THE ALPHA WHO LOST EVERYTHING

AUTHOR’S POV 

The Blackthorn Pack had never known silence like this.

Even during the harshest winters, when snow buried the training grounds and the border patrols returned with frozen limbs, Blackthorn territory had remained alive with the sounds of wolves. Warriors sparred before sunrise. Pack members gathered in the kitchens and common halls. Children ran through the courtyards while their parents called after them, and the guards stationed at the gates greeted familiar faces returning from the forest.

Now, the training grounds were empty.

The kitchens had fallen silent. The common halls had become makeshift shelters for the injured, and the courtyards were littered with broken furniture, discarded weapons, and the remains of barricades that had failed to keep the infected outside.

Smoke drifted above the eastern wall.

Kaiden stood in the middle of the courtyard, staring at the charred remains of a building that had once housed dozens of pack members. His black shirt was torn at the shoulder, and dried blood stained the sleeve. Some of it belonged to him. Most of it did not.

He could still hear the screams from the night the eastern barricade fell.

He could still see the faces of the warriors who had stood beside him, fighting until the infected overwhelmed them. Some had been dragged away into the darkness. Others had been forced to end the lives of their own comrades after the plague destroyed their minds.

And some had simply disappeared.

No bodies. No final words. No certainty that they were dead.

Only empty beds and names that no one wanted to speak aloud.

"Alpha."

Kaiden did not turn immediately.

Beta Rowan approached him with a list in his hand. The older wolf's face had grown gaunt over the past weeks, and his once-neat hair was streaked with dust and gray ash. He looked like a man who had aged several years in a matter of days.

"How many?" Kaiden asked.

Rowan stopped beside him.

"Thirty-seven confirmed dead since the eastern attack. Another nineteen are missing. We have eleven warriors too injured to fight, and the remaining patrols are operating with fewer than half their original numbers."

Kaiden closed his eyes briefly.

Thirty-seven.

He had already lost count of the dead before the eastern attack. The number had become something he could barely bear to look at, yet Rowan kept bringing him the figures because an Alpha was expected to know what remained of his pack.

What remained.

The words felt like an insult.

"And the southern patrol?"

"Hasn't returned."

"How long?"

"Two days."

Kaiden's jaw tightened. "Send another team."

"Alpha, we don't have enough warriors to spare."

"Then send me."

Rowan looked at him for a long moment.

"You haven't slept properly in four days. Your wounds haven't healed, and you can barely keep your wolf from tearing through the territory every time we hear a scream."

"My wolf is not your concern."

"No," Rowan replied quietly. "But the pack is. And if you fall, there will be no one left to hold these people together."

Kaiden turned on him.

"I am their Alpha."

"Then act like one."

The words struck harder than Kaiden expected.

Rowan had served the Blackthorn Pack for decades. He had stood beside Kaiden's father, helped prepare Kaiden for leadership, and defended him even when other elders questioned his decisions. He was not a man who challenged his Alpha without reason.

The fact that he had done so now told Kaiden just how desperate their situation had become.

Kaiden looked around the courtyard.

A mother sat on the steps of a damaged building, holding a sleeping child against her chest. Two elderly pack members were sharing a blanket beside a fire that had almost burned out. Near the infirmary entrance, a young warrior with a bandaged face leaned against the wall, staring at nothing.

They were waiting for him to save them.

He had spent his entire life believing that was what an Alpha did.

He had believed strength meant having enough warriors to defend his borders, enough resources to feed his people, and enough influence to make neighboring packs think twice before challenging him.

He had believed that a powerful Alpha could prevent his world from falling apart.

The Ashen Plague had stripped those beliefs away one by one.

His warriors could not fight an enemy that felt no pain and feared no death. His wealth had become meaningless when trade routes collapsed. His allies had stopped answering his calls when protecting their own territories became more important than honoring old agreements.

And now his own pack looked at him with exhaustion where they had once looked with unquestioning faith.

"Gather the surviving warriors," Kaiden ordered. "We will evacuate the remaining families before nightfall. Anyone who can walk will carry supplies. The injured will be transported in whatever vehicles still work. We will head north and find a defensible location."

Rowan's expression did not change.

"Where?"

Kaiden stared at him.

"Somewhere safer than this."

"That isn't a destination, Alpha."

"Then find one!"

The sharpness of his voice drew several frightened looks from nearby pack members.

Kaiden forced himself to lower his tone.

"Search the old maps. Contact any territory that hasn't fallen. There must be somewhere we can go."

"We have tried."

"Try again."

Rowan hesitated before answering.

"Most of our former allies have withdrawn their support. Two have stopped responding entirely. Another sent word that they will not accept displaced wolves because they cannot risk bringing the plague into their territory."

Kaiden felt something cold settle in his stomach.

"They owe us."

"They owed us before the world changed."

The Beta's answer was quiet, but it carried the weight of a truth Kaiden had been refusing to acknowledge.

The world had changed.

Old alliances meant nothing to hungry families. Political agreements could not force exhausted warriors to defend a territory that might be lost by morning. The name Blackthorn, once enough to command respect across the region, now meant little to those who were simply trying to survive.

Kaiden looked toward the ruined gates.

"Isabelle?"

Rowan's silence answered him before his words did.

"Where is she?"

"Preparing to leave."

Kaiden's eyes narrowed. "Leave where?"