The Alpha’s Ultimate Command: Rise of the Invisible Luna

Chapter 11: The Wolf Unchained

Chapter 11: The Wolf Unchained

A shriek not from human throat tore from Kaelen's lips a localized earthquake of pure agony that smashed the stained glass windows of his private study into a rain of sparkling daggers. His chest, where he should not have felt a pang, burned hot and agonizing with his mate's agony. Her terror, her pain, was a searing hook rending his very soul, with it the spiritual bond connecting her life to his tore, withered and died to be replaced by black abyss.

"Elena!" His inner wolf screamed, a grotesque, gargantuan beast consuming his consciousness into shadow.

Blinded by apocalyptical fury Kaelen smashed his monstrous fists against the ancient solid oak desk before him, breaking it into a hundred thousand pieces of firewood. He rampaged through his private study like a wild animal, smashing stone pillars, tearing iron candelabra from walls with his bare hands. The elite guards that rushed into the study immediately cowered before the black hole of Kaelen's soulless eyes.

With a sickening crack of bone and muscle Kaelen did not wait for a carriage, nor give commands, nor call forth his army. He shifted on the fly. A giant, pitch-black as night wolf with molten gold eyes erupted through the stone balcony, crashing on the stone courtyard floor and roaring into the dark forest.

He ran. He ran at speeds beyond natural law. The trees became blur-streaks of grey and black.

The frozen air tore at his snout.

He felt none of it, only the desperate hollowness in his chest and a desperate lust for blood.

When Kaelen burst through the treeline of the whispering crags, he stopped. A fresh smell of blood - of copper and of death - washed over him.

Kaelen shifted back into human form stumbling into the clearing his chest heaving. The snow did not touch his bare skin. In front of him lay a scene of crimson, of terror and of despair.

His private cabin, walled in obsidian, had its doors torn from their hinges and six mangled bodies lay scattered on the snow.

Samuel's dead eyes stared up at the gray sky, his throat torn open.

A low, heart-wrenching whimpered escaped Kaelen's throat and he stumbled towards his wrecked cabin. On the floor lay his small, silver-hilted hunting knife - the knife he'd given to Elena. It was unblemished.

She was gone.

A roar of pure, unadulterated madness shook the snow off the mountain pines. Kaelen fell to his knees pressing the small knife to his chest and clenching it in his hand until his knuckles turned white. Air cracked around him.

"Alpha! Alpha Kaelen!"

Kaelen jolted from his trance by the frantic voice. The Beta rushed into the shattered cabin his face deathly pale, sweating, his elite guard dogging him, faces full of feigned shock and despair. The Beta's most devious trick. This theatrical performance would mask his betrayal for good.

"Alpha thank god I found you!" the Beta stampered, falling to his knees before Kaelen, his voice thick with false grief. "We were too late... God help us, we were too late!"

Kaelen slowly got to his feet, his gold eyes pinning his second-in-command, an oppressive aura pressing down on even his seasoned guards. "Why are you here, Beta," Kaelen's voice was quiet and deadly, "And how did you know about this secret outpost?"

The Beta gulped, holding his hands up in supplication as he let a feigned tear trace a path down his cheek. "Alpha, my personal scouts discovered unusual Frostclaw activity near the southern pass. I brought them in for questioning and I uncovered a horrifying truth; two of my most trusted men - the same men who helped me plot out the patrol routes to this place - were traitors!

They were paid by the Frostclaws!"

He beat his chest with seemingly honest despair. "They revealed the Luna's location, Alpha! As soon as I found out, I killed them myself. I gathered my men and rode here as fast as I could to warn you, but...

They were already there."

He pointed a trembling finger toward the eastern peaks. "My scouts followed the direction of their escape! They're moving fast, Alpha!

I think they might still be able to catch them before they cross into enemy territory!"

Kaelen's mind was a vortex of panic and animal rage. His mate bond offered no other option, his wolf howled for blood. The Beta's elaborate, seemingly suicidal explanation served as the perfect excuse for him. Kaelen had no reason to suspect a man who had supposedly executed his own soldiers to save their leader's Luna.

"Where are they?" Kaelen growled, extending his claws and drawing blood from his own palms.

"The Eastern Ridges, Alpha!" the Beta said smoothly, a wicked triumph swelling in his chest. "They're trying to reach the mountain passes to escape into Frostclaw territory! You can intercept them if you run now!"

The truth was Elena’s unconscious body was already deep inside the ice-coated, labyrinthine tunnels of the Northern Caves, an underground labyrinth where Kaelen’s tracking abilities would be completely useless. But Kaelen couldn’t even consider lying; blind and overcome by a possessive, desperate pain, he let out a ferocious growl, shifted to the gigantic, black wolf form, and threw himself through the shattered window, thundering away in the direction of the Eastern Ridges in a foolish, blind chase.

The Beta slowly got to his feet and brushed the snow from his knees. A slow, dark, and completely triumphant smile touched his lips as he watched the Alpha’s form disappear in the wrong mountain range. "Good hunting, Alpha," the Beta growled, venomously to the icy wind.

A sharp pain shot through Elena’s temple - her first conscious sensation as she groaning forced her heavy eyelids open.

The warm, welcoming fireplace had disappeared, replaced by a freezing, piercing cold that sank into her bones. Heavy damp air permeated the area, smelling of wet ancient rock, decaying moss, and the disgusting smell of foreign wolves. She tried to reach up to her throbbing head but stopped when she heard the harsh clinking of thick, heavy iron chains. Elena's eyes flew open in shock.

She was seated on the icy rock floor of a cavern with her wrists and ankles shackled firmly to the walls with thick, silver- tipped chains.

Above them was a high, jagged dark roof punctuated only by a few torches on iron spikes. "Ah, the little queen is awake." A deep, mocking voice rumbled throughout the cavern.

Elena looked up and her breath hitched. Just a few feet away from her stood the commander of the Frostclaws with his enormous polar bear cloak slung over his broad shoulders. His scarred face twisted into a triumphant smirk.

A dozen Frostclaw warriors stood behind him with their armor and weaponry obscured by the shadows, their eyes gleaming a bloody red like hot embers.

Elena’s heart pounded with fear, but she forced her jaw shut, refusing to give the impression of being weak. "Kaelen will find you," she spat, her voice firmer than her trembling body suggested. "He will tear this whole mountain down and not a single one of your wolves will remain alive." The commander threw his head back and laughed loudly, the sound echoing in the damp space.

He leaned forward, his foul, cold breath washing over her face.

"Let him try," the commander whispered, his eyes glinting wickedly. "Your Alpha is running in circles in the Eastern Ridges right now thanks to a few well-placed friends within your pack. When he figures out his mistake, it'll be far too late."

He reached out and traced the ancient ruby necklace lying against her collarbone with his rough, dirty finger. "We didn't take you to ransom you, little girl," the commander whispered venomously. "An unshifted olhuman is worth nothing to us.

But the mate bond between our most powerful Alpha and your pathetic little heart… that, that is the weapon we were searching for.

By the time Kaelen finds us, we'll no longer have to fight. We'll break him using your pain, steal his mind through your screams, and we'll take his throne.