Alpha Kael

IVY'S POV.The radiator coughed like an old dog dying in the corner. I opened my eyes to an identical cracked ceiling with a water stain resembling a broken wing. For three weeks, this flat had been my coffin cheap plywood coffin, paper-thin walls, lock that never felt locked enough. My heart was spinning, and I didn’t know why. Dreams scraped at the inside of my head: red snow, a man’s voice saying my name as if a curse, the snap of something that should never bend that far. I sat up, sweat cold on my spine. The sheets reeked of detergent and fear. I could not recall the face in the dream, only the sensation teeth at my throat, inevitability. I swung my legs to the floor. The wood was sticky; I’d spilled Coke last night and covered it with a sock. In the wardrobe mirror, I seemed to have borrowed cheeks too sharp and eyes older than twenty-six. The neon sign nearby buzzed LIFE INSURANCE half the letters dead. Its pink glow crept across my skin; for a moment static under my ribs respo

IVY POV The hall of the Blackthorns was a throat of stone high, cold, and swallowing every sound my boots made. I stepped over the threshold and the heavy doors groaned shut behind me like they regretted it. Torch smoke drifted low, carrying the sting of pine resin and something darker, almost sweet, like blood left too long on iron. I tasted metal on my tongue and kept walking. Wolf pelts hung from the rafters, gray and black, eyes glassy, mouths frozen in last snarls. Their shadows jittered in the draft, snapping at my shoulders. I didn’t look up again; I was busy listening to my own heart argue with the silence. Each beat said, Turn around. Each echo answered, Too late. At the far end he waited, framed by a hearth wide enough to burn a coffin. Kael Blackthorn stood with his back to the flames, the fire licking outlines around him, and the first thing I noticed was that he held himself like a man leaning into a storm that only he could feel. His eyespaler than the smoke locked on

KAEL’S POVThe moment she unleashed it, the world changed.Lightning didn’t fall from the sky.It answered her.It cracked from her hands in violent blue arcs, slamming into the first rogue before I could even move. The impact threw him back into the broken doors, spine snapping against splintered wood. The smell of burned flesh filled the hall.The other two didn’t hesitate.They came for her.Of course they did.Always the source. Always the prize.“IVY—LEFT!”She didn’t think.She reacted.The second rogue lunged low, claws aimed for her ribs, but her body twisted like something had rewritten her instincts. Electricity flared again—shorter burst this time, controlled just enough to stagger him mid-strike.Not control.Survival.I moved.My blade met bone with a wet crack, slicing across the rogue’s shoulder before he could recover. He snarled, snapping his jaws toward me, but I drove my knee into his chest and shoved him back.“Focus!” I snapped.“I am focusing!”“No—you’re reactin

KAEL’S POVThe first body hit the ground before the howl finished.They came in waves.Not wild. Not reckless.Disciplined.That was the first problem.The second was that they weren’t afraid.Rogues feared Alphas. They feared territory, dominance, the rules written in blood and instinct.These ones didn’t.They moved like they had nothing left to lose.Or worse—Like they thought they couldn’t lose.“Stay on my left!” I barked.Ivy didn’t answer.She didn’t need to.I felt her.The bond pulsed—sharp, alive—tracking her position even when my eyes couldn’t. Sparks lit the edges of my vision as she moved, fast, unpredictable, her power snapping through the dark like fractured lightning.Good.Let them see it.Let them understand what they came for.A rogue lunged from the right.I pivoted, blade slicing clean through his throat before he could close the distance. Blood sprayed hot across my hand, the scent thick in the air.Another came from behind.Too slow.I drove my elbow back, hear

KAEL’S POVShe came back.I knew she would.Not because of the bond—though it pulsed the second she crossed back into the hall, steady and undeniable—but because of the way she’d looked before she walked out.Torn.People like that didn’t run.Not yet.I didn’t turn when I heard her footsteps behind me.Didn’t acknowledge her return.If she stayed, it had to be her choice.Not mine.The fire cracked low in the hearth, shadows stretching across the stone floor as I stood near the long table, hands braced against its edge, head lowered.Thinking.Calculating.Failing to find a solution I didn’t already hate.“They’re still out there.”Her voice broke the silence.Quiet.Tired.But steady.“I know,” I said.She stepped closer.I could feel it—the shift in air, the subtle warmth that came with her presence, the way the bond reacted like something relieved.Annoying.“Then why does it feel like you’re not doing anything about it?”I straightened slowly, turning to face her.“Because chargi