Library
Search
Home / Romance / Mated to the Alpha CEO / The Runaway

Share

The Runaway

Author: HideShin
last update publish date: 2026-06-08 05:55:59

Kael slept for sixteen hours.

When he finally woke, Clara was sitting in a chair by his bed, a book open in her lap. She had been there most of the night, watching over him, the golden light humming softly beneath her skin.

He blinked at her, disoriented. "Where am I?"

"The Nightclaw Pack house. You're safe."

He tried to sit up, winced, and fell back against the pillows. His ribs were bruised, his left arm wrapped in bandages. The healers had done what they could, but some wounds took time.

"Easy," Clara said. "You've been through a lot."

"You stayed with me?"

"I stayed."

Kael's eyes glistened. "No one's ever done that before. Not since my mother died."

Clara's heart ached for him. "Tell me about her. About what happened."

Kael's story came out in fragments, between sips of water and long, painful pauses.

His mother, Mira, had been an Omega in a small pack in the Appalachian Mountains. She had never revealed her power—had hidden it, afraid of what would happen if others found out. But Kael had been different. His power had manifested when he was twelve, bursting out of him during a fight with a bully.

"The pack elders wanted to use me," Kael said, his voice flat. "Turn me into a weapon. My mother refused. So they killed her."

Clara's hands clenched. "They killed her?"

"Made it look like an accident. But I knew. I saw it in their eyes." He swallowed. "I ran that night. I've been running ever since."

"How did you find us?"

"I heard stories. About the Hidden Luna who united the packs. About the Nightclaw Alpha who loved her." His voice cracked. "My mother said your name before she died. Clara. She said you would help me."

"Your mother knew me?"

"She said you were family. Distant, but family." Kael reached into his shirt and pulled out a worn photograph. "She left me this."

Clara took the photo. It showed two young women, arms around each other, laughing at the camera. One of them was unmistakably her mother—Elara Vance, young and vibrant. The other woman had the same dark hair, the same smile.

"Your mother was my mother's sister," Clara whispered. "Mira was my aunt."

"I didn't know until the end. She never talked about her past." Kael looked at her. "Does that make us cousins?"

"I suppose it does."

Kael managed a weak smile. "Then I'm not completely alone."

"No," Clara said, folding her hands around his. "You're not."

Alistair joined them an hour later.

He listened to Kael's story without interrupting, his expression unreadable. When Kael finished, Alistair leaned back in his chair.

"The pack that killed your mother," he said. "What's their name?"

"The Shadow Claw Pack. Their Alpha is a man named Silas." Kael's voice trembled. "He's the one who ordered her death."

"Silas," Alistair repeated. "I've heard that name. He runs a criminal operation—human trafficking, drug smuggling, using wolves as enforcers."

"He's evil," Kael said. "And he wants me. He found out what I am. He sent his wolves after me."

"How many?"

"A dozen. Maybe more." Kael looked down. "I killed two of them. Escaped the rest. But they're still hunting me."

Alistair exchanged a glance with Clara. "They won't find you here. This territory is warded. No one enters without our permission."

"You don't know Silas. He has witches. Dark ones."

"So do we." Alistair stood. "Rest, Kael. We'll talk more tomorrow."

After leaving Kael's room, Clara and Alistair walked through the moonlit forest.

"He's family," Clara said. "My cousin."

"I gathered."

"We can't just hide him. Silas will keep hunting. He'll never stop."

"Then we stop him first."

Clara looked at him. "You want to go to war?"

"I want to protect our pack. Our family." Alistair took her hand. "Silas killed Kael's mother. He'll kill again. The only question is whether we let him."

Clara was silent for a long moment. Then she nodded. "We need more information. His territory. His allies. His weaknesses."

"I'll send scouts tomorrow."

"Good." She squeezed his hand. "And Alistair?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. For believing him."

Alistair pulled her close. "I believe in you. And you believe in him. That's enough."

The next morning, Elara found Kael sitting by the river, skipping stones.

She approached slowly, not wanting to startle him. He didn't turn, but his shoulders relaxed slightly.

"You're the Hidden Luna's daughter," he said.

"Elara. And you're Kael."

"Word travels fast."

"Small pack." She sat beside him on the bank. "My mother told me about your mother. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know. But I'm still sorry." She picked up a stone and skipped it across the water. It bounced six times before sinking. "My mother says you have power. Like hers."

"Not like hers. She's different. Stronger."

"So are you." Elara looked at him. "I saw you in a vision. Before you came."

Kael turned, his gray-blue eyes wide. "What did you see?"

"Fire. Blood. A wolf begging for help." She paused. "I didn't know it was you until you showed up."

"Do you see how it ends?"

"No. The future is always changing." She stood. "But I know one thing. You're not alone anymore."

Kael watched her walk away, something shifting in his chest.

Over the next few days, Kael grew stronger.

He trained with AJ and Elara, learning to control his silver light. It was different from Clara's—more aggressive, almost hungry. But Elara's presence seemed to calm it.

"You two have a connection," AJ observed one afternoon, watching them spar.

"We're cousins," Kael said.

"That's not what I meant."

Elara's cheeks flushed. "AJ, don't."

"I'm just saying." AJ grinned. "The way you look at each other—"

"I'll hit you."

"You can try."

Kael laughed—a real laugh, the first in a long time. Elara smiled, and something warm flickered between them.

The scouts returned a week later with news.

Silas's compound was in the mountains of West Virginia, hidden in a valley that had been magically sealed. He had at least fifty wolves, plus a coven of witches. His operation was larger than anyone had guessed.

"He's been building an army," Marcus reported. "For what, we don't know."

"To take over," Alistair said grimly. "He wants to be the most powerful Alpha in the east."

"And he needs Kael to do it," Clara added. "A Hidden Luna under his control would make him unstoppable."

"We have to stop him before he makes the first move," Derek said. He had joined the war council, his gray eyes hard. "Strike first. Strike hard."

Alistair looked at Clara. "Agreed."

That night, Clara found Kael on the roof of the pack house, staring at the stars.

"Can't sleep?" she asked.

"Too much thinking."

"About?"

"Silas. The attack. Whether I'll survive." He glanced at her. "Whether any of us will."

Clara sat beside him. "Fear is normal. I was terrified before every battle I ever fought."

"How did you get through it?"

"I remembered what I was fighting for." She looked at the forest below. "My pack. My family. The people I loved."

Kael was quiet for a moment. "I don't have anyone."

"You have us now."

"Elara said something similar."

"Elara's smart."

"She is." Kael smiled faintly. "She's also... I don't know. Different."

Clara hid a smile. "Different how?"

"Like she sees things others don't. Not just the future. People."

"She gets that from me."

"And the stubbornness?"

"Her father."

Kael laughed. Then his expression grew serious. "What if I can't control my power? What if I hurt someone?"

"Then you'll learn. Just like I did." Clara touched his shoulder. "You're not alone, Kael. Not anymore."

He nodded, and for the first time, hope flickered in his eyes.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO   The Legacy

    Many years later.The ancient oak had grown broader with age, its branches spreading wider over the training ground, its roots sinking deeper into the earth. The practice dummies had been replaced a dozen times over, their wooden frames worn smooth by generations of paws. The lodges had expanded, multiplied, become a village of learning that drew wolves from every corner of the known world. And at the center of it all, moving slowly now, her dark fur streaked with silver, walked the wolf who had started it all.Lira was old.She did not resent the word. Old age was a privilege denied to so many wolves she had loved — her mother, Ronan, Clara, Kael, who had passed three winters ago with his niece Bryn at his side. Old age meant she had lived long enough to see the seeds she planted grow into forests. Old age meant she had watched the Compact of the First Wound transform from a fragile alliance into the bedrock of wolf civilization. Old age meant she had trained three generations of stu

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO   The Voice

    The winter of Lira's fifth year at the First Lesson was the coldest anyone could remember.Snow fell for three days without ceasing, blanketing the training ground in white, weighing down the branches of the ancient oak until they groaned. The stream froze over, and the students had to break the ice each morning to reach the water beneath. The lodges, built for milder seasons, required constant tending — fires stoked through the night, gaps in the walls packed with moss and dried grass. It was the kind of winter that killed the old and the weak, the kind of winter that had, in the years before the Compact, driven packs to raid each other's territories for food.But the Compact held. The Ironmaw sent dried venison from their autumn stores. The Western Pact contributed insulated furs woven from mountain goat wool. The Northern packs, long accustomed to brutal winters, sent advisors who taught the southern wolves how to build snow shelters and read the signs of coming storms. The trade r

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO   The First Lesson

    The seasons turned, and the First Lesson grew.What had begun as a handful of students gathering in a worn training ground became, over the course of a year, something far greater. Word spread through the territories, carried by messengers and traders and wolves who had witnessed the training firsthand. The Compact's school was not like the old ways — not a place where one Alpha's warriors learned to dominate their neighbors, but a place where wolves from every pack, every background, every corner of the known world came to learn and to teach in equal measure.By the second spring after the Sunken Temple, the First Lesson had forty-seven students.They came from Ironmaw and the Western Pact, from the northern mountains and the southern refugee settlements, from the coastal territories and the eastern wildlands. Some were young, barely past their first year, sent by parents who wanted them to learn the skills that had saved the world. Others were older, seasoned warriors seeking to und

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO   The New Order

    The first students arrived at dawn.Lira stood at the edge of the training ground, the crisp autumn air sharp with the scent of pine and woodsmoke, and watched them come. A young Ironmaw female with a scar already healing across her muzzle, walking with the careful pride of a wolf who had survived her first real battle. Two Northern pack siblings, pale-furred and silent, their ice-blue eyes taking in everything with the wary assessment of wolves raised in isolation. A Western Pact yearling carrying a satchel of ward-herbs, her excitement barely contained. Three Southern refugee pups, not yet full-grown, who had been born in the grey lands and were seeing a green world for the first time. And Thane, already at the training ground, helping an elderly seer arrange crystals around the sparring circle for the morning meditation.In total, seventeen wolves had answered her call. Seventeen students, ranging from wide-eyed pups to seasoned fighters, all of them carrying the same flicker of de

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO    The Scars That Remain

    The morning after the feast, Lira woke to a silence that was not the Silence.She lay still in her bedding, the familiar scent of moss and dried herbs filling her nostrils. The lodge the Nightclaw elders had built for her was simple — a single room with a hearth at its center, a window that looked out toward the ancient oak, and shelves lined with the small tokens she had accumulated over the months of her journey. Ronan's letters. Clara's worn leather collar. The seer-stone from the eastern enclave. A fragment of rune-carved bone. The map of the ley lines, now marked with twelve points of green instead of red.The silence was not oppressive. It was the ordinary quiet of early morning, broken only by the distant murmur of the stream and the first tentative birdsong. The world was still here. Still turning. Still alive.And Lira was still a wolf. Just a wolf.She rose slowly, her joints protesting with a stiffness that was new. The battle at the Sunken Temple had left bruises that were

  • Mated to the Alpha CEO   The Light Within

    The desert dawn painted the sky in shades of rose and amber, the first warm colors any of them had seen since the battle began. The Shifting Sands, so menacing in the darkness, now lay still and golden under the rising sun. The oppressive cold had lifted entirely, replaced by a dry, clean heat that carried the faint scent of distant rain. The Silence was contained. The world was breathing again.Lira walked slowly through the encampment that had sprung up around the pillar ring. Her body ached with a deep, bone-level exhaustion that had nothing to do with physical wounds. The absence where her light had been was vast and strange — not the violent emptiness the Unmaker had left, but a quiet vacancy, like a room from which someone dear had just departed. She kept reaching for the warmth instinctively and finding nothing, and each time the discovery was a small, fresh grief.But she was alive. She was walking. And around her, the Compact was doing what it did best: surviving.The healers

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status