Chapter 10

ALPHA RUNE

They say it was easy to get to the top, but remaining at the top was the problem. I had earned the title of the Conqueror during the all-pack war but the task of keeping control over it was the most difficult thing. I would have preferred being out there, fighting and conquering, but now that the battle was over, it was time for administration and leadership and these were not my best strengths.

The transition from the battlefield to the Alpha Conqueror had never been an easy one for me. As the Alpha of the Crescent Moon pack, my "pressing matters of state" usually involved settling territorial disputes between lesser packs or reviewing the fortification of our northern borders. I sat behind my heavy mahogany desk, trying to read the final draft of a peace accord between three warring packs under my jurisdiction but my mind was miles away. It was anchored in a small, sterile room at Mari’s clinic.

"Alpha Rune? The council is waiting for your signature on the trade embargo," an advisor murmured, his voice sounding like a buzzing insect in my ear. He was one of Kayvon's deputies. 

I didn't answer. A sudden, violent jolt shot through my chest—not a physical pain, but a spiritual wrenching. It felt as though an invisible tether connected to my very soul had been pulled taut and then snapped. My breath hitched, and the quill in my hand snapped in two, dark ink splattering across the parchment like a fresh wound.

Sara.

"Alpha?" He called my name again with concern in his voice but I ignored him. 

A wave of cold, suffocating dread washed over me. It was followed by a sharp spike of adrenaline that tasted like copper in the back of my throat. I could feel her fear; it was a distant, echoing scream in the back of my mind. It wasn't just a premonition; it was a biological imperative. My wolf, usually a disciplined beast of war, began to howl within me, pacing the confines of my consciousness with bared teeth.

"Alpha? Are you alright?" the advisor asked, his voice trembling now.

I ignored him again and closed my eyes, reaching out through the mental link that bound me to my inner circle. Kayvon. Report. Now.

Silence.

A heavy, hollow silence that chilled me to the bone. Usually, Kayvon’s mind was an open book, a sharp and ready presence. Now, there was nothing but a void. I tried again, pushing my willpower to its limits. Silas? Do you copy? Status of the ward!

Nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition.

Seeing that my supernatural connection was not working, I picked my phone and dialed Kayvon's number. It rang for a while and there was no answer. This was the most obvious since that something was wrong. Kayvon always had his phone handy, it was impossible to call him and not be able to reach him. This has proven true for the last eight years that I've known him.

I stood up so abruptly that my heavy chair crashed backward against the stone floor. The advisors scrambled away, sensing the sudden, lethal shift in my aura. Without a word of explanation, I vaulted over the desk and sprinted for the balcony.

"Cancel everything!" I roared over my shoulder. "I’m going to the border!"

I shifted mid-air as I leapt from the stone railing. The transformation was a familiar, bone-cracking blur, and before I had even hit the forest floor, I was a massive, obsidian-furred wolf tearing through the underbrush. My paws hammered against the earth, each stride carrying me leagues toward the woman who had become my north star.

The journey that should have taken hours felt like an eternity, fueled by a desperation I hadn't felt in years. By the time I reached the neutral territory surrounding Mari’s clinic, the sun was beginning to bleed over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised orange and sickly yellow.

The moment I stepped onto the clinic’s grounds, the scent of ozone, silver, and fresh blood hit me like a physical blow. I shifted back into my human form, not even caring that I was naked and exposed in the cool morning air. I threw on a discarded cloak from the entrance and burst through the doors.

The clinic was a graveyard of silence.

"Kayvon! Silas!" I bellowed, my voice cracking the plaster on the walls.

I reached the special ward I had prepared for her, and my heart stopped. The heavy oak door had been reduced to splinters. Inside, the room was a chaotic mess of overturned furniture and shattered glass.

My eyes fell on Silas first. The giant of a man was slumped in the corner, his back against the wall, his massive broadsword lying broken in two pieces near his feet. He was breathing, but it was shallow and ragged—he was deeply unconscious, his head lolling to the side.

Then I saw Kayvon. He was sprawled near the foot of the bed, his hand still clutching a small, bloodied blade. There was a sickening bruise covering the entire left side of his torso, and a gash on his temple that had bled freely onto the floor. To see my "Right Hand," the most skilled assassin in the Crescent Moon pack, laid low like this... it sent a shiver of genuine terror through me.

"Mari!" I roared, the sound filled with a primal, agonizing grief. "MARI! WHERE ARE YOU?"

The healer emerged from a small supply closet in the corner, her face as pale as a ghost, her hands shaking so violently she could barely hold a basin of water. When she saw me, she let out a sob of pure terror and relief.

"Alpha Rune... I... I just came in," she stammered, her voice a thin wire. "I Kayvon and Silas came in last night and said they'd look after her through the night. I went home to rest and just got here.

I moved to her in two steps, grabbing her by the shoulders. I tried to be gentle, but I knew my grip was bruising. "Where is she, Mari? Where is Sara?"

Mari looked at the empty, blood-stained bed and then back at me, her eyes brimming with tears. "She’s gone, Rune. They took her. I found them like this... Kayvon and Silas... they were already down when I arrived. I don’t know who they were. They were like shadows."

I let her go and stumbled back, my legs suddenly feeling like water. I looked around the room, searching for a clue, a scent, a single piece of evidence. But the attackers had been meticulous. They had used scent-masking agents—heavy, chemical smells that drowned out the natural musk of a wolf.

I knelt beside Kayvon, placing my hand on his chest. His heart was beating, but he was trapped in a deep, forced coma. I could see the marks of a tactical strike; they hadn't come to kill my men, they had come to incapacitate them quickly and efficiently.

"Kayvon, wake up," I whispered, my voice thick with a rare vulnerability. "Tell me who did this. Tell me where they took her."

He didn't move. Silas didn't stir.

I stood up and looked out the window toward the Gray Peaks. For the first time in my life, I felt truly blind. I was the Alpha Conqueror, a man who had brought empires to their knees, yet I was standing in a room full of broken things, unable to protect the one person who mattered.

Who could have done this? Was it a remnant of the old wars? A rival pack looking for leverage? Or was it something more personal? Without my witnesses, I was chasing ghosts. The trail was cold, the scent was gone, and Sara—my Sara—was in the hands of monsters.

The silence of the room was deafening. I looked at the bed where I had promised she would be safe, and a low, guttural growl began to build in my chest, growing louder until it became a roar that shook the very foundations of the building.

"Do you have cameras in this clinic?" I asked in an icy tone. 

"Yes. Please come with me." She answered and led the way. When we go there, she tried to turn on the monitor but I noticed that the drive was missing.

"It's not working right?" I had known the answer even before I asked the question. 

I didn't know who had taken her, but I knew one thing: I would burn the world to the ground to find her. And when I did, death would be the kindest thing I would offer her captors.