~PROLOGUE~

Everyone in Vukaria knew his name—Hunter of Nightvale, the golden warrior boy.

He wasn’t born into greatness, but from the moment he could stand on his own two feet, he trained harder than anyone. He rose faster than any warrior in the Nightvale pack. 

People whispered about his skill, his strength, his loyalty. Even Alpha Logan, the strong and respected leader of Nightvale, took notice. 

Alpha Logan had no son. His mate and beta had died in an ambush years ago, and since then, he refused to take another wife. With no heir to his throne, he watched the young warriors carefully, waiting for one to rise above the rest. And one did. 

Hunter.

He was just a boy when he joined the warrior ranks, but it wasn’t long before he became the strongest among them. Not just in battle, but in heart and mind. He fought for his pack, protected the weak, and stood tall in every trial. 

So, when Alpha Logan finally named a successor, no one was surprised. Hunter was chosen to be the next Alpha. But there was one condition. Before he could wear the Alpha crest, he had to attend AlphaForge Academy.

AlphaForge was no ordinary school. It was the most powerful, most feared Alpha academy in all of Vukaria. It was a brutal, unforgiving place where boys were stripped of their pride and rebuilt into leaders. 

Only the strongest left with their minds and bodies still intact. It was more than a school—it was a test of the soul. The academy trained the future rulers of the realm. It was ruled by Alpha Jaxson, a cold and cruel man who believed only in power and pain.

Hunter went to the school with honor in his heart, ready to face the fire and prove himself. But instead of coming home with pride, he came home in chains.

One night, a beloved teacher at the academy was murdered. His body was found torn and broken, and Hunter was discovered standing over him, blood on his hands. The school guards didn’t wait for answers. They took him prisoner.

In Vukaria, the punishment for committing treason was death by hanging. But somehow, Hunter escaped. He ran all the way back to Nightvale, wounded and afraid, his heart heavy with pain and confusion. 

Alpha Logan believed him. He looked into the boy’s eyes and saw the truth. Hunter wasn’t a killer.

When Alpha Jaxson demanded that Hunter be handed over for execution, Alpha Logan refused. 

That was all Jaxson needed to hear. Jaxson had always hated Logan. Long before Hunter was even born, there had been tension between the two leaders. And now, with this accusation as his excuse, Alpha Jaxson gathered his army and marched on Nightvale.

What followed was not a battle. It was an execution. Nightvale stood tall and proud, but even the strongest walls fall when the enemy has already burned the gates. 

Warriors were slaughtered, pups dragged from their dens, and flames rose so high they lit the sky like a second sun. Through the smoke and blood, one truth became painfully clear—This was never about Hunter.

This was about power.

And Alpha Jaxson would burn the world to ashes just to hold it all in his hands. Hunter, even with his wounds, fought with everything he had. But Hunter knew this battle would not end in victory. So, while the pack fell around him, he made a choice.

He gave his mother something small and silver—something Alpha Jaxson had been searching for years. No one knew what it really was, only that it was powerful and dangerous. 

Before Hunter disappeared, he knelt beside Devika, held her face in his shaking hands, and whispered, “One day, you’ll take back what they stole from us. You’ll be the Alpha they fear.”

She had never forgotten those words.

Hunter told his mother to run, to take his sisters and vanish into the mountains. She didn’t want to leave, but he begged her. “Go. Protect it. Keep them safe. No matter what happens to me.”

That was the last time Devika saw her brother.

They fled to the Wolfsgate pack, far from the ashes of their broken home. There, they lived in secret, hiding their names and their pain. Years passed, but the fire in Devika’s heart never went out.

She remembered everything. She remembered the way her brother smiled when he trained her in the woods. She remembered how he carried Serina when she was too tired to walk. 

And she remembered how he screamed her name as he fought off the enemy so they could escape.

Devika knew what had to be done. Nightvale may have fallen, but its true blood still lived in her veins. 

And she would not stop until their name was remembered again. She would take the pack back. 

She ran through the forest before dawn. She learned to fight with blades and bare hands. She learned strategy, the old ways of the pack, and everything a true Alpha must know. 

Her mother begged her to stop. Her sister feared what she was becoming. But Devika never looked back Because she wasn’t just fighting to become Alpha.

She was fighting for revenge.

To kill the man who ruined her brother’s name. To bring down Alpha Jaxson and everything he built. But to do that, she needed to enter the one place where her kind didn’t belong—the AlphaForge Academy.

It was forbidden.

No girl had ever set foot inside those halls, because in the entire kingdom of Vukaria, no pack had ever been ruled by a female Alpha. Girls were expected to marry warriors, bear heirs, and stay out of battle. 

That was the law. That was tradition. That was the curse. But Devika didn’t care about laws. She didn’t want a mate. She didn’t dream of love or dresses or soft futures. 

She dreamed of war. Of standing at the head of the Nightvale pack. Of seeing Alpha Jaxson fall to his knees and beg for mercy. So she cut her hair, changed her name to Devan, and wrapped her chest in thick cloth every night until it ached. 

She moved like a boy. Spoke like one. Walked like one. She trained every day, fighting boys twice her size until her knuckles bled. She walked with power in her step and fire in her eyes. 

And when she looked in the mirror, she didn’t see a girl pretending to be strong. She saw the Alpha she was born to be. Devika left her mother and sister behind in the middle of the night with only a letter and a promise to return stronger.

She had work to do.

The AlphaForge Academy would never see her coming. And when they did, it would already be too late. Because the girl they cast aside had become something else entirely.

She was no longer just a lost daughter of a fallen pack. Devika would learn how the academy worked, find the truth about what happened to her brother. And when the time comes, she would destroy Alpha Jaxson and his son with her own hands.

She was the storm.

The blade in the dark.

The rightful Alpha of Nightvale.

And she was coming for blood.