The Alpha’s Stolen Mate

CHAPTER FIVE: THE ALPHA’S CLAIM

Kael’s words still echoed in Mira’s head: Then come take her from me.

She didn’t fully understand why hearing them made her chest feel warm and unsteady. He had spoken them like a threat to the scout… but part of her couldn’t shake the way they’d also sounded like a vow.

She trailed after him as he started back toward the pack’s main settlement, his steps heavy and deliberate, his sharp gaze scanning every shadow. The moonlight turned the blood on his shirt almost black.

“Kael,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “That cut—”

“It’s not deep,” he replied without slowing down. “We need to move before they regroup.”

Mira bit her lip but followed. His stride was longer than hers, and she had to hurry to keep pace. Every few steps, his hand would shift slightly toward the hilt of the blade strapped to his side, like he was reminding the forest he was still armed.

They crossed the last stretch of wild grass before reaching the outer fence of the pack’s main ground. The sentries on watch stiffened at the sight of blood on their Alpha. One of them — a broad-shouldered man with cropped hair — started forward, but Kael shook his head.

“No alarm,” Kael ordered. “Not yet. But double the guards at the east border. Shadowclaw scouts have crossed.”

The man nodded and took off at a run.

Inside the compound, the familiar smell of pinewood smoke and cooked meat reached Mira’s senses. Normally it would have been comforting, but tonight it felt… fragile. Like it could all be shattered with a single wrong move.

Kael led her straight to the main hall, then through a side door into a quieter room lit only by a few oil lamps. It wasn’t the grand war room or the imposing Alpha’s quarters. This was more private.

“Sit,” he told her, motioning to a bench along the wall.

“You’re the one bleeding,” she pointed out.

His eyes flickered in something that might have been amusement. “Do you take orders from anyone, Mira?”

“Only when they make sense,” she shot back.

He shook his head slightly but didn’t argue. Instead, he went to a cabinet and retrieved a small metal tin, tossing it onto the table. “If you insist, then make yourself useful.”

It took her a moment to realize he was offering her the chance to patch him up. Her fingers trembled slightly as she took the tin and opened it, revealing strips of clean cloth and a jar of thick salve.

Kael sat down, pulling off his torn shirt.

Mira had seen him shirtless before, during training, but tonight was different. Tonight, his skin was streaked with blood, the muscle in his shoulders still tense from the fight. She tried to focus on the wound — a s***h along his ribs — and not on the way his breath shifted when her fingertips brushed him.

“Hold still,” she murmured.

“Not in my nature,” he replied, but he didn’t move away.

She dabbed at the wound with a damp cloth, the warm scent of his skin filling the space between them. His gaze stayed fixed on her, unblinking, and she could feel it like a touch.

Finally, she pressed the salve into the cut, and he hissed softly.

“Burns,” she explained.

“Not as much as they will when I return the favor to Shadowclaw,” he said darkly.

She glanced up. “Why are they after me, Kael?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he took a long, slow breath. “Because you’re not just some stray who wandered into my territory.”

Her stomach dropped. “What does that mean?”

Before he could reply, a sharp knock hit the door. A young sentry burst in, breathless.

“Alpha — they’re here.”

Kael was on his feet in an instant. “How close?”

“Past the east border. At least a dozen. Armed.”

Mira’s heart pounded. “You said they wouldn’t regroup this fast—”

“They didn’t regroup,” Kael growled, grabbing his shirt and a heavier weapon from the wall. “This was planned.”

He turned to her, and for the first time since she’d met him, there was no teasing edge, no careful composure. Only the raw, commanding presence of an Alpha who knew danger was seconds away.

“You stay here. No matter what you hear, you do not open that door. Do you understand me?”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “Mira. Promise me.”

Her throat tightened. “I promise.”

Kael gave one short nod before vanishing through the door, his steps already echoing with urgency.

Mira sat frozen, the distant sounds of shouting and clashing steel beginning to reach her ears.

And then — so faint she almost thought she imagined it — she heard the unmistakable howl of a wolf that wasn’t Kael.

The howl of the Shadowclaw Alpha.