Chapter 4: The Alpha’s Secret

LIRA

The Alpha’s house stood at the heart of the village like a relic of forgotten power—its wooden walls carved with ancient runes that pulsed faintly beneath the flicker of torchlight. I had passed these steps a thousand times, but tonight, they felt heavier beneath my feet. My stomach twisted with something I couldn’t name—an emotion somewhere between dread and defiance.

When I pushed open the doors, the scent of cedar smoke and dried sage clung to the air. My father stood near the hearth, the fire casting shadows across his sharp features. He looked like he was carved from the same stone as the mountain our pack guarded. His silver-streaked hair was tied back in a warrior’s knot, and his arms were folded behind him in a posture of command.

He turned the moment I entered. Our eyes—too alike to ignore—locked.

“You called for me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” He replied.

I didn’t flinch. “I went for a walk.”

“You went near the border, Lira.” His voice dropped to a dangerous low. “Outside the patrol zone. What if someone saw you? What if someone with darker intentions followed you?”

“I can handle myself,” I snapped, meeting his gaze.

“You’re not listening!” he thundered, and his voice echoed through the rafters. “You don’t understand the danger. You're not just some ordinary wolf wandering the woods. You’re—”

“I’m not a child anymore,” I cut in, my voice sharp and shaking. “You don’t get to keep locking me away because of some danger that might happen.”

My father’s jaw clenched, and he paced away from me, fingers tightening behind his back.

I took a breath, trying to steady the pounding in my chest. “Just tell me the truth already.”

He stilled.

I stepped closer. “Is it true? What they whisper? That I was born during the eclipse?”

His silence spoke louder than words.

“Then why hide it?” I asked, quieter now. “Why hide me?”

He turned to face me fully, and for the first time tonight, I saw it—not just anger, not even disappointment, but fear. Deep, bone-deep fear.

“Because we’re trying to protect you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Because the night you were born, everything changed. And there are those out there who would kill to control what runs through your blood.”

He took a slow step toward me. The firelight caught the scar along his jaw, a reminder of battles long past. “We kept you inside Duskborne borders for your safety.”

“Because of the prophecy?” I challenged. “Or because you don’t trust me?”

“Because I’ve seen what the world does to people like you.”

I flinched. There was weight in his words—something more than he was saying.

“People like me?” I echoed. “You mean someone born during the eclipse? Someone whispered about behind closed doors? What does it even mean?”

My father’s gaze softened just enough to reveal the exhaustion beneath his mask of authority. “You’re not just my daughter, Lira. You are the only living heir born beneath a Blood Eclipse. You carry a power that hasn’t surfaced in generations, and if the wrong people find out—”

“They already have, haven’t they?” I asked quietly.

His silence was answer enough.

My heart thudded. “That’s why I’ve been kept inside the territory all my life. That’s why the Duskborne leaders treat me like some delicate weapon buried in velvet.”

My father stepped back, his expression drawn. “I didn’t want this for you. Any of it. But Caius Vexmoor knows now. He knows who you are.”

The name sent a tremor through my chest. Caius. I didn’t know how, but I felt him—his presence like the distant pull of a tide I couldn’t escape.

My voice came out colder than I intended. “And you think he’ll come for me.”

“I know he will.” My father’s words were steel. “And when he does, he won’t ask permission.”

A heavy silence fell between us. I looked at him—not as my Alpha, not as the man who raised me under lock and key—but as a father. One who feared losing the very thing he was trying to protect.

Then the doors burst open with a bang that echoed like thunder.

“Alpha!” A guard’s voice cracked with urgency. “The northern border’s been breached—Grimhowl warriors. They’re headed this way.”

My blood ran cold.

Grimhowl. Him.

My father’s expression darkened as he turned sharply to the guard. “How many?”

“We don’t know. Enough to make a statement.”

My father nodded once, the muscles in his jaw flexing. Then he turned to me. “Stay here. Do not leave this house, Lira. I mean it.”

But I was already backing away, heart racing, thoughts spinning.

Caius Vexmoor had crossed into our lands.

Everything I had been running from—my birth, my bloodline, the legacy etched into my bones—was coming for me.

And this time, I wasn’t going to be hidden away.

I didn’t answer him. I turned and walked away from the firelight, from the familiar scent of cedar and control. I wasn’t running anymore.

I was walking straight into the storm.