Chapter 3: When His Eyes Stopped Seeing Me.

I thought I had escaped her, I should have been focused on the task ahead which was dusting, polishing, sweeping every inch of the Alpha’s chambers until my back ached and my hands snapped. But the further away I walked from the courtyard, the louder the silence became.

My hand was still tingling where Raven’s had grabbed me, but it wasn’t the burn I felt when she touched me that worried me…… It wasn’t even the voice, that strange, echoing whisper that hadn’t belonged to her, or to me, yet had curled inside my mind like it had always lived there.

It was Raven's smug words, her smirk….. She knew my secret, what secret?? I kept wondering what she knew. My chest tightened at the thought. Did she? Did I even know it myself?. I really hope it’s not what I have in mind. I’ll be in deep trouble if anyone knows that.

Each step toward the Alpha’s room felt heavier, my mind thought over every possibility, every meaning hidden in her taunt.

As I pushed open the door of the Alpha’s room I tried to push aside every thought of Raven cause I had just only one thing to focus on right now and that’s my chore in this room.

I closed the door behind me and pressed my back against it for a second, closed my eyes and did a little prayer.

I tightened my jaw and went directly to the Alpha’s desk, the place where he spent most of his nights. The surface was filled with half-finished papers, an ink bottle, and the faint smell of leather. I arranged the papers, dust clung to the edges of the desk. My hands found the rag in my gown apron and as if by instinct immediately went to dusting.

As I wiped, my thoughts slipped, I thought of the Alpha and days when we were younger, back into the days when my world was brighter.

I could still see Kai as a boy, with his unruly brown hair and the stubborn grin he always threw at Raven when she tried to boss us around.

I went back in time a bit, I was nine and they were ten when the field belonged to me, Kai, and Raven.

The sun had been bright that day, spilling across the wide fields of Lunaris Hold. My bare feet slapped against the grass as I ran, breathless from laughing too hard, hair sticking to my damp forehead.

“Slow down, Lila!” Kai said to me, his voice was boyish yet firm. His small hand gripped mine when I almost tripped. “Don’t let go.,If you fall, I’ll pull you up. Always.”

Always. That word became a promise I carried in my heart.

Raven got angry whenever Kai pulled me behind him, rescuing me from her mini bullying.

“She’s mine, Kai. She doesn’t need you always rescuing her” Raven said “You’re coddling her, she’ll never be strong”.

But Kai would look at me, only me, and shake his head. “She doesn’t need to be strong when I’m here.”

That had been who Kai was, my shield, my protector. I had never felt weak with him.

But years later, everything would change.

I still remember the whispering fear in the pack when Kai and Raven turned sixteen. One of the elders got a premonition and it had spread like fire in dry leaves because it wasn’t directed to just our pack:

There will come a wolf, the strongest Alpha in history. He alongside his Luna will stand against The Eclipse King (the rebellious brother of the moon goddess), The divine Alpha will be the breaker of curses and The savior of the goddess’s kin.

The name of the said Alpha was not mentioned and that silence was what terrified everyone the most.

None of us slept well after that. Every parent looked at their sons with both hope and fear. Fear because we knew The Eclipse King would never let such a wolf live to fight.

Two years went by and everything was alright until the night Kai was to become Alpha. The night he turned 18, they were supposed to get their mates then because it was supposed to be our mate ceremony that year.

But then the Rogues came, they were the creations of the eclipse kings they came in the night, visiting different packs. I remember the way they smelled, like filth and rot filling the air as screams tore through the ranch.

They destroyed everything on their part, the incident killed the previous Luna, Kai’s Mum. They weren’t werewolves. Something about them felt strange, different even like they weren’t our kind.

They weren’t after everyone, they knew what they wanted.

They were after the ones with a future too bright to ignore, they came looking for the future Alpha.

And Kai was one of them,

Kai fought. Of course he did. Even at eighteen, his strength had begun to bloom, the power in his voice when he shifted was resistance like fire.

But the witch was waiting.

She didn’t speak, she didn’t have to but I’ll never forget her. She wore a long black robe that seemed to swallow her whole body. She lifted her pale hands which were glowing like the moon, to bind him. Her eyes were cold and merciless, her hands twisting shadows around his wrists.

I still see it when I close my eyes, the shadows dragging him into the dark, his voice hoarse from shouting in pain, eyes glowing pale blue as her hands marked him with something unseen. A curse.

One that would turn him from the boy who once stood between me and the world… into the Alpha whose eyes I barely recognize now.

The sound of the vase shattering made my heart stop. I froze, staring at the sharp glittering pieces scattered across the polished floor. My hands shook so badly I didn’t even dare to bend down and pick them up.

Kai emerged from the bathroom, towel draped around his waist, droplets trailing down his chest. His eyes landed on the shattered vase, then on me, and they hardened instantly.

“Pathetic,” he muttered. His tone stung, “Can’t even stand in a room without ruining something.”

My throat closed. “I didn’t me….”

“Don’t bother,” he cut me off, voice low and cold. “You’re nothing but trouble. Out of my sight.”

The words hurt worse than any punishment. I bowed my head, and left the room. I didn’t cry until the door clicked shut behind me, until I was sure he couldn’t see.