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Chapter six — She Fell Like Rain

Author: Judith
last update publish date: 2026-05-06 04:15:12

Alpha

Zaydeen was moving

He didn't know why. He had responded to border situations hundreds of times — rogues, lost travelers, the occasional wounded wolf from a neighboring territory. It was duty. Routine. He was Alpha of Blackridge and the safety of his borders was his responsibility.

But something pulled at him differently tonight. Something beneath instinct, beneath duty — older and quieter than both.

He reached the northern tree line in minutes.

She was on the ground.

Even collapsed in the mud and wet leaves, even pale and still and completely unguarded, there was something about her that struck him immediately. The dark hair splayed around her like ink. The fierce furrow between her brows even in unconsciousness — as though some part of her was still fighting even when her body had finally given out. One hand was pressed flat against her stomach in a gesture so instinctive, so fiercely protective, that something in Zaydeen's chest pulled tight.

"Don't just stand there," he said quietly to his sentinels.

He crouched and gathered her carefully — one arm beneath her knees, one behind her back — and lifted her like she weighed nothing. Her head fell against his chest. She smelled like rain and exhaustion and something underneath both of those things that made him go completely, unnaturally still.

He didn't have a name for it yet..

He carried her himself all the way back to the pack grounds.

Mara, Blackridge's head healer, met them at the door of the healing lodge with sharp eyes and no wasted words. She had been serving this pack for thirty years and had seen everything twice.

"Put her here," she said, gesturing to the bed nearest the fire. "Then wait outside."

Zaydeen laid the woman down with more care than the situation perhaps required and straightened up. Mara was already moving — checking pulse, temperature, running practiced hands along limbs checking for injury.

"Outside, Zaydeen," Mara said without looking up.

He went.

He stood in the corridor with his arms crossed and his jaw tight, listening to the quiet sounds of Mara working. His sentinels had dispersed. The pack grounds were still and sleeping. Rain tapped softly against the windows.

He didn't move.

Forty minutes passed before Mara opened the door.

She looked up at him with an expression he couldn't immediately read — something between gravity and softness.

"She's stable," Mara said. "Severe exhaustion. Mild dehydration. Her body simply shut down — it had nothing left to give." She paused. "She's been walking for days, Zaydeen. In her condition."

"What condition?"

Mara held his gaze steadily.

"She's pregnant. Twins. Both heartbeats are strong — remarkable given what she's put her body through." Another pause. "She's perhaps four months along. Maybe slightly more."

The corridor was verd been protecting them.

"She carries no pack scent," Zaydeen said finally. His voice was controlled. Careful.

"No," Mara agreed. "She's been removed from a pack. Or she left." The healer's eyes were knowing. "Either way, she came here alone. With nothing. And she made it."

Zaydeen said nothing for a long moment.

"Make sure she has everything she needs," he said quietly. "When she wakes — don't pressure her. Let her come around in her own time."

Mara nodded slowly, watching him with those sharp healer's eyes that always saw too much.

"And Zaydeen?" she said as he turned to leave.

He looked back.

"Whoever she's running from," Mara said softly, "she was running very hard."

He held the old woman's gaze for a moment. Then he nodded once and walked out into the rain.

He didn't go back inside his house for a long time. He stood in the courtyard with rain falling on his shoulders, staring at nothing, turning over a feeling he had no category for yet.

Somewhere inside that healing lodge, a stranger slept.

Two heartbeats kept her company.

And Zaydeen Briggs, Alpha of Blackridge Pack, who had never in his life been described as a man y quiet.

Zaydeen stood completely still, the way he always did when something hit him harder than he intended to show. His eyes moved to the closed door behind Mara. Beyond it, the unconscious woman with the fierce furrow in her brow and one hand always pressed to her stomach.

Now he understood why.

She hadn't been protecting herself on that long, brutal walk through cold and rain and darkness.

She ha

who moved quickly toward anything — felt something in his chest shift permanently out of place.

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