The Alpha Who Knelt

FINN

The man remained on his knees in front of me, his head lowered so far that his forehead almost touched the pavement. I could hear every beat of his heart now, fast and frightened beneath his chest, and I could smell the fear coming from his skin. A few minutes ago, I had been the same weak Finn who had spent his entire life believing he could never shift, but now I was standing over another werewolf in a body that felt stronger than anything I had ever known. My silver eyes reflected in the puddle beneath my paws, and I could barely recognize myself. Lunar was awake inside me, filling my mind with strange memories and instincts that did not belong to the human life I remembered. I wanted to run because none of this made sense, but another part of me wanted answers.

I lowered my head and stared at the man. “Who sent you?” I asked, but the words came out as a deep growl that seemed to shake the air around us.

The man lifted his head slightly, but the moment his eyes met mine, he lowered them again. “I cannot tell you,” he whispered. His voice trembled badly. “If I tell you, they will kill me.”

Lunar growled inside my head, and I felt his anger spread through my body like heat. “He knows who they are,” Lunar said. “But he is more afraid of them than he is of us.”

I stepped closer, and the man immediately pressed himself flatter against the pavement. “You came after me,” I growled. “You knew who I was. So tell me why.”

He swallowed hard and finally looked up at me again. “Because your return was never supposed to happen.”

Before I could question him further, the sound of tires cutting through the wet street reached my ears. A black vehicle turned the corner at frightening speed and stopped several meters away. The passenger door opened first, followed by two men who stepped out with weapons hidden beneath their coats. Then another figure emerged from the back seat. Even in the darkness, I knew him instantly. Magnus stood in the middle of the street, his black shirt open at the collar and his expression hard enough to frighten anyone who did not know him. His eyes immediately found me. For one long second, neither of us moved. Then his wolf surged forward so violently that Magnus's entire body stiffened. I could feel it too. Regulus recognized Lunar.

“Finn,” Magnus whispered.

The sound of my human name coming from his mouth made something inside my chest ache. Lunar pushed closer to the surface, and suddenly I could feel Magnus's emotions as if they were my own. Fear. Shock. Anger. Relief. And beneath everything else was something so deep that I almost couldn't understand it. Love. It was buried beneath years of resentment, but it was still there. Magnus took one step toward me, but his security team immediately moved in front of him.

“Stay back,” one of them warned.

Magnus ignored him. His eyes never left mine. “Finn, come here.” His voice was softer than it had been at the hotel. It was almost the voice I remembered from years ago, the one that used to calm me whenever I was frightened.

Lunar suddenly whispered inside my head. “Our mate.”

I wanted to move toward him. Every part of me wanted to cross the distance between us, but another memory flashed through my mind. Magnus standing in the great hall. The rejection message. The years I had spent believing he had abandoned me. The coldness in his eyes when I walked into that hotel room. I took a step backward instead. Magnus's expression changed immediately.

Pain crossed his face before he quickly covered it with anger. “Finn, what happened to you?” he demanded.

I looked down at my paws and then back at him. “I don't know,” I said through Lunar. “But I know someone tried to keep me from finding you.”

Magnus's jaw tightened. “Who?”

The kneeling wolf suddenly made a desperate sound behind me, and when I turned, he was gone.

I spun around, but the street was empty. Only a small trail of blood remained where he had been kneeling. Magnus's men immediately spread out, searching the alleyways and nearby buildings, but there was no sign of him. Magnus walked toward me slowly. This time he did not try to command me. He stopped several feet away and simply stared. His eyes moved over my silver fur, my glowing eyes and the strange markings that had appeared across my shoulders. I could see the questions building in his expression.

“Moonblood,” he finally whispered.

I did not understand the word, but the reaction of everyone around him told me it mattered. One of his men took a frightened step backward. Another immediately lowered his head.

Magnus looked at them sharply. “You know what this means?” he asked. Nobody answered.

His voice became colder. “I asked you a question.”

His head of security finally swallowed and said, “Alpha, if the old records are correct, there hasn't been a Moonblood wolf in centuries.”

Magnus's eyes returned to me. “That's why they took you.”

My heart seemed to stop. Lunar became completely silent inside my mind. Magnus took another step toward me, but this time I did not move away.

“Finn, your disappearance wasn't about me,” he said. “It was about what you are.”

I stared at him, trying to understand how he could possibly know something I had spent my entire life not knowing. “Then tell me,” I said. “Tell me what they did to me.”

Magnus opened his mouth, but before he could answer, a sharp pain tore through my chest. I collapsed onto the pavement. Lunar screamed inside my head as images flooded through me. A dark laboratory. Silver chains. Needles. A glass chamber filled with pale blue liquid. Someone standing behind the glass, watching me struggle. I saw a man's hand resting against the control panel, and on his finger was a ring bearing the symbol of Magnus's family. Then the image changed. I saw myself younger, terrified and crying while someone whispered that if Magnus ever found me, they would kill him. I tried to scream his name, but another image forced itself into my mind. A second wolf stood beside me in the darkness. His fur was black. His eyes were gold. He looked at me with an expression that felt strangely familiar.