Chapter 3: The Alpha of Shadows

CAIUS

I’d seen her before.

Not in person—not until now—but in my dreams.

She was always standing in the center of a storm, hair whipping in the wind, eyes shining like twin moons. Thunder crackled behind her, painting silver lightning across a sky thick with rage and longing. Her figure was always cloaked in shadows, her features obscured by fog, but still, she looked at me. Like she knew me. Like she had always known me.

And then she vanished.

Every single time.

That dream haunted me for the past two weeks—relentless, vivid, maddening. I’d wake in a cold sweat, Fenrir pacing inside me like a caged beast, snarling at the invisible thread we both felt but could not grasp.

So when my scout returned with a name—Lira Fenwick—my blood turned to ice.

The daughter of Alpha Tobias Fenwick. Of Duskborne.

Hidden in plain sight. Protected. Disguised.

She wasn’t just a dream.

She was real.

And the moment I crossed the border into Duskborne territory, her scent struck me like a punch to the chest. It was unlike anything I’d ever encountered. Wildflowers and storm wind. Soft and untamed. Elusive, like the edge of a storm just out of reach. But layered beneath the floral sweetness was something else—tension, like lightning trapped beneath skin.

A promise of chaos.

A prophecy waiting to be fulfilled.

I closed my eyes and inhaled again, the notes curling through the night air like a spell meant only for me. The forest responded in kind. The wind slowed, the trees quieted, and even the rustling underbrush fell still—as if the earth itself knew something sacred had just awakened.

I didn’t slow my pace.

I couldn’t.

Alpha Tobias was guarding the border with his warriors not long ago. I’d caught a glimpse of him from the ridge—recognizable even from a distance with that silver hair and cloak made from Duskborne wolfhide. A symbol of his power. A reminder of his pride.

But I was faster.

Much faster.

I slipped past them like a shadow in mist, silent and unseen, my warriors a blur at my sides. Only five accompanied me now—my most trusted, my deadliest. I’d left Grimhowl in the hands of my Beta and Gamma. They’d hold the northern line, guarding against threats while I followed the dream that refused to let go.

“This way,” I muttered, tilting my head toward a dense cluster of evergreens where the scent grew stronger, thicker. Sweeter.

Fenrir stirred inside me, restless. His energy crackled like the storm that haunted our dreams.

'She’s near,' he growled. 'But something’s… off.'

I agreed. The scent was undeniably wolf, but the usual signature of a she-wolf on the cusp of her prime was missing. No shift. No stirring. No mark of awakened power.

"She hasn’t shifted," I said aloud, my voice low and tight.

Fenrir’s growl deepened, more frustration than fury now. 'She should have. She’s twenty-one.'

I crouched beside a patch of disturbed earth, brushing my fingertips over the trampled grass. The soil was soft—recently stepped on. There were prints here. Light, delicate. A careful tread, like someone trying to move unseen.

'She was here. Not long ago.'

The scouts weren’t wrong.

And the dream hadn’t lied.

I reached into my coat and pulled out the parchment again. Her name was scrawled in neat, clipped letters, but to me it blazed like prophecy.

Lira Fenwick

Age: Twenty-One

Status: Unshifted

Abilities: Unknown

Visibility: Low – Hidden by Duskborne Leaders

Protected. Shielded. Maybe even unaware of what she truly was.

But she was mine.

Fenrir surged beneath my skin like fire in my blood. 'She belongs to us, he snarled. She just doesn’t know it yet.'

I stood, scanning the woods with sharp, practiced eyes. The trees stood like silent sentinels, watching, listening. Somewhere out there, she was breathing the same air, walking the same forest, tethered to me by a bond neither of us could fully comprehend.

But she was also something else.

Important.

Why else would Alpha Tobias hide her?

What was he afraid of?

“Spread out,” I ordered, my voice barely above a whisper. “No harm comes to her. We find her—then wait for my signal.”

My warriors nodded without question. They knew the importance of this hunt. Of her.

One by one, they vanished into the shadows, melting into the trees like smoke carried by wind.

I moved silently, every muscle taut, every instinct sharpened. Every sound in the forest became louder—branches cracking, leaves whispering, the hush of the wind curling around trunks like a serpent. My senses stretched far and wide.

But it wasn’t just the scent that called to me.

It was the pull.

An invisible thread, old as time and stronger than any command, yanked me forward with every heartbeat. Something ancient. Something sacred. A bond formed before we were ever born.

And then—for a single, breathless heartbeat—I felt her.

A pulse. Not physical. Deeper. Spiritual. Like something deep inside me finally exhaled after a lifetime of holding its breath.

And then—

Silence.

Stillness.

But I knew.

She was watching.

Hiding, maybe. Curious. Or maybe scared. She could sense me too—I was sure of it. Her instincts were awakening even if her wolf hadn’t yet.

“Lira Fenwick,” I whispered her name into the hush of the night. “You’ve been hidden long enough.”

The wind shifted, curling around me like a lover’s touch, and I felt it—

Her presence retreating.

Like a shadow slipping deeper into the trees.

But it didn’t matter.

The game had already changed.

Tonight, the dream became real.

And tomorrow?

Tomorrow I’d return with a plan.

A strategy. A way to reach her without alerting the entire Duskborne pack. Without war. Not yet.

Because claiming her would change everything.

Not just for me.

For both our packs.

For the world.

But I wouldn’t stop.

She was mine.

And no storm, no Alpha, no secret would keep her from me.

Not anymore.