Forbidden Choice: My Alpha’s Secret

SERA

The nightmare always began the same way—with Jake’s laugh echoing through the forest, carefree and alive, before it transformed into horror.

I shot up from the bed with a loud scream that tore through the silence of my room. My forehead glistened with sweat. My breath came in ragged gasps, as if I’d been running in my nightmare.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same horrifying scene playing out in unforgiving detail.

I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to force the memories away.

Thursday, May 5th, would forever be carved into my soul as the worst day of my existence. The day when wolves that should only be seen in nature documentaries tore my boyfriend of three years apart. Jake tried to distract them, to keep me safe, throwing himself to his death without a second thought.

A part of me died with him that day. What was left of a person when the one you’d planned your entire future with was gone?

Everything I’d done for the past days was crying. My eyes were permanently swollen, my throat raw from sobbing. Food and sleep were distant memories. The world had become a gray, lifeless place where nothing made sense anymore.

The worst part was the not knowing. What if they never found his body? And he was just… left, like he’d never existed at all?

Mom burst into my room, her face creased with worry and exhaustion. She pulled me into a fierce hug, her tears dampening my hair.

“It’s fine, honey,” she whispered, but her voice cracked on the words.

But this was far from fine. He died because of me. I was the one who’d suggested we take that walk through the woods. I was the one who led him to his death.

Fear consumed me in ways I’d never experienced before. I’d always known wolves existed, but I’d never seen those massive creatures.

Mom’s gentle consolation couldn’t stop the tears that seemed to have no end. I should’ve died instead. Jake was all his grandmother had left after his parents’ death. She raised him from the age of eight, and now she was alone again, because of me.

The framed picture of us on my reading table seemed to mock me. The couple in the picture was now a forever-forgotten memory.

****

Standing before my full-length mirror, I barely recognized the hollow-eyed creature staring back at me. My reflection looked like a ghost and my cheeks had lost their natural flush.

I forced myself to slip into a shapeless black dress that hung loose on my body. I tied a vintage scarf around my neck.

The last thing I wanted was to leave the sanctuary of my room and sit with strangers over some dinner I hadn’t asked for. But Mom had been insistent, and I was too tired to fight her anymore.

“Our visitors are here,” Mom’s voice called from the doorway, her tone carefully neutral but her eyes full of pity.

“You should wear a bit of makeup,” she urged, reaching for my powder brush. “Just to add some color—”

“Mom, stop!” I yelled, the words erupting from me like a dam bursting. The brush clattered to the floor as I collapsed into another round of tears, my body shaking with the force of my grief.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around my waist and holding me as I fell apart. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

We stayed like that for several minutes, me sobbing into her shoulder while she stroked my hair and murmured meaningless comfort. When I finally pulled away, her shirt was damp with my tears.

*

I stared determinedly at the food placed before me, knowing I wouldn’t touch a single bite but I attempted to remember how to act like a normal human being.

Welcome was the only word I managed to utter even though one of the visitors seemed particularly interested in being cheerful with me, offering warm smiles and gentle nods, I couldn’t bring myself to respond appropriately. He wouldn’t stop staring at me either, which made my skin crawl with discomfort.

“This is Alpha Kael of the Moonlight pack,” Dad said, his tone almost too casual, like we were just introducing a neighbor instead of… whatever this was.

An Alpha. What business did the leader of a wolf pack have with me? Was he here to kill me too?

Dad cleared his throat, clearly eager to move past my lackluster greeting. “I know you’d never come visiting if it wasn’t urgent, Kael,” he said. “What brought you here this time?”

“I need you to take what I’m about to say easily, Marcus.”

Dad laughed, but it sounded forced. “Please tell me you’re not trying to ask me to become your Beta again. We’ve been through this, haven’t we?”

“You should know I’m over that by now, you simp,” Kael replied, and I was surprised by the insult but I still don't care. His gaze flicked to me briefly, and he offered what looked like an apologetic smile. “Sorry for the language.”

“I need Selene to come stay in the pack for a—”

“Pack? Hell no!”

I shot to my feet so fast my chair scraped against the hardwood floor. My heart was pounding like I’d just run a marathon, and I could feel heat flooding my cheeks despite the chill I was trying to maintain.

“What would happen to me there? My memories? I can’t just go live with a bunch of human-eating dogs.”

I knew I’d gone too far the moment the words left my mouth. But I couldn’t take it back, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. That’s what I saw wolves as now—monsters who destroyed everything good in the world.

“You are born as a dog, whether you like it or not,” Alpha Kael said, his voice dipping into something darker and more dangerous.

“Kael, you know that’s not possible,” Dad interjected, reaching over to squeeze Mom’s shoulder.

“I’m done with this conversation,” I announced, pushing back from the table with enough force to make the water glasses wobble dangerously.

“Please sit,” Kael said calmly, his voice carrying a strange compulsion that made my muscles obey before my brain could protest.

“It’s for her protection,” Kael continued, and now I could hear genuine concern threading through his words. “Don’t forget she’s my goddaughter too, Marcus. I would never make a choice that wasn’t in her best interest.”

Goddaughter? This was news to me.

“You know how I feel about my family being anywhere near that pack,” Dad said, his voice rising with each word. “That’s been off-limits since the day I left, Kael. Not even you as Alpha can change that.”

“I don’t know how careless she got, but her scent was found at a rogue attack site. And you know what that means, they won’t stop hunting until they find her.”

My blood turned to ice in my veins. “So they killed my boyfriend. What exactly do they want from me?” I spoke with more anger than I’d felt since that horrible day. The wolves obviously didn’t know Jake, which meant his death was entirely my fault. I sucked my tears back in, refusing to break down again.

“Take it easy. They wanted your power. It’s not going to happen anymore. You’ll be under the protection of the pack and learn how to use your abilities. No one will hurt you,” Alpha Kael assured me.

A power I didn’t even know I possessed. These people were ridiculous.

“My answer remains unchanged. No,” I objected firmly.

“You are betrothed to my son. We have to keep you safe at all costs because you belong to us.”

“Betrothed? What the hell is going on?” I fired at Dad, my voice rising to near-hysteria.

My boyfriend had just died and the best they could do was hand me over to marry someone I’d never met? The cruelty of it made my chest ache with fresh grief.

I raised my head to get a proper look at this so-called son, and the moment our eyes met, the world exploded.

It was like being struck by lightning and wrapped in warm honey at the same time. Every nerve in my body suddenly came alive, singing with recognition and longing. An invisible thread seems to be pulling us together with a force that made my knees weak.

His deep brown eyes widened with the same shock I felt coursing through my system. There was only him, and I felt this impossible connection that made my heart race and my soul sing despite my grief.

Even in my human ignorance, I knew what this was. The mate bond.

Everyone looked at us in astonishment, the silence stretching until it became almost unbearable.

“So they were true mates all this while,” Kael said, his voice filled with wonder and satisfaction.

Mom gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth, her eyes wide with shock and something that might have been joy.

I looked as devastated as Damian did. I think we were the only ones without sparkle in our eyes, the only ones who understood what a cruel joke this was. How could fate be so twisted as to give me a mate when I was still drowning in grief for the man I’d lost?

“This is a joke,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “It can't be.”

The mate bond didn’t care that Jake’s blood was still on my hands.

“We’ll be waiting outside for you,” Alpha Kael announced, standing with his son—my mate followed him without a word.