THE ALPHA'S FIERY REIGN

Chapter 3 New World

The smell of smoke hit me first. Not from the hearth, this was different. Kind of sharper, and burning wood, scorched cloth… and something worse.

Blood.

Lukas burst through the door. “We must go. Now.”

“What–?”

But before I could finish, a loud boom shook the hut. Dust rained from the ceiling. Screams echoed outside… painful and real.

Lukas grabbed my arm. “We’re under attack. They found us.”

My heart dropped. Not just an attack. They.

Jaxon’s men.

Lucien was already packing supplies, moving faster than I’d ever seen him. “Get him to the forest line, Lukas. We don’t have time to argue.”

“But what about–” I looked back toward the village, where flames were already devouring the treetops. I could hear howls, not human. Wolves that are angry, wild and desperate.

Half of the tribe was still out there.

“Don’t look back!” Lucien barked. “They’ll wipe us all out if we hesitate.”

“How could we leave just like that? They are dying because of me!” I reasoned out.

“Then don’t let their death be in vain!” Lucien replied, running faster that I could imagine.

We ran.

The night exploded around us, fire raining down, magic sizzling through the air like lightning. Every scream made my chest tighten. I wanted to help. I wanted to fight. But Lucien was right.

If they caught me, everyone’s death would be for nothing.

By the time we reached the edge of the cliffs, only a handful of us remained. Some injured. Most silent.

Lucien turned to face what was left of the tribe. “Scatter. Head west. We’ll meet again.”

No one questioned him. Not tonight.

He and Lukas led me deep into the ravine. Days passed. We didn’t talk much, just walked. I barely slept. I couldn’t shake the images, our home burning, the kids crying, people I had known my whole life torn apart like paper.

They were after me. After fifteen years… Jaxon had finally found me.

“Where are we going? We were travelling for days now, and I still have no idea where we’re going,” I asked, panting out of exhaustion.

“We’re near,” Lucien answered shortly, without looking at me. I felt Lukas glanced at me but didn’t say anything.

More days passed. We reached a barren stretch of land near the coast… a dry, forgotten part of the world. I didn’t understand why we stopped until I saw someone waiting by a wind-swept cliff.

A woman with sharp jawline. Silver hair pulled into a braid. Wearing worn leather armor and an irritated scowl.

She hugged Lucien fast and hard.

“Still alive, you bastard,” she muttered, before turning her eyes on me. “So, this is the boy?”

Lucien nodded. “Braxton.”

“I’m Aerith,” she said. “Your dad and I grew up in the same palace. I thought you were dead.”

“I almost was,” I said quietly. The dad he was referring to was Lucien. Only the three of us knew who I am really.

She looked at Lucien. “You can't hide him here. They're watching all the realms now. They’ve burned through three of our safe houses just last moon.”

“Then where?” Lukas asked.

Aerith exhaled and reached into a satchel, pulling out a small medallion, silver and shaped like a flame, half-scorched. She handed it to Lucien.

“Give that to Damon,” she said.

Lucien’s jaw tightened. “Las Vegas?”

I frowned. “Las… what?”

Lukas tilted his head. “That’s a place?”

Aerith raised an eyebrow at both of us. “You two really have no clue, huh?”

“We’ve never crossed over,” Lukas said, arms folded. “That realm is forbidden. Off-limits since before we were born.”

“Well,” she sighed, “welcome to the exception. Vegas is a city in the western human territory… loud, glowing, full of noise and vices. Think chaos, but with neon lights and overpriced drinks. Damon’s got connections. Cameras. Walls. Human laws. Jaxon can’t touch him there.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t even know that place exist. I bet he had never been in the human world,” Lucien added.

I stared at them, stunned. “And we’re just going to walk into that?”

Aerith smirked. “You’re going to stick out, sure. But humans won’t know what you are. You’ll blend in better than you think. You’ve got no other choice.”

Lukas looked at Lucien. “Are we really doing this?”

Lucien nodded slowly. “We don’t have a home left here. If Damon’s place is the safest option… then we go.”

We left that night. No time for goodbyes. No time for doubts.

As we stepped through the portal to the human realm, a strange cold washed over me, not just from the magic, but from the weight of everything we’d lost.

The land I knew? Gone. The people I loved? Scattered. The version of me I thought I was? Dead.

Now we were walking into a world I couldn’t even picture. A place, according to Lucien, built on machines, money, and speed. I didn’t understand their rules, or their cities, or their noise.

Las Vegas.

Whatever it was, I’d have to survive it.

We stepped through the portal, and everything changed.

No trees. No stars. No silence.

The air smelled… wrong. Thick with smoke and oil and something artificial I couldn’t name. The sky above was black, but not the peaceful kind we knew.

This was a different kind of darkness, one broken up by lights. So many lights.

And noise. Loud, constant, pounding noise.

Lukas gripped my arm tightly, his body tense beside me. His eyes were wide, darting around like we’d just entered a battlefield.

“What… is this place?” he whispered.

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t have words.

We were standing in the middle of a sidewalk, in front of a massive glass building that glowed like fireflies had been trapped inside it. People rushed by us, dressed in strange clothes… tight, shiny, barely covering their skin. Some held small glowing boxes to their faces. Others talked into thin cords in their ears. Machines with wheels, dozens of them, roared down the black stone paths beside us.

I stepped back instinctively as one passed too close, its lights blinding. “By the stars, was that a beast?!”

“No,” Lukas said, in a tight voice. “It smells of steel. It’s… not alive.”

My chest thudded, trying to keep up with what I was seeing. The ground vibrated beneath my boots, and the sky itself seemed to hum. Enormous signs flashed above us, moving pictures of people dancing, fighting, laughing, selling things I couldn’t understand. A woman’s face lit up on a screen as big as a mountain wall, her voice booming from somewhere unseen:

“Try Eclipse! The hottest drink of the summer! Only at Ember Club!”

“What sorcery is this?” Lukas breathed. “Is that woman a spirit?”

“I… don’t know,” I muttered. I gulped but my throat was dry.

A group of humans passed us, laughing loudly, dressed like walking mirrors. One of them slowed, staring at us like we were the odd ones.

“Nice cosplay, dudes,” he chuckled before disappearing into the crowd.

Cosplay?

Lukas leaned close. “Braxton. Everyone is staring.”

“We’re not like them,” I said under my breath. “We don’t belong here.”

He nodded slowly. “I feel… naked. As if our cloaks have been ripped away.”

Just then, a sleek black vehicle pulled up beside the walkway, its dark surface gleaming under the strange lights.

The windows rolled down by themselves, another bit of magic, or so it seemed, and a woman with sharp features and gold hoops in her ears leaned out.

“You three look lost as hell,” she said, chewing gum like she owned the city. “You Braxton, Lukas, and Lucien?”

We froze.

Lucien stepped forward first, instinctively placing a hand in front of me and Lukas, still guarded even now. “That depends. Who’s asking?”

She popped her gum, completely unfazed. “I’m Fallon. Damon’s contact. He sent me to pick you up before y’all cause a scene out here looking like medieval extras.”

Lucien gave her a long, silent stare, then finally nodded.

I looked at Lukas. He was glaring at the car like it might grow teeth and eat us.

“It moves without a horse,” he muttered under his breath, shifting his stance like he was ready to fight it.

“Just get in,” I said, trying to sound braver than I felt as I opened the strange door. The inside was smooth and cold, like polished stone. Too perfect. Too clean. Too… unnatural.

Lucien climbed in without a word, scanning the interior like it might be rigged to explode. Lukas hesitated, then followed, but not before giving the car one last suspicious glare.

As soon as we were inside, the door closed by itself with a soft click. Lukas flinched. I did too.

Fallon laughed from the driver’s seat. “Y’all really are fresh outta the forest, huh?”

We didn’t answer. We didn’t have to.

Through the glass city, we drove into a world that didn’t make sense.

Skyscrapers rose like mountains made of glass and steel, as Lucien explained. Streets glowed red, blue, and green under signs that moved… moved, like they were alive.

People rushed past, talking into tiny black rectangles, their voices floating on the air as if speaking to spirits.

No rivers. No trees. No silence. Only noise. Only light. Only motion.

I pressed a hand to the cold window, watching a crowd outside cheer as a man in glowing clothes danced on top of a giant black box. Fire exploded behind him, controlled fire. Decorative fire, I don’t know.

They have incredible powers here. It might help us became powerful, too, and fight Jaxon soon.

Lukas leaned closer to Lucien. “It’s like a dream made by madmen.”

Lucien didn’t speak. He just stared with his jaw tight, eyes unreadable. He looked like a man seeing the end of the world and the beginning of another all at once.

“I don’t trust this place,” Lukas whispered. “It feels like a trap. A world built on lies.”

He wasn’t wrong.

But even with the fear crawling under my skin, even with my heart hammering in my chest, I couldn’t deny something deeper. Something waking up inside me.

Maybe it was the chaos. Or maybe it was this strange electric pulse humming through the whole city.

But I knew this… We weren’t just running anymore. We were stepping into something bigger.

In this glass and metal city, I wasn’t just Braxton the boy from the woods.

I was the fire-born heir. The one Jaxon couldn’t reach.

Yet.

When we arrived at our destination, the gates opened on their own… tall black iron with silver wolf heads etched into each panel.

We drove through slowly; past rows of dancing lights built into the ground. The path was smooth, too smooth. Like it had never seen mud, rain, or battle.

Then we saw it. Damon’s mansion. They call that house a mansion here.

It wasn’t a house. It was a palace pretending not to be one… walls of glass and steel rising like a jewel in the desert, lit by soft golden lights that shimmered even under the night sky. Music thumped from somewhere inside, deep and pulsing, like a heartbeat.

Lukas leaned forward. “This is where he lives?”

“In… that?” I asked, blinking.

Lucien stayed quiet, his eyes scanning everything, maybe even calculating.

Fallon parked at the front entrance. A wide staircase led to a door so tall it could’ve been carved for giants. “End of the line,” she said, popping her gum again. “He’s waiting inside.”

We climbed out slowly. A man in all black opened the door before we could even knock. No magic. Just… timing.

“Mr. Damon will see you now,” he said, then stepped aside.

Lukas and I looked at each other, still very nervous. I don’t know if we could even survive here.

The inside of the mansion hit like a spell, blindingly clean. Shiny floors. Walls made of white stone and black mirrors.

Plants in glass tubes. Screens embedded into the walls showing strange symbols, weather, news.

We barely took three steps before Lukas grabbed Lucien’s sleeve. “The floor… it moved.”

Lucien stared down, frowning. “That’s not stone.”

“It’s marble,” said a deep voice.

We turned.

A man stood at the top of a glass staircase. Sharp suit. Cold eyes. Hands in his pockets like he owned the stars. His features looked vaguely like Lucien’s… same strong jawline, same calculating stare.

But where Lucien was all wilderness and grit, this man looked like he came from the future.

“Damon,” Lucien said with a slow nod.

Damon descended the stairs smoothly. “I was expecting three more bloodied and half-dead wolves. Pleasant surprise.”

Lucien didn’t smile. “We lost people.”

“I know.”

Damon turned his gaze on me. “You must be Braxton.”

I straightened. “Yes.”

He looked me over like he was inspecting a weapon. “Hmm. You look like your father. That’s either a good thing or a curse.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said flatly.

Something flickered in Damon’s expression. Respect, maybe. Or pity.

He gestured for us to follow. “Come. You need rest. And a crash course in this world before you accidentally throw a fireball at a vending machine.”

Damon led us to our rooms, three separate suites with massive beds, glowing mirrors, showers that poured water from the ceiling, and strange floating panels on the walls.

I stared at the screen above the bed. It suddenly lit up on its own.

“Welcome, Braxton.”

I backed away.

“It’s just a smart panel,” Damon said from the hallway. “Don’t punch it.”

Lukas opened a cabinet and jumped. “The food… it’s cold! But it’s cooked!”

“It’s called a fridge,” Damon said, unimpressed.

Lucien opened a bathroom door, looked at the toilet, then walked right back out and muttered, “I’ll use the forest.”

I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring out at the sea of lights. The city didn’t sleep. Neither did I.

This world… it didn’t feel real.

But at the same time, something in me stirred. Not fear. Not confusion. Something ancient and awake.

I touched the glass. My reflection blinked back. I didn’t recognize the boy looking at me.

Not anymore.

Behind me, Lukas muttered, “I don’t like it here.”

“I know.”

Lucien’s voice came from the doorway. “We won’t be here forever.”

“Then what?” I asked. “Where do we go from here?”

Lucien studied me for a long moment. Then he said, “We train. We survive. And when the time comes…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. But I knew what he meant. We take it back. I hope.