Chapter 00003

Fire And Ice

Phil's POV:

Hissing loudly, I continued walking deeper into the garden. My feet picked up speed beneath me, and I stopped caring about the finely tailored shirt I had worn down the aisle just hours ago.

It clung to me now, drenched in sweat and tension, stretching with each stride as if begging me to stop before the inevitable happened.

But there was no stopping it. My bones began to creak— a warning that I was about to shift.

My wolf had been summoned, not by the moon, but by raw, blistering rage.

It was already evening. The sky had dimmed into a dusky navy blue. The half-moon hung there awkwardly, struggling to shine, as if unsure whether tonight was a night for blessings or curses.

And then came the voices.

"An Alpha without a Luna can only go as far."

"Your Luna will make you stronger."

"Your enemies will come for your life, and if you have no one waiting for you at home, you’ll easily surrender it."

"Your wolf needs a Luna to be vulnerable with. All this pent-up strength will take away your humanity faster than you know it."

"Respectfully speaking, sir, you need a Luna. And you will know her when you find her. The problem is that you aren’t trying."

And worst of all...

"You can’t be the one for me, Phil. Not yet."

Every rejection, every piece of unsolicited advice, every ounce of pressure I’d ever felt came roaring back into my head, matching the rhythm of my cracking bones.

My hands balled into fists, and my shoulders hunched forward as my wolf clawed his way to the surface. I didn’t try to stop him.

The moon watched from above as if enjoying the unraveling of an Alpha.

My eyes burned. The glow intensified, and when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the stream I ran past, I noticed the hue.

It had changed from the usual blue. It had grown darker, and stormier.

My dad was right.

He used to say. "You see, Phil, the moon goddess didn’t want an Alpha without a mate to be too powerful. So she locked away part of their strength until the first kiss. When you find your Luna, and when your lips touch, you unlock something."

I had rolled my eyes then. Dismissed it as one of his poetic rants.

But tonight—tonight I felt it.

That kiss at the altar, had unlocked something primal in me. A force I never knew I possessed.

My howl tore through the woods, long and guttural. And the pack heard me. One by one, howls echoed back.

In their homes, under their roofs, I knew they responded by clinging tighter to their mates. They would sleep a little more soundly tonight, knowing their Alpha was ready. That he had stepped fully into his role.

But like all things in this world, balance demanded contrast.

Yin met Yang. Light is called darkness. And my howl—my glorious, victorious howl—was the trigger.

He heard it.

Hon.

The name alone made my blood curdle.

Hon, my uncle, once a brother to Alpha Roy—the Alpha before my father—until greed and madness carved a rift too wide to mend.

He had always been off, too intense, too ambitious, and too willing to cross lines.

Then Roy died, mysteriously. His body was found alone in the woods.

And his son who was barely two years old, vanished not long after with no trace. Some said he drowned, others whispered darker theories.

The council had no time to mourn. The Pack needed leadership.

"Hon does not have the qualities to lead this pack. He is erratic and does not often think before he acts," One councilman had declared.

"But he is a true blood," another countered. "He has Alpha blood."

"As do we all," Said the first. "But our Pack needs more than lineage. We need protection. We need control."

Bradd Justin, perhaps Hon’s fiercest critic, had pounded his fist on the council table and roared, "Remember, he has gone rogue. A rogue cannot be our Alpha. Not now. Not ever."

And so, Hon lost the crown. And the council, fearing him but prioritizing duty, chose my father—Ray Hammerstock, Alpha Roy's Beta.

Hon vanished.

Or so we thought.

He had joined the rogue Pack known as Armageddon. Not just joined—he conquered.

Heilled their Alpha, and claimed the title. And built a monstrous army of bloodthirsty wolves who had nothing to lose and everything to prove.

I could almost hear his voice now, echoing through his tunnels: "They stripped me of everything I worked so hard to achieve. Let my name be wiped from the earth if I ever let this grudge go."

And I imagined him, in the belly of that wretched underground lair, pacing like a madman with glowing eyes and a heaving chest, declaring to his followers: "With you all by my side, we will take back what is rightfully ours!"

The rogues would have answered with their manic howls, eager for blood.

While my father was still Alpha, Hon’s first strike was brutal. He had slaughtered every wolf stationed at our borders, taken the land, and claimed it like a trophy.

But my father—my father wasn’t a weak Alpha. He fought back.

He led us through victory after victory. Until we pushed the rogues back, reclaimed our territory, and nearly wiped them out.

Hon fled.

And for eighteen years, he was a ghost.

Until tonight.

Until my howl.

I didn’t know how I knew—but I felt it. My call had stirred and reignited his hatred.

Somewhere, in a place colder and darker than any sane wolf should dwell, Hon shifted.

I could see it in my wolf's eye—his massive wolf form stamping the dirt, his breath heavy with vengeance. And then came his reply:

"Prepare! Prepare! Prepare!"

He would be rallying them now. The rogues, the blood-drunk followers, his Pack of monsters.

"Prepare to be bleached red by the blood of a premature Alpha, O moon goddess. For. I. will. have his head on a stake soon."

He would be speaking of me.

And then turning to his mutts, eyes crazed, voice booming: "The day has finally come. We have an Alpha to kill."

I clenched my jaw.

Let him come.

Let him try.

Because I wasn’t the same Phil he remembered. I wasn’t just my father’s son anymore. I was the Alpha. I was no longer a boy trying to fill a dead Alpha’s shoes.

I was the storm coming for him.

And god's help him, I was ready.