command.

And that was enough to rouse her temper.

No one issues commands to me. Not anymore.

Her snarl ripped through the clearing, a sound that even caused the rogues to hesitate. She leapt first, slamming into the nearest attacker with bone-crunching strength. The rogue let out a yelp and hit the ground hard, but three others pushed forward.

Claws rent the night. Blood splattered on the earth. Selene spun about, teeth bared, her wolf a vortex of rage and utility.

Kael fought a step back of her, a whirlwind of black fur and muscle, tearing through rogues with bone-shuddering efficiency. He played like the Alpha she remembered, ferocious, unstoppable, utterly dominating the battlefield.

Blood filled the air. Snarls and yips cut through the forest as Lyra and the others came in from the back, bringing their might to the fight.

Selene saw Lyra rip a marauder from the back of a younger wolf before she was dragged into her own battle, jaws locked around the throat of another assailant.

For a crazed instant, Selene and Kael were where they'd once been; fighting together, two halves of one unbreakable whole.

The bond between them hummed, electric and unavoidable.

She hated how it felt so right.

Minutes were like hours. The rogues were dropped, individually.

By the time the last of them limped off into the woods, leaving blood in their wake, Selene stood panting in the clearing, her fur soaked with sweat and blood.

Her wolves clustered around her, some yelping from minor injuries, but all of them alive.

She shifted back to human form, naked but unhurt, swiping blood from her cheek with the back of her hand.

Across from her, Kael shifted too, his massive frame shrinking back into a man, tall, broad, his skin streaked with dirt and blood.

His gray eyes locked on hers.

“You’re welcome,” he said, voice low and rough.

Selene’s head snapped toward him, fury burning hot.

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

He stepped closer, slow, deliberate, the way he would when trying to calm her wrath, which only infuriated her more.

"You would have been outnumbered," he said quietly.

"I can handle rogues," she hissed.

"Thirty of them," he amended.

Her jaw clenched. "Then I would have died on my own terms. Not in your shadow."

Kael's eyes darkened. For a moment, she feared he would argue, but he turned away from her, to her wolves, some limping, others still trying to breathe.

"Your pack needs you alive," he said softly.

Those words cut deeper than claws.

Selene turned her back on him, instead turning her attention to Lyra, who was tending the wounded.

"Take them back to camp," Selene instructed. "We'll heal wounds there.".

Lyra hesitated, glancing between her Alpha and the towering form of Kael.

"Do it now," Selene growled.

Lyra nodded and began to herd the others back away from him, leaving Selene standing alone on the threshold with Kael.

The tension hung in the air.

Finally, she turned to him, still seething with anger. "You shouldn't have pushed it that far."

His jaw tightened. "And if I hadn't, you'd be dead."

"I didn't invite you to save me."

No," Kael spoke softly, his eyes blazing like silver fire. "But I did anyway."

Her heart startled.

She hated him for saving her.

She hated herself more for wanting him not to go.

The clearing reeked of blood and wet earth.

Selene led her wolves back to camp, ignoring the pounding footsteps behind her. Kael wasn't going anywhere, she could feel his presence in every step, the mate bond tugging at her like a thorn in her chest. Her wolf paced in her mind, restless and conflicted. She hated him. She wanted him.

It would be so much easier if she felt nothing.

When they reached the heart of the camp, the healers were already waiting, dragging buckets of water and strips of clean cloth toward the wounded. Selene crouched beside a younger wolf, Mira, whose flank was bleeding from a deep gash.

“You’ll live,” Selene said softly, tying the strip tight around the wound. Mira winced but nodded, eyes shining with admiration.

“You fought like the moon goddess herself,” Mira whispered.

Selene's throat tightened. She had to be strong for them, always.

After Mira was steady, Selene stood, and found Kael leaned against the trunk of a nearby pine, arms folded, watching her.

His chest was bare, smeared with blood and grime, muscles flexing with each controlled breath.

She hated that her heart faltered.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

He pushed away from the tree and took a step closer. "To talk."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Yes, there is." His voice was flat, but beneath it was an edge of steel.

She whirled away from him, walking toward her cabin. She could hear him behind her, quiet, deliberate, as if he had every right to be there.

When they were alone inside, Selene turned on him.

"You have five seconds before I throw you out."

Kael didn't respond. He merely looked at her, eyes softening enough to pain her chest.

"You vanished without a word," he said quietly.

Her laughter was biting, bitter. "What was there for me to say? 'Thanks for breaking my heart, Kael. Thanks for rejecting me in front of the entire pack and making sure everyone knew I wasn't good enough for you'?

His jaw clenched. "You think I wanted to reject you?"

"I don't care what you wanted," she spat. "You did it. That's all that matters."

The silence stretched, tense and thick.

Kael stepped closer, close enough she could smell the warmth radiating from him. Her wolf whined softly in her head, traitorously thrilled at his nearness.

"I made a mistake," Kael said finally, his voice low.

Selene's breath caught.

It was as close to an apology as she'd ever heard him give.

But she wasn't ready to forgive yet.

"You don't get to say that now," she whispered, her voice shaking under the effort of not crying. "Not after everything I lost because of you."

Kael's eyes softened, but his voice didn't. "I'm not leaving, Selene. Not until you hear me out."

Her fists tightened. "You think you can just stay here? In my territory?"

His lips curved into the faintest hint of a smile. "I don't think you could make me leave."

Her heart thudded.

This wasn't arrogance; this was a challenge.

She hadn't had time to react when Lyra appeared in the doorway, breathless.

"Alpha," Lyra said urgently. "We caught one of the rogues."

Selene's rage turned to cold purpose.

"Where is he?"

"Being held at the clearing."

She brushed by Kael, attempting to ignore the touch of his hand against her arm, the tremble it caused in her that she hated herself for feeling.

Outside, the night air was heavy with tension as the pack converged around one lone rogue, pinned to the ground by two muscular enforcers. His fur was filthy, his eyes wild with pain and fear.

Selene crouched before him. "Why attack us?"

The rogue snarled but didn't answer.

Kael appeared at her side, and the rogue recoiled in fear at his presence.

"Talk," Kael growled, his Alpha voice commanding.

The rogue whined.

"They're coming," he rasped. "Not just us. More. So many more."

Selene's stomach dropped.

"Who?" she demanded.

But the rogue only twitched, and then snapped his own neck with a ghastly c***k before anyone could move.

The pack recoiled in horror.

Selene rose slowly, her gaze sweeping over her wolves.

“This isn’t over,” she said grimly.

Her pack nodded, tense and silent.

When she turned, Kael was watching her with something like respect in his eyes.

“You’re a strong Alpha,” he said softly.

“I didn’t become strong for you,” she spat.

He didn’t reply. He only looked at her, like he saw something no one else did.

And she hated how much she required him to keep looking.

Selene stood over the body of the rogue, her heart still pounding in her chest.

"Burn him," she instructed coldly. "No trace left for the others to find."

Her wolves moved quickly to comply, going to drag the body away.

The night remained heavy and quiet again, but tension hadn't been shattered. If anything, it had intensified, like a storm waiting to rend the sky asunder.

Kael stood at the edge of the firelight, his muscular physique casting a long shadow over the clearing. He had not spoken since the rogue's death, but she could feel his mind battering against hers, weighed down with insistence.

Finally, she turned to him.

"You've seen what you came to see," she told him. "Now go."

Kael's gray eyes locked onto hers. He did not move.

"Selene"

"No." Her voice cracked like a whip. "You don't get to speak my name. You don't get to stand here like you have a right to stand here. You made your choice months ago. Go. My. Land."

Her wolves shifted around her, growls swelling like low thunder.

Kael didn't flinch. He moved forward instead, into the center of the clearing, into her space, into her power.

"I am not going," he stated, his Alpha voice ringing through the air.

The pack stopped.

Selene's wolf snarled inside her. "You dare defy me"

"This is not a challenge," Kael commanded, his tone low but steady. "This is a warning."

He stepped back, his silver gaze raking every one of the wolves in the clearing before coming to rest on her.

You are my mate," he said to her, his voice echoing through the darkness like a vow. "And you are still my Luna."

The words slammed into Selene like a punch. The mate bond flared white heat, burning away all the barriers she'd built around herself.

Gasps rippled through the pack. Lyra's eyes flew wide. Some of the wolves stared at each other, mouthed.

Selene's fists tightened so hard her nails bit into her palms.

"How dare you," she panted, her words trembling with fury.

Kael approached until there was mere hair between them.

"I dare," he said, his voice slipping into a low, carnal growl, "because the threat coming at us will annihilate both our packs if we don't stand together against it. And I won't let my Luna face it alone."

Selene's heart pounded so fiercely she could hear it in her ears.

"You think you can come back into my life and claim me after what you've done?" she hissed.

Kael's gaze did not waver. "I think fate already claimed us both. And if you want me gone from here, Selene…. "

He advanced so close their chests nearly collided.

".you'll have to kill me to make it happen."

The clearing was silent, every wolf holding its breath, waiting.

Selene's heart pounded, her wolf clawing at her stomach.

And then, from out of the darkness beyond the fire, a second howl echoed, mournful, low, and a little too close.

Dozens of bright red eyes flashed again on the treeline, shutting them in.

There were more than rogues this time.

Selene could smell it. power, old and heavy, washing off the figures in the shadows like a wave.

"Goddess," Lyra whispered. "They're already here."

Selene bared her teeth, her wolf bursting forward.

Kael's eyes glowed, and for a moment, their wolves ran in perfect accord again, ready to face whatever was emerging.

And then a voice thundered out of the shadows, deep and mocking:

"Alpha Selene. Alpha Kael. What a nice little reunion."

The clearing fell at once silent.

For the figure stepping into the circle of firelight was supposed to be dead.