The Alpha of The Forgotten

Teeth in the Dark

The east line was already crowded by the time Jazmine arrived.

Torches burned low between the trees, their flames snapping in the wind. Wolves from the Forgotten Ones formed a rough half-circle near the border stones, their bodies tense, shoulders squared, instincts sharp. The scent of agitation hung thick in the air.

Jazmine stepped through them without slowing.

“Report.”

A younger patrol wolf named Talia turned first. “Movement past the ridge. Three, maybe four. They crossed close enough to test the line, then pulled back.”

“Midnight Pack?” Niko asked from behind Jazmine, his voice hard.

Talia hesitated. “At first, I thought so.”

Jazmine crouched near the disturbed earth. Broken brush. Fresh tracks. Male wolves, heavy-footed, careless in the way only people who wanted to be noticed ever were. She touched two fingers to the ground, letting instinct and magic skim the trail.

Then her mouth flattened.

“No,” she said.

Niko folded his arms. “You sure?”

Jazmine rose, wiping her fingers against her jeans. “These aren’t Kai’s wolves.”

That got everyone’s attention.

She ignored it.

The scent was wrong. Too sour. Too eager. Too messy. Midnight wolves moved like discipline had been carved into their bones. These tracks carried arrogance, not control.

One of the patrol wolves shifted uneasily. “Then who?”

Before Jazmine could answer, voices drifted through the trees from beyond the line.

A woman’s laugh came first.

Sharp. Confident. Deliberately loud.

Then footsteps.

A group emerged from the dark, stopping just across the border stones. Four Midnight wolves. Armed, alert, and entirely too comfortable for the hour. At their center stood a woman Jazmine recognized immediately from pack gatherings years ago.

Whitney.

Thirty-two. Black wolf. Beautiful in a hard, polished way that was meant to intimidate as much as attract. She wore a fitted black jacket and a smirk that announced trouble before she ever opened her mouth.

So this was the first move.

Not Kai.

Whitney.

Jazmine straightened slowly, every eye on the border shifting between them.

“Well,” Whitney said, gaze sweeping over Jazmine with open challenge. “The rumors are true.”

Jazmine said nothing.

Whitney took another look, more deliberate this time. “Kai really did come sniffing around.”

Niko growled under his breath.

Jazmine barely lifted a hand, and he quieted.

Whitney’s smile widened. “I almost didn’t believe it. Him coming all this way for an old friend?” Her eyes sharpened. “But then again, maybe some women need a reminder that history doesn’t make them special.”

The wolves around Jazmine went still.

Waiting.

Watching.

Seeing how far this would go.

Jazmine stepped to the very edge of the line, moonlight catching the cold calm in her face. “You crossed pack lines at night to say that?”

Whitney tilted her head. “I crossed pack lines to see if the woman causing problems was worth the attention.”

“Then go home,” Jazmine said. “You’ve seen enough.”

A few of Whitney’s wolves shifted, insulted.

Whitney laughed once. “You really think you can dismiss me?”

Jazmine’s expression did not move. “I know I can.”

Whitney’s eyes flashed. “Kai is my Alpha.”

“Congratulations.”

“And I’ve been beside him for years.”

Jazmine gave a small, almost bored nod. “That sounds exhausting for him.”

One of the Forgotten Ones snorted before quickly choking it back.

Whitney stiffened. “You think this is funny?”

“No,” Jazmine said. “I think you’re transparent.”

The air tightened.

Whitney stepped closer to the border, chin lifting. “You don’t know anything about me.”

Jazmine’s gaze slid over her, slow and cutting. “I know enough. You’re territorial over a man who hasn’t chosen you, threatened by a woman who hasn’t tried to take him, and reckless enough to mistake proximity for power.”

That hit.

Whitney’s wolf pushed to the surface, eyes brightening. “Careful.”

Jazmine smiled then.

It was not kind.

“No,” she said softly. “You be careful.”

Silence dropped over both packs like a blade.

Whitney tried to recover, drawing herself taller. “Kai doesn’t like women who start fights they can’t finish.”

Jazmine took one more step forward, close enough now that the border stones sat between their boots like the only thing keeping this from turning physical.

“Then it’s a good thing I finish everything I start.”

Whitney’s breathing changed.

Just slightly.

But Jazmine heard it.

Smelled it.

Fear under pride.

There.

That was the truth.

Whitney had come expecting a rival she could needle. A woman rattled by Kai’s attention. Maybe even a female Alpha softened by emotion.

Instead she had found Jazmine.

And Jazmine had no patience for insecure women performing dominance on borrowed courage.

“You came here hoping to send a message,” Jazmine said, voice carrying clear through the trees. “So let me make sure you leave with one.”

She let her power rise.

Not all of it.

Not even close.

Just enough.

Magic curled first, ancient and cold, brushing the air with invisible pressure. Then the wolf in her surfaced, Alpha force hitting the clearing like a slammed door. Beneath it all ran the darker edge of her vampire blood—still, lethal, old enough to make instinct recoil before the mind caught up.

Whitney staggered.

Just one step.

But everyone saw it.

So did she.

Humiliation flashed across her face.

Jazmine’s voice stayed soft. “You are standing at my border, in my territory, trying to posture over a man who cannot be stolen because he was never yours.” Her eyes locked on Whitney’s. “That alone is embarrassing. Making me explain it is worse.”

Whitney’s pack looked anywhere but at her.

The Forgotten Ones did not even try to hide their satisfaction.

Whitney’s jaw tightened so hard it looked painful. “You think because you’re Alpha—”

“No,” Jazmine cut in. “I think because I’m me.”

That landed even harder.

Whitney lunged.

Not fully.

Not a real attack.

Just a stupid half-step fueled by wounded pride.

It was enough.

Jazmine moved faster.

In one blur of speed, she crossed the line, caught Whitney by the throat, and slammed her against the nearest tree hard enough to shake loose bark. Gasps broke out behind them, but Jazmine did not look away from Whitney’s face.

Did not blink.

Did not rush.

Whitney clawed at her wrist, stunned more by the speed than the force.

Jazmine leaned in just enough for only Whitney to hear the first words.

“You are alive right now,” she said quietly, “because I know this is about your insecurity, not your strength.”

Then louder, for everyone:

“You do not come to my land and mistake my restraint for weakness.”

Whitney’s feet scraped the ground. Her pulse hammered frantically against Jazmine’s hand.

Jazmine could have crushed her windpipe.

Could have made an example out of her.

Could have started a war.

Instead, she held her there for three long seconds—just enough for the lesson to sink into bone—before dropping her.

Whitney hit the ground coughing, furious and humiliated.

Jazmine stepped back across the border as if nothing had happened.

As if she had not just ended the entire contest in a heartbeat.

Niko looked almost impressed.

Almost.

Whitney pushed herself up, chest heaving, eyes bright with hate.

“Tell Kai,” Jazmine said, smoothing an invisible wrinkle from her sleeve, “that if he has something to say, he can say it himself.” Her gaze sharpened. “And tell him to keep his pack in line before I do it for him.”

Whitney looked like she wanted to attack again.

Her wolves knew better.

One of them touched her arm. “Whit.”

She jerked away from him, staring at Jazmine with all the fury of a woman who had just realized she was nowhere near the threat level she imagined herself to be.

“This isn’t over,” Whitney snapped.

Jazmine’s face went flat again. “For you, it should be.”

Whitney’s humiliation rolled off her in bitter waves, but she finally stepped back. Then another. Her wolves closed around her, not protectively exactly, but enough to get her moving before she embarrassed herself further.

As they disappeared into the trees, the clearing exhaled.

Niko came to stand beside Jazmine. “That could’ve gone worse.”

“It still might.”

He glanced at her. “You think Whitney acted alone?”

Jazmine watched the darkness where the Midnight wolves had vanished.

“No,” she said.

Whitney was jealous, reckless, and stupid enough to make this personal.

But there had been something else in her scent tonight.

Confidence she had not earned on her own.

Encouragement.

Permission.

Someone wanted tension at the border.

Someone wanted Kai and Jazmine pushed into open conflict before either of them chose it.

Jazmine’s jaw tightened.

“Double the patrols,” she said. “No one moves near the east line alone.”

Niko nodded. “And Kai?”

Jazmine stared into the dark, anger and instinct burning side by side.

“Kai,” she said, “is about to explain why one of his wolves thought she could speak for him.”

And this time, when he came back—

She would be ready.