CHAPTER 5: The Alpha Is Back

SELENE

“SELENE, GET UP.” I woke up the next morning with Anya sitting on my bed gently shaking my arm.

I was still groggy from sleep and her voice was loud. She looked tired with a hint of worry in her eyes.

“You’re back from the trip?”

“And Madam Beatrice too! Come on, get up now! We must prepare. The alpha and his soldiers are heading back to the mansion.”

“Huh? When?” I mumbled as I clutched my head.

“Right now!”

“What?!”

I pushed myself off the bed and tied my hair into a messy up do. Anya had already dressed into her uniform while me? Still wearing my pajama.

“Wait I need a few minutes.”

She nodded. “Just make sure you’ll be ready fast; we need to greet them at the entrance.” Anya, the kind and bubbly person that I once knew became agitated. “The alpha and beta have been wounded from the battle. We must aid to them as soon as they arrive. We were only able to provide food and help to the other middle rank wolves because they were closest to us when we found them. The alpha had been on the edge of the border and no one else reached him except the beta of the pack.”

“The edge of the border?” That place is closest to my home.

Did she mean what I was thinking about?

So, I began moving as fast as I could. By the time Anya dragged me to the hallway, it was at the right moment that the high raking officials of the East Crest Pack arrived.

Ms. Beatrice led the housekeepers’ line on the opposite sides of the hallway. Did she rush back her supposed travel because of this urgent situation?

Then I heard it.

Footsteps.

Not the soft scuff of a servant’s shoes or the light stomp of the cubs.

These were heavy. Deliberate. Each step echoed off the marble floor like a hammer blow, announcing an arrival.

Every servant in the hall froze.

Heads snapped towards the massive front doors.

And right there, a man walked in.

His presence filled the doorway, blocking the morning light, casting a long shadow that swallowed the hall.

Manly.

Tall.

Muscular.

Charismatic wasn’t the right word. It was too soft.

The man was a walking, breathing storm of authority. All broad shoulders, lean hips, and a presence so intense it sucked the air from the room.

All of the women couldn’t move. Even me.

My blood turned to ice water in my veins.

“Welcome back, Alpha Kirion,” greeted by everyone.

Except me. I looked side by side and it was only me who didn’t know his name.

“Good day.” He mumbled then nothing.

That voice… it held an ancient power. A frightening familiarity.

We remained our heads low as a greeting to the most powerful official of the pack.

But as I soon as I caught a glimpse of him, blood left my face.

No.

That same physique. That solid wall of a chest. The powerful set of his shoulders.

It was familiar.

It can’t be.

Something deep inside me pulsed, a painful throb of recognition.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t speak.

His eyes, the color of a stormy sky, scanned the room, dismissing the bowing servants with a flick of his gaze.

And then he looked at me.

The man paused.

His piercing gaze locked with mine, and the world fell silent.

He studied my eyes.

My face.

His gaze then dropped, tracing the lines of my cheap maid uniform.

Suddenly, the air turned thick and heavy, pressing down on me, making it hard to draw a breath.

My heart started a frantic, painful thumping against my ribs.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Images flashed through my head, violent and unwanted.

The river at night. Crystal clear water.

Deep, bleeding wounds.

A naked, powerful chest.

Dark, intense eyes meeting mine through the water.

I couldn’t help but gulp, the sound loud in the suffocating silence.

Kael and the other guards of the mansion and its vicinity rushed to the doorway then straightened their shoulders, their faces a mixture of fear and reverence.

“Welcome back, Alpha Kirion,” greeted the other occupants of the pack house in near-perfect unison.

The name hit me like a physical blow.

Alpha. Kirion.

The breath I was trying to take hitched in my throat. I felt dizzy, like the marble floor was tilting beneath my feet.

The stranger from the river.

The patrolman in my head.

The fucking Alpha.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Alpha Kirion didn’t acknowledge my existence. Not yet.

How could that person be our very own Alpha?! God, he was on the other side of the land!

He moved further into the hall, his authority rolling off him in palpable waves.

“Kael,” Alpha Kirion spoke, his voice a low, cold rumble that vibrated through the floor.

That voice was familiar too. It was the voice echoing in my head, it sounded way commanding and elegant and quite terrifying in person.

“Alpha,” Kael said, stepping forward, his forehead all displayed for everyone to see because of a short haircut.

“Report,” the Alpha commanded.

“All is settled within our vicinity, Alpha. The crops are ready for harvest and no signs of rouge activities found nearby.”

The Alpha nodded.

“Beatrice.”

“Alpha Kirion,” she squeaked.

“My study. I want it cleaned. Now.”

“Of course, Alpha.”

My mind was screaming.

Escape. Get out. Disappear.

My focus blurred. The voices of the Alpha giving commands, the servants scurrying to obey him… it all faded into a dull roar.

My only thought was the back corridor.

I can slip away. He’s busy. He won’t notice one stupid maid.

Clutching my tub, I took one slow, deliberate step backward.

The floor was slick beneath my worn shoes.

Don’t look at him. Just move.

Another step.

The heavy oak of the service door was only twenty feet away.

Almost there. He won’t see. He can’t see me.

I glanced at him quickly. His back was still to me. He was speaking to another guard.

I turned, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm of get-out-get-out-get-out.

I was almost there. My hand was reaching for the wall to steady myself.

Freedom was five steps away.

“You.”

The cold voice of the Alpha echoed in my ears, cutting through the noise and stopping me dead.

It was stern. Not a shout. But it carried more power than a thud of a thunder.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Please not me. Please not me.

Slowly, I turned back around.

He was already staring at me.

His stormy eyes narrowed, a muscle ticking in his jaw. The entire hall had gone silent, all eyes now on the low-ranking maid who had captured the Alpha’s attention.

“Woman,” he said, his voice dropping even lower, a dangerous edge lacing the word.

“Stay.”