Chapter 2
1114 Words
Hazel's pov
Chains don’t always rattle. Sometimes they sink so deep into your skin you forget what freedom even feels like. I carried mine everywhere. The sting of old whips across my back.
The sting of orders barked at me until my voice shrank to nothing. The hollow looks of wolves who passed me in the corridors of the Alpha King’s fortress and saw only dirt. That was all I had ever been, a debt repaid in flesh. A slave.
And tonight, I was also a sacrifice.
The Alpha King had made sure of that. His words had been cold, carved into my bones. “Kill the Alpha of the Crimson Fang Pack, or your sister will bleed in your place.”I remembered the way his eyes had pinned me , flat, merciless, as if the thought of my death was less than dust beneath his boot. He hadn’t chosen me because he believed in me. He had chosen me because I was disposable.
My sister. My breath trembled at the thought. She was the only piece of light my family had left. To my parents, she was everything. After selling me away, she was all they had left. I couldn’t let them lose her
I couldn’t let her suffer because of me.
If someone had to be broken, it would be me. If someone had to end, it would end with me.
And when the Alpha King promised he would leave her safe if I completed this task, I clung to it. Because an Alpha’s promise was supposed to be unbreakable. It was the one law I had left to believe in.
So I was here. In the thick shadows of the trees, crouched low, watching the glow of the Crimson Fang Pack’s territory . Two of the Alpha King’s wolves shadowed me at a distance, making sure I didn’t run. As if I had anywhere to go.
Every step I had taken toward this moment had been heavy with the same thought: Why me?
Why would the Alpha King believe I could kill Alpha Dominick?
I wasn’t a warrior. I wasn’t trained to fight. I was trained to serve. To endure. To survive humiliation and hunger and cold. Not to take down one of the most feared and respected Alphas alive.
It was a joke. A cruel joke. He didn’t expect me to succeed. He expected me to die.
And maybe I was ready for that.
I crept forward, silent in the underbrush, until the trees opened and the sight before me struck me breathless.
A celebration.
Firelight blazed in tall iron bowls, sending sparks flying into the midnight air. Wolves in their human forms laughed and danced in circles, music pulsing with drums and flutes. The scent of roasted meat and wildflowers mingled, intoxicating, A mating ceremony.
I froze behind a broad oak tree, clutching its rough bark as if it could shield me from what I saw.
The Crimson Fang Pack looked… happy. Radiant. Whole. They celebrated as though the night itself belonged to them.
And me? I looked down at myself at the ragged cloak hanging in tatters, the grime ground into my hands, the sour mix of fear and sweat clinging to my skin. I had no place here. Among their silks and polished boots and perfumed flowers, I was nothing but a shadow trespassing into their light.
And then I saw him.
Alpha Dominick.
Stories hadn’t lied. No, they had fallen short. His presence was a force. His body was built like it had been carved from strength itself broad shoulders, lean muscle, every movement precise, commanding. His dark hair gleamed under the firelight, and his jaw was sharp, strong. But it was his eyes that made my heart falter.
Steel-gray. Cold, searching, alive. They carried the weight of a leader who didn’t need to shout to be obeyed. Wolves moved around him like planets orbiting the sun drawn, loyal, reverent.
The way they looked at him made my chest ache. Respect. Love. Devotion.
He was everything my Alpha King was not.
And I was supposed to kill him.
The absurdity of it made my throat tighten. Why would my Alpha ever think I could kill Alpha Dominick? A girl who scrubbed floors until her hands bled. A girl who cowered when shouted at. A girl who didn’t even own her own name anymore.
My fingers trembled as I pulled my cloak tighter. Maybe this was the end. Maybe that was all I was ever meant for.
But then he became still.
Alpha Dominick’s nostrils flared. His head turned sharply like a predator who had just scented prey.
No.
My breath caught. My body pressed back against the oak tree, as though its trunk could swallow me whole.
But his eyes… his eyes cut through the flames and shadows straight toward me.
I froze. My pulse roared in my ears. Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Maybe he’ll look away. He didn't.
He started walking.
Every step toward where I was hiding . My lungs shrank smaller with each one. Wolves around him noticed, their chatter fading, their bodies tensing. Low growls rippled through the pack as their Alpha advanced toward the trees.
Panic clawed at me. This was it. My mission was over before it began. I shifted one step back, and a twig snapped under my boot.
Gasps broke out from the crowd. A dozen pairs of eyes snapped toward the trees where I hid. The air thickened with hostility. Wolves rose, ready to defend their Alpha
Dominick didn’t stop. He pushed through the firelight, through his pack, his steel eyes locked on me like a tether I couldn’t break.
The wolves lunged forward, growling, ready to tear me apart
And then his voice cut through the night.
“Stop.”
It was one word, low but absolute. The kind of word no one disobeys. A wolf in mid-leap froze where he landed, teeth still bared. The growls died mid-breath, choked off like the sound itself had been commanded to obey. The pack stilled as though the earth itself bowed to him.
Dominick stepped closer until the firelight touched him fully, illuminating every harsh line of strength, every dangerous promise etched into his frame. His gaze didn’t waver. Didn’t even blink.
“She isn’t an enemy.”
A murmur swept the crowd.
Then he said it.
The words that shattered everything I thought I knew.
“She is my mate.”
Mate.
I wasn’t meant to belong to anyone. I was a slave, disposable, nothing.
And yet Alpha Dominick’s eyes burned into mine like I was everything. Everything I was told I wasn’t worthy, chosen, seen.
- Writer
